Tamara Congdon 17409414

Humanities Unit
Plan
Where Children Sleep by James
Mollison

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Tamara Congdon 17409414

Tamara CONGDON

Student ID: 17409414

La Trobe University

EDU2TPH: Teaching Primary Humanities

Lecturer: Tiina Moore

Tutor: Tiina Moore (Thursday 1-3pm)

27 May 2013

Assignment Task 3 Unit of Work

Where Children Sleep Rationale

This unit of work is designed for four weeks,

which will consist of 2 hours per week.

James Mollisons book is a collection of photographs of children and

where they sleep. These children are from all over the world, which is a good
visual for students to start to understand global perspective and the issues
that people face in developing countries (Browett & Ashman 2010). This unit
of work helps develop students global perspective by including concepts
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such as interdependence and identity and culture (Browett & Ashman 2010,
p. 7). Getting students to work in groups will build cooperation skills and
encourage social learning.
Figure
1

AusVELS, strands and outcomes

This unit plan is aimed at students working towards their Level 4 (Level 3 and
4) achievements in Humanities (Geography). When young children (F- Level
4) see and hear about other places outside their experience, their sense of
curiosity and wonder leads (AusVELS, 2013). This is why creating an inquiry
approach program will encourage them to explore and investigate what they
wish. Students at this level are encouraged to consider how and why other
places are different from their own (AusVELS, 2013).
Intended Outcome
My intended outcome for the whole unit is assisting the development of
the students global understanding of the world they live in. By looking at
childrens lives globally and the lives of children in the class, students will
grasp an understanding that not everyone has a lifestyle similar to their own.
This unit was done by the backward design approach (Moore, 2013),
starting from desired results I want to achieve by the end and then working
out activities to accomplish this.
This unit will also be building up the skills required at this level of the
curriculum; research skills and inquiry processes (AusVELS, 2013).

Week ONE

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Activity

To introduce this topic, the teacher would first engage the students by
getting them to try and match ten pictures of children to their rooms.
The students will be in groups of 3-5 for this activity the teacher will
choose to cater for all learners.
What teacher is doing
Judging students
progress on activity

rooms by classifying and

and giving them hints

comparing pictures,

on how to match the

communicating ideas and

children to their

justifying their opinion to

bedrooms (colour,

their team.
Reflecting on how they got

clothes to bedroom).
Ask class questions to

their answers, how they

get to them thinking

knew this child belongs to

about their

this room and thinking

classification process

what similarities they had

(narrowing them down

to their rooms. Responding

for differentiated

to teachers questions in

learners)
Without reading the

discussion with the class.

In their groups, students

childrens blurbs, tell

take turns to find and place

students where the

one child on the map of

children are from and

their home country.

Students think about their

get them to place it on

world map
Ask the students what

Assessment

What students are doing

Matching the child to their

prior knowledge about

these countries and reflect

they know about each

what the pictures are

of these countries

telling us about these

(brainstorm using a

countries. Students pose

mind map) and what

questions they want to

we know about them

know about the countries,

now looking at the

based on the photos of

pictures.
environment.
Because this is an introductory session, the teacher will be
constantly doing informal assessment (Stewert, 2013) through
observing students participation levels during activities and
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discussions, which may reflect on group placements in the future.

Teachers are observing students prior knowledge by asking them what
they already know, this will help with the planning process, which is
AusVELS

assessment for learning (Stewert, 2013) or diagnostic assessment.

This activity can cater for cross-curriculum priorities. When the teacher
chooses ten pictures from the book, they ensure they have two
examples from Asian countries to teach students the people from
Asian countries are diverse in a variety of different ways (AusVELS,
2013). This can be shown when the students place the pictures of the

Links to

children on the map to reveal where they live.

Social learning enables collaboration and utilises a range of

theory

communicative forms and social skills (Moore, 2013). I

pedagogical

intentionally designed this activity to be done in groups to allow

approaches

students to improve their communication skills.

Reflective thinking Looking back to how they came up with a

decision and why can change the students thinking in the

future, helping them to become effective and independent

learners (Browett & Ashman, 2008, p. 12).

This activity was aimed at engaging the students (Five Es
model). The intention was to initiate the learning task, uncover
students prior knowledge, generate curiosity in the learners and

Rationale

pose questions that the students want to know (Moore, 2013).

This activity introduces the unit and gets the students thinking about

link to

where people sleep globally and what their living conditions are like,

content and

which work towards developing their global understanding. By giving

theory

them a group activity and allowing them to reflect on their own

learning will encourage them to think more broadly about the topic
and thus be more involved in their own learning. I purposely did not
introduce the book to them yet so the students can be creative in their

Interdisciplin

thoughts and analyse what is going on in the pictures more effectively.

This session includes English (communication, discussion, analysing)

ary

and Science (classifying objects and predicting). In this, students will

approaches

be considering options, analysing, social learning, explaining,

justifying, reflecting, seeing patterns, classifying and sharing ideas.

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Activity

Weeks TWO and

THREE
Based on the questions the students asked at the end of the last
session, the teacher forms three questions the students can

investigate. The investigation areas will be carried out in week two

and three to continue to develop the students understanding of the
unit. The investigation questions are:
A. Where do people sleep? This includes looking at the book
Where Children Sleep and answering questions about them;
where do the children sleep? Do they share a bedroom with
someone? The students then make up a survey to ask the class,
including these and/or their own questions (such as, do you
sleep with a teddy and what time do you go to bed?). Asking the
class will get the students to think about the variety of students
lives. In week three, the students will then put the information
gathered in an appropriate form and make an attempt to answer
the question.
B. What is a normal day for the children in the book? By reading
the blurb for one of the children in the book (everyone has a
different child), the students will answer questions on a work
sheet. For example:
The Child
[name] walks to school
[name] helps out the family by

Me
Mum drives me to school
I clean my room

doing chores
[name] lives in Nigeria, Africa
I live in Melbourne, Australia
Depending on the students, it may be beneficial to give them
specific questions if the teacher wants to cater for differentiated
learners. After this activity, students are to write a schedule of
their normal day. In week three, students can then compare
their schedules to each other and discuss why this may be
different to each other and the children in the book. Extension:
students can then pin point on a map where the child is and
where they are. They will measure (using a ruler) how far they
are to the child they have chosen in the book.
C. Do 2 children in the same country have the same living
conditions? Students are to look through the book and pick out
any 2 children that live in the same country. They then look at
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similarities and differences in their pictures. Where possible,

students put them both on the map (in their specific town) and
measure (using a ruler) how far away they are from each other.
Get students to think about Victoria, do children that live in the
city, have the same life style as children that live on a farm in
the county? Extension: students survey the class about their
lifestyle (what they eat for breakfast, how many siblings they
have, how do they get to school) and draw a conclusion about
this.
What teacher is doing
Teachers are guiding

What students are doing

Students are working

the class with their

independently on their

chosen topic area,

specific area but are

giving them pointers,

collaborating with people

encouraging students

in their group (a group is

to explore different

formed by students

topic areas inside the

choosing the same

question. Encouraging

question to investigate).

creativity and different

Assessment

research methods.
Assessment for these 2 weeks will be mostly formative assessment
(Stewert, 2013) , looking at student involvement, participation,
observations on understanding by asking questions about what they
are doing and what they have found out. Teachers also observe how

AusVELS

students tie the information together and make conclusions.

A. Essential skills students develop through geography is collecting
data from primary sources (survey) and representing that data
(graph, ICT, picture) in different ways (AusVELS, 2013).
B. Students are developing their special awareness and special
concepts in geography such as location, distance (measuring
between 2 places) and direction (AusVELS, 2013).
C. Students develop their special awareness through a
consideration of the local community, the different groups in
society and their place in one or more groups (AusVELS, 2013).
Students are doing this by comparing their life with the life of
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children around the world and also in the classroom.

Links to

Inquiry Approach students get the chance to investigate what

theory

they want to. With help from the teacher, the student will

pedagogical

progress in developing his or her independence in learning

approaches

(Gilbert & Hoepper, 2010, p. 211)

Keeping it personal (Gilbert & Hoepper, 2010, pp. 212- 213) - all

of the activities are aimed to look at different countries as well

as relating it back to their own.

Working independently and in a group gives the students
support when they need it and be able to have the freedom to

research what they want as well.

Students are Exploring (Finding out), Explaining (Sorting out)
and Elaborating (Going further) in this point of investigation.
These terms are from the Five Es approach and the Murdoch &

Rationale

Hornsbys Integrated Planning model (Moore, 2013).

Giving the class options is introducing the students to inquiry

link to

investigations which is student centred learning. Arranging the

content and

students in groups is beneficial because a bigger number of students

theory

will cover a wider amount of research, and they still be able to work
independently. I made sure each activity had a part where they would
have to think about their own lives to keep it relevant to them (Gilbert
& Hoepper, 2010, pp. 212- 213). These activities were created around
the AusVELS (2013) curriculum to cover the skills, knowledge and

Interdisciplin

understanding required to develop a global perspective.

These sessions also include English (communicating, reading and

ary

writing), Maths (surveying and displaying it in a graph or table) and

approaches

Earth and Space Science (looking at the earth and countries).

Students are analysing, cooperating, elaborating, interpreting
information, planning, presenting, questioning, recording and
seeing patterns.

Week FOUR

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Activity

This session is aimed at wrapping up what we have learnt in this unit.

This includes students presenting to the class what they have learnt
about their investigations.
What teacher is doing
The teacher is

What students are doing

Students are listening to

reflecting what the

presentations and thinking

students are saying

about the information

and making a more

being presented. Students

obvious connection

will talk about what they

about the relevance

have learnt to the class,

this information has

about the connections the

globally and to the

data has with their lives

class.

and answering the key

question.

A great idea is to get students to bring in a photo of their room (tell

them the first week) and make a class book Where Children Sleep.
Students will design a blurb in this session and discuss the book and
its relevance to the surveys collected by the students in their
investigations.
The book Mirror by Jeannie Baker is also a good resource to wrap this
unit of work up with. By comparing the lives of the 2 children in this
book, the teacher can relate this to the findings the students had in
Assessment

their investigation.
Teachers will formatively assess students in this class. This
information can assist teachers in ongoing teaching (Stewert, 2013).
Teachers understand where students are at in understanding and skills
in Geography (Humanities) and will continue to build their global
perspective all during the year. Teachers will reflect on what the
students learnt and decide whether it was an effective way to teach

AusVELS

the intended outcome.

Students are working towards the achievement of Level 4 in the
Humanities, they are learning to use maps, atlas maps and a
globe to locate places around the world and Australia (AusVELS,
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2013).
Students use a number of special concepts (such as locations,
special interaction and scale) as tools to help them investigate,

interpret and explain patterns (AusVELS, 2013).

The essence of Geography domain is that it is an inquiry-based
approach which focuses on questions of what, where, how and

Links to

why (AusVELS).
This conclusion to the unit can be known as Evaluating (5 Es

theory

Approach, Moore, 2013) or Reflection (Murdoch & Hornsbys

pedagogical

Integrated Planning model, Moore, 2013). This is where students

approaches

demonstrate an understanding of a concept, show evidence of

improved work and knowledge and where teachers set further

goals (Moore, 2013).

Reflective thinking students reflect on what they have

learnt during this unit and how they learnt it. This encourages
them to become effective and independent learners (Browett &
Rationale

Ashman, 2008, p. 12).

This session is important to wrap up this unit of work and

link to

encourage students to reflect on what they have learnt. It also links

content and

all the information into one, developing the idea of the bigger

theory

picture. Presentations allow students to be proud of their work and

be praised on how well theyve done. It also gives the students the
opportunity to listen to what the other students have learnt and be

Interdisciplin

able to relate it back their own work.

This relates to English (presentation, communication skills), Maths

ary

(displaying graphs and presenting data in an effective way) and

approaches

Earth and Space Science (when discussing the big picture of the
earth and people who live on it). Students are responding to others
work, revising, self-assessing, sharing ideas, summarising,
reflecting, visually representing, interpreting and observing.

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References
AusVELS & Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2013). The
AusVELS Curriculum.
Retrieved from http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/TheHumanities/Curriculum
Baker, J. (2010). Mirror. Australia: Walker Books.
Browett, J. & Ashman, G. (2008). Thinking Globally: Global perspectives in
the early years classroom. Carlton South, Australia: Education Services
Australia.
Gilbert, R & Hoepper, B. (2010). Teaching Society and Environment (4th
ed.). Australia:
Cengage Learning Australia.

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Mollison, J. (2010). Where Children Sleep. London: Chris Boot

Moore, T. (2013). EDU2TPH, Lecture 3, Community [PowerPoint Slides].
Retrieved from
Department of Education, La Trobe University, LMS web
site: https://lms.latrobe.edu.au
Moore, T. (2013). EDU2TPH, Lecture 7, Forwards, Backwards TPH
[PowerPoint Slides].
Retrieved from Department of Education, La Trobe
University, LMS web
site: https://lms.latrobe.edu.au
Moore, T. (2013). EDU2TPH, Lecture 8, Inquiry Models [PowerPoint Slides].
Retrieved from
Department of Education, La Trobe University, LMS web
site: https://lms.latrobe.edu.au
Stewert, J. (2013). EDU2SRW, Lecture 3, Assessment lecture slides
[PowerPoint Slides].
Retrieved from Department of Education, La Trobe
University, LMS web
site: https://lms.latrobe.edu.au

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