We have spent time looking at ‘How we teach @ Kunyung’………using an INQUIRY approach. Check!
We have spent time looking at how we PERSONALISE the learning for our students in the classroom. Check!
We have spent time looking at how we encourage our students to TAKE ACTION. Check!
We have spent time looking at the LEARNER PROFILE attributes we want to sdvelop and nurture in our students. Check!
So let’s look at the WHAT we teach the children that falls outside Literacy and Numeracy…………it’s called our Programme Of Inquiry! (Even though we still use Literacy and Numeracy when inquiring!)
It is organised into 6 Transdisciplinary Themes with each Year Level of students completing a Unit of Inquiry into each one of these 6 themes every year!
Are you still with me? 🙂
The 6 Themes are:
How we express ourselves (In our day- well my day as I’m a little older than most of you- it was our personal/social development)
Where we are in place and time (This was our History and Geography)
How the world works (Physical and Chemical Science)
How we express ourselves (The Arts)
How we organise ourselves (Social Studies)
How we share the planet (Environmental Science)
We have one inquiry into each of these themes every year which is our horizontal planning……………………..so our next job is to develop the ideas for these inquiries which forms the vertical development of the Programme of Inquiry. This should stop students learning about FORCES every year- for example!
The next step is to work out what the BIG IDEA might be for each Unit of Inquiry. It’s not good enough in our school, to say we are going to be ‘doing GOLD’ in Year 6 for example! We don’t just want our children finding out facts and, gaining knowledge, about GOLD………………a better BIG IDEA (Which we call a central idea) might be ‘We learn about our present by looking at past events that shaped us’…..this would give students a chance to look at how events in the past have affected us today- one of which might be the GOLD RUSH and it’s impact on multicultural Australia. This would NOT be a Prep Unit of Inquiry but if the Preps started with a Unit about their own families and the Juniors started to look into the histories in our community and the Middles looked into early explorers- you can easily see how these Where we are in Place and Time Units evolve into the Senior one.
This may be a messy example but it highlights the need for us to plan out our curriculum. We also take into account:
- The Australian Curriculum outcomes (We audit our Programme of Inquiry against AusVELS. We are currently doing just that!)
- Student questions and interests that might help shape the unit (There’s no point us decding everything when, given the opportunity, students will ask questions that lead them to the same understanding!)
So….are we organised with our curriculum? Absolutely….just have a look in our office area to see the Whole School Programme of Inquiry….I’ll also try to put a copy onto the BLOG!
Over the next 6 weeks we will ‘pull apart’ each Transdisciplinary Theme and see what it really means or can mean!
When people say to you things like ‘Children aren’t taught history and geography anymore’, ‘Science is nowhere to be seen in schools’, well that’s actually not true BUT instead of filling our children’s heads with what knowledge we think they should possess, we provide a BIG IDEA that they can inquire into with teacher guidance, learn a lot from and have the added benefit of developing communication, research, social and thinking skills at the same time- that’s something I wish I had had growing up!
In conclusion (My SO WHAT!)………….
- Our students are involved in 6 Units of Inquiry each year that support them to be learners who demonstrate the Attributes of the Learner profile
- Each one of these 6 Units of Inquiry are centred around one of the 6 Transdisciplinary Themes (See above).
- Each Unit of Inquiry has a BIG or CENTRAL IDEA
- Asking questions, and discussing, at home the latest Unit of Inquiry will support the understanding of the central idea.
- The knowledge gained when inquiring into a Unit of Inquiry doesn’t have to be the same for all students- it’s the understanding of the transferrable concept and central idea that is more important!
Next time we pull apart ‘Who we are!’ 🙂