Dear Year 6 parents/cares,
I am writing to share with you about what our children will learn in the Humanities and Social Sciences learning area in this term. We will learn Civics and Citizenship in the context of an aspect of Australian history. The Australian Curriculum demonstrates that the students should be able to locate, collect and organise useful information from a range of different sources to investigate the society in the past and present and be capable of analysing the resources to draw conclusions by the end of year 6. Our historical topic is the ‘Stolen Generations’, which refers to many Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families as a result of the policy of Assimilation between 1910 and 1970.
Figure 1 (Diss, 2017)
Firstly, I would pose some questions to students to think, answer and share because research reveals that using inquiry-based learning method could actively engage the students in the learning, and promote students’ achievement by enabling them to plan their own investigations, gather and interpret data and cultivate their higher order thinking skills. The questions include ‘What if you are forced to leave your parents and live with a stranger who speaks different language and has different lifestyle from you? What kind of feeling will you have? How do you think of this kind of action?’ After sharing what they think about this issue, I will elicit our focus topic ‘the Stolen Generations’ and also pose a series of questions, such as ‘When and Why did it happen? What are the consequences? What happened and who made effort and decision to cease it? What did the Australian government do to remedy the Aboriginal people who suffered a lot from this tragedy? What did you learn from this period of history?’ Then the class will be divided into small groups with allocated questions that they need to deal with. They have up to 45 minutes to use resources from internet and library to investigate their questions and share what they have come up with in front of the whole class.
Through this activity, the students will develop the skills of collaborating with other people to solve problems and analysing the data and then be able to pick the reliable ones. According to Brett’s article, history learning and historical thinking could foster the students’ sense of understanding, appreciation of their own and others' identities and civic responsibility and most importantly, it could promote the students' sense of empathy, which is a powerful emotion that could help children recognise, understand and appreciate diversity and empathy is also a prerequisite for achieving reconciliation across society in many countries. Therefore, the activity could assist the children to become active, informed and better citizen.
As parents/carers, I hope that you can share what you know about this period of history with your child and provide emotional support for your child because, as we know, this topic is a bit too heavy for the young children, they might feel overwhelmed at such a young age.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority ([ACARA],
2016). Australian Curriculum. Retrieved form https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/hass/
Australians Together (n.d.). The Stolen Generations: The
forcible removal of Indigenous children from their families. Retrieved form
https://australianstogether.org.au/discover/australian-history/stolen-generations
Bhagat, A. (2017). Inquiry-based learning: assessing students’
science inquiry skills. Retrieved form https://www.acer.org/files/ABHA-Article.pdf
Brett, P. (2018). Retrieving the civic dimension in history:
creating meaningful and memorable links between history and civics and
citizenship in primary classrooms. The Social Educator, 36 (No.2),
15-29. Retrieved from https://mylo.utas.edu.au/content/enforced/296741-AW_EAS_19S1_19935_0_0_0_1_1/Retrieving%20the%20Civic%20Dimension%20in%20History%20-%20The%20Social%20Educator%20article%20December%202018.pdf?_&d2lSessionVal=EpuFqPZTYRvZ7LdEUCf2wrRpZ&ou=296741
Diss, K. (2017). Stolen Generation picture collection in WA
looking for new home [online image]. Retrieved Jun 15, 2017 from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-15/stolen-generation-funding/8618366
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great learning sequence and I like your use of inquiry to engage the students and develop their empathy and sense of citizenship. You have explained well how you will use historical thinking about change to highlight what the old practice was and what the new way of addressing the issue has been.
I understand your reasoning behind using the words “our children” but not all parents would feel great about a teacher saying this. It might be perceived as a little presumptuous by some parents, especially the ones who are inclined to take the words used literally. That's just my opinion, though, and it's a bit of a grey area so go with what you think is right for you.
Some more images would be a good way to break up the text a bit to make it easily readable. They would also help to illustrate what you are saying. One possibility might be an image of Kevin Rudd giving the official sorry speech. You could also find an image of a small group of children doing collaborative work together.
The last thing I would think could be changed a little bit is where you say that the topic is a bit too heavy for the young children. If I was reading that, as a parent, I would think, “then why are you teaching it to them?” So maybe you need to change the wording of that sentence a bit to say something like “provide emotional support for your child if they need to discuss what they are learning about this sad part of our Australian history”.
I like the way you start your learning with a personal question that the students can use to engage their imagination about what being removed from family would feel like. You might also like to say to the parents that you welcome any input from the if this is a prarticulalry sensitive topic for their child (some students may be in foster care or may have had a parent die and they would need specific support as they engage with this topic, and parents/carers can provide information about their unique needs).
Great ideas, I’d like to be a student i this class doing this learning with you.
Cheers,
Lea
Hi Lea,
DeleteThank you very much for your feedback. They are all very useful.
About the "our children", I think it is cultural difference. So I think you are right.
Mary
Hi Mary,
ReplyDeleteAnother great post that highlights the topic, what students will be learning, how they will be learning and why students are learning in this content area. I think you have provided great examples of thoughtful, quality questions to ask students and deepen their enquiry into the topic of the Stolen Generation.
I would say that your concluding paragraph could use some rewording, as Lea had said, I would be confused as to why you are teaching my child something that is 'too heavy' for them if I was a parent. I would perhaps reword this to "this topic is difficult and confronting" and then justify why it is still important for students to learn about our history, even if it is difficult. I would also open the avenue here for parents to be able to discuss this further with you if they wish, so that parents feel a part of the discussion and process of learning too.
I think you have done a great job in creating space here for students to learn through the process of enquiry and develop important skills from the curriculum as they learn.
Reuben.
Hi Reuben,
DeleteThank you very much for your feedback. I have paraphrased the "too heavy" sentence by your suggestion.
Mary
Hi Mary
ReplyDeleteThis is a great blog. I like how you have included specific examples of questions that you would ask. I personally love the learning around the stolen generations and have previously completed a lesson sequence on this topic. I think you have a good experience here.
One thing I will point out is the sentence that says, “Then the class will be divided into small groups with allocated questions that they need to deal with”. I don’t think ‘deal with’ is the right way to say this. I was unsure what you meant by that, until I read further and realised it means the students will need to research the questions for themselves. I think you need to clarify this, possibly by change ‘deal with’ to ‘research’.
Overall, a good job.
Sophie
Thank you Sophie. My bad English, sigh.
Delete