Activity: This is what we believe

YEAR: 5

OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVITY

For this Civics activity students will work in groups to create a poster that shows the shared
beliefs of a particular group that was present during the gold rush in Victoria.
CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
Civics and Citizenship:
Why people work in groups to achieve their aims, and how they can express their shared
beliefs and values and exercise influence (ACHCK027)
GENERAL CAPABILITIES:
Literacy
Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing

Comprehend texts

Word Knowledge

Understand learning area vocabulary

Critical and Creative Thinking

Inquiring identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas

Organise and process information

Identify and clarify information and ideas

ICT
Creating with ICT

Generate ideas, plans and processes

Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

STATEMENT OF IDENTIFICATION
Students will be using the literacy, critical and creative thinking and ICT general capabilities
in this activity because of the creative and literary nature. The students need to have an
understanding of the learning area vocabulary and be able to comprehend the facts in the
fact sheets given to them. They need to be able to process the information and identify and
clarify their ideas on their posters. They are to use ICT to create their poster and generate
their ideas.
CROSS CURRICULUM PRIORITES
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
Culture:
OI 6: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have lived in Australia for tens of thousands of years and experiences can be viewed
through historical, social and political lenses.

Asia and Australias engagement with Asia

Asia-Australia Engagement
OI 8: Australians of Asian heritage have influenced Australias history and continue to influence its dynamic culture and society.

INQUIRY QUESTION: How did the miners work together at the Gold Fields and what were

their shared beliefs?

TEACHER KNOWLEDGE
For this activity teachers need to know what groups were found in the Victorian gold rush
and the different beliefs and cultures they were involved with and believed in. Teachers
need to have had a previous lesson with students discussing beliefs and values and how
important different beliefs and values are to different groups and how these values and
beliefs affect relationships with others. Teachers need to have an understanding of the app
being used also to assist students with their ideas.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to:
Describe how groups worked together at the gold fields

Identify similarities and differences between members of groups and their beliefs

LEARNING INTENTIONS:

We will create a poster to represent how groups worked together on the gold fields
We will identify the similarities and differences between different groups

RESOURCES:
Phoster app
iPads
Fact sheets about different groups found at the gold fields
Cards identifying different groups found at the gold fields.
A4 paper
Pencils
STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
1. One member of your group is to come up to the board and choose a group that was
found in the gold fields
2. When your group member has chosen the group you are, another group member is
to collect the fact sheet on that group from the front of the classroom
3. As a group you are to read the fact sheet and discuss any beliefs or cultural
identifiers found
4. As a group, design a poster on a piece of A4 paper that expresses these beliefs and
identifiers
5. One member of the group is to write down what the symbols and pictures on your
poster represent
6. As a group you are to design your poster on the Phoster app which will then be
shared with the class
7. Come to the carpet as a class when you are done and we will discuss the similarities
and differences between each group using your posters.

ASSESSMENT/EVALUTION OF STUDENT LEARNING:

Assessment for learning will be undertaken in this lesson as the teacher will use the posters
and written representations of the symbols to gain an understand of where the students in
the group are at with understanding the importance of beliefs and values within the
Australian Gold Rush period. These posters allow students to look back on their
understanding of beliefs as the unit progresses and they can come back to these posters and
add any changes that they encounter as the unit progresses.
LESSON MODIFICATION TO ACCOMMODATE INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS:
For students who do not work well in groups or have trouble staying on task, they will be
able to complete this task on their own. For students who cannot quite grasp the concept of
beliefs will be asked to draw a poster or picture depicting what they believe then discussing
with the student then if their beliefs align with other groups beliefs.