UNIT OF WORK

As one of the main learning areas, Humanities and Social Science (HASS)

and consists of civics and citizenship, geography, history and economics and

business. The humanities and social sciences are the study of human behaviour and

interaction in social, cultural, environmental, economic and political contexts.

Through studying HASS students develop critical and creative thinkers, by studying

human interaction with in the past and present and the environment will live in.

HASS encourages students to become active participants in the society, and to think

of creative new solutions to current world problems. Furthermore, HASS encourages

students to bring their unique context to discussions and to appreciate and apply

different perspectives to deepen and enhance their learning and understanding. The

Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum aims to provide students with diverse

range of knowledges and skills, that are essential to developing a broad

understanding of the world in which we live and how people can actively contribute

and participate as informed citizens in the 21st century.

The unit of work developed focus on the civics and citizenship curriculum, the

design of the Australian political and legal system. Students investigate The purpose

and value of the Australian constitution (ACHCK048), the concept of the separation

of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary and how it seeks to

prevent the excessive concentration of power (ACHCK048), the division of

powers between state/territory and federal levels of government in Australia

(ACHCK048), the different roles of the House of Representatives and the Senate in

Australia's bicameral parliament (ACHCK048), the process for constitutional change

through a referendum and examples of attempts to change the

Australian constitution by referendum(ACHCK049),how Australia's legal system aims

to provide justice, including through the rule of law, presumption of

innocence, burden of proof, the right to a fair trial, and the right to

legal representation (ACHCK050) and how citizens participate in providing justice

through their roles as witnesses and jurors (ACHCK050) (SCSA, 2014).

One of the main reasons why I selected this unit of work to analyse was

because it was the first sequence of lessons I taught on my professional practicum.

The unit of work was designed to seamlessly follow the unit of work developed my

mentor teacher. One of the things I noticed when initially developing this unit of work,

was that the year seven civic and citizenship curriculum was content heavy and

presupposed a level of proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE). One of the

main challenges I had on my professional experience was deconstructing subject-

specific vocabulary and concepts and catering to learning needs of my students,

specifically English as additional dialect or language (EAL/D) students. My practicum

school had a diverse range of students from different cultural and linguistic

backgrounds with various levels of proficiency in the SAE. I adapted my planning

and pedagogy after the first assessment as I realised my students had not achieved

learning outcomes. I asked my students for feedback and used it to develop this

specific unit of work. This series of work was significant for me, as it highlighted the

importance of scaffolding in the teaching and learning cycle and allowing students

time to process information in their own time.

Reference:

School Curriculum & Standards Authority. (2014). Curriculum and assessment

outline: Humanities and Social Science.http://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/p-10-

curriculum/curriculum-browser/humanities-and-social-sciences