Planning Tool #5
INTEGRATING YOUR PROJECT
INTO CURRICULUM
Curriculum planning could include the school principal, lead teachers and lead artistic personnel so that
everyone is clear that the project plan is aligned with school strategic priorities, is supported from above
and has meaningful links to the concept and processes.
Below is one possible method of integrating your project into curriculum. Adapt, re-invent or improvise on the
example to create a model that works for you. The example below uses the concept shown in Planning Tool
#4 Getting to Your Concept. It demonstrates a cross-curriculum project for Year 10 students. This is intended
to demonstrate a complex example – it may be that yours is much simpler in comparison.
A) FIND THE LEARNING LINKS IN YOUR CONCEPT & PROCESS
If you have worked through Planning Tool #4 Getting to Your Concept, you will have created a Big Idea,
Statement of Process & Creative Outcome and Rationale for your project. Now is the time to mine that for
learning opportunities.
Example of Learning Links in a Concept:
‘One Perfect Day’ is a project investigating the human search for perfection – from the human genome
project and plastic surgery to the utopian society.
Video artist, Hoang Pham will work with Year 10 students and teachers researching and gathering images,
films and sounds across three intersecting lines of enquiry – perfection in science, the perfect body and
the perfect society.
The students, teachers and artist will then share and shape their diverse material to tell the story of our
struggle for perfection in a video and sound montage.
The Year 10 students at Greenville High have been working with the student wellbeing officer at the school
on a targeted project about healthy self-image. The artist, Hoang Pham has explored in his personal practice
the notion of a constructed identity in a society which increasingly proscribes limited models for ‘success’.
The ‘One Perfect Day’ project will allow us to both broaden, deepen and provide challenging content in an
exploration of the relationships between individuals, groups and societal expectations.
See overleaf for curriculum example.
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Planning Tool #5
Integrating Your Project Into Curriculum
AusVELS, Level 10, The Australian Curriculum in Victoria (at the time of publication)
PHYSICAL, PERSONAL AND
SOCIAL LEARNING
Health and Physical
Education
Health Knowledge and
Promotion
Identify and describe a range of
social, cultural factors that
influence the development of
personal identity and values.
Interpersonal Development
Building Social Relationships
Demonstrate awareness of
complex social conventions,
evaluate own behaviours and
employ strategies to avoid
and/or resolve conflict.
SCIENCE
Science Understanding:
Biological Sciences
Explore the roles of DNA and
genes in determining patterns of
inheritance.
Science as a Human
Endeavour
Consider ethical issues around
genetic engineering.
BIG IDEA:
PERFECTION
– DOES IT
EXIST?
Working in Teams
Work collaboratively to negotiate
roles, delegate tasks and
complete complex tasks in
teams.
Personal Learning
Identify the ethical frameworks
that underpin their own and
others’ beliefs and values.
THE HUMANITIES – HISTORY
Historical Knowledge and
Understanding
Analyse impact of changes in
technology, medicine and
communication on Australian
identity.
Historical Skills
Evaluate a range of primary
sources depicting images of
Australian women.
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INTERDISCIPLINARY
LEARNING
Thinking Processes
Reasoning, Processing and
Inquiry
Build the knowledge, skills and
behaviours required to enable
students to analyse and
evaluate information they
encounter, question information
and develop opinions based on
informed judgements.
ICT
ICT for Communicating
Use ICT to communicate with
others with the purpose of
seeking and discussing
alternative views.
THE ARTS (Media)
Creating and Making
Develop ideas, skills, techniques
and processes to create and
present image and sound
montage.
Exploring and Responding
Students research issues
relating to ‘body image’ and the
visual media’s role in the
construction of the ‘ideal body
form’, then they identify, analyse
and discuss images found in
popular magazines that
contribute to ‘body image’
issues.
Planning Tool #5
Integrating Your Project Into Curriculum
B) IDENTIFY HOW THE DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES (SUBJECTS) MIGHT INTERSECT FOR YOUR
STUDENTS (in this case, Year 10 students)
For example you could:
 Create Individual Learning Plans for the duration of the project identifying the strongest linked disciplines
for each student.
 Approach the Year 10 Science and Humanities coordinators and ask if they would like to use the project
as the stimulus for a linked unit in their classroom.
 (In schools which have the fl exibility) run a project-based learning (inquiry) unit for a term integrated
across all of the disciplines that have strong links.
C) CREATE SOME DRIVING QUESTIONS & KEY UNDERSTANDINGS FOR EACH DISCIPLINE
(SUBJECT)
Example – Science
 Science as a Human Endeavour.
 Why genetic research is important.
 Consider ethical issues around genetic engineering.
Example Question
Should we ever genetically engineer the ‘perfect human’?
Key Understandings
 The underlying values, skills and ethical issues facing scientists.
 How people work with and through science. How people gain insight into science as a human activity and
the relationship between science, technology and society both now and in the future.
D) CREATE A CURRICULUM PLAN FOR YOUR PROJECT
Outline and identify the:
 Assessment and reporting processes for the project.
 Learning activities the students will undertake (what they will do in workshops with the artist, research in
the classroom and field and the work they will make as a result of gathering and shaping the content they
generate).
 Key understandings, skills and new knowledge you anticipate the students will achieve through these
activities.
 Standards for each AusVELS domain (subject area) at the appropriate AusVELS Level for the specific
group of students.
See Planning Tool
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#6 Example Primary Curriculum Plan: Message of The Jungle Drum
#7 Example Secondary Curriculum Plan: Watercourse