Planning in Religious Education
Some considerations
Who are the students I teach?
Class context: What do I need to take
into account when planning for my
particular group of students? Consider
cultural and religious backgrounds,
learning needs of students…
How will I teach?
BCE model of pedagogy:
Principles and
practices of learning
and teaching that
leads to success for
all learners.
Identify the Content Descriptions
• What Religious Knowledge and Deep
Understandings will the unit cover?
(What will students know?)
• What will students be able to do as a
result of their new knowledge? (Skills)
Line of Sight
• Read the Year Level Description and the
Achievement Standard and identify the
learning that matches the Content
Descriptions grouped together for this unit.
This enables the overarching ideas to be
identified, which are the deeper concepts
that need to be taught through the unit.
Learning Intentions
• A learning intention describes what
students should know, understand or be
able to do by the end of a lesson or
series of lessons. Learning intentions
identify new learning and focus on
transferable skills.
This is what
students will learn
throughout the unit
Be specific and name
what you expect to
cover
Through this unit of work students will:
• Investigate some of the challenges (poverty, isolation, access to
Eucharist…) and the impact they had on Catholics in colonial
Australia
• Engage students in the story of Mary MacKillop
• Explore Mary MacKillop’s letters and identification of how her
challenges in life shaped her faith and core beliefs
• Research how Mary MacKillop shaped and strengthened the
community of believers in her time
• Investigate ways that Mary MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens
and shapes the lives and faith of believers today
The design of learning intentions starts with the answers to these questions.
What do I want students to know?
What do I want students to understand?
What do I want students to be able to do?
Success criteria
are directly
related to the
learning intention.
Learning
intentions are
informed by the
curriculum.
Students self assess
in light of the
learning intentions
and the success
criteria.
Teaching and learning
opportunities are
designed to provide
students with
opportunities to meet
the learning intentions.
Learning Intentions
Peer feedback
reflects the learning
intentions and the
success criteria.
Feedback is based
on the learning
intention and the
success criteria.
Teacher questioning
always keeps the
learning intention in
focus.
The assessment task
/ activity matches
the learning criteria.
From: https://kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/LandT/LearningTeaching/Pedagogy/Pages/LearningIntentions.aspx
Diagram adapted from http://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au
Success Criteria
• Success criteria describe what successful
learning looks like at the end; how the
learner will know when they have
reached/achieved the learning intention
successfully.
Learning Intentions
Success Criteria
Through this unit of work students will
be able to:
By the end of this unit of work students
will be able to:
•
Investigate some of the
challenges (poverty, isolation, access to
Eucharist…) and the impact they had on
Catholics in colonial Australia
•
Describe one challenge faced
by Catholics in colonial Australia
•
Engage students in the story of
Mary MacKillop
•
Retell the story of Mary
MacKillop
•
Explore Mary MacKillop’s
letters and identification of how her
challenges in life shaped her faith and
core beliefs
•
Describe how Mary
MacKillop’s writings identify some of her
challenges and core beliefs in life
(especially her advocacy for the poor)
•
Research how Mary MacKillop
shaped and strengthened the community
of believers in her time
•
Describe a way that Mary
MacKillop shaped and strengthened the
community of believers in her time
•
Investigate ways that Mary
MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens
and shapes the lives and faith of
believers today
•
Identify a way that Mary
MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens
and shapes the lives and faith of
believers today
If success criteria are to be any use to
students, they need to
•be written in language that students are likely to understand
•be limited in number so students are not overwhelmed by the
scope of the task
•focus on the learning and not on aspects of behaviour (e.g. paying
attention, contributing, meeting deadlines etc.)
•be supported, where necessary, by exemplars or work samples
which make their meaning clear
•created, ideally, with input from students so that they have greater
understanding and ownership.
Are directly
related to the
learning intention.
Are specific to an
activity.
Should be written in
language that
students are likely
to understand.
Are discussed and
agreed with students
prior to beginning the
learning activity.
Success
Criteria
Are used as the basis
for peer feedback
and self-assessment.
Are used as the
basis for feedback.
Describe what
successful learning
looks like.
Can be a series of
dot points or in the
form of a rubric.
From: https://kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/LandT/LearningTeaching/Pedagogy/Pages/SuccessCriteria.aspx
As a teacher you are responsible
for identifying the learning
intentions and the success
criteria. However, the success
criteria can be written in more
student friendly language after
student input.
Assessment
Assessing student learning is an integral part
of the school classroom. It improves learning
and informs teaching: it is the process through
which teachers identify, gather and interpret
information about student achievement and
learning in order to improve, enhance and
plan for further learning.
Assessment should:
•include the collection of assessment data
used to monitor a student’s progress
against the curriculum
•assist teachers to evaluate the success of
their teaching approaches
•provide evidence to inform students,
parents and the system about student
progress and achievement.
It is important to keep data to assist in making professional
judgements about whether each student has achieved the
success criteria, or whether they are ‘above standard’ for
each unit of work.
‘Above standard’ would be indicated by students
demonstrating one or more of the following:
•
Greater depth of knowledge
•
Greater depth of understanding
•
Greater sophistication of skills
Assessment plays a key role in
determining:
Where the learner is right now
Where the learner is going
How to get there
Therefore, diagnostic, formative and
summative assessment are all essential
elements for planning in religious
education.
Student self assessment is now regarded as vital to
success at school.
For strategies for assessment as learning and self
assessment see these resources.
Teachers will use a range of different
assessment strategies to ascertain what
each student has learnt (actual
achievement) and will make judgments
about the extent and quality of each
student’s achievement in relation to the
Religious Education Curriculum
achievement standards.
Reporting
• Reporting to parents will provide information
about a student’s actual achievement against the
achievement standards. The use of Religious
Education Curriculum achievement standards as
a common reference point for reporting to
parents will contribute to consistency in
reporting in RE across all BCE and
Archdiocesan schools.
• There is flexibility in terms of what
information may be displayed on the
report (how helpful will it be to
parents?).
• The report informs parents about
what their child has learnt in religious
education (not their behaviour or their
perceived level of faith).
Fertile Questions
What are the assumptions that students come with
that you wish to challenge? Construct a question
that challenges one of these assumptions, ensure it
is open-ended and make it connected to the
learner by including a personal pronoun such as
‘I’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘me’, and it will probably meet the 6
criteria for a fertile question.
An example from a year 1 class:
Assumption of the majority of students: Prayer is about
talking to God (it doesn’t have anything to do with
listening)
Fertile question: Why would God want to talk to me?
The result: Through engaging in gentle dialogue,
meditation and other prayer activities, by the end of the
unit students were saying: “If God wants to talk to me,
then God must really love me”. These students had
moved to a whole new point in their faith journeys.
The key to developing a good fertile
question is determining where students’
thinking needs to be challenged. If the
majority of students think that Mary
MacKillop is not really that relevant for us
today because she lived a long time ago,
then a possible fertile question could be:
Why is Mary MacKillop still important for
us today?
To access more resources about
fertile questions go to:
the Brisbane Catholic Education RE
Curriculum site
Connections to other learning areas
• Look for connections with other learning areas, the
general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities.
• NOTE: We do not want to integrate one into the
other. Rather, we want to make legitimate
connections, ensuring that students will still be able
to learn what they are entitled to learn in all areas .
Begin with the approved curriculum
Example: History – Year 5
CONTENT DESCRIPTION:
HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
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)
HISTORICAL SKILLS
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)
What do I need to teach and what are
students entitled to learn?
When you have identified what students are
entitled to learn through each learning area
then you can make decisions about how to
connect the learning areas (teaching what is
relevant at the same time).
Connections to the Religious Life
of the School
Sometimes the RE
Curriculum needs
to make explicit
links to one or
more elements of
the Religious Life
of the School.
Pedagogy
Principles
High expectations - for successful learning for
every learner
Equity and excellence – in every classroom
through evidence based practice
Continuity of learning – through access to
learning entitlement for every learner
The Religion Curriculum P-12 promotes
inquiry learning, a learner centred
pedagogical approach to learning and
teaching, that aligns closely with the
directions taken in the Australian
Curriculum.
Inquiry Learning
Some questions to consider:
• How can we document our planning in RE so
that inquiry learning does not look like a
linear process?
• As a teacher, where am I on the continuum
for how I implement inquiry learning?
(Structured, guided, open, student initiated.)
Some resources for Inquiry Learning
Go to Resource Link to find a
https://kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/ResourceLink/resources/RL
productions/inquiringminds/Pages/InquiringMinds.aspx
Resources from Kath Murdoch
Articles, information and websites
What is inquiry?
What does an inquiry classroom look like? Overview of
inquiry
Digital Learning
• Religious Education in the Archdiocese of
Brisbane seeks to engage students in the
critical, creative, and responsible use of
digital tools which is an important
component of digital citizenship. This
enables them to express their learning in
rich and relevant ways.
In planning, the question to ask is: Where
could teaching and learning be enhanced
through the use of digital tools?
Some resources:
Web 2 tools
Cool tools for schools
Digital tools to support inquiry learning
Apps and websites to support inquiry learning
Web 2 tools and edtech
Dialogical teaching and learning
• Religious Education needs to be more than a
series of activities. Deep learning occurs
through conversations – reciprocal dialogue
between teacher and students. Consideration
needs to be given to the questions and
opportunities for dialogue that are an intrinsic
part of teaching and learning opportunities.
Dialogue with students about their own learning
increases participation in their learning. Quality
conversations assist students to move from
knowing content to achieving a depth of
understanding. Consider how key comments and
phrases used by students through quality
conversations could be recorded (e.g. web 2 tools)
to assist in making professional judgements about
whether each student has achieved the success
criteria, or whether they are ‘above standard’.
Scripture
Core Scripture texts taught throughout the year
need to cover the following three elements:
• A study of the world of the text
• A study of the world behind the text
• An exploration of the world in front of the text
See BCE RE Curriculum
Teacher evaluation and student
feedback
• Spending even 5 minutes recording your evaluation
of the unit in key areas can be enormously helpful
for informing future planning and professional
dialogue. Target key areas (where things went
really well or where further support would be most
beneficial)
• As the target audience for our planning, how can
appropriate feedback from students be obtained?