Unit Focus

The impact of floods on environments

and communities, and how people can
respond
Unit Overview

Unit Duration
Possibly 3x40 min lessons per week for
3 weeks.

Year Le
5

This unit will focus on floods as a natural disaster. Students will investigate floods within Australia a
international floods. Students will be able to find and articulate flood prone areas of Australia and h
the environment. They will collect and display data in a portfolio with the aim of utilising data to dev
poster using mapping skills and symbols to present their findings.

Learning Outcomes
Australian Curriculum - Geography
The impact of bushfires or floods on environments and
communities, and how people can respond (ACHGK030)
Present findings and ideas in a range of communication forms,
for example, written, oral, graphic, tabular, visual and maps;
using geographical terminology and digital technologies as
appropriate (ACHGS038)
Represent the location and features of places and different types
of geographical information by constructing large-scale and
small-scale maps that conform to cartographic conventions,
including border, source, scale, legend, title and north point,
using spatial technologies as appropriate (ACHGS036)

Australian Curriculum English

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive
print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language

Focus Q
What is a natural disaste
What types of natural di
What are some natural d
Where do natural disast
Are there any environme
natural disasters?
What services are norm
disaster?
What are some survival
disaster?
Why do I need to know
What is a family action p
How can I draw and inte
Are actions plans neces

Cross Curri
Aboriginal & Torres Strait I
Asia & Australias engagem
Sustainability

features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and

audience (ACELY1704)

General Capabilities
Literacy
Numeracy
Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating ICT
and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources
Critical & creative thinking
(ACELY1703)
Ethical behaviour
Personal & social competence
Intercultural understanding
Australian Curriculum - Art
Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their
artworks (ACAVAM115)
Plan the display of artworks to enhance their meaning for an
audience (ACAVAM116)

Geography Achievement Standard Year 5

By the end of Year 5, students explain the characteristics of places in different
locations at the national scale. They describe the interconnections between
people, places and environments and identify the effect of these
interconnections on the characteristics of places and environments. They
describe the location of selected countries in relative terms and identify spatial
distributions and simple patterns in the features of places and environments.
They identify alternative views on how to respond to a geographical challenge
and propose a response.

Students develop geographical questions to investigate and collect and

record information from a range of sources to answer these questions. They
represent data and the location of places and their characteristics in graphic
forms, including large-scale and small-scale maps that use the cartographic
conventions of border, scale, legend, title, and north point. Students interpret

geographical data to identify spatial distributions, simple patterns and trends,

infer relationships and draw conclusions. They present findings using
geographical terminology in a range of communication forms. They propose
action in response to a geographical challenge and identify the expected
effects of their proposed action
Unit Planning Template

Learning Experiences

Learning Sequence
1&2
Engage
Intro
Natural Disasters

Focus on Flooding as
a Natural Disaster
Learning Sequence
3/4&5
Explore / Explain

Focus on Flooding as
a Natural Disaster
Learning Sequence
6/7&8
Investigative Skills

Teaching Strategies
1. Engage students first
asking what they know
about Natural Disasters
(activate prior
knowledge).
2. Investigate Naturals
Disasters
3. Table data collected

1. Activate prior knowledge

2. Investigate floods
3. Scaffold questioning to
focus
4. Explore examples
5. Explain findings

1. Use information from 3

sources and collect
information
2. Use research sheet to
assist research
3. Collaborate information

Adjustments for
needs of Learners
Where appropriate,
use graphics to
communicate and
support text
If appropriate read
questions or text to
student
Use scaffolding to help
student reach next
level ie a list of web
sites or printed
information to scaffold
research, research
scaffolding questions
If requested and
appropriate, offer to
record oral responses
to questions
Give feedback in a
familiar and
comfortable setting
Identify strategies for
achieving competence
in the future

Learning Sequence
10/11& 12

1. Complete design draft

sheet
2. Start to draft poster
3. Continue and complete

Use feedback as a
learning opportunity

applied learning and

connect to the Real
World
Use of home language
Collaboration in
learning (sense of
community)
Allow for indirect
questioning
Culminating activity/presentation of student work
See attached assessment rubric
Type of assessment
Formative.

What will be assessed

Peer assessment

Summative

Students Depth of
research on floods
Students
engagement/participation
levels in group discussion.
Students engagement and
participation levels in
group work
Students completion of
poster
Summary of findings/
Content knowledge

When it will be
assessed
Formative assessment
will be conducted
throughout each lesson
focusing on students
engagement levels,
contribution to research
and content
knowledge.
Peer assessment will
be conducted
alongside teacher
summative assessment
on the final task.
Marking criteria will be
in the form of
assessment rubric.

Assessment for students with special education needs:

Modification of the assessment process

Modification of assessment activities (Fewer questions to be asked, use
simpler language,)
Different response design ( Dot point reporting, graphic presentation)

The ongoing assessment of this unit of work is to guide students learning

experiences as the bases for students progression through the learning
sequences, culminating in the students informed presentation.