Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography

Name:

Part A

LESSON PLANNER FOR HISTORY

Topic: WA

Grade of learners: Number of learners: Lesson Number (in sequence):

4 30 1

Date: Duration (time): Location:

12/8/2019 45 minutes Classroom

Achievement Assessment Knowledge & Historical Skills/Concepts

Standard/s Understanding (Students learn to…)

(Students learn about…)

Students sequence Formative The nature of contact Pose questions to investigate

information about assessment between Aboriginal and people, events, places and

events and the lives through Torres Strait Islander issues (ACHASSI073)

of individuals in observation of Peoples and others, for Locate and collect

chronological order participation and example, the Macassans information and data from

with reference to key discussion. and the Europeans, and different sources, including

dates. Teacher to collect the effects of these observations (ACHASSI074)

completed work interactions on, for Sequence information about

They develop from students. example, people and people’s lives and events

questions about the environments (ACHASSI076)

past and locate, (ACHASSK086)

collect and sort

different sources to

answer these

questions.

Cross-curriculum priorities General Capabilities

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy,

Histories and Cultures ICT Capability, Intercultural Understanding,

Resources

Time/ Procedure Resources

Sequence

Students are to pair up and come to the mat and sit down. KWL charts

Teacher to handout KWL chart and clipboard to each pair. Video – “Backgrounder

15 min Play the video “Backgrounder Yagan Square” Yagan Square” LINK

Think-Pair-Share: Students to fill in information in part 1 of

KWL chart – “What I know about Yagan”

Students to present what they know in a whole class

discussion/brainstorm.

Teacher to lead discussion about video and guide students to

formulate questions using a scaffolding approach, for

example:

Who is Yagan?
 Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:
What did he do?

Why was he important?

When was he alive? Ect.

Think-Pair-Share: Students to fill in part 2 of KWL chart –

“What I want to know about Yagan.” Set goal of 10 things to

find out.

20 min All students will be given a timeline gap fill worksheet in Laptops set up

which they are to fill in answers to during the task. Resources list

The class will be divided in two (group A and B) and students KWL charts

will continue to work together in the same pairs.

- Group A will research answers to their questions

formulated on the KWL chart and answers to the

timeline gap fill worksheet on the class laptops.

- Group B will look at posters placed around the class

to find out answers to their KWL questions and time

line gap fill worksheet. Students are to move about and

find these answers.

After 10 minutes, group A and B will swap activities.

Teacher to monitor students doing the activities to guide

struggling students to the correct resource where they can find

the answers.

A set of further research/comprehension questions will be on

hand for students who finish their work quickly, or fail to

formulate appropriate questions in part 2 of the KWL chart.

10 min tasks.

Students to share answers with the class with what they have

learned about Yagan.

Teacher collects completed KWL charts and timeline sheets

for assessment of learning.

This lesson is the first in a series on British settlement in Western Australia. It is based

around the person named “Yagan”, who was an indigenous man that was seen as a leader by

his people, a villain by the settlers and a hero and pioneer of indigenous resistance against the

settlers (Green, 1984). The lessons objectives are focussed on the lower three levels of

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (Remembering, Understanding and Applying) and aims to be

used as an introduction to a teacher-led, inquisitive approach to learning history.

This lesson has been designed on the assumption that students may be unfamiliar with

participating in a student-led learning approach, which requires students to take responsibility

for their own learning and be ready to participate effectively in a relatively unstructured

learning setting (Weaver, 1998). Other problems may arise when dealing with student-led

inquiries. The first of these is that the level of participation and student engagement may be

insufficient to enable an effective application of this teaching style. While most research into

the subject childhood development differs, the majority agree that children in the Year 4 level

(9-10 years old) are still developing their cognitive abilities (National Research Council (US)

Panel to Review the Status of Basic Research on School-Age Children, 1984). Students will

be asked to volunteer questions, answers and ideas in the learning process and this may be a

daunting task to some. Aside from this, students with learning and comprehension disabilities
Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:
will also need to be planned for, which could cause further problems in the class (Kirschner,

Sweller, & Clark, 2006).

Cultural mismatch in the classroom will also introduce further problems when utilising an

inquisitive based approach (Delpit, 2006). The classroom setting in this scenario includes

having two Aboriginal children in the classroom. A fundamental element of the inquisitive

approach, is the requirement for students to ask and answer questions. The traditional method

for culture to be passed from one generation to the next is in the telling of stories. This differs

greatly from the inquisitive method of questions and answers (Shipp, 2013). To combat this,

Aboriginal teacher Matthew Pinchbeck suggests using more ‘hands on’ learning activities

and agrees with Delpit (2006) in that visual cues and storytelling will support students to

learn better.

Asian children are often stereotyped as being “smarter” than their other classmates, but a lot

of research has found that it is actually the effort that is put into work, rather than the

cognitive abilities of the child which is the key factor in achieving higher results. The same

studies suggest that expectations from the teacher and parents is congruent with the level of

effort a student will put in to their work (Liu & Xie, 2016).

With only 2 out of 30 of the students in the class being Aboriginal it would be easy for a

teacher to simply ignore them if they are underperforming, particularly as it is a cultural norm

for Aboriginal children to avoid eye contact with adults (it is considered rude) and are

sensitive to feeling shame when they are unable to answer a question and thus, are more

likely to stay quiet which will in all likelihood result in lower expectations from the teacher

(Downey, 2007).
 Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:

Part B

LESSON PLANNER FOR HISTORY

Topic: WA

Grade of learners: Number of learners: Lesson Number (in sequence):

4 30 1

Date: Duration (time): Location:

12/8/2019 45 minutes Classroom

Achievement Assessment Knowledge & Historical Skills/Concepts

Standard/s Understanding (Students learn to…)

(Students learn about…)

Students sequence Formative The journey(s) of AT Pose questions to investigate

information about assessment LEAST ONE world people, events, places and

events and the lives through navigator, explorer or issues (ACHASSI073)

of individuals in observation of trader up to the late Locate and collect

chronological order participation and eighteenth century, information and data from

with reference to key discussion. including their contacts different sources, including

dates. Teacher to collect with other societies and observations (ACHASSI074)

completed work any impacts Sequence information about

They develop from students. (ACHASSK084) people’s lives and events

questions about the (ACHASSI076)

past and locate,

collect and sort

different sources to

answer these

questions.

Cross-curriculum priorities General Capabilities

N/A Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Numeracy,

ICT Capability, Intercultural Understanding,

Resources

Time/ Procedure Resources

Sequence

Have students come to the mat. Pictures for the

Teacher shows first picture and asks students leading “mystery history box”

7 min questions, such as: Whiteboard

What language is it written in? Is it English?

What date is written on the object?

Is this date before or after Australia was colonised?

Teacher shows second picture.

Teacher asks leading questions again:

What flag can you see on the ships? Is it the English flag?

What type of bird is in the river? What colour are the birds?

Where do you think this is? Can you see a city?

Teach shows final picture.

Teacher asks leading questions:

Who can you see in this picture?

(Point to the mixed race male) What do you notice about this

person?

Is it a painting of recent times or old times?

Teacher is to note answers to the questions in a structured

format on the white board.

7 min Students are put into pairs and are asked to write down, on a KWL charts

KWL chart, what they know about Australia’s and WA’s

colonial history. This is to be done in a think-pair-share

format. After sufficient time has passed, the teacher can ask

students what they know and to share with the class.

Students are referred back to the results of the first activity KWL charts

7 min and the teacher is to contrast what the students already know “Mystery history box”

with what they have found out. Students are to formulate

hypothesis and write down what they want to in the “W”

section of the KWL chart. Teacher can ask leading questions

if the students are struggling, such as:

What country are the people from? Where is it? Was this

before British settlement? Is this different to what you

currently know?
 Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:
Students to share knowledge with the whole class.

The goal is to get the students to a point where they know that

there was significant European activity in WA by non-British

people, before it was colonised in 1827.

15 min Teacher instructs students to research on the class laptops and Laptops

create a timeline depicting European activity in WA up until Paper for timeline

the first colony (in Albany, 1827.)

9 min Students are fill in the “L” section of the KWL chart and KWL chart

finish off the timeline. Timeline

The first picture in the “history mystery box” is a pewter plate which was posted on the West

Australian coastline in 1616 by Dirk Hartog of the ship Eendracht. The text written

underneath the picture is what is written on the plate (BROEZE & HENDERSON, 1986).
Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:
The second picture is a painting of Dutch ships in the Swan River in Perth, Western

Australia. We can see the flag of the Netherlands on the ships and the famous black swans

and notably, no city of Perth.

The final picture is of early European explorers with a group of Aboriginals and a fair skin,

fair haired Aboriginal male who appears to be of mixed race.

The resources in the “mystery history box” were all chosen to challenge and contrast with

what students know, suspect or assume about Western Australia’s history and lead them to

make a new hypothesis and create questions for testing it. This contrast will generate interest

in the students, particularly as it is about their home state, and is important in activating prior

knowledge, which is crucial in the inquiry process. (Gilbert & Hoepper, 2017)

The first picture was chosen to challenge the possible misconception that the first European

discovery of Australia was by the British (such as Dampier in 1688 or Cook in 1770). Dirk

Hartog is the second recorded European to make landfall on Australia and the first on the

West Australian coastline. He was from the Netherlands, captain of the Eendracht, and

worked for the Dutch East India Company. He landed in Western Australia in 1616, long

before it was colonised in 1827 by the British (BROEZE & HENDERSON, 1986). We can

see that the text imprinted on the plate (written below in plain text due to weathering) is

obviously not in English, though we can recognise that there is a date (25th October 1616.)

The second picture was chosen because it contains a bird which is very familiar to West

Australians, that is, the black swan. Western Australia is well known for having swans which

are black and as such, the river which runs through the capital city (Perth) is named after it

and the state flag depicts a black swan in a golden sun. The picture also shows old ships in

the river, with Dutch flags on the mastheads. The surrounding land is free of any buildings or

other structures and shows Perth in its natural habitat. This implies that there were Dutch

ships in Perth before it was settled by Stirling in 1829 and the students should naturally raise

questions.

The final picture is a painting of early settlers in Western Australia. It is chosen because it

may allude to Europeans having lived there before it was settled by the British. There are

recounts of Dutch ships being shipwrecked and campsites being found, however there is no
Unit Code and Title: EMT593 Primary History and Geography
Name:

conclusive evidence that any Dutch survived there for any substantial amount of time (Green,

1984). The picture is not chosen to say whether or not this was the case, but rather to raise the

question in students: “Did Europeans live in Australia before the British settled?” and from

there, research and find out the history.

References

BROEZE, F., & HENDERSON, G. (1986). Western Australians & the sea: Our maritime heritage.

Perth: WA Museum.

Delpit, L. (2006). Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New York: New
Press.

Downey, L. (2007). Calmer Classrooms: A guide to working with traumatised children. Melbourne:
Child Safety Commissioner.

Gilbert, R., & Hoepper, B. (2017). Teaching humanities and social sciences: History, geography,
economics and citizenship in the Australian Curriculum. South Melbourne: Cengage.

Green, N. (1984). Broken Spears : Aborigines and Europeans in the Southwest of Australia. Perth:
Focus Education Services.

Kirschner, P., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not
work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and
inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 75-86.

Liu, A., & Xie, Y. (2016). Why do Asian Americans academically outperform Whites? – The cultural
explanation revisited. Social Science Research, 210-226.

National Research Council (US) Panel to Review the Status of Basic Research on School-Age
Children. (1984). Development During Middle Childhood: The Years From Six to Twelve.
Washington (DC): National Academies Press.

Shipp, C. (2013). Bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into the classroom: Why
and how. Literacy Learning: The Middle Years, 24-29.

Weaver, C. (1998). Reconsidering a balanced approach to reading. Urbana: National Council of