Activity Introduction
Subjects: English
Year Levels: Years 7 & 8
Topics: Fires, floods, resilience, community, hazards, creative writing.
Teaching Time: 120 mins (best delivered over a number of lessons).
Quick summary:
In this English lesson, students reflect on the knowledge and understanding they have developed throughout this unit of work, completing a lotus diagram organiser to reflect their key learnings. Following this, students explore an interactive map outlining the areas of Australia most geographically affected by hazards, to conceptualise the effect hazards have on Australia as a whole. Seeking to evoke hope for the future, students are challenged to imagine what Australia would look like, if it were prepared and more resilient to mitigate fires and floods. Students provide peer assessment and feedback in this task.
Learning intentions:
- Students will understand the impact of hazards on Australia as a whole, to build an understanding of the possibility of a future Australia that is disaster resilient.
21st-century skills:
Australian Curriculum Mapping
Content descriptions:
Years 7 English:
- Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content and multimodal elements to promote a point of view or enable a new way of seeing (ACELY1720)
Years 8 English:
- Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations, selecting and sequencing appropriate content, including multimodal elements, to reflect a diversity of viewpoints (ACELY1731).
Syllabus outcomes: EN4-4B.
General capabilities: Literacy.
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability.
Relevant parts of Year 7 achievement standards:
Students create structured and coherent texts for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language features to engage the audience.
Relevant parts of Year 8 achievement standards:
Students create texts for different purposes, selecting language to influence audience response. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using language patterns for effect.
Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium – teachers need to facilitate conversations with students and guide them through thinking to launch into the oral presentation.
Resources required:
- A device capable of projecting a website to the class
- Student Worksheets – one copy per student.
Keywords:: hazards, fire, floods, Australia, hope, hazard-free, oral presentation.
Cool Australia’s curriculum team continually reviews and refines our resources to be in line with changes to the Australian Curriculum.
