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The Humanities

Standards and Progression Points

In the Humanities, standards for assessing and reporting on student achievement are introduced at Level 3. Specific standards for Economics, Geography and History are introduced at Level 4. The learning focus statements for Level 1 and Level 2 provide advice about learning experiences that will assist students to work towards the achievement of the Humanities standards at Level 3 (which focus on historical and geographical knowledge and skills) and the Economics standards at Level 4.

Progressing towards Level 3

Progression point 2.25 Progression point 2.5 Progression point 2.75
At 2.25, the work of a student progressing towards the standard at Level 3 demonstrates, for example: At 2.5, the work of a student progressing towards the standard at Level 3 demonstrates, for example: At 2.75, the work of a student progressing towards the standard at Level 3 demonstrates, for example:
Humanities knowledge and understanding
  • identification of different cultural groups represented in their class and community
  • basic understanding of the significance of some national celebrations and commemorations such as Australia Day and Anzac Day
  • identification, from observations, of human and physical characteristics of their local environment; for example, fences, roads, trees, hills, creeks, buildings
Humanities knowledge and understanding
  • identification of some similarities and differences such as foods, language, religion amongst cultural groups represented in their class and community
  • identification of the significance of celebrations and commemorations
  • identification of different land uses and land use regions; for example, farming, housing, recreation, shopping
Humanities knowledge and understanding
  • identification of aspects of the history of cultural groups represented in Australia; for example, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups
  • knowledge of a key event in Australian history
  • identification of aspects of places in the local area that have changed over time
  • identification of the use of different environments in Victoria
Humanities skills
  • sequencing of familiar events such as changes in their own lives
  • recognition of differences between types of historical evidence such as photographs, stories, buildings, artefacts
  • recognition of human and physical characteristics on a plan, or bird’s eye, view
  • recognition of environments from a range of images
Humanities skills
  • development of simple timelines with dates to show familiar events in sequence
  • framing of appropriate questions to ask about historical sources; for example, ‘When was the photograph taken/ building built?’
  • skill in drawing an outline map with drawn or pasted illustrations to show the features made by people and by nature
  • recognition of simple patterns taken from observations of maps, including atlas maps, and a range of images
Humanities skills
  • development of a timeline showing key community events such as those associated with national celebrations and commemorations
  • framing of appropriate questions to explore a significant event
  • skills in drawing maps and plans of familiar environments, such as the school yard, classroom and local park, with features correctly located
  • appropriate use of the terms ‘north’, ‘south’, ‘east’ and ‘west’ when describing the location of features on a map and in other images

The learning focus statement provides advice about learning experiences that will assist students to work towards the achievement of the standards at Level 3.

Level 3 standard

Humanities knowledge and understanding

At Level 3, students describe and sequence some key events in Australian history, some key commemorations and celebrations including Anzac Day, and key aspects of the histories of cultural groups that make up their class, community and nation. They describe how aspects of places in their local area have changed over time. From direct observation or observation of a variety of media, they describe the human and physical characteristics of their local area and other parts of Victoria. They describe how people use and affect different environments in Victoria.

Humanities skills

At Level 3, students use a range of historical evidence, including oral history, artefacts, narratives and pictures, to retell events and describe historical characters. They develop simple timelines to show events in sequence. They explain some of the differences between different types of historical evidence, and frame questions to further explore historical events. Students draw simple maps and plans of familiar environments observing basic mapping conventions. They identify the location of places on a simple map using an alphanumeric grid and describe direction using the four cardinal compass points. Using atlas maps and a globe, they locate and name the states and territories of Australia.

 
 

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