User notes

This PowerPoint is an introduction to some initial strategies for working with the Australian Curriculum in multi-age classes. Additional resources will be provided in the follow-up Leaders’ resource ‘Getting connected’.

It is strongly recommended that teachers view the PowerPoints ‘Understanding the AC’ and ‘Introducing the DECD approach to the Australian Curriculum’ prior to viewing this one.

There are a number of links to useful websites in this PowerPoint. In order to access them, you will need to be online.

Designing for multi-age classes

Overview

This PowerPoint includes the following:1. The importance of learning design2. Understanding and using the Australian Curriculum

structure and elements3. Scootle and learning paths4. Alternating your approaches5. Year 4–7 science6. Year 6–7 history7. Other support

The importance of Learning Design

Learning Design

DECD’s Learning Design is a process for and a way of thinking about teaching and learning that brings together the ‘what’ (the Australian Curriculum) and the ‘how’ (the Teaching for Effective Learning Framework) for improved learner engagement and achievement.

Use existing learning teams and PLCs

Shared thinking about the big ideas, concepts, skills and understandings in the Australian Curriculum enables effective planning processes that are intentional in their design and responsive to the learners in the class. (See introductory PowerPoint in this resource Introducing the DECD approach to the Australian Curriculum.)

Designing learning is a complex task and teachers are benefiting from working collaboratively with colleagues. (See What is a Professional Learning Community? PowerPoint)

Understanding and using the Australian Curriculum structure and elements

The Australian Curriculum structure

The key to successful learning design is to use each aspect of the Australian Curriculum (See Understanding the AC PowerPoint)

• rationale• strand overviews• year level statements• content descriptors• achievement standards• general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities

to identify the big ideas, concepts, skills and understandings that link the curriculum across year levels.

Where can I find help in the Australian Curriculum?

Examples of where teachers will find support for identifying the big ideas, concepts, skills and understandings that link the curriculum across year levels are:• Scope and sequence• Multiple year level view• General capabilities continuums• Achievement standards• Content elaborations• Glossary

Scope and sequence

The Australian Curriculum ‘Scope and sequence’ charts  provide a crucial overview of learning Reception to year 10.

Go to

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Download

Select the download tab, select your learning area

and check the box for ‘Scope and sequence’ charts.

Multiple year level view

Use the multiple year level view on the Australian Curriculum website to identify the main concept across year levels  

– select a learning area

– select the Foundation to year 10 curriculum tab

– Hover under the icons and select the one which allows you to ‘View year levels in columns across the page’

Achievement standards

See the ‘Unpacking the Achievement standards’ PowerPoint in this resource for further information and processes to make the connections between year levels clear.

Achievement standards tell us what is expected of students at specific year levels. It does not mean that students from different ages and abilities cannot work together.

General capability continuums

The continuums provide information about the key 21st century capabilities across the curriculum.

For more information, go to the General Capabilities tab on the AC website, select literacy or numeracy and the tab ‘Learning continuum’

Reporting with Achievement standards

The Reporting on Australian Curriculum, Guidelines for DECD School R–10 version 1.0 are included in the Keeping up to date section of this resource.This circular includes information about using the achievement standards in composite and multi-age classes.

Understanding the elaborations

• Elaborations can be used to unpack and clarify content descriptors. Elaborations are not additional learning, but clarification for teacher reference.

• The bracketed code at the end of the content descriptor provides the link to each elaboration.

Use the glossary

• Click on underlined words to get a glossary definition of a word.

What else?

Having understood the structure of the curriculum and identified the big ideas, concepts, skills and understandings that link the curriculum across year levels, teachers might …• Start from what they know• Use the digital resources in Scootle• Plan content foci across different calendar years

Start from what you—the teacher—knows!

The TfEL element Build on learners’ understandings applies to teachers too!

For example: teachers may begin their science learning design with biological and earth space strands. More familiar content will enable teachers to build confidence with the AC structure and learning design.

Scootle and learning paths

Draw on available resources – Scootle

• Scootle – the national online repository for digital resources aligned with the Australian Curriculum is at www.scootle.edu.au.

• For more information, see the PowerPoint ‘Scootle – AC digital learning resources’ on this DVD.

• Scootle has a large repository of digital resources attached to each content descriptor in each learning area.

 

Use learning paths

Teachers with multi-age groups have used learning paths in Scootle to differentiate content for different groups in their class. www.scootle.edu.au .

See also the ‘Scootle—AC digital learning resources’ PowerPoint.

Alternating your approaches

Planning an ‘A’ and ‘B’ year

• A popular way of addressing content planning is allocating content to an A or a B year.

• The preferred process is to allocate the content to odd and even years. Hence a year 4/5 class would focus on the year 4 content in an even year (eg 2012) and the year 5 content in an odd year (eg 2013).

• Statewide consistency about the odd and even year allocation reduces the risk that students moving between schools double up or miss out on particular content.

Identified challenges in the first 4 learning areas

Teachers working with the Australian Curriculum have identified two key areas that require additional attention:– Science years 4–7, especially physical and chemical

science strands– History years 6–7

Year 4–7 science

Science

Unpack the science understandings across year levels with colleagues and consider concepts that connect content across the year levels

Use a science search engine  and type the key words from each year level to identify theintegrating topics. Try: – www.scirus.com – www.google.com – http://trove.nla.gov.au/

Linking content example

• The physical science Learning Design example in this resource identifies key learning in Year 3 as ‘heat’ and Year 4 as ‘forces’.

• The learning for the 3/4 class is designed around the linking concept of ‘friction’. The thinking behind this planning is detailed in the video in the learning design section.  

Science

• The science as a human endeavour and science inquiry skills strands are described over two years and provide a focus for the skills required to meet the achievement standards.

• Plan from these strands: start by the identifying key concepts, skills and understandings and then refer to the content requirements.

Science

Start by planning using the more familiar Biological and Earth Space strands and build confidence with the learning design process.

Familiarity with learning design will help with the process of planning against the physical and chemical science strands.

Mathematics and science content

For quick refreshers about mathematics and science content, check out the Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org

The Academy explains over 2000 concepts in 2 minute video clips. These clips are a great resource as homework activities and can be used to differentiate instruction in multi-age classes.

Year 6–7 history

History

• On the Australian Curriculum website, the Organisation tab describes the structure of the Australian Curriculum: history

• Two key explanations are the historical skills strand and depth studies.

Historical skills

The historical skills are described in 2 year groupings and are an excellent support to planning across year levels. Use the historical skills strand as a focus for the skills required to meet the achievement standards relevant for your class.

The content in each year level will then be a planning support as teachers design learning to teach the historical skills.See ‘Introducing LD—a history example in the classroom (movie)’

Depth Studies in Years 6–7

The depth study is introduced at year 7 and is a key aspect of the 7–10 history curriculum.

Most South Australian schools have year 6/7 classes. Teachers can introduce the depth study historical skills to both year 6 and 7 students and have year 6 students apply their first depth study to Australian history content while the year 7 students use the ancient history context to consolidate their skills.

Local resources

• Scootle, which includes an increasing repository of digital resources for Australian history, also includes local examples. These will increase in number as they are developed over time.

• Your local museum, DECD Outreach Education Managers, eg the South Australian Museum and History SA, can provide resources to assist planning and enrich the learning.

Other support

Other support

• Primary Australian Curriculum Implementation Officers have been assigned to every cluster of schools with primary enrolments across the state.

• These officers, in collaboration with Regional Curriculum Consultants and Teacher Facilitators, will support clusters to plan professional learning and to work in PLCs.

• Secondary Implementation Officers have been assigned to all schools with secondary enrolments.

Other support

The Literacy Secretariat website contains information, resources and professional learning opportunities to support teachers with literacy across the curriculum and English content knowledge www.decs.sa.gov.au/literacy

Other support

Professional Learning

The Primary Mathematics and Science Strategy schedules professional learning to develop teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in mathematics and science. The calendar is available at http://www.scimas.sa.edu.au/scimas/

Professional associations provide professional learning that can be found through the CEASA calendar. http://www.ceasa.asn.au/associations/association-essentials/ceasa-dates-2012/  

Other support

Other state resources

The Queensland Education Department  has developed exemplars of work across Reception to Year 7 which teachers may find useful as a starting point. Go to http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/13658.html#multi and explore content in the ‘multiple years’ tab

Parent Information

The Australian Curriculum presents all schools with an opportunity to engage with their community in this curriculum change. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to take an active role in their children’s education. Information that could be included in an initial article in a school newsletter is in the notes below. Additional parent information to support families and communities to understand composite and multi-age class structures will be available next term.