Sample Units
- Introduction
- Features of the sample units
- How to use the sample units
- Progressive publication of the Essential Learning Standards sample units
Introduction
The Victorian Essential Learning Standards Sample Units have been developed to exemplify ways of using the new curriculum to develop teaching and learning activities and illustrate appropriate assessment in relation to specific standards over Levels 1 to 6.
These units reflect the integrated learning approach central to the Standards, in particular the need for student-centred activities that weave the three strands into school teaching and learning programs. They illustrate and exemplify the inherent and dynamic relationships between learning domains and show how this interrelatedness supports deeper understanding, and more meaningful and engaging contexts for learning.
The Level 3 sample unit – Pulling Strings, for example, an activity centred on the Design, Creativity and Technology task of making a puppet, incorporates thinking about puppets in various cultures and the application of learning in the form of puppet performance. As well as a central focus on using and evaluating design briefs (Design, Creativity and Technology), this unit addresses learning outcomes from the Arts (researching the role of puppetry and puppeteers in other cultures) and English (consideration of genre, audience and purpose in the development of a script). It also provides the opportunity to teach and/or assess aspects of Interpersonal Development (giving feedback, achieving agreed goals within a set timeframe), Thinking (applying creative ideas in practical ways) and ICT (using search engines and simple key words to research information).
In this way this sample unit, and others in the series, integrate learning experiences from all three strands of the Essential Learning Standards. This extends the focus beyond one activity (making a puppet) into a contextualised set of activities that make explicit for students the links between the skills and knowledge of the different domains.
Features of the sample units
Each sample unit is structured in the same way.
- Introduction - briefly outlines the domains covered by the unit and the knowledge and skills developed by the teaching and learning activities
- Learning Focus - illustrates how the unit activities address learning focus statements from all three strands
- Victorian Essential Learning Standards - links the unit activities to the standards at the appropriate level
- Teaching and Learning Activities - a suggested set of activities that address the learning focus statements and standards
- Assessment - examples of assessment criteria and possible sources of evidence
- Unit resources - includes websites and downloadable teacher/student support materials (including worksheets where applicable)
The sample units are supported by, and directly linked to, two reference documents:
- Teaching and learning resource - designed to provide further advice on teaching and learning theory, principles and strategies for teachers working with the sample units
- Assessment resource - designed to provide further assessment advice, ideas and strategies for teachers working with the sample units.
Further advice is available in:
- Principles of Learning and Teaching P–12 located in the Department of Education Student Learning website; and
- Assessment and Reporting located in the Department of Education Student Learning website.
The Sample Units have their origins in a number of sources, but they all began in schools as ideas and/or engaging and successful units of work developed in response to student needs. They have been further developed by the VCAA in liaison with schools and curriculum writers. They also include some previously existing CSF P–10 sample units and annotated work samples that have been redeveloped to support teaching and learning and assessment in relation to the Standards. These redeveloped units demonstrate the ways the new approach can enrich the learning experience, by incorporating and integrating learning domains through contextual or project-oriented learning activities.
How to use the sample units
The sample units are not intended to be viewed or used as prescribed materials or definitive learning activities for particular domains or assessment tasks. They have been designed to provide:
- a basis for teachers to discuss examples of how the new approach could be implemented in the local school context
- starting points for auditing current school based units in relation to the Standards
- models and ideas for developing new units for school based programs
- references for understanding the standards and developing assessment criteria
- examples and contexts for curriculum leaders to discuss the new approach with colleagues and parents.
As the samples show, individual units of work are not expected to incorporate all 16 learning domains. There is an expectation, however, that all units will include learning domains from the three strands. In developing units of work and programs, the most efficient way to ensure coverage of the standards and to avoid duplication of assessment is to use a whole school curriculum planning approach. This allows schools to:
- review existing successful course materials in relation to the Standards
- identify where physical, personal and social and/or interdisciplinary teaching and learning can be integrated with existing programs and
- identify where new programs need to be developed.
In this way the teaching and assessment of skills and knowledge in all domains can be spread across units of work and taught by various teachers. Taking the example of thinking skills, schools may choose to focus on particular strategies, either within year levels or across the whole school. If the introduction of these skills is planned then teachers in all domains know which strategies they can expect students to know and can ensure that these are consolidated within their own units of work. This allows students to make links between what they often see as a discrete set of skills and apply what they learn in different contexts. While thinking skills may have been taught by many different teachers across the year, the responsibility for assessing them might be allocated to only one or two. Other teachers might be allocated other Interdisciplinary skills to assess, thus spreading the assessment load.
Progressive publication of the Standards sample units
The seven sample units published online will be complemented by additional units published progressively. The first seven units focus on integrated learning based largely in project-type contexts. Further units will exemplify ways in which discipline-based learning is enriched through application of the Standards approaches to teaching and learning.
