Create a folio, as described in items 3–6 below. Your folio may be written in first person where appropriate.
You must use the APA referencing style for this assignment. There is no minimum number of references required, but you will know more if you read more, and will be able to integrate others’ ideas into your submission, demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of teaching the Humanities.
Teaching within the Humanities (500 words)
Choose ONE of the options below (a, b, c or d) and explain how you would teach the following inquiry questions to the specified grade level:
How and why do people choose to remember significant events of the past? (Australian Curriculum, Year 3)
What is the difference between rules and laws, and why are they important? (Australian Curriculum, Year 4)
Why do businesses exist and what are the different ways they provide goods and services? (Australian Curriculum, Year 6)
What makes a place special? (Australian Curriculum, Year Foundation)
Analyse assessment strategies (500 words)
Using the same teaching example from Section 3, justify your choice of assessment strategy/ies and record-keeping instruments to assess student learning.
Controversial topics (500 words)
Choose a controversial issue that is in the news at the moment and write a 500-word statement about your approach to exploring this issue with students. An excellent reading for you to use is The high cost of uncritical teaching (PDF 481 KB) (Links to an external site.) (Winn, 2004, pp. 496–497).
Please stipulate/identify what year level you are teaching.
Humanities across the school (500 words)
Identify examples of engagement with Humanities concepts outside of the formal classroom context (e.g. Student Representative Council). Include this list as an appendix—there is no limit to the number of examples you provide, and this does not add to the word count. The more examples, the more you demonstrate your understanding of the opportunities students have for learning outside of the formal learning environment for learning Humanities concepts.
Write a short response answering the following questions:
What do students learn from involvement in these sorts of activities?
If the discipline concepts are lived through these experiences, do they have to be formally taught in the classroom? Provide reasons to justify your answer which includes reference to your list of examples.
Note: Your folio can be written in first person where appropriate. You should submit your folio as a Word document. You must use APA referencing style for this assignment. Across all sections we expect you to justify your choices using scholarly literature and relevant curriculum documents. There is no minimum number of references required, but you will know more if you read more and will be able to integrate others’ ideas into your submission, demonstrating your knowledge and understanding of teaching the Humanities.
High Distinction [HD 80-100%]
To be awarded a High Distinction, the work must meet all the requirements of the Distinction standard, outlined above, and then must go beyond that.
Sections 3, 4 and 5 of your folio demonstrate creativity and insight into planning, teaching and assessment in the Humanities. Examples provided demonstrate highly developed critical thinking and analytical skills.
Sections 3 and 6 of your folio demonstrate a high-level capacity to utilise relevant curriculum documents and effective pedagogy. Your rationale makes original and clear connections to justify your choices. You construct a compelling argument about the place of Humanities beyond the classroom.
Clarity of thinking in relation to teaching and learning is clearly evident and students’ learning needs have been thoughtfully considered. Obvious care and attention has been taken in planning, editing, and proofreading all elements of the folio. Wide reading of relevant, current, scholarly, research-based literature (including but not limited to the set text) is evident. You demonstrate a highly developed capacity to integrate source material to enhance the quality of your writing.
Throughout this unit, the eText we use is:
Gilbert, R., Tudball, L. & Brett, P. (Eds.) (2020). Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences: Teaching and Learning across Australia (7th ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Cengage Learning.
This unit also references the Australian Curriculum extensively. reference it as follows:
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2018). Australian Curriculum: F-10 curriculum: Humanities and Social Sciences: Introduction v.8.4. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/
