UNIT OVERVIEW: COMPONENTS, EXPLANATION/DETAILS AND LEARNING
EXPERIENCES
COMPONENTS EXPLANATION/DETAILS LEARNING EXPERIENCES (provide the number) Unit Orientation The unit will begin with a whole group discussion incorporating students prior knowledge on the subject of WWII.
Teacher will introduce the focus text Yokos Diary and create discussion around the book based on cover, title, and blurb - which will then lead into an overview of the unit and the creation of a KWL chart to assist students understanding of expectations and outcomes.
1
Building knowledge of the field Students will watch a You Tube clip on the 1945 Hiroshima bombing and then will watch comparison clips from different WWII perspectives from both historical and modern day perspectives. They will then discuss how this event impacted on immigration into Australia. They will be distributed into their groups where they will create a descriptive word map on the iPads from the visual experience which will assist their understanding of vocabulary and language features for the unit.
1,2
Utilising the non-fiction focus text Ham, P. (2013). Yoko's Diary: The life of a young girl in Hiroshima during WWII. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollinsPublishers.
Teacher will introduce the text and read some excerpts from it allowing students can gain a better understanding of the meaning within the text. Whole group discussion will follow with a focus on discussing elements of text structure, language features and meaning making.
3,6
Responding to texts The lessons within this unit have been created with the intention that students will be responding to the focus text through: reading, discussing, brainstorming, interpreting, analysing, comparing and creating texts through the use of a variety of literary and ICT resources.
2,3,4,5
Exploring texts Students will use the focus text and in small groups they will be iPad explorers where they are to find, compare and contrast other accounts
3,4,5 2 COMPONENTS EXPLANATION/DETAILS LEARNING EXPERIENCES (provide the number) of WWII. For example, photos; video clips and reading personal accounts of children in WWII England. (Guidance and discretion are needed here when viewing clips on war. Teacher has already pre- viewed appropriate web pages and put them on the iPads as an age appropriate resource).
Examining texts including: Students will examine the features of the focus text: language features, grammar, narrative voice, etc. and compare it with other similar text types through whole group and small group interaction.
Text structure and organisation Teacher will use excerpts from Yokos Diary so students can examine text structure and organisation. Questions to initiate discussion would be: What perspective was Yoko writing from? (narrative voice first person) What was the overall impact that the first person narration had on empathy and engagement of the reader? examining excerpts from the text written from different narrative points of view and discussing what information the audience can access, how this impacts on the audiences sympathies, and why an author might choose a particular narrative point of view.
3,4,6 Expressing and developing ideas Diary excerpts from the text will be put up on the smartboard and in small group collaboration students will identify the similarities or differences between the two with a specific focus on language features and Japanese words and their meaning.
3,7,8 Visual and multimodal features of texts In small groups students will have the opportunity to view and read the text through photos of Yoko and her country revealing cultural and historical features; YouTube videos; historical photos of immigration via Scootle app
2,6,9
Extending beyond the focus text including:
3 COMPONENTS EXPLANATION/DETAILS LEARNING EXPERIENCES (provide the number) Creating texts utilising print and multimodal texts Students will have the opportunity to: - write their own recount of an event in their lives with a focus on past tense, verb and noun groups used to describe the event (EAL/D and Indigenous learners are encouraged to use words in their first language in this activity). - create Haiku poems using their iPads
6
Assessment
Formative (one strategy and instrument)
After students have completed their personal recount the teacher will use a rubric to grade students and offer them feedback and further scaffolding to assist them in their final blogging task.
6 Summative (one strategy and instrument) The summative piece of assessment will be an interactive blogging task where students will take their knowledge and understanding learnt throughout the unit and write three diary entry blogs (before, during, after) from a first person perspective of a child in Japan or England during WWII highlighting the culture, events and daily life at this time. A rubric will be used to assess that the students have covered all aspects of the blogging task through the three interrelated strands of Language, Literature and Literacy as outlined in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2014)
8,9,10 Significant demonstration of learning. Receptive modes by the end of this unit students will understand and demonstrate how text structures can achieve particular effects as well as how language features, images and vocabulary are used to represent ideas, characters and events.
Productive modes by the end of this unit students will demonstrate their ability to contribute actively to class and group discussions. They will understand and demonstrate how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis through creating a historical memoir blog, elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences.