http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/81766/450k-fire-destroys-heritage-train-carriage/
The Australian curriculum highlights the importance of Civics and Citizenship education (CCE) for its ability to develop the skills and understandings required for individuals to become empowered citizens, capable of effectively engaging in a democratic society. These capabilities as explained by Tudball and Brett (2014) help to create motivated students able to identify societal problems and become the catalyst for social change.
This unit of work will involve year six students being tasked with creating a one minute advertisement about a significant issue in their local community, with the objective to create social change. Such an undertaking, as Melaville (2006) explains, engages students in active citizenship through involvement in acting on social issues. Students will identify and research an issue in their local community, gather information from a range of sources, form an opinion and create a persuasive advertisement with the intention of influencing others. Ribeiro, Rodrigues, Caetano, Pais & Menezes (2012) explain that through immersion in the decision making processes that impact ones community, an individual can truly begin to understand themselves as active citizens in a democratic society.
Assessment of this task will involve the use of a rubric designed through teacher/student collaboration in a previous lesson. The rubric was developed through a process whereby students watched and analysed recent television advertisements. Students critiqued the advertisements, identifying individual aspects which impact the viewer. These included camera angle, sound, persuasive language, content and dynamics.
This task will be carried out amongst year six students in several participating Tasmanian schools, with completed presentations shown in a special screening in unison across these schools. This unit will encompass many aspects of Information Computer Technologies (ICT), from research of topic, sharing of ideas and production of advertisement through to the publication and joint sharing of completed works. Reynolds, R. (2014) advocates the benefit of these strong ICT aspects, identifying that through this connectivism approach to CCE students connect with others, their community and their world helping to foster truly global thinkers. After viewing the video presentations, students will be involved in a voting process to choose the top five shortlisted entries which will be forwarded to the local Television station who have agreed to air the winning entry for a period of eight weeks.
The year six students in a Tasmanian North West primary school have elected to focus on the issue of vandalism. A recent class excursion to the Burnie port led to discussions about the arson attack on a historical train carriage. The production of this media presentation directly links with the Australian Curriculum Civics and Citizenship (ACCC) content descriptor (ACHASSI123) “Locate and collect relevant information and data from primary and secondary sources”. This will be evident as students conduct interviews, researching vandalism statistics and relevant media report pertaining the carriage’s destruction. Furthermore students will be engaged in the process of active citizenship, working as a cohesive unit to communicate their viewpoint on the important issue of vandalism and express their proposal to create social change. This problem-solving and active participation in change action links directly with ACCC content descriptor (ACHASSI133) “present ideas, findings, viewpoints and conclusions in a range of texts and modes that incorporate source materials, digital and non-digital representations and discipline-specific terms and conventions”. The production of this advertising empowers active citizenship education as the students move beyond simply engaging with the content and are involved in social betterment change.
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2015, December 15th). The Australian Curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences (Version 8.1). (Humanities and Social Sciences, Year 6, all curriculum elements, all curriculum dimensions). Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/download/f10
Melaville, A., Berg, A.C., & Blank, M.J. (2006). Community-based learning: Engaging students for success and citizenship. Washington, DC: Coalition for Community Schools.
Reynolds, R. (2014). Teaching humanities and social sciences in the primary school (3rd ed.) South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
Ribeiro, A. B., Rodrigues, M., Caetano, A., Pais, S., & Menezes, I. (2012). Promoting “Active Citizens”? The Critical Vision of NGOs over Citizenship Education as an Educational Priority across Europe. International Journal of Progressive Education, 8 (3), 32-47.
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.
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