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Enrich young Australians’ experience of History, and Civics and Citizenship with these practical classroom resources, developed for Years 6 – 10 students, written and designed to meet the specific requirements of compulsory areas of the National Curriculum.
Investigating Pioneers Who Made Australia - Caroline Chisholm
Investigating Pioneers Who Made Australia is a series of evidence-based exploration and investigation of some significant Australians from the past, whose often-herculean efforts shaped the Australian identity, and helped make the nation what it is today.
These units allow students to consider what makes a pioneer, and to explore each candidate’s character and contributions to our foundations and then to ultimately decide whether the nominee qualifies for a place in the ‘hall of fame’.
Meet Caroline Chisholm.
Year level:
Upper primary
Subject area:
English and HASS
Contents:
Approximiately 4 x 50 minute sessions
Curriculum markers:
AC9HS5K03
The role of a significant individual or group, including First Nations Australians and those who migrated to Australia, in the development of events in an Australian colony
AC9HS4S01
Develop questions to guide investigations about people, events, places and issues
AC9HS4S02
Locate, collect and record information and data from a range of sources, including annotated timelines and maps
AC9HS4S03
interpret information and data displayed in different formats
AC9HS4S04
Analyse information and data, and identify perspectives
AC9HS4S05
Draw conclusions based on analysis of information
AC9HS4S06
Propose actions or responses to an issue or challenge that consider possible effects of actions
AC9HS4S07
Present descriptions and explanations, drawing ideas from sources and using relevant subject-specific terms
English - Persuasive Language
Aristotle's method of persuasion
Learn about language methods of persuasion, identify these methods and apply this knowledge.
This unit engages the works of Aristotle and President Ronald Regan to learn of the tools used by effective public speakers to connect with their audience. 8 sessions, recommended for Year 10 students of History and English.
Contents Included:
Subject Area:
English and History
Year level:
This unit is relevant to aspects of:
- English Year 10
- History Year 10
Contents Included:
- 3 to 4 double lessons of work
- Teacher lesson plan
- 2 teacher worksheets
- 6 student worksheets
- Transcript of ‘Tear Down this Wall’ speech
English curriculum markers:
Language:
- AC9E10LA01: Understand how language can have inclusive and exclusive social effects, and can empower or disempower people.
- AC9E10LA02: Understand that language used to evaluate, implicitly or explicitly reveals an individual’s values.
- AC9E10LA03: Analyse text structures and language features and evaluate their effectiveness in achieving their purpose.
- AC9E10LA05: Analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of particular sentence structures to express and craft ideas.
Literacy:
- AC9E10LY03: Analyse and evaluate how language features are used to implicitly or explicitly represent values, beliefs and attitudes.
- AC9E10LY04: Analyse and evaluate how authors organise ideas in texts to achieve a purpose AC9E10LY05 Integrate comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring, questioning and inferring to analyse and interpret complex and abstract ideas.
- AC9E10LY02: Listen to spoken texts and explain the purposes and effects of text structures and language features, and use interaction skills to discuss and present an opinion about these texts.
- AC9E10LY07: Plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations by experimenting with rhetorical devices, and the organisation and development of ideas, to engage audiences for different purposes in ways that may be imaginative, reflective, informative, persuasive, analytical and/or critical.
History curriculum markers:
Knowledge and understanding:
- AC9HH10K16: Causes and effects of the significant events and developments of the major global influences on Australia in the post-World War II period.
- AC9HH10K19: The effects of global influences on Australia’s changing identity as a nation and its international relationships.
Skills:
- AC9HH10S03: Identify the origin and content of sources, and explain the purpose and context of primary and secondary sources.
- AC9HH10S08: Create descriptions, explanations and historical arguments, using historical knowledge, concepts and terms that incorporate and acknowledge evidence from sources.
Learning intentions:
- To learn about Aristotle’s method of persuasion, be able to identify these methods in a given text and apply this knowledge.
- To understand how effective public speakers use their body language and voice to connect with their audience.
- To be able to identify and analyse the language devices used in Ronald Reagan’s speech.
- To understand and be able to contextualise Ronald Reagan’s Address at the Brandenburg Gate as well as grasp its significance for Germany, Western nations and the world.
- Extension tasks provided will also allow students to deepen their historical knowledge of this time period as well as experiment with rhetorical devices in their own creative work.
The Voice Referendum - What's It Got To Do With You?
A referendum to change the Constitution and create an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice will be held late 2023.
Most students will not have a vote on this issue, but all will be exposed to arguments and campaigns for and against through the media, and in many cases in their own homes.
This unit will help your students to:
- participate in this important national civics and citizenship exercise,
- learn about some of the facts and arguments of both sides of the debate in its present form, and
- present those disagreements respectfully, but with conviction.
Having done this, they can make an informed and balanced judgement from the head, as well as from the heart.
Contents include:
YouTube introduction video
Teacher guideline/ lesson plans
Student worksheets
Curriculum Applicability:
This unit is relevant to aspects of:
- English Years 9 and 10
- Australian History 9 and 10
- Civics and Citizenship 9 and 10
It is also relevant to Senior courses (Years 11-12) in
- Australian History
- Indigenous Studies
- Politics
Learning Outcomes:
After using this unit in the classroom students will be better able to:
- Develop knowledge and understanding of a current issue
- Develop critical and analytical skills
- Locate a current issue in its historical and chronological context
- Understand some key aspects of the Australian democratic system, including Representation,
Referendums, the Australian Constitution, Reconciliation
- Understand how the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have developed and improved over time
- Participate as informed citizens in a significant event in Australian democracy.
History - Captain James Cook
Captain James Cook: Brilliant navigator and intrepid traveller, or destructive coloniser?
This evidenced based unit of work includes the introduction to some early explorers preceding Cook and international rivalry of the day. It explores original excerpts from Cook’s diaries to analyse his insights and reflections.
It includes information on values and attitudes of the day that were included in the law as legal and proper behaviour in international relations, and considers the modern term Terra Nullius for students to ultimately consider: was Cook a brilliant navigator and intrepid traveller, or a destructive coloniser?
This unit provides approximately eight to ten sessions of approximately 50 minutes duration each suitable for Years 9-10.
Contents Included:
1 x Teacher reference detailed lesson plans inclusive of Learning Intentions and links to the Australian National Curriculum v9
1 x power point
1x 6minute video
9 x worksheets plus 2 teacher reference answer sheets
Links to Australian National Curriculum 9
Making and transforming the Australian nation (1750-1914)
Knowledge and Understanding
- AC9HH9K04 “significant events, ideas, people, groups and movements in the development of Australian society”
- AC9HH9K01 “the causes and effects of European imperial expansion and the movement of peoples in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and the different responses to colonisation and migration”
Skills
- AC9HH9S02 “locate, identify and compare primary and secondary sources to use in historical inquiry”
- AC9HH9S04 explain the usefulness of primary and secondary sources, and the reliability of the information as evidence
- AC9HH9S06 “compare perspectives in sources and explain how these are influenced by significant events, ideas, locations, beliefs and values”
- AC9HH9S07 “analyse different and contested historical interpretations”
- AC9HH9S01 develop and modify a range of historical questions about the past to inform historical inquiry
- AC9HH9S05 analyse cause and effect, and evaluate patterns of continuity and change
Communicating
- AC9HH9S08 create descriptions, explanations and historical arguments, using historical knowledge, concepts and terms that incorporate and acknowledge evidence from sources
Is Western Civilisation part of your life today?
In this unit, students will develop an understanding and appreciation of the civic characteristics of the Australian society in which they live, to understand that these features did not just appear, but have historical origins, dating back at least to Greek and Roman times, but in particular to the development of Britain from the time of Magna Carta.
This unit is suitable for Years 7-10 Civics and Citizenship and Years 7-10 History.
In Civics and Citizenship, teachers can use this resource to enrich students’ understanding of the origin and nature of many of the key civic values and institutions Australia has inherited from its Western Civilisation heritage, via Britain, and which have developed locally over time.
In History, teachers can use this resource to complement the themes students are exploring within various Depth Studies, by showing them how they can still be seen in their own communities today.
Year 7 History
The Ancient World. Students examine one of:
- Egypt, Greece, Rome; and
- India, China
Year 8 History
Ancient to the Modern World. Students examine one of:
- Ottoman Empire, Renaissance Italy, Vikings, Medieval Europe;
- Angkor/Khmer Empire, Shogun Japan, Polynesian expansion across the Pacific; and
- Mongol expansion, Black Death, Spanish conquest of Americas [Aztecs, Incas], Indigenous-Colonist contact (NSW only)
Year 9 History
The Making of the Modern World. Students examine one of:
- Industrial Revolution, Progressive ideas and movements, Movement of peoples;
- Asia and the world [China, India, Japan], Making a nation [C19th Australia]; and
- World War 1
Year 10 History
The Modern World and Australia. Students examine one of:
- World War 2;
- Rights and Freedoms 1945-present; and
- Popular Culture, Migration experiences, Environment movement
Years 7-10 Civics and Citizenship
Three strands:
- Government and democracy
- Law and citizens
- Citizenship, diversity and identity
Eureka: Protest, Riot, Rebellion or Revolution?
In this practical classroom decision-maker and evidence-based unit, students will explore the circumstances that led to the Eureka Stockade at Ballarat in December 1854, through a series of four distinct activities.
This unit is suitable for Year 9 Australian History.
Year 9 Australian History
Progressive Ideas and Movements (1750-1918), including capitalism, Chartism, nationalism and egalitarianism.
Making a Nation:
- Key people, events and ideas in the development of Australian self-government and democracy, including, the role of founders, key features of constitutional development, the importance of British and Western influences in the formation of Australia’s system of government and women's voting rights (ACDSEH091)
Australia 1788: How ‘Convict’ was it and how ‘free’?
In this unit, students will explore how the British legal system – part of Australia’s British and Western Civilisation heritage – was established in Australia, through five distinct investigations based on a key inquiry question.
This unit is suitable for both Year 8 Civics and Citizenship and Year 9 Australian History.
Year 8 Civics and Citizenship
Laws and Citizens:
- How laws are made in Australia through parliaments (statutory law) and through the courts (common law) (ACHCK063)
- The types of law in Australia, including criminal law and civil law, and the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customary law (ACHCK064)
Year 9 Australian History
Making a Nation:
- Key people, events and ideas in the development of Australian self-government and democracy, including, the role of founders, key features of constitutional development, the importance of British and Western influences in the formation of Australia’s system of government and women's voting rights (ACDSEH091)
Magna Carta, is it part of your life today?
In this unit, students explore the way the British legal system, part of Australia’s British and Western Civilisation heritage, was established in Australia. It also shows how key concepts, values and principles that are a fundamental part of young people’s lives today can be traced back to their British origins.
This unit is suitable for Year 6 Civics and Citizenship and Year 6 History.
Year 6 Civics and Citizenship
The key institutions of Australia’s democratic system of government and how it is based on the Westminster system (ACHASSK143)
Year 6 History
Key figures, events and ideas that led to Australia’s Federation and Constitution (ACHASSK134)
One And Free - How Australia was made
One and Free: How Australia was Made is a short guide to the ten most significant events and achievements that make us proud to be Australian.
Australia has always been stronger when we as a community are united around our shared values of freedom, democracy, and egalitarianism. It is these values which have bound us together in times of hardship, enabled us to overcome division, and which have attracted millions to our fair and tolerant society.
This guide complements any History and Civics and Citizenship classroom, with accessible language that makes it a valuable resource for students.
40 Valuable Books for Children and Teenagers
This compilation of 40 Valuable Books for Children and Teenagers – including works by many Australian authors – exposes children to our rich cultural literary heritage both in Australia and abroad, as well as meet their literary and social developmental needs.
From the endearing and mischievous Peter Rabbit to the Fires of Mordor, these books will ignite the imaginations of your children with wholesome and enriching content. It will introduce them to characters who possess both virtue and vice, and explore the nature of the individual through themes of friendship, family, suffering, temptation, greed, bravery and more.
It also exposes our children to our cultural literary heritage both in Australia and abroad, as well as meeting their literary and social developmental needs.
Engage with us today
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We look forward to engaging with you.
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How Can You Help?
Class Action is a new education program calling all teachers, parents and concerned Australians who value the future of Australia to rebuild education for our children, and by doing so, contribute to a flourishing future of Australian society that knows its roots, and can humbly acknowledge its imperfections without erasing its proud achievements.
You can join us in reclaiming education by:
Step 1 -
Drawing on our series of practical classroom resources in your own classroom and encouraging others to do so. Click here to download (or click the button below) these four units developed by the IPA.Step 2 -
You can stay informed by joining our mailing list for regular updates on the Class Action program and related IPA research activities and how you can help us work towards restoring Australian education.Step 3 -
Share Class Action with teachers and parents who want to reclaim education.
