Making Informed Choices Stage 3

Making informed choices Stage 3

Connected Outcomes Group (D)

Planning page

Student work: / Resources needed: / Literacy links include: / Numeracy links include:
• A class visit to the state or federal parliament education office is suggested
• A class notice board of newspaper articles on community issues organised into local, state and national.
• Students will need a folder or notebook to record the election system and campaign process. (This unit is well suited to run concurrently with election of student leadership positions e.g. school SRC, school parliament) / Copies of DET, BOS and Curriculum Corporation resources have been sent to all schools.
• Discovering Democracy Primary kit, Discovering Democracy Upper Primary Units and Parliament at work CD–ROM are available from http://www.civicsandcitizenship.edu.au/cce/default.asp?id=9067
• Government fact sheet from:
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/0/90E82B1B503BF6EFCA256EC800294678/$File/Info2.pdf
• Article on community issues from:
http://www.curriculum.edu.au/ddunits/guide/g4_citizens.htm
• Child Protection Education: Curriculum materials to support teaching and learning in PDHPE – Stage 3 (DET)#
• K–6 Drug Education Resource (DET)#
Collaborate with your teacher-librarian for teaching and resource support.
#Additional copies of these DET resources are available from DET sales at: https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/doingbusiness/product_service/schcurresource/index.htm / • accesses the meaning of increasingly challenging texts using a range of strategies and gives a response using supporting evidence
• records a process, poses questions and evaluates responses to complete a design task
• modifies language to suit roles in playbuilding and other group tasks
• uses visual and critical literacy strategies to analyse and produce visual and multimedia texts
• produces and evaluates script and performance. / • draws and interprets a timeline to scale
• uses a computer database to display election results.

Child protection education

This unit contains child protection education. Schools and teachers should provide information to parents prior to the teaching of these issues. Refer to the memorandum to Principals Child protection education 2004 (DN/04/00187) for further information

Term planner (teachers may want to use this to plan the work over a term)

Week

Creative Arts

HSIE

PDHPE

SciTech

1 / Decision making dilemma
state and federal government responsibilities / Child Protection Education –
Protection
2 / Government representatives
In the hot seat / Child Protection Education – rights
Our body
3 / Community issues and civic action / Child Protection Education –
Abuse
4 / The Australian government
Voting / Child Protection Education –
Different types of relationships / System for electing students to school leadership positions
5 / Drama – playbuilding – developing a script / Child Protection Education –
Safety rules and strategies
Planning for safety
6 / Playbuilding – developing a script (continued) / Social justice issues (Weeks 6 -7) / What is a drug?
What are the rules for taking medicines?
7 / Playbuilding – developing a script (continued) / Why do people smoke?
What effects can smoking have on the body? / Campaign materials for candidates
8 / Playbuilding – developing a script (continued) / Law making / Why do we have smoke free places?
How can we say ‘no’ to smoking?
9 / Drama – rehearsal and performance / What does alcohol do to the body?
Where and why do people consume alcohol? / Hold election
10

Unit of work

Outcomes / Learning experience / Planned assessment /

HSIE

SSS3.8 Explains the structures, roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes of State and federal governments and explains why Australians value fairness and socially just principles
• outlines the broad democratic political structures and gives examples of State and federal government responsibilities
• shows an interest in, and a willingness to provide opinions about, community issues
• researches and gives examples of how civic action has improved local, national and global communities
• knows how to identify elected representatives
• understands the role of elected representatives
• identifies some of the differences between state and federal levels of government
• investigates a community issue and identifies and explains the purpose of civic action
• analyses a local issues to identify and evaluate civic action.

English

RS3.5 Reads independently an extensive range of texts with increasing content demands and responds to themes and issues.
RS3.6 Uses a comprehensive range of skills and strategies appropriate to the type of text being read.
TS3.1 Communicates effectively for a range of purposes and with a variety of audiences to express well-developed, well-organised ideas dealing with more challenging topics. /

Introduction: decision making dilemma

• Students read the story Ducks crossing here, an extract from Farmer Schultz’s ducks by Colin Thiele in Australian Readers, Discovering Democracy Upper Primary Collection pp. 33–36. In this extract, Farmers Schulz’s family solve their duck dilemma by direct action.
• What is Farmers Schulz’s problem? List each of the solutions he tried. Why did they fail? Who is responsible for the safety of the ducks? Should Farmer Schulz have been made to sell his ducks, or prevent them from crossing the road? When does the safety of the community matter more than the interests of the individual?
• Why did Farmer Schulz decide to solve the problem himself? Was he wrong to attempt to do this? List the advantages and disadvantages of his actions. What actions did Farmer Schulz consider? Think of other options he could have taken. In the end he wrote to the Government. Which level of Government was this – local council, state or federal?
• Students individually or in pairs examine the Save the wombat activity on the Parliament at work Discovering Democrary CD–ROM.
• Compare the issues, strategies and resolutions with those in Ducks crossing here. What do you think about the actions taken in each?

State and federal government responsibilities

• Students in groups investigate the three levels of government using the Three levels of government poster included in the Discovering Democracy teaching kit.
• Distribute ‘responsibility cards’ photocopied from the poster. Students discuss the responsibilities and levels of government within their group and classify them into the three tiers of government. Students discuss their placement with other groups and then refer to the original poster for confirmation.
• Use the fact sheet at http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/publications.nsf/0/90E82B1B503BF6EFCA256EC800294678/$File/Info2.pdf to clarify understanding. Add additional rows to the chart in the fact sheet e.g. protecting the community – federal, state and local roles; water supply – state and local roles; pollution – federal, state and local roles.

Government representatives

• Identify the names of the local member of Federal and state parliament and their roles and responsibilities in parliament. Are they a ‘government’ or are they an ‘opposition’ member? Use the search on http://www.aec.gov.au/
• Who are the federal senate and state legislative council members? Do you have a local representative? Why/why not?
• Investigate some of the different roles and responsibilities of the government ministers in federal and state parliament.
• What is the difference between federal and state levels of government and the roles of your elected members of parliament?

In the hot seat

• Assign students to particular government roles in the hot seat. Other students ask questions that can be answered with yes or no, to establish their identity e.g. do you look after everyone in Australia? Are you involved with education?

Community issues and civic action

During the unit of work add newspaper articles on community issues categorise as local, state and national interests to a noticeboard
NB Shaded text is background information for teachers.
• Use the article available at: http://www.curriculum.edu.au/ddunits/guide/g4_citizens.htm Undertake as a shared reading task with students, stopping to discuss each section to develop an understanding of civic action with reference to some examples in the local community.
• Investigate and discuss a community issue as it unfolds over time through the local media.
• Cut out articles and classify according to government responsibility. Clues to assist classification could include Minister’s name, portfolio, photographs and captions. Articles can be sourced from http://www.newspapers.com.au/NSW/
• Identify the civic action taking place.
(Literacy link: accesses the meaning of increasingly challenging texts using strategies such as identifying the different perspectives of characters in a scenario and identifying information using subheadings and key words)

HSIE

SSS3.8 Explains the structures, roles, responsibilities and decision-making processes of State and federal governments and explains why Australians value fairness and socially just principles
• develops an understanding of structure and purpose of the Australian Government
• develops an understanding of the electoral processes used in Australia
• participates in or describes the electoral process used in Australia
• reflects on the roles and responsibilities of Australian citizens in elections.

English

The Australian government

• Explain how to use the interactive Parliament at work on the Discovering Democracy CD-ROM.
• Alternatively, use a data projector or computer room. Explore Parliament House (Primary).
• Use the program to collect information and paste to the notebook. Print and photocopy for student reference and class discussion.
• Students, individually or in pairs, use the interactive resource People in Parliament (Primary) to collect information into the notebook to solve the random task selected by the program on the CD-ROM. Students print notebook information,display and share with the class.

Voting

Teacher reference: Electoral Education Resource for Primary and Secondary Schools in Australia. Available at no cost to teachers from the Australian Electoral Commission. Go to http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/how/education/resources/index.htm
• Develop students understanding of the Australian electoral process.
Resources include the interactive Voting counts available on the Discovering Democracy CD-ROM Parliament at work (available in the Secondary section of the CD.) Work through the interactive as a class group, explaining the election of members to Parliament, or
Australian Electoral Commision resources can be orderded at no cost and pdf’s can be downloaded. Go to: http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/how/education/resources/index.htm
Stage 3 resources include the voting section in the student magazine Australian Democracy Magazine.
• View the video Every vote counts. It includes a teacher resource
Schools can request, at no cost, a school visit from the Australian Electoral Commision to support the election of student leadership positions. Advance bookings are advisable. Bookings are made by contacting the divisional office for the electorate of the school through 13 23 26.)
• Develop students understandings of the following voting procedures:
- must enrol to vote
- 18 years of age
- voting is compulsory
- elections are held on a Saturday
- vote at a polling booth
- the purpose of how to vote card information
- polling officer asks for name and address and whether the voter has voted elsewhere today e.g. one vote per citizen, the excption is in local council elections where property owners may vote once in the council election where they own property, even if this is in a local council area where they do not live.
- name is checked off on electoral roll
- number each square on ballot paper
- fold ballot paper and put vote into ballot box.
• Students investigate opportunities within their school community to become actively involved e.g. input into class decision making, school decision making processes such as SRC, P & C, or other representative committees.
• Students attend an SRC meeting as an audience member.
• Discuss: Is our SRC democratic? Why or why not? How can it be more democratic?
Who can vote – being an Australian citizen
Only people who are Australian citizens can vote (and some very long term British residents).
Go to http://www.citizenship.gov.au/becoming-a-citizen/why-should-i.htm Read and discuss the information on the rights and responsibilties of being an Australian citizen.
The Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs can provide a guest speaker about being an Australian citizen, additional information and resources. Phone (02) 6264 24340 for details
(Literacy link: reads and views texts for information, and relates this knowledge to their own experiences)

SciTech

ICS3.2 Creates and evaluates information products and processes, demonstrating consideration of the type of media, form, audience and ethical issues
• complex systems are developed to transfer information and support communication.
• people select and manipulate information to create messages and perceptions.
• information products can be assessed for bias, validity and cultural appropriateness.
DMS3.8 Develops and resolves a design task by planning, implementing, managing and evaluating design processes
• generates design concepts that reflect the consideration of aesthetic, cultural, safety and functional requirements
• methodically evaluates design concepts and uses the results to further develop and improve ideas
• plans processes of design and production, adjusting the process as necessary to improve efficiency.
UTS3.9 Evaluates, selects and uses a range of equipment, computer-based technology, materials and other resources to meet the requirements and constraints of investigation and design tasks
• considers issues of safety, appearance, ethics; social and environmental appropriateness when making choices of equipment, materials and processes
• programs and adapts computing applications to suit the constraints and requirements of investigation and design tasks.

Mathematics

MS3.5 Uses twenty-four hour time and am and pm notation in real life situations and construction timelines.
DS3.1 Displays and interprets data in graphs with scales of many to one correspondence.
English
TS3.2 Interacts productively and with autonomy in pairs and groups of various sizes and composition, uses effective oral presentation skills and strategies and listens attentively.
WS3.9 Produces a wide range of well-structured and well-presented literary and factual texts for a wide variety of purposes and audiences using increasingly challenging topics, ideas, issues and written language features.
WS3.13 Critically analyses own texts in terms of how well they have been written, how effectively they present the subject matter and how they influence the reader. /

Design task: Design and manage a system for electing students to leadership positions.