Activity Introduction
Subjects: English and Geography
Year Levels: 9 and 10
Topics: Regenerating Australia, sustainability, film, documentary, regeneration.
Teaching Time: 90 minutes.
Quick summary:
In this lesson, students will build an understanding of the concept of ‘regeneration’ and its benefits for our communities and ecosystems. They will complete a 3-2-1- Bridge Visible Thinking Routine and review a set of key terms related to the topic before watching “Regenerating Australia.” Students will be invited to evaluate the content and develop questions about the film’s content. The class with re-watch snippets of the film to extend their understanding, then work collaboratively to dive deeper into the topic of regeneration in a jigsaw-classroom activity.
Learning intentions:
- Students will understand the concept of ‘regeneration’
- Students will understand that regeneration is something that we can do for our communities and ecosystems.
21st-century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Year 9 English:
- Use interaction skills to present and discuss an idea and to influence and engage an audience by selecting persuasive language, varying voice tone, pitch, and pace, and using elements such as music and sound effects (ACELY1811)
- Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyse texts, comparing and evaluating representations of an event, issue, situation or character in different texts (ACELY1744).
Year 10 English:
- Use organisation patterns, voice and language conventions to present a point of view on a subject, speaking clearly, coherently and with effect, using logic, imagery and rhetorical devices to engage audiences (ACELY1813)
- Choose a reading technique and reading path appropriate for the type of text, to retrieve and connect ideas within and between texts (ACELY1753).
Year 9 Geography:
- The perceptions people have of the place, and how these influence their connections to different places (ACHGK065)
- The way transportation information and communication technologies are used to connect people to services, information and people in other places (ACHGK066)
- The ways that places and people are interconnected with other places through trade in goods and services, at all scales (ACHGK067)
- The effects of the production and consumption of goods on places and environments throughout the world and including a country from North-East Asia (ACHGK068)
- The effects of people’s travel, recreational, cultural or leisure choices on places, and the implications for the future of these places (ACHGK069).
Year 10 Geography:
- Human-induced environmental changes that challenge sustainability (ACHGK070)
- Environmental world views of people and their implications for environmental management (ACHGK071)
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ approaches to custodial responsibility and environmental management in different regions of Australia (ACHGK072).
Syllabus: EN5-3B, EN5-2A, EN5-6C, GE4-1, GE4-2, GE5-2, GE5-4
General capabilities: Literacy, Critical and Creative Thinking.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
Relevant parts of Year 9 English achievement standards:
Students evaluate and integrate ideas and information from texts to form their own interpretations. Students create texts that respond to issues, interpreting and integrating ideas from other texts.
Relevant parts of Year 10 English achievement standards:
Students develop and justify their own interpretations of texts. create a wide range of texts to articulate complex ideas. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, building on others’ ideas, solving problems, justifying opinions and developing and expanding arguments.
Relevant parts of Year 9 Geography achievement standards:
Students analyse interconnections between people, places and environments and explain how these interconnections influence people and change places and environments. They predict changes in the characteristics of places over time and identify the possible implications of change for the future. Students analyse alternative strategies to a geographical challenge using environmental, social and economic criteria.
Relevant parts of Year 10 Geography achievement standards:
Students identify, analyse and explain significant interconnections between people, places and environments and explain changes that result from these interconnections and their consequences. They predict changes in the characteristics of places and environments over time, across space and at different scales and explain the predicted consequences of change. They evaluate alternative views on a geographical challenge and alternative strategies to address this challenge using environmental, economic, political and social criteria and draw a reasoned conclusion.
This lesson is part of the wider unit of work [Regenerating Australia].
Level of teacher scaffolding: High – support student movement around the classroom during learning activities, and facilitate class discussions.
Resources required:
- Access to the film Regenerating Australia
- A device capable of presenting a video to the class
- A device per student
- Regeneration factsheet – one copy per student
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student.
Keywords: Regeneration, sustainability, community, ecosystems.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
Regenerating Australia is a Regen Studios film developed and produced in association with WWF-Australia. Cool Australia and Regen Studios would like to acknowledge the generous contributions of Shark Island Foundation, Documentary Australia Foundation, and our philanthropic partners in the development of these teaching resources.
