In this video, Kelly describes the social studies unit Creating Our Own Society, which provides the learning context for her writing task. The students have explored the stories of people who move from place to place and the impact of moving on individuals and communities.
Curriculum links
Learning areas:
- Social sciences: level 3, Understand how groups make and implement rules and laws; level 4, Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges
- Health: level 3, Relationships with Other People
- English: level 3, Ideas
Key competencies: relating to others, participating and contributing
Related teaching and learning activities
Kelly planned a range of related tasks that built on her students’ existing knowledge and experiences:
- oral language activities designed to introduce new vocabulary and to build the associated concepts and understanding of being new to a place, being different, and responding to difference
- a role play designed to explore feelings and emotions related to moving to a new place
- guided and shared reading, as well as ‘reading to’, reading using a range of stories and articles about moving and migration, linking to students’ prior experiences where possible
- exploration of the experiences of a range of migrants to New Zealand
- analysis of international events, such as the Christmas Island boat tragedy and the French protests against the law banning the wearing of hijabs and burqas in public.
Students explored how people with different values and cultural practices live and work in their new communities.