Elly Kalenjuk 2019

UBD Understanding By Design (Backwards Planning)

CASE STUDY

The following information has been collated to explicate a

sequence of teaching and learning that occurred in my year 1/2
teaching space in 2014. This was a student-led process guided by
teacher-constructed framework and a ‘living documented’ planner.
The work was highly structured and strategic with accountability on
the parts of student and teacher explicated along the way. Key
resources were spontaneously added as the work unfolded and in
response to the children and their connections.

It was not anticipated that the students would be so highly

engaged nor that they would feel so strongly about environmental
protection as a direct consequence of this study. A spot on the
local RRR radio and a commercially published ‘anthology of
comics’ were used to share the impact of rubbish on the water
systems. The comics were sold at a homegrown festival to raise
money for a local marine ecology research centre.

Marine Ecosystems, Year 1/2

Team-Teaching

School Strategic Plan (SSP) Link

Whole School focus

• Writing Improvement
• Student Engagement

F-6 Inquiry Planner (Science focus)

Whole school context

Big Idea

◊ Biodiversity

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◊ Ecosystems as living animals and their environments in a symbiotic

relationship

Pedagogical Approach
Instructional Model: E5
Engage
Explore
Explain
Elaborate
Evaluate

Victorian Curriculum
Science: Biological Sciences (curriculum level target ranges)

Content Description
Level F-2
• Living things have a variety of external features and live in different
places where their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are
met

• Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves

Level 3/4
• Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and
can be distinguished from non-living things

• Different living things have different life cycles and depend on each
other and the environment to survive

Writing Focus
Genre/s
1. Factual Text
2. Comic Writing

Learning Experiences
Engage
Locate base knowledge and student voice
◊ Brainstormed prior knowledge with marine sea life.
◊ Explicated lived world experiences
◊ List known facts and knowledge

Use of ICT
Activate knowledge and deepen engagement
• Use of Interactive whiteboard to launch range of informative videos
• Build shared interests and understandings

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Children chose:

◊ ‘The Kids Should See This’

◊ ‘The Monterey Bay Aquarium’

◊ Google Earth Reef View

Questions and wonderings

◊ Children listed range of questions and wonderings

Explore
Focus the work ahead
Use art materials to communicate your base knowledge and begin to develop
own understandings
• Select and create a sea creature to study
English
Reading
Resources to research animals and habitats

Educators printed some curated information of the animals and their homes
children chose to investigate

Examples of creatures Children chose to study

◊ Sea slugs
◊ Clown fish
◊ Vampire squids
◊ Plankton
◊ Krill
Example of habitats
◊ Deep sea
◊ Beach
◊ Seagrass
◊ Coral reef
◊ Kelp forest
◊ Mangrove
◊ Estuary
Create Box diorama of marine creature in its habitat

◊ Children labeled with fact boxes

◊ Included bioluminescence and other features discovered.
◊ Discovered concept of adaptation

Explain
Explicit Teaching to build capacity via Shared Inquiry

English
Writing
Engaged writing process

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• Modelled Writing on Factual text

• Design assessment rubric for clear expectations
• Direct instruction at point of need
Used box diorama as planning tool to write information text.

Community Engagement
◊ Family experts
◊ Local art studio

Dr Bridget Green (Marine biolidy Tasmania) via Skype who shared her
knowledge and experience on:
◊ Orcas
◊ Giant Clams

Dr. Zarina Jayaswal

Senior marine ecologist for the Navy

Dr. Anthony Boxshall

Port Phillip Bay
Excellent questions and rich engagement

Engaged the services of Squish Face Comics to build capacity in comic writing
genre

Elaborate
Science Excursion
Hands On Experience
• Port Phillip Eco Centre Trip to Port Philip Bay to explore beach and
ecosystem
• Consolidate connection between animal and habitat
• Extended understanding to environmental impact
• Students realise ethical and moral impetus to enforce
• Created an anthology of comics with messages of ways to save the
environment

Evaluate
Self-assessment using Rubric
Publishing party with parents and family – feedback sheet for each body of work:
◊ Diorama
◊ Information text
◊ Commercially published class anthology of synthesized learning

RRR Radio interview broadcast to public (students and teachers)

Philanthropy and Ethics

Sold comics in community at Darebin Home Cooked Festival.
Money raised from student comic sales donated to Port Phillip Eco Centre

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Resources

National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/oceans/photos/deep-sea-
creatures/

The Kids Should See This

https://thekidshouldseethis.com/?s=marine+animals

The Monterey Bay Aquarium

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org

Melbourne Museum, Marine Life Exhibition

https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/whats-on/marine-life/

Melbourne Aquarium
https://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/explore/our-animals/ocean-fish/#gref

Squish Face Studio Comic Artists

https://squishfacestudio.com

Home Cooked Festival

https://www.darebinarts.com.au/whats-on-archive/homecooked-comics-
festival/

Port Phillip Eco Centre

https://ecocentre.com/education

RRR Radio – Radio Marinara with Dr. Anthony Boxshall

http://rrrfm.libsyn.com/radio-marinara-07-aug-2016
https://au.linkedin.com/in/anthony-boxshall

Dr. Zarina Jayaswal

https://au.linkedin.com/in/zarina-jayaswal-412b7663

Biodiversity
https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/science/biodiversity/