Lesson Sequence: Globalising the World Popular Culture (1945 Present)

Rational:
History is an important part of ones life; it is where they are able to truly understand how
to live. Many students now fear history because to them it seems boring and they have no
future potential by learning it. Bateman and Harris, history education professors state that
the historical domain of learning has lost its connectedness with students living in the
world today we need to make the relevance of historical events explicit and clear to our
learner (p. 12). I feel that it is our duty as educators to create a curriculum that is rich and
exciting and truly demonstrates that History does have a purpose in our education system.
The chosen topic of Popular Culture in specific to Australia and the post war influences of it
is one of the more exciting topics in the year ten AusVELS history curricular. It is something
students already understand and are relating to on a day to day basis. Education historian
Yilmaz (2008) discusses that the fundamental goal of teaching social studies in secondary
schools is to help students become more responsible, critical, reflective and active citizens
who can make informed and reasoned decisions(p. 40). The lesson sequence I have created
gives students the responsibility that they crave but in saying so they will still be guided by
the teacher. At the point in the year where AusVELS requires for Globalising the World to
be taught students would have attained a set of skills that will allow for them to work
independently. As a professional, I feel it is important to take the cognitive constructivist
approach as modelled by Jean Piaget where the students learning is modelled upon their
prior knowledge and their own ability to learn but the teacher facilitates their learning by
guiding them and providing information where needed. The topic of Popular Culture in
Australia allows students to already be connected to the topic but as a teacher I will guide
them towards the steps they need to take to understand the history of it. My major aim
throughout this topic was to put a futures focus on history and one that defeated the
question a student always asks How does this apply to me? I felt that if this was an over
lining aim I would be able to achieve other focuses such as endorsing the notion that
historical knowledge is not absolute and give, but rather open to interpretation. (Yilmaz,
2008, p. 39) The major assessment task that ran alongside the lessons gave students the
ability to hone in on not only new skills like essay writing and academic research but also
improve and find more intellectual ways to use old skills such as timelines, maps, note
taking and Venn diagrams; skills all very important during the study of history.

Lesson sequence:
The lesson sequence for Popular Culture has been designed in a way to initiate a more
mature learning style. Students are given their assignment (appendix A) as a portfolio with
each week lined out and what is required of them each week in order to keep on track to be
able to present in the final week. The lessons are divided into three sections part B being
activating prior knowledge where the class as a whole brain storms what they already know
or have learnt in previous lessons. Part B takes on a direct teaching method where the
teacher presents the information to be taught during this lesson and directs students to
what information is required of them as well as where they can look for it. The final part,
part C involves students researching in groups or independently in order to complete the set
task. All parts of the lesson sequence are equally as important in that it allows the students
to ask questions where needed and for the teacher to guide students by formatively
assessing them through their questions, answers and participation. The lessons
accompanied with the summative assessment (appendix A) result in a number of very
flexible learning strategies in order to accommodate for a number of students varying in
ability. By using a larger amount of ITC rather than text books, as suggested by Yilmaz
(2008) the teacher is able to be conversant with the knowledge of every day events,
activities and interests that students bring to school with them to make history relevant to
students lives and to increase motivation to learn the subject (p. 44). Furthermore the
Popular Culture Bible (appendix B) is a supplement to the students cognitive learning
process. The book was created explicitly for the Popular Culture section of AusVELS and
provides all the information students need to keep on track. As a class we will be reading
from this book and students will be able to refer to it throughout their assessment piece. It
provides them with examples of timelines as well as visuals to further their learning. There
are also activities students can do to further their own learning as well as read over to
ensure they are on the right track. As well as being a study of the history of popular culture
in Australia this sequence of lesson plans with cover studies of society and the environment
in this aspect it is important that there is a constructivist atmosphere in the classroom.
Students will already have some knowledge on the topics covered and so it is the teachers
duty to promote a higher order of thinking amongst the students by asking questions and
providing materials such as the websites listed in appendix A as well as the power point,
videos, films and activities used in class. Seixas and Peck (2004) state that history education
required both students and teachers to think and develop ideas in order to have a better
understanding of your own life. (p. 109 110)

My reasoning for using a constructivist method while teaching popular culture is best
explained by Bateman and Harris in that a historically literate student is one who utilises
conceptual tools in a judicious manner to interpret the past, present and futures in ways
that personally, socially and politically empower them (p.16). If this sequence of lessons
were to be taught with a direct instructional method students would grow bored, or simply
lazy as the thinking will be done for them. This sequence of lessons if scaffolded in the order
suggested by AusVELS, each point stated under Popular Culture is a lesson in itself and
allows for student learning to grow and develop. Using group work and independent work
heavily based upon ITC can seem problematic but as suggested by Yilmaz (2008)
technology tools, especially the internet and world wide web can help facilitate the process
by providing students with an opportunity to have easy access to both contemporary
sources and primary historical documents (p. 44) It is highly recommended by Seixas and
Peck that students are able to distinguish the significant from the trivial (p 111) and in
order to facilitate this many of the group activities designated will call for students to
debate and think more fully about their resources. As they are working in groups the
teacher is given the opportunity to walk around and ask groups about why they think they
should use specific resources and point out the usefulness in using something more
academic as opposed to something they have found that doesnt seem as significant.
Assessment techniques
The choice to put in one major assessment that would span over the course of the unit was
to ensure that students could apply their knowledge as they went a long and then add onto
it prior to presenting. As discussed by Yilmaz (2008) the ultimate goal of history education
should be to develop students higher-order thinking, complex reasoning and decision
making skills needed in life outside the school and to enlarge their understanding of
reasoning and decision making skills needed in life outside the school and to enlarge their
understanding of the increasingly interdependent social world (p. 45). I feel that history
cannot be assessed with time constraints and off the top of the head knowledge. Students
need time to process information and interpret it in their own way while still providing
primary and secondary resources to support their decisions. The assignment I have created
places their study of history in respect to a career choice they could make and how what
they are doing now had come to be. ). A popular template for is the triad of Assessment of
Learning which involves collecting evidence of students learning in order to be able to
make judgements and set goals of achievements and standards (Churchill et al., 2011, p.
405). The second is Assessment for Learning which allows the teacher to draw conclusions
about student progress by observing and using small work samples in order to plan out your
future lessons (Churchill et al., 2011, p. 405). The last of the three is Assessment as
Learning which requires students to reflect on their own advancement in order to nurture
their own learning as well as assist future teachers (Churchill et al., 2011, p. 406). To ensure
that these three tiers of assessment are fully utilised I have ensured that the lead up to the
assignment includes points of achievement for the students to ensure they are on track
each lesson, the second, assessment for learning is covered by listening in to student
discussion and collecting exit tickets at the end of each lesson to assess their achievements
thus far and lastly, the final essay students are to complete will allow students to reflect on
where their assessment has taken them and how much they have taken in.

Yilmaz quotes that if students are to experience quality education they need to explore the
disciplinary tools and thus why they provided assessment task is so rich and lengthy (p. 42).
As previously mentioned, the criteria for the assessment will be created with the students
together. This is to ensure students fully understand what is required of them and what they
must do to achieve the mark they want. The assessment will stress the need for students to
be able to think critically, understand assumptions of changes and continuities and create
their own opinion on the matter at hand. Bateman and Harris further that by having
foresight literacy enables students to examine those people, places and events that have
come before us as a means of making good judgements in going forward and I have
designed an assessment in helping them understand that their purpose of learning history is
so much more than the ability to read maps, create timelines and retain and interpret
information.
Critical Reflection:
When creating this sequence of lessons I found it easier to use the backward design method
in which I begin with the assessment first and plan my lessons in order to achieve goals and
aims. As Yilamz (2008) writes we believe that conceptualising history as the extended
present invites the participation of students shaping, preferable and probable possibilities
(p. 32). I believe that it is important that ensuring the lessons allowed the students to have
independence while still being monitored was important. I did at times feel that I was being
too free with the students and that I may have come across as lazy in using a
constructivist method of teaching. In order to counter teacher laziness that can come across
when using a constructivist method, I ensured that there would be planned constant
student teacher interaction and an exit ticket after each lesson stressing the importance
that each and every student should come out of the classroom understanding something.
Other issues I came across was the worry that I would be spoon feeding the students too
much by giving them a list of resources they could use in order to complete their
assessment. While writing out the assessment I then strategically lessened the amount of
resources provided each week to prompt higher order thinking and refine their own ability
to research valid resources. The outcome of this can only be reflected on each lesson after
having provided this but Ive also added in an exit ticket at the end of each lesson so that
students can reflect on their learning process and what they feel could help them.

As a teacher I feel it is important that we are able to know the goals we would like our
students to reach before teaching them content and even thinking about our teaching styles
or our students learning styles. Without goals, there is no lesson and that is why I believe
understanding backward design and utilising in in lessons is of upmost importance. Using
this technique helped me combat my fears of using a lazy form of the constructivist
method and ensuring each student was catered for in their own way.





Bibliography

Bateman, D., & Harris, C. (2007). Time Perspectives: Examining the Past, Present and
Futures.

Melbourne: ACSA Biennial Conference.

Churchill, R., Ferguson, P., Godinhho, S., Johnson, N. F., Keddie, A., Letts, W., ... Vick, M.
(2011). Teaching Making a Difference. Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia, LTD.

Seixas, P., & Peck, C. (2004) Teaching Historical Thinking. In A. Sears & I Wright (Eds.),
Challenges and Prospects for Canadian Social Studies (pp. 109 117). Vancouver:
Pacific Educational Press.

Yilmaz, K. (2008). A Vision of History Teaching and Learning: Thoughts on History Education
in
Secondary Schools. Marmara University: The University of North Carolina Press.