Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
Unique resources created by an experienced Secondary English and History teacher. These are academically rigorous resources that target children between 13 and 18 years of age.
A Unit plan designed for a 9 week term. It includes syllabus objectives, a description of the unit, assessment task details and a list of recommended resources.A Scope and Sequence suggesting topics to be covered throughout the term is provided.
A Learning Intention and Success Criteria handout for students to glue into the front of their work books
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This unit allows students to demonstrate planning, evaluation and inquiry by investigating the role technology, in particular the internet and social media, plays in their own life. They will explore the advantages and challenges associated with changing technology and how they can be safe when using it. Students will evaluate and analyse how science and technology has advanced the way we interact and improve our way of living. Students will learn how science and technology can help out society in the 21st Century. They will also learn the effects that science and technology have on society.
This lesson is designed to encourage students to write their own definitions of key terms to include in their essay. It explains what makes a good definition and looks at a structure for crafting detailed definitions. We look at criteria 1.1 (where they are assessed on their description of concepts and ideas) and what they need to do to get a C, B and A. We also look at what makes a definition ‘bad.’ This is followed by an ‘I do’ (a teacher example of how to define ‘identity theft’ and a checklist of questions to ask after writing a definition. Then there is time to practice writing definitions as a class ‘we do.’ Afterwards there is a section where we discuss why it is important to keep a bibliography of references for all definitions (even those you have paraphrased). For low-ability classes we use citethisforme.com and it has been a godsend. For the remainder of the lesson the student made a start on defining the key terms they needed for their assessment Inquiry booklet.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This is a draft feedback checklist created to aid the teacher to provide consistent feedback to students about their assessment in a timely manner. It has comments for the various parts of the assessment - the inquiry booklet and the essay. It also includes some proofreading and editing steps.
This style of feedback is not indicated on the actual draft itself, but as a separate document, which means that the learner has to locate the issues in their draft for correction. A lifesaver for busy teachers!
You can reduce the number of points or use this document as a template to modify to suit your own tasks.
This lesson utilises an Inquiry Based Learning approach. From earlier terms, the year 11 MHS students are aware of the historical concept of continuity and change. They are aware that, as historians, we need to study what things have changed or continued over time and try to explain the reasons for these. In this lesson, the students receive a handout that poses a key question that they need to investigate and respond to. As a class, we then broke down the key question into sub questions which students could research independently. (I find the use of think aloud activities – talking through my process – helps students to learn historical skill. This lesson gives them the opportunity to practice doing these things which they will do again when they develop their own key question and begin their assessment).
Also included on the handout are a list of places where students can begin their research before branching out to their own searches. There is also a retrieval chart which provides a structured way for students to record their research. If you want to save on paper they can draw these in their books or complete them on One Note. Alternatively, a handout with several tables is provided as a separate word document. The final activity (Complete a T.A.D.P.O.L.E. of one of the sources you have chosen to assess its reliability) can be completed in class for fast finishers or for homework.
NB: Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The content would also be useful more broadly for students in other states and countries with an interest in the Vietnamese Independence Movement (1945-1975). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. The end of term assessment for this unit was an essay.
The first lesson to introduce students to the ‘Science and Technology’ unit. It begins with a pre-unit survey to identify what students already know and to prompt class discussions. It features an infographic about identity crime within Australia which has some interesting statistics to unpack. Afterwards, students take notes about the key terms (science and technology) before exploring some of the advances with using technology to access healthcare. This includes some news stories from the beginning of 2020 when COVID 19 necessitated swift upgrades in this field. It is a good lesson for engaging students in the topic and getting them to think about the impact of technology on people’s lives. It also includes some videos of cool technology innovations if you get through all the lesson content.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - Aussie_Resources. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons. This unit allows students to demonstrate planning, evaluation and inquiry by investigating the role technology, in particular the internet and social media, plays in their own life. They will explore the advantages and challenges associated with changing technology and how they can be safe when using it. Students will evaluate and analyse how science and technology has advanced the way we interact and improve our way of living. Students will learn how science and technology can help out society in the 21st Century. They will also learn the effects that science and technology have on society.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This lesson is designed to unpack the various elements of the assessment task with students so they know where they are headed. The task is a project which requires students to complete an inquiry booklet, an essay and product (brochure).
It includes a list of 8 steps that the students should follow to complete the task. It also includes screenshots of 2 example brochures (created by students) and advice about how to structure their brochure. It also includes a brief overview of what will be included in the essay (knowing that more information would be unpacked in class in subsequent lessons).
NB: The task sheet, unit plan and other materials used within this unit are also available at my TES store.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This lesson is designed to help students prepare to write about specific case studies of people who have had their identity stolen. It revises key terms (viewpoint and perspective) and how this differs from bias. It also includes opportunities to practice identifying viewpoints in websites / news stories about identity theft / financial fraud.
What you get: A PowerPoint which I use to facilitate the lesson (I have a lot of visual learners). It goes through the structure for body 2 where students will have to utilise the skills they learn today. We revisit the cognitive verb ‘explain’ and the graphic organiser that we intend to use to retrieve information from the sources we find. Then there is a ‘we do’ activity where the class reads an article entitled ‘From catfish to romance fraud, how to avoid getting caught in any online scam’ together and fills in the graphic organiser. Then there is a ‘you do’ where students view a clip from 60 minutes and fill in the same graphic organiser. Afterwards, there are some post viewing discussion questions. Students are then introduced to the cognitive verbs 'compare’ and ‘contrast.’ For the remainder of the lesson, students use the internet to find example case studies.
NB: This resource also includes a handout which includes two articles that contain viewpoints about Identity Theft as well as some sentence starters which students can use when comparing and contrasting viewpoints (a skill they are required to demonstrate in their upcoming essay).
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
This lesson was designed to assist students to write a paragraph for their upcoming assessment which shows a range of viewpoints about identity theft / financial fraud (e.g. victim, victim’s family, scammer, Australian police, Australian government). It includes some recommended content to be incorporated into this paragraph (which students work out how to incorporate into a TEEL structure).It includes a review of Criteria 2.2 which is entirely assessed in this paragraph. This is followed by an explanation of where to find viewpoints.To ensure students get off to a good start, there is advice about how to plan and write a clear topic sentence for their paragraph. The lesson is broken up by a brain break video and then students are to complete their paragraph. There is also information about the next paragraph students are to write (and a homework task).
A PowerPoint designed to assist students to fill in the first portion of the inquiry booklet. It begins with a pre reflection (which is used to set a base of what students knew prior to their investigation). This is followed by an interesting video about email scammers (a James Veitch TED talk). This transitions to a discussion about the impact of social media on our lives. Students then read an article about the pros and cons of social media. They take the most important points and record them in their Inquiry booklet. They then watch a clip from Weekend Sunrise discussing whether social media has made the world a better place and a Sunrise segment about people with social media addictions. Afterwards, we look at Linked In as a type of social media used by professionals.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
Two word documents of sentence starters to help students to write their essay about identity theft / financial fraud.
Sentence starters for QCIA students on a modified program (organised for each paragraph of the essay - cloze passages)
Sentence starters grouped by cognitive verb (helping to build student assessment literacy - they need to work out which sentence starter option works best for their needs)
Two exemplar essays which can be deconstructed with the class to discuss their pro’s and con’s
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
An explicit scaffolding lesson to help students to begin writing their essay about identity theft / financial fraud. I always encourage students to write their body paragraphs before writing their introduction but make sure they have a clear idea of what their thesis statement (overall argument) will be so they can link to this in their body paragraphs.
This is for a low literacy class so it assumes they are mostly unfamiliar with the genre. It explains what a thesis statement is and has prompts for how to write one.It provides specific advice about criteria 2.3 (which requires students to make a decision and justify it) as this decision / recommendation will naturally influence their thesis.
It specifically unpacks the term ‘recommend’ and provides some sentence starters for recommending. There is a gradual release slide where there is an I do, we do and you do for making recommendations about an unrelated topic. This is followed by a brain break video about catfishing a teen using social media. After students make a decision for their assessment topic and draft their thesis, this is followed by a review of TEEL paragraph structure. Finally, time is provided for them to begin writing body paragraph 1 (utilising teacher prompts on the slides).
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
A PowerPoint which goes through some of the key terms that students were to find for their Inquiry booklet. This is helpful to run before they write their essay as it allows those who have misunderstood key terms to go back and amend theirs.
Key terms which are defined are: scam, fraud, identity theft and financial fraud. There is a ‘brain break’ clip (from the comedy film ‘Identity Thief’) followed by a series of slides about particular types of identity theft. I have underlined key parts that students should write down. These notes are useful for students to refer to as they look for case studies to include in their essay as they can provide helpful search terms.
Students are reminded about the cognitive verb ‘explain’ and how this relates to criteria 1.2 and 1.3 in this subject. They are given some general sentence starters that can be used when explaining and an example question which we talk through as a class (think alouds) and consider how we would answer it. There is information about the difference between a task that asks you to ‘describe’ and one that asks you to ‘explain.’ I then use the film Shrek as an example with the screen split into two and a series of dot points which exemplify description vs explanation. Afterwards, there is an example paragraph about the evolution of the radio (which contains spelling errors and does not follow TEEL). Students are to mark it using the ‘I Can’ checklist and discuss how it could be improved.
To link this to our assessment, we discuss how students will need to explain the case studies they have found about people who have been victims of identity theft. There is a graphic organiser which students can use as they read their case studies to ensure they have enough information to be useful in their essay.
There is a time filler activity at the back of the slide in case the lesson progresses more quickly than expected. It contains some helpful tips from the University of Queensland about how to protect your identity.
NB: This resource also includes a handout given to students in the lesson and an article which students can use to practice filling in the graphic organiser.
This lesson utilises an Inquiry Based Learning approach. Previously students have learned how to use BOOLEAN search methods to research historical terms, concepts and issues. The attached handout has a list of topics for students to research – I had a class of 11 so each student had two topics. However, this could be modified so each student only has one topic and they do it in more depth. The graphic organiser was placed on the class one note (an interactive document) so students could all add to it at the same time. Within the 70 minute lesson they needed to find reliable sources to answer their question – keeping the links, summarising the info into dot points and keeping key quotes to utilise as evidence in their TEEL paragraph. Once finished, they needed to write a TEEL paragraph synthesising what they learned from the sources they found.
Students can read the paragraphs written by their peers and gain a quick insight into a variety of topics connected to the quest for Vietnam’s Independence. This should allow them to find something that interests them that they may be able to use as inspiration for their essay based on research.
NB: Resources designed for the new senior Modern History syllabus (implemented in QLD in 2019). The content would also be useful more broadly for students in other states and countries with an interest in the Vietnamese Independence Movement (1945-1975). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. The end of term assessment for this unit was an essay.
A brochure template for students to use to create their brochure. It features instructions about what students need to add.
A series of example brochures which can be evaluated (pros and cons). The template file requires Microsoft Publisher to open.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
An inquiry booklet which students complete in the early phase of the unit. They then use what they find to write their essay. This booklet includes: a pre quiz (to see what students already know), key terms to be defined, a graphic organiser to store their research in (with a column dedicated to evaluating the source). A scaffold to help students to write their essay (a breakdown of what to put in which paragraph). A SWOT analysis for the students to complete at the conclusion of their assessment.
An exemplar Inquiry booklet which can be handy for those new to teaching Social.
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - Aussie_Resources. Designed for use in 70 minute lessons.
An assessment piece designed for an eSafety unit focusing on identity theft and financial fraud. It is a project with a written component (an essay) and a product (a brochure)
This resource includes:
A copy of the task sheet for the unit which includes a suggested structure for the report students are required to write
‘I can’ statements which which break down the criteria into simple terms for students to understand (also assists teachers to mark the assessment with ease)
A QCIA cover sheet recommending adjustments to be made and individual learning goals to be assessed
A modified task sheet for students on a modified program (called QCIA students in QLD)
Part of a set of resources created for a senior Social & Community studies class in Australia (QCAA syllabus). The other resources are also available in my store - lrigb4.