Lesson+2+of+10

Lesson 2 A lesson using resource three with a focus on the written grammar required to develop students' knowledge of the content of the HSIE focus outcome. There’s Nothing Like It! |||| **Curriculum Link:** English  ||  **Stage/Year Level:** Stage 2/ Year 3  ||
 * **Unit Topic:** Australia:
 * **Lesson Number:** 2/10 ||||  **Lesson Topic:** Different sites in Australia (South Australia) and identifying and using grammatical features of an information report.  ||  **Learning Area(s):** HSIE  ||
 * **Unit Aim:** The aim of the unit is to develop student’s understanding of the natural, heritage and built features in Australia. The unit will provide opportunities for student’s to investigate and evaluate the significance of particular sites and places and what people value about them. ||
 * **Lesson Outcome:**

//Human Society and it’s Environment// **ENS2.5** Describes places in the local area and other parts of Australia and explains their significance. - Demonstrates an aesthetic awareness of environments, both natural and built - Names and locates natural, built and heritage features in Australia and evaluates their significance - Compares natural and built features, sites and places in their local area with other locations in Australia or the world

//English// **WS2.9** Drafts, revises, proofreads and publishes well structured texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and written language features. - writes more extended descriptions of each feature in an information report **WS2.10** Produces texts clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type - Identifies nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in own writing and how these add to the meaning of the text - Uses present tense in factual texts such as information reports and procedure **WS2.13** Discusses how own texts are adjusted to relate to different readers, how they develop the subject matter and how they serve a wide variety of purposes. - Understands purpose and stages of the organisation of texts || - Brochure on kangaroo Island Resource 3. Focus on page 2, 8 and 9 for grammatical features - 30 x A4 paper - Whiteboard marker - A range of images of NSW landmarks Appendix 2 || In this lesson students will explore different landmarks and sites found in Australia, focusing on South Australia. Students will be introduced to different sites in South Australia, including it’s National Parks and its Coastal areas. The main focus however will be a case study of Kangaroo Island. As a class students will learn about the different features found at Kangaroo Island. In the process students will begin to identifying and touch upon the text type ( information report containing factual descriptions) seen in the brochure and students will be able to uncover the main grammatical features such as general nouns, quantity, factual and classifying adjectives, relating verbs to describe and classify the topic, action verbs and the use of present tense (Droga & Humphrey, 2003, pp.135). Through classifying and recognizing different grammatical features, students are pulling apart the information given about Kangaroo Island in the brochure and discovering more about the natural, built and historical environments. Students are then given the opportunity to write up their own factual descriptions about their favourite place discussed in the prior lesson, taking into consideration the grammatical features that make up a factual description. In doing so, students are learning about the grammatical features of an information report and teachers are building on students knowledge that a description is a part of the structure of an information report( which will be focused on in lesson 4). ||
 * **Resources:**
 * **Lesson Outline:**
 * Introduction:

In the prior lesson students looked at different Australian landmarks and discussed their significance. Begin the lesson by informing the students that this lesson will focus on one area in Australia. Ask students to guess what State or Territory they think it is. Once student know that the lesson will focus on South Australia, ask students question that will spark their background knowledge: 1) Has anyone ever been to South Australia ? 2) Does anyone know any special landmarks in South Australia? 3) Can anyone imagine what South Australia would look like? What kind of sites might you see?

Through this questioning students are able to engage in the activity and are captivated from the beginning of the lesson. Imagination and questioning produces a classroom that provides students with engagement and opportunity, and a multivocal, multimodal classroom where literacy begins at the core of the lesson with the aspiration to know and acquire more. Questioning is an effective way to challenge, extend and help clarify ideas ( Latham et al, 2006, pp.169). Students are then shown the brochure on South Australia up on the board. Skim through the brochure as a class, focusing on the images and ask students if they know any of the places being displayed on the board. As a class brainstorm the different built, natural and heritage sites that are being displayed on this brochure. The teacher informs students of different landmarks as they flick through the brochure. || First Activity (10minutes): The teacher will display the brochure on the board, looking at the different landmarks in South Australia. The teacher sums up each place as they flick through the pages, giving students an insight of the different sites found in South Australia.
 * Teaching strategy/Learning Activity: ||
 * **Teacher will ……**

Second Activity ( 10 minutes): The teacher focuses on page 2 and informs students that as a class Kangaroo Island will be explored in more detail. As a class read out page 2, 8 and 9, asking students to pay attention to the different features being described. The first reading should focus on students thinking about the site, but also on the text type and the purpose of the text type. After the first reading ask students to recap some of the different features of Kangaroo Island. 1. Ask students if the site sounds appealing and why? 2. Ask students if they think the way the text is presented and the language used makes it appealing? 3. Ask students to identify what kind of text type do they think this brochure is and why?

The same pages are read again with the class, except this time students are asked to pay attention and write down the different words that give any information or describe Kangaroo Island. Once students have written these down, on the board there will be 4 columns: Noun group, verb group, adjectives and adverbs; as a class students are to categorize the words that they had written down into the four columns.

Questions are asked that will allow students to identify the different grammatical features of a factual description: 1) What is the purpose of an information report / factual description as seen in the brochure? (To give generalized information about an entire class of things). 2) Therefore, what type of grammatical words and features did we just realize we need to make up this text type? 3) Explain to students that looking at this brochure, we all knew nothing about Kangaroo Island, but by using this information report and its specific grammatical features such as: factual and classifying adjective and adjectivial phrases to describe the place and things in it, using nouns to classify what is found there and using adverbs to describe the activities, we now know what is expected if we go to Kangaroo Island. Communicate to the students that this text type (information report) helps people understand what Kangaroo Island is like, it describes and provides information about this landmark.

Third Activity: (20 minutes): Before students return to their desks, they are asked to think of their favourite site / landmark in NSW that they discussed in the previous lesson. Students are informed that their task is to write up a description about their favourite landmark in NSW that will be put in a brochure about different sites in NSW. It is fair to notify the students that the people who are reading this brochure have never visited these sites or landmarks and have never been to NSW. Before starting this activity students are to rule up 4 columns as seen on the board and write different nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs that can be used in their informational descriptions. Encourage students to use a lot of adjectival phrases and adjectives to describe their landmarks. Students are informed that these factual descriptions should appeal to their audience and allow their audience to step into the world of their landmark. Students are to write up their informational description taking into consideration the different features analysed in the previous activity and the different grammatical features found in factual texts and information reports. Students are provided with a range of laminated images of different places in NSW as a visual stimuli that will scaffold students thinking and aiding in their writing Appendix 2. |||| **Students will…**

First Activity ( 10 minutes):

Students are seated on the floor where they listen and look at the different places being presented in the brochure.

Second Activity (10 minutes):

Students listen and answer questions about Kangaroo Island and identify what type of text type they think this brochure is.

Students listen and individually write down the different words that are used in the brochure that describe and provide information about Kangaroo Island. As a class students brainstorm these words by placing them in the four categories seen on the board (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs). Students answer questions about the different grammatical features of an information report and how factual descriptions are used to give information about a particular subject, place or a class of things. Students, therefore recognize the purpose of a description in an information report.

Third Activity (20 minutes):

Students return to their desks where they will write up a description about their favorite landmarks in NSW, taking into consideration the grammatical features spoken about in the previous activity. Before they begin, students individually brainstorm words in 4 columns (nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs) which they will use in their description about their landmarks. Students have an option to use the laminated images of their sites to help them in describing and providing information when writing up their descriptions. It is effective for students to work independently in order for them to practice what they already know and what they have just learnt and to be able to gain control of an increasing range of text- types and understand their grammatical structures (Winch, 2006, pp.174). This will get students ready for lesson 4 which concentrates on the structure of information report. || __Guess what NSW landmark I have written about:__ Students are seated on the floor where they are volunteered to read out their descriptions without naming the place that they have written about. The class has to attempt to guess what NSW landmark / site the students has written their description about. Ensure each student has a chance to read out their descriptions over the course of the unit. ||
 * Concluding strategy:
 * Concluding strategy:
 * **Assessment:**

To assess student’s understanding of the outcomes, a range of assessing strategies should be considered, including:
 * //Formative Assessment:// The teacher will listen to students answers to questions about the text type and the purpose of the text type of the brochure. The teacher will also mark students descriptions and their list of words categorized in four columns to ensure that students understand and have used the grammatical features of an information report. The teacher will also assess whether students are able to identify and describe landmarks in NSW using the correct grammatical features and whether students are aesthetically aware of these sites.
 * //Summative Assessment:// at the end of the unit, students will create an poster including an individual information report on a significant tourist attraction in Australia accompanied by a collaborative visual representation. This task will be an indicator as whether the unit was successful in students ability to meet the outcomes.
 * //Diagnostic assessment:// the information that is gained from the assessment, will allow the teacher to determine whether the students were able to effectively combine their knowledge of a significance place in Australia and literacy components to create a multimodal text. This diagnosis will determine future planning and programming (BOS, 2007, p. 88) and whether students were effectively able to achieve the outcomes of the unit. ||
 * **Any special considerations or contingency plans:**


 * To ensure all students’ abilities and needs are taken into consideration visual stimuli (images of different NSW landmarks) are used for those visual learners and ESL students as a source of scaffolding for them to discuss and attempt to write down what they see and know about these places in NSW.
 * For those students with English as a second language they can write about a specific landmarks and sites in their own country. In this way all students are able to participate in the activity.
 * Therefore, for those ESL students, constant guidance should be provided and teachers should partner them up with students who speak their language. Teacher modeling allows students to internalize the models of language they hear, eventually using them to help construct their own language (Brace, Brockhoff, Sparkes & Tuckey, 2006, pp.10). Provide additional information through sensory experiences and real objects and illustrations (visual stimuli) . This lesson incorporates the interactive whiteboard and other visual aids which assist and guide the learner. The combination of a whole class group work and teacher modeling is useful as it gives students an opportunity to utilise and observe exploratory talk which aids language learning as students think aloud amongst each other to come up with the answer (Brace, Brockhoff, Sparkes & Tuckey, 2006, pp.16). ||
 * **Self-reflection**

In order to make judgements about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the lesson and the overall unit of work, the following questions will be asked:
 * Were students able to achieve the intended outcomes of the lesson?
 * Were all the student’s needs catered for?
 * How effective was the unit of work in providing students with the necessary knowledge to successfully create a multimodal text?
 * Did students enjoy the unit of work? If not, how could it be made more interesting and motivating? ||