The Dream Giver
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The animation Dream Giver by Tyler Carter is full of wonder and magical dreams. I use this unit of work to help students explore how authors build tension and suspense within a text. By viewing it in an animation, students are able to develop language an author might use to describe it using words.
Alice's Website |
Soar Animation
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The animation Soar by Alyce Tzue is a great way to introduce students to the concept of having a 'Growth Mindset' and developing perseverance. I use this unit of work, often, at the beginning of the year as a way of developing learning expectations and behaviours within my classroom. This unit of work contains learning experience examples for students from K-6.
Alice's Website Click button to download PDF.
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BOOK CLUBS
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From Alice:
Instead of running Literature Circles next term my students and I decided we would try a book club instead, whereby 3-4 students choose each other and read the same text (chosen by them). These are the learning experiences students will engage with as they predict, visualise, question, infer, synthesise and summarise the text in order to gain a deeper understanding of it. We'll visit the library at the beginning of Week 1 and I'll let the groups choose their books, which must be age-appropriate and be a chapter book. Some of the ideas are adapted thinking routines from Ron Ritchhart's work, some are adapted from Sheena Cameron's Teaching Reading Comprehension book and others are things I've just been using with my students. Find out more about Ron Ritchhart's work around developing student understanding and making thinking visible, valued and actively promoted on my website |
YEAR 6 DANCE UNIT - TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS
This unit links in with the Geography unit:
A Diverse and Connected World. |
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DIVERSITY BETWEEN ASIA AND AUSTRALIA
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This term my intern Hannahh Fryarr and I created a webquest to support the S3 Geography unit: A Diverse & Connected World.
After teaching the unit for a couple of weeks, we found that the students weren't really making strong connections between countries in the Asia region and Australia. We used the #thinkingroutine Connect Extend Challenge to gauge where the each student was at in terms of the connections they were making, the extensions they had made to prior knowledge and the questions or things that still puzzled them. We used these questions and puzzles to develop a webquest using the platform #GoogleSites to help students examine the things they still wondered. We also set them the challenge of presenting their information in different ways, such as creating their own Google Site, documentary, creating a book etc. For my class these are due at the end of Week 10, so I'll be sure to share some examples soon :-) Website link: sites.google.com/dbb.catholic.edu.au/s3-geography-webquest/home?authuser=1 |
LITERATURE CIRCLES
I decided today to update my Literature Circle roles to be more thinking routine based as I found my students weren't really digging deeply and getting to the heart of what they were reading.
I reduced my group roles to only 5 with 1 joint task to tie all their thinking together. Each role is based on one part of the thinking routine peel the fruit with other routines to support and scaffold their thoughts and discussion with their peers. I'm looking forward to testing this out with the kids. Want more information about the individual thinking routines I have used, follow this link to my website: https://sites.google.com/…/routines-for-introducing-and-exp |
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ANZAC DAY
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Anzac Day: The Gallipoli Campaign (Stage 3) unit I am using during my English block . Hoping to help students examine Gallipoli from different perspectives and build a greater sense of empathy for our ANZAC soldiers.
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'PORTRAITURE AND THE ARCHIBALD PRIZE' STAGE 3 VISUAL ARTS
IMAGINATIVE TEXTS
UOW for Imaginative texts - Under the Rug/ Spinning Chair and the Story of Rosy Dock. Learning Experiences include:
Writing Block: -Use a range of strategies to plan an imaginative text -compose an imaginative text that engages a variety of audiences -make adjustments to our writing to make it more effective Reading Block: -activating prior knowledge (comprehension strategy) -infer meaning given clues from the author (comprehension strategy) -analyse an image and compose a complication -identify descriptive language that create imagery -examine a text more deeply to determine the core message of the author |
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PERSUASIVE TEXT
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Persuasive Text: Animal Testing Lab Exposed - Stage 3
Here is an example of learning tasks we will use in Year 6 as a springboard into understanding, engaging, explaining and debating this provocative text. |
LITERATURE CIRCLE roles
A slight tweak to Steph Westwood's literature circle role cards that includes thinking routines to extend students' thinking. The roles featured are:
-Discussion Director -Literary Luminary -Word Wizard -Artful Artist -Character Captain -Clever Connector and -Summariser |
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