J.+Lesson+4


 * Yr Level: Stage 3, year 4**
 * ==Unit Topic: Cultural Diversity == || ==Curriculum Link - English, HSIE, Maths == ||
 * ==Lesson Number: 4/10 == |||| ==Lesson Topic: Information Reports on Our Local Community - Parramatta == || **Duration : 60 mins** ||
 * ==Lesson Aim: ==

In this lesson, students will reflect on and consolidate their understandings of the diversity within their local community as explored in the excursion in the previous lesson. As a part of their final multimodal text, students are required to record a short audio clip of an information report about diversity within their local community.

Students will research, gather information and record facts about specific aspects of diversity, including languages, celebrations and religion within the local Parramatta community, using websites containing statistical data in the forms of graphs, tables and charts. In relation to the aspect of "celebrations" students will watch a short video about Chinese New Year to get them thinking about their own and class member's personal experiences of celebrations in their local community.

Finally, students construct a short information report using the "Writing Fun" website, based on their research earlier in the lesson. Students revisit the social purpose of information reports and revise the schematic structure of the text type. They are introduced to how to use noun groups to improve their information reports. ||
 * ==Outcomes: ==


 * HSIE **

**CUS2.4 Cultural Diversity** Describes different viewpoints, ways of living, languages and belief systems in a variety of communities.

//· Describes the cultural, linguistic and religious diversity of communities in Australia // //· Gathers information and explains the various lifestyles and experiences that different groups have within communities in Australia // //· Examines religious groups and forms of spirituality in the community // //· Gathers information about local community celebrations // //· Gathers information about significant multicultural celebrations in the local community //


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ENGLISH **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**TS2.1 Learning to Talk and Listen** Communicates in informal and formal classroom activities in school and social situations for an increasing range of purposes on a variety of topics across the curriculum.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· listens to sustained information reports on generalised and researched topics. //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**RS2.5 Reading and Viewing Texts** Reads independently a wide range of texts on increasingly challenging topics and justifies own interpretation of ideas, information and events.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets basic maps, charts, diagrams and graphs. // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Obtains information from selected Internet/computer sites and other computer graphics and texts. //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**RS2.8 Language Structures and Features** Discusses the text structure of a range of text types and the grammatical features that are characteristic of those text types.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· identifies additional elements in noun groups, e.g. numbering adjective ('three'), describing adjective ('beautiful') and talks about how to build a noun group. //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**WS2.9 Producing Texts** Drafts, revises, proofreads and publishes well-structured texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and written language features.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· uses other texts as models for aspects of writing such as text organisation, grouping of information under headings. // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· uses computers to draft and edit writing // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· structures text types in appropriate stages // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· writes more extended descriptions of each aspect in an information report // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· writes information reports that indclude information about different aspects of things and their features. //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**WS2.10 Skills and Strategies** Produces texts clearly, effectively and accurately, using the sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation conventions of the text type.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· //Builds word families in preparation for writing//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">link to other KLA:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**MATHEMATICS** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**DS2.1 Data** Gathers and organises data, displays data using tables and graphs, and interprets the results.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets data and information presented in tables and graphs. // //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets information represented in two way tables. // ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Indicators: ==


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">HSIE **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">CUS2.4 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· listens to sustained information reports on generalised and researched topics.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">ENGLISH **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">TS2.1 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets basic maps, charts, diagrams and graphs. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Obtains information from selected Internet/computer sites and other computer graphics and texts.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">RS2.5 **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">RS2.8 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· uses other texts as models for aspects of writing such as text organisation, grouping of information under headings. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· uses computers to draft and edit writing <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· structures text types in appropriate stages <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· writes more extended descriptions of each aspect in an information report <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· writes information reports that indclude information about different aspects of things and their features.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">WS2.9 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Builds word families in preparation for writing
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">WS2.10 **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">//link to other KLA//: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets data and information presented in tables and graphs. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Interprets information represented in two way tables. || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Interactive White Board (IWB) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Y – chart on butchers paper <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Digital photographs of local church, restaurants, public artworks, shops, etc (that were gathered on the excursion) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- WSROC website pages <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- BTN video – “Chinese New Year” retrieved from [] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Worksheet 1 – “how I celebrate” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Worksheet 2 – “Why we celebrate” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Information sheet – “Why we celebrate” <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Local Community information report for IWB, hard copies for class, broken up into paragraphs <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Writing Fun website - http://www.writingfun.com/writingfun2010.html ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">MATHEMATICS **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">DS2.1 **
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Resources: ==
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“What language do we speak at home” retrieved from []
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">“What is our religion” retrieved from []
 * =<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">Lesson Outline = ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Introduction (15 mins) – debriefing from Excursion ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Google Maps on the (IWB) – The teacher downloads a map of the wider area of Western Sydney. Students can:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Locate Parramatta on the map of greater Western Sydney
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Find their school
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Highlight the route they took on the excursion in the previous lesson.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Question – What did the students enjoy about the excursion?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The class collectively fills in a Y-chart about their experiences from the local community excursion to Parramatta. They use adjectives to describe people, places or things filling in the “Feels like”, “Looks like”, “Sounds like” parts of their Y-chart. This Y chart can be used to create a word bank of noun groups later in the lesson.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">On the IWB the class revisits photos and possible video footage that captured moments or key locations in the local community from the excursion. Students also reflect on their own participation in their local community.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">a) The class identify (and label) and answer the following for each photo: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">b) Discuss whether any students use or have visited one or some of the venues/locations in the photos? When did they go? Why did they go?
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What it is?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What it is used for?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Why is it important/significant (think about its cultural uses in relation to the community)?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">c) Ask students what groups they belong to in their local community (e.g. cultural dance group, sporting club, school etc.) How do they feel when they are with that group? Are people in that group similar or different to them?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">In their reflective journals students reflect on their experiences of diversity within the local community on their excursion and in their personal lives. ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">Teaching strategy/Learning Activity: == ||
 * ===<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">Students will…… === |||| ===<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Teacher will… === ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Activity 1 - Research ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">(1) LANGUAGES
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As a class explore the following WSROC website on the IWB: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">With the teacher’s guidance students interpret the information represented in the table researching statistics of languages other than English spoken in the Parramatta region.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">After exploring the website, students record the following facts using full sentences: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Most common language other than English spoken in the Parramatta community. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Least common language spoken in the Parramatta community. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· What language I speak at home and how many people speak that language in the Parramatta community. (If applicable) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· What I was most surprised about from the statistics.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">(2) CELEBRATIONS
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students contribute to discussion - what and how do you celebrate? Some celebrations in the local to talk about include Eid festivals, Christmas carols concerts, Australia Day, etc.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students watch BTN video about the celebration of Chinese New Year. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students complete worksheet 1 - “how I celebrate” by choosing a celebration (one they celebrate or another they now of) and recording the details. Once complete they

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">(2) RELIGION
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students record the following facts about <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Percentage/number of people with the most popular religion. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">· Percentages/number of people with the least popular religion. |||| <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Explain that the next activity focuses on 3 main aspects of cultural diversity that influence the way we live in our community - 1. Languages 2. Celebrations 3. Religion <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Highlight that the website draws its information from 2006 census data. [Q. What is the census? How often do people complete a census?] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Lead whole class discussion focusing on language statistics from the table. Focus on: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ask students to share what and how they celebrate and why they participate in those celebrations. Q. Does the celebration occur as a community event? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Play the BTN Chinese New Year video as an example of a celebration. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Distribute Student worksheet 1: How I celebrate. Each student chooses a celebration and records details. Distribute and go through “why we celebrate” worksheet. Once complete hand out the “why we celebrate” information sheet that features more examples . . . . <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Revisit the WSROC website this time focusing religions within the school’s local community of Parramatta. Focus on the diversity of religions (naming each one listed in the table) and the numbers/percentage of people from each religion in the Parramatta community. ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The variety and diversity of different languages in the table (read out the most common languages spoken in Parramatta and the number of people who speak it, repeat with the least common languages as listed on the table).
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Highlight the total number of people who speak English only and the remaining non-English speaking population.
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Activity 2 – Structure of Information Reports ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students respond to teacher's questions, contributing and participating in class discussion about the structure of information reports. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students listen carefully to the information reports, noting the structure of the text type.

|||| . <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ask students to recall the structure of an information report. Write on board as a reminder:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Introduction - General statement to introduce the subject. Then classify or identify the key areas, aspects or features of the subject.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Detailed description - expanded descriptions of various aspects of the topic. (NB: emphasise that this section includes facts about the subject, set out in paragraphs. Subheadings can be used)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Optional conclusion - summary or comment.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read aloud the "My local community - Parramatta" information report emphasising the structure of the text type. || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students give examples of a noun. |||| . <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The purpose of this activity is to enable learners to look closely at how language works. Explain that noun groups are the word groups around the noun and they contain much of the key information in a text. In this activity, students will learn how factual texts depend on noun groups for description and detail. Students can learn to improve their writing through expanded noun groups.
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Activity 3 - Building Noun groups ==


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 1. Discuss and revise the idea of nouns. **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Nouns are words that name people, things, ideas or qualities (Droga & Humphrey, 2005). Give the students an idea of some nouns that they can see in their classroom or outside the room. Ask them all to give you a noun. Tell them that people’s names and place names are also nouns.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Once the students are confident naming nouns, look at the example information report text - "My local community - Parramatta". Go through the first paragraph and tell them the nouns: community, Parramatta, people, cultures, languages, religions, celebrations
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Divide the remaining text into paragraphs and give pairs or small groups of students one paragraph each to work with. Ask them to underline some nouns in their paragraph. It doesn’t matter if they miss some. Report back to the class.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">2. Discuss the idea of noun groups. *** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The words around the noun which describe qualities of the noun are called the noun group. For example, __//many vibrant cultures//__ is a noun group. "cultures" is the noun, "many" tells us how many, "vibrant" tells us “what like”. To help students to decide what words belong to the noun group have them ask ‘wh’ questions: what kind, what colour, what like, how big, how much, how many, which one, where. Noun groups may also come after the noun with a preposition or in a clause. For example in the sentence, "__They also celebrate several types of special celebrations throughout the year__", "Throughout the year" tells us when the celebrations occur and are qualifying words.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Put some nouns up on the board. Ask the class questions to elicit some words that qualify the noun. For example, write the words a table on the board. (__**T**__ teacher. __**S**__ student)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**T**__ What sort of table? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**S**__ A plastic table. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**T**__ Good. Write __a plastic table__. Is it a messy table or a tidy table? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**S**__ A messy table. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**T**__ Good. Write __a messy, plastic table__. Where is the table? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**S**__ In the classroom. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__**T**__ Good. Write __a messy, plastic table in the classroom.__


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Select a noun from the text and ask questions as in the above example to elicit the noun group.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Once students are confident ask them to find __a noun group__ from a selected sentence or paragraph in the information report text in pairs. Next, give each pair a paragraph and ask them to find __the noun groups__.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">As pairs of students finish the task give them some words relating to Languages, Celebrations or Religion in Parramatta and ask them to build their own noun groups. They should try and use different words to the ones in the example information report. Clarify that students can use some of these noun groups in their final information report on diversity in their local community - Parramatta.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. Discuss how noun groups are used in the text. In the example local community report the noun groups are descriptive and contain information. ** ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Concluding strategy: ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Students begin a first draft for a formal information report on the topic "Diversity in my local community - Parramatta" on the Writing Fun website, using the blank organiser proforma at the bottom left corner of the page. Students should incorporate the information gathered in Activity 1, bearing in mind the structure and grammatical characteristics inherent to the text type. Students finish their information report for homework. Once marked and checked by the teacher, and once final editing has occurred, the information report can be used in students' final, rich multimodal task. ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Assessment: ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Lesson Introduction__ determine (through observation) if students:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Contribute to the word bank on the class Y-chart and offer suitable and creative words to describe their experiences on the excursion.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Participate and contribute to class discussion in which they reflect on personal experiences of diversity in their community.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Comments in reflective journal are well thought out and reflective in nature. Reflections may derive from personal experiences or reflect on the experiences of their peers.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Lesson body__ Through observation and work samples determine if students are able to:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read and gather required information from the tables identifying the most common language other than English spoken in the Parramatta community from the WSROC table and the least common language spoken in the Parramatta community.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Identify their own home language and describe what they found most fascinating about the statistics.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Read and interpret statistical data from the tables of Religions in the Parramatta community.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Use well constructed sentences.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Identify nouns in the information report text on a familiar topic.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Identif noun groups in the information report text on a familiar topic.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Build their own noun groups based on familiar words on the topics of languages, celebrations and relgion in their local community.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Lesson Conclusion__ Collect worksamples of students' information reports they complete for homework and mark based on:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">structure as per the text type genre
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">use of a wide variety of well constructed noun groups ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Special Considerations or Contingency Plans: ==

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">For students who find the task of writing an information report difficult: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">1. Jointly construct some or all paragraphs of an information report on the topic after students have had many opportunities in a small group to use new vocabulary. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 2. Use this joint construction for reading and writing activities about information reports: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> reordering under correct headings, cloze on content words, completing half-sentences, highlighting theme words. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">3. Provide many opportunities for building up the field knowledge before writing. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 4. Select well-written information texts for the students. Discuss new vocabulary. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> 5. Provide a clear pro forma chart with relevant headings suited to the topic for students to <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> gather information. ||
 * ==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; line-height: normal;">Self-reflection: ==
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">were students engaged in the activities throughout the lesson?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Were the activities presented and sequenced to motivate students to learn and engage with the concepts?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Were the students motivated throughout the lesson?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Was the time allowed for each activitity sufficient/appropriate?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">What could be improved in the lesson? ||

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">References:
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Board of Studies, NSW. (1998). //K-6 English Syllabus Document.// Sydney: Author

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Droga, L. and Humphrey, S. (2005). //Grammar and Meaning: An introduction for Primary Teachers//. Target Texts: NSW

Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (2006). WSROC Census Profiles: What is our religion? Retrieved Semptember 24, 2010, from []

Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (2006). WSROC Census Profiles: What language do we speak at home? Retrieved Semptember 24, 2010, from [].