Lesson Plan 1 and Reflection

LESSON PLAN #1

Learning area	Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS)
Lesson topic	Locating, interpreting, collecting scientific data and information on Uluru
Date and Time	Monday, April 3^rd10am
Overall duration (time)	1 hour
Curriculum links	AC9HS4S02- locate, collect, and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps
Objectives	Students brainstorm ways information might be collected for an inquiry. Students identify types of sources suited to historical and geographical contexts about Uluru. With teacher guidance, they have 40 minutes in the library to choose the most effective sources of data (including internet database information, thematic maps, satellite imagery, photographs, scientific data, and information) and discuss why particular sources might be suitable to this context. They present the most relevant data to their group’s theme to the class and the class records the information for future lessons.
Student prior knowledge	AC9HS3S02- locate, collect, and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps
Lesson preparation	Decide the 8 groups of 3 students with mixed abilities. Refresher on scientific data language which may be used to describe Uluru, as well as respectful language used when referring to First Nations peoples.
Materials	Library computers/ internet access, magazines, maps of Uluru and NT, scientific and historical magazines	Resources	Book the library for an hour, culturally appropriate scientific data about Uluru, maps of Uluru
Key terminology	Units of measurement, measuring age in years, geography, map terminology, scientific/ respectful language	Key features	Scientific data collecting, appropriate language, map reading, sorting, evaluating data
Learning strategies & activities: *introductory* Time 10 minutes	Brainstorming- Identifying/ selecting/ defining/ categorising accurate sources to provide information about Uluru
Learning strategies & activities: *developmental* Time 40 minutes	Activity- Students are divided into 8 groups of 3 (Age/ Size/ Location/ Weather/ Wildlife/ Indigenous peoples/ Map/ Photographs)- mixed ability groupings Discovery- Students identify and retrieve information for their group’s theme from magazine/ newspaper articles and online databases Cooperative learning- Students motivate each other to analyse and evaluate information in the context of the provided theme Research Skills- Searching for and questioning, measuring, appraising, information and data through printed and online sources Bonus- Students who finish early can look for bonus information: What was Uluru’s name in before 1985? Why was Uluru’s name changed?
Learning strategies & activities: *concluding* Time 10 minutes	Attribute listing- Students decide which data and information are going to be relevant to our timeline of Uluru. Demonstration- Students demonstrate the information their group has collected and the information is collected into a folder for future lessons.
Differentiation	Bonus content for early finishers. Nicola can choose to sit at a chair/ on the floor which is most comfortable. Sarah is paired with Michael and Gerard with students with lower comprehension/ social skills as to mix the abilities in all groups. Practical activity for Indigenous students.
Key questions	Is that scientific or descriptive language about Uluru? Who is providing that information? Is that information relevant to your group’s theme?
Assessment of student learning	Teacher visits each group and asks questions (Appendix A) in a quiz format Formative: Descriptive Improvement Feedback Oral questions with Teacher making notes and giving oral feedback to individual students in the small group audience.
Relationships	Teacher is observing and noting relationships between students (classroom environment). Teacher knows some content may be socially/ personally sensitive for some students: verbally checks in on Indigenous students and engages in active listening (modelling positive intercultural relationships).
Reflection	Were the students able to choose relevant information to their theme? Were the groupings of mixed ability too even/ fair? Was the visual and tactile experience too challenging/ not challenging enough?
Next lesson	Taking into consideration the written and oral feedback given to students and written about their comprehension of the lesson context, the next step is to broaden their understanding about Uluru from scientific data to a personal, firsthand experience from an Indigenous perspective

Lesson plan 1 required students to use internet databases to choose and collect relevant data from appropriate sources to demonstrate knowledge gained about scientific information about Uluru. The author differentiated the delivery and process of self-directed learning through mixed ability groupings. Whitton et al. (2016) illustrates the academic benefits of cross ability groupings, as facilitating learning opportunities which develop student’s awareness of the needs and strengths of others through interpersonal relationships (p. 196).

Additionally, the author enhanced learning opportunities by addressing student needs. This was illustrated by modelling positive intercultural relationships through active listening and monitoring the classroom environment. These approaches relate to AITSL’s Standard 1, especially 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, by the author’s personal reflection on their role in the classroom and their planning of the social and emotional impacts of the culturally sensitive nature of the content (AITSL, n.d., para 1; Whitton et al., 2016, p. 111).

Consequentially though, this lesson plan lacked a thorough implementation of the teaching and learning cycle. The lesson’s SMART objective would benefit from more planning which is an important part of the teaching and learning cycle. As Whitton et al. (2016) describe, students need a clear outline of the content, process, and product of a lesson for the lesson to facilitate authentic learning opportunities (p. 85). Additionally, the lesson could have improved in Standard 1.5 by differentiating the delivery of the content for the varied abilities of the students (AITSL, n.d., para 1).

Reflecting on Standard 1 as a whole This page is part of the collection 'Standard 1: Know Students and How They Learn'.

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