Hello everyone, welcome to the final blog of term 3, 2016.
What students are learning about:
Throughout the term, students have been learning about Local,
State and Federal Governments and the role each one of these has in the
Australian context. Learning how society is built around decisions made within
this government hierarchy and how each has specific jobs to ensure that our
communities are safe and functional environments.
Curriculum Link:
Humanities and Social Sciences: Civics and
Citizenship, with the inclusion of General Capabilities: Literacy, Ethical
Understanding, Numeracy and Critical and Creative Thinking.Why it is important:
To provide students with skills, knowledge and
understanding of their community, which will assist them to become successfully
informed Australian citizens.
The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals
for Young Australians acknowledges that “students within Australia need to
learn concepts that relate to civic processes of the Australian democracy and
the skills and knowledge that accompany it”.
To be an active citizen students not only need
to understand the theory behind the Australian political system, they also need
to be able to use this learning in real world scenarios.How students are learning:
Many activities were
completed during this unit, to allow students ample opportunity to develop the
necessary understanding and concept knowledge.
1.
Students worked through a range of scenarios to
determine the government responsible.
2.
The voting process undertaken within Australia, and how
this is used to form governments at both State and Federal level.
3.
Students demonstrated their understanding between
‘rules’ and ‘laws’ in our society and how/why these may be put into place. This
was supported with a Bike Helmet Video where students discussed and gave personal opinions as to whether they agree or disagree with
this law.
4.
Developing relationships with the wider community by
inviting local members of parliament to meet students through an incursion.
This allowed students to meet and interview these representatives, which
allowed a real-life understanding about what/how our government works.
5.
A class parliament project was developed to scaffold
and support their overall understanding. This process allows students to
understand how proposals are handled within the parliament system. Through this hand-on learning students had
the opportunity to role-play the voting process using different scenarios.
The history and reasons behind the adoption of three
voting systems used in Australia.
Australia’s
voting systems was adopted in the late 1800's and are still seen as being the
most reliable in the world.Talking points with your child
- What was the most interesting thing they learned during this unit?
- Their thoughts on the parliament system; do they feel it works, why/why
- not?
