Year 3/4 Term 1 Overview:
CURRENT UNIT OF INQUIRY: WHO WE ARE
Central Idea: Children have rights and responsibilities
Students are exploring their world and connecting to the world of others through the investigation of their cultural heritage and their rights and responsibilities. We have begun this unit by developing and creating our own classroom Essential Agreement with our students, which was agreed upon as a class community. We have also read and watched several texts (picture story books and videos) related to the central idea and made connections to each text during our inquiry into Reading. Through these texts, students are beginning to understand what our rights and responsibilities are in relation to our own lives - our rights and responsibilities in the classroom and at Glenroy West Primary School. We have also linked the rights and responsibilities we have identified in the United Nations Children's Rights Convention. Students will present this in a unique format to be unveiled at the ‘Celebration of Learning’ at the end of the term.
Students are learning to set their own personal goals in reading, writing and numeracy. Conferencing with teachers is a way for their goals to be reviewed and revised constantly.
LITERACY:
Literacy encompasses reading, writing and speaking and listening. Where possible, these areas are linked to the current unit of inquiry.
In Reading, students are making connections and reflecting on personal experiences through various means of media (i.e. paper and online). Through the key concept of connections, students have explored stories about children’s rights and responsibilities and made links to the world. They have also made links through text to self, text to text, and text to world. Reading groups are differentiated, allowing students to work confidently at their level. Groups are fluid, changing with the needs of the students. It is expected that all students read for 20 minutes minimum, each night. They are able to access the school’s Library or classroom library to choose their take home book. For Independent reading, students are able to choose four books from the class library, which they frequently change. Reading groups use books aligned to the reading level of the students. Technology is utilised by ‘Reading Eggs’, ‘Kids News’ and researching for student wonderings.
In Writing, students are learning the power of persuasion through advertisements, letters and other formats. Their writing is based on a topic of their interest. Students are also given the opportunity every week to collect ideas in their Writer’s Ideas book and use these to write independently in Writer’s Workshop sessions. Students are refining their skills to self-edit, correct spelling, grammar and sense, before they conference with a teacher. Many students write directly on their iPads and share their work with the class teacher through Google Classroom. Neat handwriting is a focus and an expectation in all student work.
Speaking and Listening is across all curriculum areas. Students are given the opportunity to present their work on a daily basis with their peers. Students are working cooperatively in whole and small groups, thus developing listening and speaking skills to become confident communicators.
NUMERACY: Numeracy encompasses number and non-number.
In Number, students are exploring numbers and place value to understand the significance of each digit and its value. They are able to name digits, construct and explain position and deconstruct numbers through extended notation.
In Non-number, students are learning about location and maps to understand how to give specific instructions, using appropriate language such as turn left, turn right, forwards, backwards, steps, north, south, east and west.
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