General
Information
This is a web resourced, integrated
unit of work, which has been developed to increase the understandings of
students in the Primary Years Bands about the appearance of butterflies.
The unit has been aligned with the SACSA frameworks and is intended to
provide learning in the areas of Science, English, Mathematics, The Arts,
Health and P.E., leading towards outcomes in Curriculum Standard 2.
|
Download Learning
Overview
|
|
Adobe Acrobat
PDF Format |
Wherever possible, the activities
in the unit have been developed to engage students in a variety of learning
and thinking tasks and designed using the Bloom's Taxonomy and Extended
Brainstorming models in an endeavour to achieve a differentiated and inclusive
learning environment for all students. However, in some instances, the
lack of appropriate web resources for a particular activity has precluded
this approach.
The Structure of the Unit
The unit commences with an
Introduction,
in which the students' thinking is guided to the topic of butterfly life
cycles with several questions to facilitate the recall of prior knowledge.
A motivational statement then invites and encourages students to proceed
to the Task section. Here they are provided
with a clear explanation of the task and the learning expectations. They
are given choices and are able to select from a variety of activities.
This gives them some control over their learning and enables them to select
tasks that suit their interest and learning styles.
Students are invited at that
point to print a checklist for recording the activities they have completed
and a rubric which shows them how their work will be evaluated. (All the
documents on this site are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format)
Students then proceed to the
Process
and Resources section, where they are able to access the activities.
Navigation is logical and simple and graphics are used to assist younger
students. With the exception of the first activity in each module,
which is mandatory, as it assesses prior knowledge and provides a learning
focus for the module, students may proceed through the activities independently
in any order that they wish.
All the necessary resources
have been embedded within each activity and have been provided as either
separate pages or web links to appropriate sites. This provides scaffolding
to support young students and makes effective use of their time. When activities
require worksheets on which to record information, a link is provided within
the activity to enable them to be printed when required.
Students work with a partner
to encourage cooperative learning.
Having completed six activities,
as an assessment task, students are asked to demonstrate their learning through a
Multimedia Slide Show. To maximise student success, links to
examples of student Slide Shows on the web, as well as instructions on how to
create slide shows are provided on the page. Another assessment strategy
includes the completion of a Worksheet
that combines self-assessment with a set of questions that will provide
information on the students' understandings. In addition to these two assessment
tasks, there are three others provided on the
Assessment Rubric that students printed prior to the commencement
of the unit and to which they have been referring during the
course of their work. In combination, the five assessment tasks provide a clear
picture of what students currently understand about the appearance of
butterflies. To measure the extent of student learning, this information can be
compared with the information provided in the introductory prior learning
activity. In the Conclusion
of
the unit some environmental issues are raised, which students are invited
to explore independently. Links to
additional web resources are provided for this purpose.
Students are then invited to
participate in some voluntary fun activities on the Fun
and Games page. These include
a
variety of butterfly art and craft activities
on-line
butterfly puzzles and games
It is assumed that students
have had some prior experience on the web and have mastered some basic
skills.
Additional Information
Although the unit is completely
resourced, it is anticipated that other resources such as caterpillar larvae,
books, charts, DVDs etc, will be accessible to students to supplement
and extend extend their learning off the web.
A list of useful web resources
and acknowledgement of information and graphic sources is provided on the
References
and Acknowledgements page.
Jackie Miers
|
