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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Assignment 2 – Unit of Work

David Buck

2096087

Tutor: Ashley Blight

How do some of Australia’s characteristics compare to nations in South America and Africa?

Year Levels: 4Learning Area: Geography

Strand: Collecting, recording, evaluating and representingDuration: 9 lessons

In q uiry O verview

This unit plan aims to investigate and compare Australia’s characteristics, primarily flora and fauna, to countries of the student’s choice in South America and Africa. The students will try to answer questions along the lines of ‘‘Does the climate affect the type of plant/animal in the country?’ ‘How can I seek out these answers?’ The students will be using a variety of ICT resources in order to research these answers, and use numeracy concepts in order to make sense of and represent their data. This unit plan has connections to the Geography Knowledge and Understanding sub-strand in year 4 Geography of the Australian Curriculum. The unit also has connections to the ICT and Numeracy capabilities.

Justification

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

In this section you need to succinctly explain: How you have designed this unit to effectively integrate ICT resources to support teaching strategies

(PK) that engage and expand students’ numeracy (CK) learning opportunities (Focus Areas 2.5 and 2.6).

How the ICT resources you have selected (including at least one learning object from Scootle), engage students in their learning.

How you have designed the unit by applying the TPACK Framework, SAMR Model and the 3 Principles of UDL.

Please respond to the following guiding questions:

1. Identify the technologies that will be used by yourself and students in this unit.

Teacher: Interactive Whiteboard: SMART Notebook, Computer/iPad, Google Earth, Scootle

Students: Computer/iPad, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Google Earth, Microsoft Word (possibly)

2. As the teacher, how does your use of these technologies draw together your technological pedagogical content knowledge?

The unit plan uses CK, PK and TK in the following ways Content Knowledge is the knowledge of content and theories, in the case of this unit plan, the

Australian Curriculum standards and content descriptors would be the pedagogical knowledge. The teacher does not necessarily need to know the answers to the content descriptors, but it would be advisable that they have knowledge of the ICT and numeracy aspects of the unit.

Pedagogical knowledge will be achieved throughout the unit plan by the use of inquiry learning. Because the unit plan is split into stages instead of lessons, it gives the teacher the flexibility to make any desired changes if necessary at all.

In the context of this unit plan, Technological Knowledge would be shown through the use of ICT by both teachers and Students. Because the children of today are relying more and more on technology, it is important that they are given the knowledge to use them to their educational benefit.

By drawing these upon tk, pk and ck and connecting them together during the unit, the teacher can successfully incorporate TPACK.

3. Which level of the SAMR Model would you describe the use of technology in this unit? Why?

The unit plan uses three levels of the SAMR model; substitution, augmentation and modification. The resources that fall under substitution section would be GoogleDocs in the place of Microsoft Word. Google Earth would fall under the category of augmentation, in the place of physical maps as does the creation of an electronic presentation, which would improve upon just a spoken presentation. The part of the unit plan that that falls under modification is the use of the Interactive Whiteboard, which allows the teacher to redesign part of the unit.

Google Docs falls under the category of substitution as it will be a direct replacement for Microsoft Word, but it will not provide any great improvement over Word as both essentially fulfil the same task. Using it will allow students to increase their ICT knowledge. Instead of using pen and paper to write down their information and tables, the use of computers will allow students to complete these tasks in a more convenient fashion. Lastly, using the internet to conduct research instead of using books will allow students to search more information quicker.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Finally, the student’s electronic summative presentation and the use of the interactive whiteboard falls under the category of modification. The reason interactive whiteboard allows the teacher to use a new medium to teach all the students of the class at once and allows collaboration between students, instead of having to use more individual methods (i.e. each students gets a computer and follows instructions).

4. How does your unit of work and selection of ICT incorporate the three principles of Universal Design for Learning? (i.e. multiple forms of Representation, Expression and Engagement).j

Representation The unit plan will primarily be represented through visual and auditory means. The visual components will be

mainly focused around the use of technology, with students using either computers or iPads to do their individual/group work, and the teacher using the Interactive Smart-board for whole class activities. The unit plan will have a strong audio representation as well, with the unit having many class discussions, as well as collaboration between the student groups.

Expression and Action Students have multiple ways to express their information, it should be done through Google Docs, but if for

some reason there is an extreme problem with using it, students will be permitted to use either Microsoft Word or handwriting instead. Students will have a large range of sources, which include Google Earth, Bureau of Meteorology, as well as the internet, which will allow the students to research their information. For each lesson, the class will have clear goals of what is expected and how to achieve these expectations.

Engagement Students will be engaged as firstly, they will be given the choice to pick and choose some of the unit. At

multiple points throughout the unit, students will be given the chance to work by themselves, in pairs and in small groups. The students will also be engaged as they will be encouraged to give feedback on themselves and on their peers.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

[Science, History or English]

Relevant Strands and Content Descriptors Relevant Elaborations

Strand: Geographical Inquiry SkillsSub-strand: Collecting, recording, evaluating and representing (ACHGS027)Content Descriptor: Collect and record relevant geographical data and information, for example, by observing, by interviewing, conducting surveys and measuring, or from sources such as maps, photographs, satellite images, the media and the internet

Using Google Earth or similar applications to collect geographical information, for example, the extent of vegetation in an area, or to explore settlement along a major river valley in Africa or South America, from its source to the sea.

Acquiring geographical information about environments and resources from schools in contrasting parts of Australia and/or countries in the southern hemisphere.

Strand: Geographical Knowledge and Understanding(ACHGK020)

Content Descriptor: The location of the major countries of Africa and South America in relation to Australia, and their main characteristics, including the types of natural vegetation and native animals in at least two countries from both continents

Geographical Knowledge and Understanding (ACHGK021)

The types of natural vegetation and the significance of vegetation to the environment and to people

Elaboration:

Using geographical tools, for example, a globe, a wall map or digital application such as Google Earth, to identify the major countries of Africa and South America and their relative locations.

Researching the main types of natural vegetation and native animals in a climate zone in Australia and comparing them with those found in a similar climate in Africa or South America.

Elaboration:

Identifying the main types of natural vegetation, including forest, savannah, grassland, woodland and desert, and explaining the relationship between climate and natural vegetation.

Relevant links to the Year Level Description and Achievement Standards:

Stage 1: Learning Intentions (desired goals)What is worthy of understanding?

Established Goals: Australian Curriculum

General Capabilities

Numeracy Interpreting statistical information

ICTInvestigating

Relevant Learning Continuum Descriptions:

Numeracy: Interpreting Statistical InformationInterpret Data displays

Collect record and display data as tables, diagrams, picture graphs and column graphs.

ICT: InvestigatingLocate, Generate and Access data and information

Locate, retrieve or generate information from a range of digital sources.

Select and evaluate data and information Explain why located data or information was selected

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Year Level Description: The Earth’s environment sustains all life focuses on developing students’ understanding of sustainability which is about the ongoing capacity of the environment to sustain human life and wellbeing. Students recognise that people have different views on how sustainability can be achieved. They learn that sustainability means more than the careful use of resources and the safe management of waste, and they develop their understanding of the concept by exploring some of the other functions of the environment that support their lives and the lives of other living things. They investigate the custodial responsibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to their Country/Place and their past and present views on the sustainable use of resources. Students’ mental maps of the world and their understanding of place are further developed through learning the location of the major countries in South America and Africa and investigating their types of natural vegetation and native animals on those continents.

The inquiry process provides opportunities to consider the sustainable use of environments and resources and to apply this information to develop a plan for appropriate action that people could take to improve environmental quality.

The content of this year level is organised into two strands: Geographical Knowledge and Understanding and Geographical Inquiry and Skills. These strands are interrelated and should be taught in an integrated manner, and in ways that are appropriate to specific local contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming decisions.

Achievement Standard: By the end of Year 4, students describe and compare the characteristics of places in different locations at the national scale. They identify and describe the interconnections between people and the environment.  They describe the location of selected countries in relative terms and identify simple patterns in the distribution of features of places. Students recognise the importance of the environment and identify different views on how to respond to a geographical challenge. 

Students develop geographical questions to investigate and collect and record information and data from different sources to answer these questions. They represent data and the location of places and their characteristics in simple graphic forms, including large-scale maps that use the cartographic conventions of scale, legend, title and north point. They describe the location of places and their features using simple grid references, compass direction and distance. Students interpret data to identify spatial distributions and simple patterns and draw conclusions. They present findings using geographical terminology in a range of texts. They propose individual action in response to a local geographical challenge and identify the expected effects of their proposed action.

Knowledge (key concepts) Skills

Students will KNOW that:

There are many ways to collect information about countries using sources from the internet.

There are lots of countries in South America and Africa, and with each country comes certain characteristics.

There is importance to the different types of native vegetation, and the climate that they are in.

What will students be able to DO?

Learning Area: Create and interpret tables and graphs Use the proper digital technologies Recognize the difference between Australia

and countries from different

Numeracy general capability: Create, collect, record and analyze tables

and data

ICT general capability: Collect information from digital sources Identify the usefulness and reliability of

Digital Sources. Explain why certain sources were used

Enduring Understandings Essential Questions

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Students will UNDERSTAND that:

Using digital sources can be incredibly useful to locate information

That there are vast differences between Australia and countries in Africa and South America

Different climates have different types of native animals and plants

Key questions to guide the inquiry will be: What are the major countries in Africa and

South America? How can we find this information? What are the plants and animals native to your

country? How does the countries climate affect the

native vegetation?

Required Resources

Which learning object will you use from Scootle?www.scootle.edu.au

Scootle Object: TLF-ID: M013019: Key Climate Groups in Australia http://www.bom.gov.au/iwk/climate_zones/map_1.shtml

TLF-ID: M013082: Google Earthhttp://tinyurl.com/kmdugps

Interactive Whiteboard

Computers, laptops and iPads (if able)

Google Docs

Stage 2: Assessment For LearningWhat evidence will determine understanding?

Evidence will be gathered from:□ K-W-L chart □ Brainstorming□ Mind mapping□ Graphic organizers□ Observations□ Class discussions□ Prompts□ Questioning

□ Checklists□ Peer feedback□ Practical demonstration

□ Surveys / quiz□ Work samples□ Oral presentations□ Anecdotal comments

Summative AssessmentInclude your Design Brief and Assessment Rubric into this document and refer to it in this section.

There will be one short summative assignment in the unit, at the making conclusions stage of the unit. This summative will come in the form of a presentation. These presentations will require students to show their findings and their conclusions to the class with supported evidence from their research. The presentations will also require the students to show their skill with the technologies provided as they will be asked to create a PowerPoint to provide visuals for their presentation.

The success criteria that will be used to evaluate students work will be an analytic rubric according to

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

the year 4 standards of the Australian Curriculum. These include being able to compare the characteristics of different places at the national level, represent data in simple graphical form, explain why they used certain technologies or sources and identify main types of natural vegetation and animals.

Formative Assessment Strategies

Strategic Questioning

Using questioning, either open or closed can help give the teacher an understanding of the skill level and progression of students throughout the unit. It is important that the teacher asks a large amount of questions, and asks students to elaborate on their answers. Using strategic questioning will be of great importance to the teacher as it will allow them to make sure the students are not misinterpreting information

Teacher Feedback

It is highly important that the teacher gives both verbal feedback throughout the topic, and written feedback for the summative assessments/drafts. Be sure that any criticism is constructive, and that written assessments give positive feedback to students. The teacher should provide an opportunity for the students to give feedback to the teacher, the teacher can then modify the unit plan for future use according to what went wrong or right.

Peer Feedback

Throughout the topic students will be working in either pairs or in groups, this will give the students ample opportunity to review each other’s work. It is important that the teacher encourage peer feedback, otherwise the students might just waste the opportunity instead. It is advised that the teacher provide some questions for peer-assessment to give the students an example of what they should be giving feedback on ‘How do you think your pair worked together?’ ‘How do you think other groups went with their presentations/work?’

Student Self-assessment

Students will be given opportunities at several stages of the unit to reflect and assess their work. The teacher should guide the students to think about things such what they might have liked to learn more of or on what areas the students could have improved on. The teacher can provide a short questionnaire to the students in the form of a K-W-L chart, so the teacher has a form. Much like the peer feedback section, the teacher should provide questions that are relevant to the stage that the unit is in. Students should also be asked to reflect on why they chose to use certain ICT resources for their work.

Formative use of summative assessment

Before the summative assessments, it is important that students recognize what they have to show for each assessment, therefore teachers should provide the students with a rubric. The teacher needs to ensure that the rubric is linked to the Australian Curriculum to help guide students.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Stage 3: Planning the Learning Activities‘What learning experiences will enable students to achieve the desired results?’

Using the Stages of Inquiry LearningSee http://bit.ly/15QsIq8 and http://bit.ly/122fMyq

Tuning In The key to this part of the unit is finding out what the students know. This will be achieved with brainstorming in small groups by finding out what they know about the

continents at first, then on any countries in Africa and South America. Students will be asked if they can name any plants or animals that are native to Australia. The groups will then compare their information with other students, recurring information will be focused

on. Questions will be asked to the class as to what other information could be looked at. Students will be placed in pairs for future lessons.

Fin din g Out

Students in pre-determined pairs will begin finding out more about information they did not know in the previous stage, as well as new information on things they did already know.

Students will be using Google Earth and other sources to search for more countries in Africa and South America.

Each pair will have to pick a country from each continent that they will concentrate on (pairs will be encouraged to not just pick the same countries).

Questions such as ‘what are the largest countries in both continents’, ‘what are the climates of these countries’ and ‘what are the native plants/animals of these countries’ will guide the lesson.

The students will be taught about the concept of tables and graphs, in order to show their future information.

Sorting Out

In this stage, the pairs will be asked to share their findings from the Finding Out stage to the class. In order to make some sense of their information the pairs will be asked to personally reflect on whether they

think there are patterns between their respective countries. Students share how they have ordered their information into tables or graphs. Interactive Whiteboard examples

of tables and graphs are given by the teacher.

Going Further

Students will continue to work in groups, if they want to however, students can work on their own (only do this if there is no risk of upsetting students).

The biggest question in this section is going to be about relation to climate. Students will be tasked to find out the characteristics about the native plants/animals of their countries (if they have not already done so). Students will be tasked to find out if these characteristics have anything to do with the climate they are in. Students will use the provided technologies to research this.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Making Conclusions

Students will form groups of four, after which they will be asked to discuss in their groups what new information they have found, both in general and in the context of what they did at the tuning in stage.

The groups will make a presentation on their laptops/IPads using PowerPoint (or an alternate method of their choice) about their findings and then show it to the class. This presentation should only go for around 5 minutes max.

Taking Action Students will be asked to reflect upon what they have learnt throughout the unit, not just in the Geography

context but also in numeracy and ICT contexts. The teacher and the students can make a compilation of the findings that were made during the unit using a

table or graph and/or the class can get back into their original small groups in the Tuning In stage of the unit and share what things they have learnt throughout the topic.

Reflection Students will reflect to themselves and to the class on what they thought about the learning process of the unit,

on the use of technology, working in pairs, groups and individually. Students should give feedback to the teacher about what they liked and disliked about the unit. Students reflect on if whether or not they believe they might approach future topics in a different way because of

the unit. Students should be able to reflect upon and give a reason as to why they chose the resources that they used.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Stage 4 – Lesson PlanLesson Number 2

Inquiry Learning Stage: Finding Out Lesson number in this stage: 1

Learning IntentionsLearning Area(s): Geography

Collecting, recording, evaluating and representing (ACHGS027)

Content Descriptors:Collect and record relevant geographical data and information, for example, by observing, by interviewing, conducting surveys and measuring, or from sources such as maps, photographs, satellite images, the media and the internet.

Links to Numeracy general capability

Interpret Data displays Collect record and display data as tables,

diagrams, picture graphs and column graphs.

Links to ICT general capability

Locate, Generate and Access data and information Locate, retrieve or generate information from

a range of digital sources.Specific Learning Outcome(s):(What do I want the students to be able to do, know or think at the end of this lesson?)Use these different levels of learning outcomes to differentiate the lesson by explicitly identifying what all, most and some students will be able to achieve.

All students must: All pairs should have an understanding of how to use Google Docs. All students should have an understanding of how to use tables and column graphs in order to present information and statistics.

Most students should: Most students should also be able to recognize and name plants and animals that are native to Australia. Have an idea of how to create tables and graphs in Google Docs.

Some students could: have progressed sufficiently to the point where they can advance to using Google Earth in order to locate countries in South America and Africa. Some students could have made up their mind about which countries they have selected to work on further.

ResourcesGoogle DocsComputers and/or iPads

Interactive Whiteboard: demonstration of tables and graphs

Assessment

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

The assessment of the students for this lesson will all be formative, it will include The student’s ability to understand the concept of tables and graphs, and how they can be used to

display information. How successful the student is at using Google Docs in order to display information about Australia,

South America and Africa. The Ability to work successfully in pairs. Students should have the ability to recognize what plants and animals are native to Australia

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Lesson Outline

Refer to http://www.teachertechnologies.com/the_four_part_lesson/Connect / Starter

5 min The very first thing that the teacher should do is set out what the goals and expectations are for the lesson.

The Teacher will ask questions to the students about what they learnt the previous lesson.

What did we know about South America and Africa? What native plants and animals live in Australia

Activa teThis part of the lesson should take 20 minutes.

20 min Transition the class conversation into tables, do this by showing a table and a graph to the students, ask the students what they are, what they do etc.

Create a graph on the Interactive Smart-board and have columns which represent Australia, South Africa and America.

Start asking the students questions about how the three continents could be represented on the board. This can draw upon the previous lessons knowledge and can also be done by asking questions such as ‘Which continent is the largest?’ ‘How many countries are on each continent’? ‘How many people are on each continent? etc.’ ‘What is the longest river on each continent?’ Also emphasize the importance of table headings.

If there are any questions that are left blank (there should be) ask the students questions such as ‘How can we find this out’.

Ask students if they have ever used Google Docs before, show students how to access Google Docs.

Demonstra te (Assessment for Learning)This part of the lesson should take 20 minutes.

20 min Once the class is on Google Docs and in their pairs, ask them how they might be able to

create a table using Google Docs. Tell the students to create a table of their own In the table, students need to answer the questions that could not be answered in the activate

part of the lesson. In the table, also ask that the pairs of students to come up with one interesting fact about each continent.

Since there is a good chance some pairs might have difficulty with the above, the teacher should monitor the progress of the students and give positive feedback during the lesson. The teacher should encourage the students to give feedback to each other.

If it appears as though some of the pairs are more than comfortable using Google Docs and tables, they can be encouraged to go on Google Earth, providing that they do not distract the other students.

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EDUC3625 Numeracy and ICT (2014) Designer: David Buck, 2096087

Consolidate / PlenaryThis part of the lesson should take 10 minutes.

10 min Students should be given a minute to reflect on the activities that they just did. The teacher should ask the students plenty of questions along the lines of ‘how are tables

useful to show information’ ‘what use might tables have in your upcoming lessons?’ You can also ask then non-lesson related questions such as ‘where have you seen tables or graphs before’.

Be sure to tell the students that the next lesson will consist of the student pairs using Google Earth to locate and select countries for their later lessons and that the student pairs will begin researching information about their chosen countries.

How will this lesson cater for the needs of all students? Since most of the lesson will involve the use of computers, it should cater to students who might have

difficulty handwriting. Likewise the lesson will not involve a great deal of movement, so students who require a wheelchair or

have trouble walking should have no problems. If some students have a good enough grasp of the lesson concepts, the teacher can permit them to

move onto the use of Google Earth. The pairs of students will be pre-determined, so the teacher can help prevent the formation of any pairs

that would either be constantly distracting each other or pairs that might have conflict. If students don’t feel comfortable using Google Docs, they will be permitted to record their information

by hand instead.

What questions will you ask to evaluate students’ learning, the design of the lesson and your teaching effectiveness?

Did the students understand what was required of them during the lesson? Were the student pairs working well with each other? How could students apply the knowledge that they learnt from lesson into the future? Did the lesson follow the curriculum standards/was it relevant to their learning? Was the lesson an overall success? What were the good and bad points about the lesson? Are all the students at a stage where they can successfully understand and use tables? Are they

ready to transition into the next lesson? Were the students comfortable with using Google Docs and the computers?

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