Year 5 and 6 students investigate significant people and events that have shaped Australia's identity, beginning with Australia's Indigenous history, moving through white settlement and Federation, to the present. Students create a timeline of Australia's history and then are assigned periods to research and present to their peers. They develop their reading and research skills, culminating in the creation of a diorama to represent people and/or events in Australia's history.
Research, History, Reading Strategies, Timeline.
Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards: HASS
Year 5
By the end of Year 5, students describe the significance of people and events/developments in bringing about change. They describe the experiences of different people in the past.
Students sequence information about events and the lives of individuals in chronological order using timelines. When researching, students develop questions for a historical inquiry. They identify a range of sources and locate, collect and organise information related to this inquiry. They analyse sources to determine their origin and purpose and to identify different viewpoints. Students develop, organise and present their texts, particularly narrative recounts and descriptions, using historical terms and concepts.
Year 6
By the end of Year 6 students explain the significance of an event/development, an individual or group. They identify and describe continuities and changes for different groups in the past. They describe the causes and effects of change on society. They compare the experiences of different people in the past.
Students sequence information about events and the lives of individuals in chronological order and represent time by creating timelines. When researching, students develop appropriate questions to frame a historical inquiry. They identify a range of primary and secondary sources and locate, collect, organise and categorise relevant information to answer inquiry questions. They analyse information or sources for evidence to determine their origin and purpose and to identify different perspectives. Students develop texts, particularly narrative recounts and descriptions. In developing these texts and organising and presenting their information, they use historical terms and concepts, and incorporate relevant sources.
Content Descriptors: HASS
Content Descriptors: English
Learning Intention: To understand and discuss what you know about Australia's history.
Success Criteria:
Comment: Quick write - what is something that you have learnt about Australia's history.
Purpose: To determine what the students already know about Australian history, to take notes on new information learnt and create wonderings to guide future learning.
Teaching Tips:
Determining what students already know:
Notetaking:
Wondering
Learning Intention: To understand sequence of events in the history of Australia.
In this module we will be learning about events that occurred in our rich history.
Success Criteria:
Leading questions:
Task: Research the time period that you have been assigned and answer leading questions
Pre 1600s
1600s - 1780s
1780s - 1800s
1800s - 1820s
1820s - 1870s
1870 - 1901
1901s - 1913
1914 - 1918
1929 - 1933
1939 - 1945
1945 - 1960
1960 - 1980
1981 - 2000
2000 - present
Resource: Click on the Australian History Timeline to help you find important events from your time period.
Reflection: What are some important events that occured during your time period? Write 5 facts about your time period?
Purpose: For the students to get a detailed understanding of the period allocated to them so they can contribute towards the bigger picture (timeline of Australia's history).
Teaching Tips:
To create groups, have three copies of each time period written on a piece of paper. Put them in a hat and get students to draw one time period out. N.B. for the students left over, strategically place them in a group where they will work well.
Students will be assigned a time period. Here are some ideas of what happened in each time period. Answers will vary. Students need to find facts on important events that occurred during their time period. This information will be included in the showbag and poster.
Pre 1600s Indigenous peoples inhabited the land
1600s - 1780s Dutch (European) explorers
1780s - 1800s White settlement
1800s - 1820s Bligh and Rum Rebellion / Macquarie
1820s - 1870s Gold Rush
1870 - 1901 - Henry Parkes, Banjo Paterson, Henry Lawson
1901s - 1913 Federation
1914 - 1918 World War 1
1929 - 1933 Between Wars and Depression
1939 - 1945 Word War 2
1945 - 1960 Immigration / Olympics
1960 - 1980 Cyclone Tracy / Indigenous vote
1981 - 2000 Bob Hawke / New Parliament house
2000 - present Olympics (Cathy Freeman) / Sorry day
Students will research and ask 1 - 3 questions about their time period. This should be written in their unit workbooks.
Learning Intention: To understand effective reading strategies for research.
Success Criteria:
While you are researching your time period in Australian history, we will also focus on some reading strategies to help us become expert researchers.
Text 1: Determining importance
Text 2: Summarising
Text 3: Skimming and Scanning
Text 4: Paraphrasing
Text 5: Inferring
Text 6: Visualising
Text 7: Questioning
Comment: Reflect on the reading strategy that you found most useful. What did you learn by using this reading strategy? Read other students' comments and comment on 1-2.
Purpose: This update focuses on developing students research skills while they are researching their group's time period. It will also expose student to texts from a range of time period that they are investigating.
Teaching Tips:
To teach the reading strategies, use a range of tools. here are some suggestions. There are more at New Learning Online and also in texts such as Building Comprehension Strategies for the Primary Years by Alison Davis (Eleanor Curtain, 2011) and also the First Steps Reading resources.
1. Text Annotation (Determining importance, Paraphrasing, Summarising)
Symbol | Definition |
? | Words or phrases I do not understand or where you have questions |
Circle | Key/important words |
! | The most interesting sentence |
Underline | the main idea of the text |
2. B-D-A: Before/During/Reading (Predicting, Determining importance, Summarising, Visualising, Questioning)
Before Reading List everything you know about this topic before reading |
During Reading Briefly note new information you find during reading |
After Reading Write a summary and three questions |
One sentence main idea statement: |
Instead of words, students can also draw and represent their ideas through images.
3. Zooming In and Zooming Out. (Predicting, Determining importance, Summarising)
4. Information Text Pyramid (Determining importance, Paraphrasing, Summarising)
5. Question Scaffold - Who, Where, When, Why, How, What (Questioning)
6. Inferring Graphic Organisers (Inferring)
Learning Intention: To understand how events and people have shaped Australia's identity.
Success Criteria:
Poster and Show bag
After researching information about significant events and people from your time period, create a poster to display key information. Display your poster on the class timeline.
Using your knowledge about these events and people create a showbag to display items that represent what you have learnt about that time period.
Now participate in a gallery walk to view the other time periods. Use sticky notes to give feedback to other group members. In an Inside-Outside circle, use your sticky notes to give feedback to your peers on the time period they researched.
Comment: List 5 things you have learnt from other groups during your gallery walk.
Diorama
Using your knowledge about Australia's history, choose one event or person and design a diorama to represent that person/event. Create the diorama and poster/information booklet/lapbook to outline how this event or person has contributed to Australia's identity.
Watch the video to learn more about Australian identity.
Purpose:
1. In small groups, after researching information about their time period students will create a poster for the class timeline and a show bag to represent information learnt. Students will then conduct a gallery walk to learn information about different time periods.
2. Individually or in pairs students will create a diarama to showcase a significant event or person from throughout Australia's history.
Teaching tips:
1, Poster and Showbag
- What are the events?
- Who are the significant people?
- How did this event/person shape our identity?
2. Diorama