STUDIES IN ENGLISH EDUCATION 2

EDUC 3062
KELLIE CROGAN 110198555
Curriculum Unit Design

Mentor Text: Refugees Illustrated and Written by David Miller

Inter-text: Refugee by Chloe Taylor

Focus of Curriculum Unit

The aim of the curriculum unit is for children to explore the theme of refugees by identifying
and comparing how point-of-view influences the portrayal of protagonists in narrative texts
and an acrostic poem (McDonald 2013, p. 69). This relates to the standards needing to be
met by the end of year 1 as part of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting
Authority (ACARA); English where the literature strand will specifically be used as the
foundation for the unit (ACARA 2018). Children will illustrate and write a personal response,
identify vocabulary that represents point of view and create a class dictionary of terms
(ACELT1581 2018). The children will list what they would take with them to live in a new
country and lastly the children will take part in a character interview (ACELT1581;
ACELT1582 2018). Specifically in the last phase of the unit children will analyse an acrostic
poem constructed in a first person perspective and identify how the author portrays the
focal character’s traits and motivations (McDonald 2013, p. 69). Students will take part in
conducting a mock character interview where they will devise questions to ask the character
and make connections through the responses to the character and their own lives
(ACELT1582 2018; Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 130). The interview questions will be created
in small groups as part of an inquiry where they will explore how interviews are conducted
and why through engaging with digital and paper based resources (Fellowes & Oakley 2014;
Henderson 2004).

Description of Curriculum Unit

Prior Knowledge
Previously, in the first and second sections of the unit the students have read the mentor
text ‘Refugees’ by David Miller, the inter-texts ‘I’m Australian Too’ by Mem Fox and ‘My
name is not Refugee’ by Kate Milner. The student’s prior experiences with the unit are an
awareness of the theme ‘refugees’, and the creation of a class dictionary of terms of the
vocabulary in the prior literary texts. Students have made connections to their own

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experiences responding empathetically to the theme and readings whilst implementing
personal responses. Within this last section of the unit, characterisation is discussed and
how the different point-of-views used by the authors influence what is known about the
characters (McDonalds 2013, p. 69). A short inquiry of ‘what is a question’ will be carried
out, ending with a character interview with the students (Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 130).

Revisiting the Mentor Text

The first phase will revisit the mentor text via a read aloud; students will engage with the
text and participate with the discussion of what the students already know about the
characters, what parts in the narrative tells us about the characters and what do readers
have to infer (Derewianka & Jones 2012, p. 73). This will assist students in re-familiarising
themselves with the characters, themes and story line.

The teacher will introduce the book, looking firstly at the front and back covers and pose
questions to students about why the images were chosen. This strategy means students will
participate with the story and be included in the read aloud. In certain stages in the text the
teacher will commit to a running commentary making inferences, posing questions and
prompting students to interpreting the text through the story and world (McDonald 2013, p.
2). This supports engagement and attention to the narrative text as the story progresses as
well as gives them different ways of interpreting the text using their own experiences as
resources to their learning (McDonald 2013, p. 3). These questions will be open in order to
allow students to expand on ideas and make text-to-text, text-to-self and text-to-world
connections (Mackay, Ricks & Young 2017, p. 179). Specifically, characters traits and
motivations will be looked at to provide explicit teachings on the parts of the story that tells
the reader about the character (McDonald 2013, p. 69). If the teacher finds that simplifying
the question is needed to support students understanding and engagement, the field of the
story will be drawn upon and intentional scaffolding will follow (Derewianka & Jones 2012,
p. 63).

Introducing the inter-text

This phase consists on introducing the inter-text and making text-to-text connections to the
mentor text (Mackay, Ricks & Young 2017, p. 180). Firstly, a read aloud will allow students
to engage with the poem, the teacher will act as mediator for the text giving background

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EDUC 3062
KELLIE CROGAN 110198555
information on the author to support students to understand the poem and make
connections and inferences about the focal character (McDonald 2013, p. 145). Once read
the teacher will use guided talk to begin a collaborative discussion which will provide
students with a meaningful understanding of the structural connections and comprehension
of the text (McDonald 2013, p. 4). The teacher will model to students how the poem
influenced them and why, drawing on the vocabulary used in the text. Students will then be
prompted to share their feelings towards the text and vocabulary will be added to the
dictionary of terms if needed. The teacher will pose questions to students about how the
focal characters in the inter-text and mentor text are the same/different. According to
McDonald (2013, p. 4) using literary talk promotes meaningful comprehension, more
enjoyment for reading and promotes authors as role models for students.

The teacher will sort students into small groups with students of different abilities in each
(Mackay, Ricks & Young 2017, p. 183). The groups will be given a hard copy of the poem and
discuss and record a time where they had similar feelings as the characters in either the
acrostic poem or narrative using a mode that they feel comfortable with (whiteboard,
writing in book, drawing, drama) (Edminston 2007, p. 339). The students will be able to sit
where comfortable to support engagement and independence with support from the
teacher to assist with problem solving or conflicts if they arise. The teacher will be making
observations on the task, and having conferences with the groups to discuss their ideas and
modes of recording (Derewianka & Jones 2012, p. 168). The teacher will be able to use this
time to intentionally teach at the student’s levels and provide next steps for the groups to
support their learning. The teacher will use prompting open questions relating to the
discussions had at the read aloud and the mentor text. The groups will come back together
and share their recordings and if needed the teacher will support them through modelling.

What is a question?
The inter-text will be read again and as a class the students and teacher will use a K-W-L
chart to find out what is ‘known’ about the character, what we ‘would like to know’ and
what I ‘learned’ (Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 127). What is a question and what does a
question need will be posed by the teacher and the discussion will continue looking at both
vocabulary and grammar. In the same groups as before the students will research using

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paper-based and online resources as well as the school community to discover the what,
where, why, when, who and how. The teacher and SSO’s will need to explicitly teach what
to look for such as a question mark, to identify questions and students will record what they
find. The students have prior knowledge in researching using online and paper based
resources through previous units.

Students will individually come up with one to two questions to ask a peer to find out more
about them and practice asking questions. In pairs students will ask each other the
questions and may record what they found out. They will then move back into their small
groups and come up with one question for each student of what they want to know from
the character of the inter-text (Pantaleo 2006; Mackay, Ricks & Young 2017). They will
practice these questions with each other and record them in preparation for the interview
(Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 130). The teacher will move around to the groups supporting
students and remind them to seek help from either peers or the teacher (Nichols 2018).

Character Interview
The teacher will act as the focal character in the inter-text and will read the poem to the
students. In groups the students will come up and ask the character their questions with
each student asking one question (Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 130). The teacher will devise
a response that meets the characters traits and will insist on the students support to help
her ‘stay in character’ by asking questions about the characters traits and motivations
(Fellowes & Oakley 2014; McDonald 2013).

Materials and Resources

To ensure the curriculum unit is inclusive for all students, many different tools and
resources will be used to support the student’s needs and learning styles (Edminston 2007;
Lapp et al 2007). To accommodate for students with visual impairments, the inter-text will
be displayed on the smart board and given to children as a hard copy (Edminston 2007;
Lennox 2014). The mentor text is paper based but will be scanned and used on the smart
board to support students when looking closely at character traits and the importance of
the images. Digital resources in the form of video interviews will support students to engage
with texts and these can be used as audio to accommodate for needs (Fellowes & Oakley, p.

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541). Community based resources will support the students learning where community
members will be invited in to talk about their lives as part of the mock interviews for
children to practice their question asking (Fellowes & Oakley 2014, p. 130). The multimodal
approach in this unit provides students with adaptations and multiple pathways to complete
the outcomes and allows for diverse needs to be met (Henderson 2004, p. 13).

Assessment

Authentic assessment that is purposeful, meaningful and inclusive is needed in the

classroom in order for students to be able to meet outcomes successfully (Walker 2012, p.
25). Observations and conferences will be used to assess students formatively throughout
the unit (Miller, Knips & Goss 2013, p. 88). This information will allow the teacher to gage if
the work is meeting the students needs and if adaptations need to be made (James 2005, p.
645). A checklist will be used to ensure that the teacher has an idea of where each child is at
and to provide relevant information for the summative assessment (Walker 2012, p. 25).
The conferences will be used to provide students with SMART goals that are individualised
and reflect the pathway that meets the student’s abilities to meet outcomes (Aerila &
Ronkko 2014; Nichols 2018). When students are involved in the goal making process they
are more motivated to meet them (Aerila & Ronkko 2014, p. 354). These goals are specific,
measureable, assessable, relevant and give students ample time to achieve them (Nichols
2018; Aerila & Ronkko 2014).

The character interview will be the summative assessment piece of the unit. A rubric will
assess how the students have engaged with the inter-text and mentor text, in regards to
how they participate in class discussions and in the small group (McDonald 2013, p. 2). The
characters traits and motivations which were found will be assessed based on the questions
asked in the interview (Fellowes & Oakley 2014; Pantaleo 2004). To ensure the assessment
is authentic all the information gathered whilst carrying out all sections of the unit will be
collated and used to make the final assessments of the student’s meeting of the intended
outcomes (Walker 2012; James 2005; Miller, Knips & Goss 2013).

Principles of Inclusive Literacy Teaching (346/400)

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EDUC 3062
KELLIE CROGAN 110198555
This unit has been designed to illustrate the principles of inclusive literacy teaching to
promote inclusion of all students and their abilities (Edminston 2007; Nichols 2018). These
principles are drawn upon to ensure the unit intends success for all students and is reflected
on constantly to make adaptations as they are needed to maintain an inclusive approach
(Nichols 2018; Henderson 2004). The intention of the unit is that every student will grow
and improve, if growth is not seen than the unit must be adapted to meet the students
needs (Nichols 2018). Continual assessments of the children via observations and
conferences will be used to critically question whether the direction, speed or learning
experiences need to be changed to better accommodate for the student’s abilities
(Henderson 2004, p. 13). All students come with their own set of resources and it is the
teacher’s role to seek these out, acknowledge and work with them (Nichols 2018; Lapp et al
2007; Henderson 2004). Through building positive reciprocal relationships with the students
and the parents, teachers can learn about the student’s prior experience as well as their
culture, background, values and beliefs (Lapp et al 2007, p. 12). In order for all students to
succeed in this unit the learning outcomes are adaptable and have multiple pathways so
they are achievable for every student (Nichols 2018; Walker 2012). The multimodal
approach and flexible nature of the unit allows constant changes to be made (Edminston
2007, p. 339).

Authentic assessment enables children at any level to achieve the intended outcomes by
integrating the learning in ways that meets their needs (Walker 2012, p. 25). The student’s
abilities are contextual and so again the constant assessment of students allows teachers to
at all times have an understanding of where the children are at and where they need to go
next (McDonald 2013, p. 3). This also supports all students to feel safe, comfortable,
respected and recognised, as teachers are friendly, approachable, active listeners and create
individual SMART goals to ensure they are successful in their learning (Lapp et al 2007;
Nichols 2018). This promotes help-seeking as the class environment that has been set up is
friendly, welcoming, accepting and relationship based (Lapp et al 2007, p. 14). As well as the
nature of the learning experiences and teacher’s attitude emphasises peer support, social
interactions and discussions as well as role modelling and scaffolding at an individual level
(Nichols & Bayetto 2004, p. 113).

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KELLIE CROGAN 110198555
Word Count: 2 001

Reference List

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Reading Teacher, vol. 68, no. 5, pp. 349-356.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2016, The Australian
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Derewianka, B & Jones, P, 2012, Teaching Language in Context, 1st ed, Oxford University
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Edminston, B 2007, ‘Mission to Mars: Using drama to make a more inclusive classroom for
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Fellowes, J & Oakley, G 2014, Language, Literacy and Early Childhood Education, 2nd edn,
Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, VIC.

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James, D 2005, ‘Multiple dimensions of literacy and conceptions of readers: Toward a more
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Lennox, S 2014, ‘The potential of poetry for early literacy learning: Why, how and what?’,
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MacDonald, C & Figueredo, L 2010, ‘Closing the gap early: Implementing a literacy
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MacKay, K, Ricks, P & Young, T 2017, ‘Supporting young writers with award-winning books’,
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McDonald, L 2013, A literature Companion for Teachers, Newtown, NSW.

Miller, D 2005, Refugees, Lothian Books, Port Melbourne.

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Miller, S, Knips, M & Goss, S 2013, ‘Changing the game of literature with authentic
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Milner, K 2017, My name is not Refugee, Faber, Factory, UK.

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Pantaleo, S 2004, ‘Exploring grade 1 student’s textual connections’, Journal of Research in

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Pantaleo, S 2006, ‘Readers and writers as intertexts: exploring the intertextualities in

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<https://www.slideshare.net/HeathfieldSchool/international-links-power-point-oslo>.

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no. 1, pp. 25-27.