AusVELS History
Primary
Pat Hincks
20 August 2013
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Primary History: Common questions
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Is there a mandated time?
Does it have to be taught for a whole year?
What is the status of the elaborations?
What about multi-age/ composite classes?
Can we ‘integrate’ history with other
subjects?
• How can we fit it into a ‘crowded curriculum’?
2
History and time allocation
There is no time allocation which is mandated
for AusVELS History. However:
History F – 2 was written for 20 hours a year
History 3 – 6 was written for 40 hours a year
History 7 – 10 was written for 50 hours a year
Source: Curriculum Design Paper, ACARA,
http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum_design_and_development.html
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Humanities and Social Sciences
Curriculum
History
Geography
Civics and
Citizenship
Economics and
Business
F-2
20 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
NIL
NIL
3-4
40 hours per
year
40 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
NIL
5-6
40 hours per
year
40 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
7-8
50 hours per
year
50 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
9-10
50 hours per
year
50 hours per
year
20 hours per
year
50 hours per
year
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‘Integrating’ content
• We are not re-creating SOSE!
• Curriculum content can be meaningfully put
together based on a particular context or theme.
• Eg: Obvious links with geography – local history
and geography
• Eg: text selection in English e.g. The Rabbits
might lead to history of settlement of Australia.
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History: Structure
AusVELS History
Explanations
Level Descriptions
a) Overview of the Level Content
b) Key concepts of history understanding
c) Key inquiry questions
a) What will be taught in that level
b) Continuity and change, cause and
effect, perspectives, empathy and
significances, Sources
c) Inquiry questions frame teaching and
learning for that year
Content Descriptions
a) Historical knowledge and understanding
b) Historical skills
Knowledge and understanding strands
are year by year
Historical skills strands are in a three
level band from F – 2 and then in two
level bands
Achievement Standards
Focus on understanding and skills
Describe what students know and can
do at each level
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Historical sequence
Level
Content
Level F
Personal and Family
Histories
Level 1
Present and Past Family
Life
Level 2
The Past in the Present
The Foundation curriculum
provides a study of personal
and family histories.
Students learn about their
own history and that of
their family
The Level 1 curriculum
provides a study of
present and past family
life within the context of
the students’ own world.
The Level 2 curriculum provides
a study of local history.
Concepts of
historical
understanding
continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance
Key questions
What is my history and how
do I know?
What stories do other
people tell about the past?
How can stories of the past
be told and shared?
How has family life
changed or remained the
same over time?
What aspects of the past can
you see today? What do they tell
us?
How can we show that the What remains of the past are
present is different from
important to the local
or similar to the past?
community? Why?
How do we describe the
sequence of time?
How have changes in technology
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shaped our daily life?
Level
Content
Level 3
Community and Remembrance
Level 4
First Contacts
The Level 3 curriculum provides a study of
identity and diversity in both a local and
broader context…. students explore the
historical features and diversity of their
community as represented in symbols and
emblems of significance, and celebrations and
commemorations…
The Level 4 curriculum introduces world history and the
movement of peoples. Beginning with the history of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, students
examine European exploration and colonisation in
Australia and throughout the world up to the early
1800s.
Concepts of
historical
understanding
sources, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance.
Key questions
Who lived here first and how do we know?
Why did the great journeys of exploration occur?
How has our community changed? What
features have been lost and what features
have been retained?
What was life like for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander Peoples before the arrival of the Europeans?
Why did the Europeans settle in Australia?
What is the nature of the contribution made
by different groups and individuals in the
community?
How and why do people choose to remember
significant events of the past?
What was the nature and consequence of contact
between Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
Peoples and early traders, explorers and settlers?
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Level
Content
Level 5
The Australian Colonies
Level 6
Australia as a nation
Level 5 curriculum provides a study of
colonial Australia in the 1800s. Students look
at the founding of British colonies and the
development of a colony.
Level 6 [covers] the development of Australia as a nation,
particularly after 1900. Students explore the factors that
led to Federation and experiences of democracy and
citizenship over time…. Students learn about the way of life
of people who migrated to Australia and their
contributions….
Concepts of
historical
understanding
sources, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance.
Key questions
What do we know about the lives of people
in Australia’s colonial past and how do we
know?
How did an Australian colony develop over
time and why?
How did colonial settlement change the
environment?
What were the significant events and who
were the significant people that shaped
Why and how did Australia become a nation?
How did Australian society change throughout the
twentieth century?
Who were the people who came to Australia? Why did
they come?
What contribution have significant individuals and groups
made to the development of Australian society?
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Historical understanding
• Continuity and change: aspects of the past that
remained the same over certain periods of time and
aspects that are different
• Cause and effect used by historians to identify chains
of events and developments over time and includes
understanding of motivation and consequences
• Perspectives: understanding the different social,
cultural and intellectual contexts that shaped
people’s lives and actions in the past and the various
viewpoints on past events.
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Historical understanding
• Empathy is an understanding of the past from the point of
view of a particular individual or group, including an
appreciation of the circumstances they faced, and the
motivations, values and attitudes behind their actions
• Significance the importance that is assigned to particular
aspects of the past, eg events, developments, movements
and historical sites. Why do we remember some parts of
the past and not others?
• Sources – evidence of the past including artefacts, photos,
artworks, letters etc (Commonly primary and secondary)
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Elaborations
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Skills
F-2
3-4
5-6
Sequence historical people and events
Use historical terms
Sequence historical people and events
Use historical terms and concepts
Pose a range of questions about the past
Identify questions to inform an historical
inquiry
Identify and locate a range of relevant sources
Locate relevant information from sources
provided
Locate information related to inquiry questions
in a range of sources
Compare information from a range of sources
Identify different points of view
Identify points of view in the past and present
Develop a narrative about the past
Develop historical texts, particularly
narratives
Develop historical texts, particularly narratives
and descriptions, which incorporate source
material
Use a range of communication forms (oral,
graphic, written, role play) and digital
technologies
Use a range of communication forms (oral,
graphic, written) and digital technologies
Chronology, terms and concepts
Sequence familiar objects and events
Distinguish between the past, present and
future
Historical questions and research
Pose questions about the past using
sources provided
Analysis and use of sources
Explore a range of sources about the past
Identify and compare features of objects
from the past and present
Perspectives and interpretations
Explore a point of view
Explanation and communication
Use a range of communication forms (oral,
graphic, written) and digital technologies
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Achievement standards
• Level by level
• Two paragraphs 1) understanding 2) skills
• Designed to answer the question: What do I want
students to know and be able to do at this level?
• Used with the content descriptions to plan
curriculum. The Knowledge and understanding
and Skills strands provide the content that allows
students to reach the standards.
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Historical Knowledge and Understanding Level 5
The Australian Colonies
• Reasons (economic, political and social) for the establishment of British
colonies in Australia after 1800. (ACHHK093)
• The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that
influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of the
inhabitants (including Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples) and how the environment changed. (ACHHK094)
• The impact of a significant development or event on a colony; for
example, frontier conflict, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, internal
exploration, the advent of rail, the expansion of farming, drought.
(ACHHK095)
• The reasons people migrated to Australia from Europe and Asia, and the
experiences and contributions of a particular migrant group within a
colony. (ACHHK096)
• The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony;
for example, explorers, farmers, entrepreneurs, artists, writers,
humanitarians, religious and political leaders, and Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander peoples. (ACHHK097)
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Historical Skills Level 5
Chronology, terms and concepts
• Sequence historical people and events (ACHHS098)
• Use historical terms and concepts (ACHHS099)
Historical questions and research
• Identify questions to inform an historical inquiry (ACHHS100)
• Identify and locate a range of relevant sources (ACHHS101)
Analysis and use of sources
• Locate information related to inquiry questions in a range of sources
(ACHHS102)
• Compare information from a range of sources (ACHHS103)
Perspectives and interpretations
• Identify points of view in the past and present (ACHHS104)
Explanation and communication
• Develop texts, particularly narratives and descriptions, which incorporate
source materials (ACHHS105)
• Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital
technologies (ACHHS106)
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Level 5 Achievement Standard
By the end of Level 5, students identify the causes and
effects of change on particular communities, and
describe aspects of the past that remained the same.
They describe the different experiences of people in the
past. They describe the significance of people and events
in bringing about change.
Students sequence events and people (their lifetime) in
chronological order, using timelines. When researching,
students develop questions to frame an historical inquiry.
They identify a range of sources and locate and record
information related to this inquiry. They examine sources
to identify points of view. Students develop, organise and
present their texts, particularly narratives and
descriptions, using historical terms and concepts.
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AusVELS Resources and Support
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/foundation1
0/curriculum/index.aspx
Under History menu
• Summaries of differences between AusVELS
and VELS
• Planning templates
• Progression Points
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Progression point examples
• Assist teachers in the assessment and reporting of student achievement.
• In AusVELS, the progression point examples are provided in 0.5 increments.
Progression point examples are
designed to:
Progression point examples are NOT
designed to:
• illustrate how a student might show
evidence of progression
• be used in conjunction with other
tools such as annotated student work
samples
• be modified by schools so that the
examples reflect the curriculum
structure and timing of when
knowledge and skills are taught and
assessed
• replace standards
• be used as a definitive or mandated
set of progression measures for
student assessment
• be the only resource used by teachers
to assign progression points on
student reports
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Select aspect
of content
descriptions
Develop assessment tasks
that will allow students to
demonstrate aspects of
achievement standards
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Further resources
• Scootle: www.scootle.edu.au
– Can search on year levels and each dot point in
the Knowledge and understanding and Skills
strand.
– Contains interactive resources/images/
collections/film clips/education packs/TL resources
• History Teachers’ Association of Australia:
http://www.historyteacher.org.au/
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Primary History: Common questions
•
•
•
•
•
Is there a mandated time?
Does it have to be taught for a whole year?
What is the status of the elaborations?
What about multi-age/ composite classes?
Can we ‘integrate’ history with other
subjects?
• How can we fit it into a ‘crowded curriculum’?
23
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment
Authority (VCAA)
www.vcaa.vic.edu.au
Pat Hincks
Humanities and Social Sciences Curriculum
Manager
hincks.patricia.m@edumail.vic.gov.au
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