Hello, to all parents and guardians of grade 3 students. Welcome, to our class blog, this is where I will be discussing what our students are learning about in Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS). Within this blog post, I will be talking about the importance of civics and citizenship education (CCE) as well as our first unit of work which is based on the topic of participation in communities.
In the Australian Curriculum, CCE is an important element as it provides young Australians with the knowledge and skills needed to be a fully participative and enthusiastic citizen in a democratic society. According to Tudball and Brett (2014) CCE places emphasis on the learning of moral knowledge, contemporary issues, and action based skills to help students communicate with local, global, and national communities. These are important skills that students need to develop to successfully contribute to society and is the major reason why they are being fully focused upon in this unit of work.
In year 3 CCE the students are briefly introduced to the idea of democracy and what this is. The students, in particular, will get an opportunity to reflect and learn about the idea of being a citizen within a group or a community and how an individual can be involved in them which is an explicit focus of our first unit of work. By teaching students about this aspect of CCE it will help them develop their understanding of action based skills and contemporary issues as they will participate in decision-making processes based on an issue. Through looking at the curriculum it is clear the students will be looking at the content descriptor related to how and why individuals participate in community activities and ways they themselves can participate in their community.
To allow students to achieve this standard of the curriculum an active citizenship project has been developed for the grade 3’s. This project is going to focus on the issue of sustainability, with attention given to the importance of Clean Up Australia Day (CUAD). To engage students in this task they will collect data surrounding the trash that is generated around the school and the effects this is having on our environment. Students will be presented with a range of photos of an environment where rubbish pollution has affected it. They will be guided in this discussion through questions such as how can we keep our environment clean?, what is the importance of CUAD? and is there ways we can encourage our community to keep the environment clean? The students will be placed into small groups where they will design an ad campaign to help encourage community members to participate in CUAD.
As a parent or guardian, you can support your child’s learning in many ways. Examples include asking the students questions at home about their learning, follow on from the Clean Up Australia Day focus by having a clean-up at home, and through participating in other community events to help reinforce your child’s learning.
Reference List
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2019). The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences (Version 8.1). (Humanities and Social Sciences, Year 3, curriculum elements). Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Mellor, S. (2013). [online] Available at: https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1026&context=civics [Accessed 12th Mar. 2019].
Sigauke, A. (2013). [online] Ro.ecu.edu.au. Available at: https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1930&context=ajte [Accessed 8th Mar. 2019].
Tudball, L., & Brett, P. (2014). What matters and what’s next for civics and citizenship education in Australia? The Social Educator, 32 (2), 4-15.
Schulz, W. (2008). [online] Research.acer.edu.au. Available at: https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=civics [Accessed 13 Mar. 2019].
Hi Callum, excellent first post. Your introduction flows very well and would serve to make a parent feel welcome and included to contribute. You were effective in describing valuable reasons for the importance of CCE education and backed it up with relevant and reputable sources. You also made valuable connections between CCE and sustainability.I loved the focus on action based skills and your specific example of how to tackle that. Brilliant idea of collecting data on the rubbish, it also makes a good connection to maths learning. I also thought your inquiry questions were insightful and would build on student knowledge and skills.
ReplyDeleteLastly, your use of images are engaging and relevant to the post. Can't wait to read the next post.