This I-Quest "You, me, us, together...What can we do to make a difference" was purposefully designed for the upper years of primary school (Grade 5 & 6) as it aims to elicit higher-order thinking based on everyday occurrences such as random acts of kindness. We believe as pre-service teachers children in grade 5 and 6 should be introduced to real life contexts that they will be exposed to throughout their secondary years of schooling and later years in life. We also feel it is important that students are presented with questions and scenarios which challenge their belief system and encourage them to consider multiple perspectives, which is a key focus within this I-Quest. We purposefully selected the topic of kindness for this I-Quest as we feel random acts of kindness are not performed enough within our community, with the positive effects that are associated with these random acts of kindness often being overlooked. Moreover within this I-Quest, we wish to promote a sense of unity, friendship and joint partnership among the students and teachers that will help to strengthen their ideology of what it means to be kind to one another.
The I-Quest’s name “You, Me, Us together..what can we do to make a difference” was designed to promote a sense of ownership among students so they feel connected to the unit of work. We feel this sense of ownership is important as it promotes inclusiveness allowing every voice to be heard and respected by their peers. We ensured we worked as a group to collaboratively design the I-Quest in an engaging and insightful way for the target audience.
Class Description:
The class consists of 24 students with an equal ratio of boys and girls with similar cultural backgrounds. All students are from English speaking background. We believe our students will be able to successfully complete the I-Quest with the guidance and in-depth scaffolding provided throughout the I-Quest. We have purposefully designed the I-Quest to have many areas where self and peer assessment is included, as we want to promote class and peer discussions.
The desired results for students throughout and at the end of the I-Quest is to:
·Understand what it means to be kind to one another.
·Understand what it means to make a pledge to an act of kindness that is held dear to their heart and enact this pledge within their school and community.
·Consider whether we have power to decide if a person should be treated with an equal level of kindness despite illegal or inappropriate behaviour and actions.
Catering for Inclusion within this I-Quest:
Throughout this I-Quest we have catered for inclusion through a combination of small group and whole class group work activities which has been purposefully tailored to cater for a variety of learning styles as well as individual learning needs. The inclusion of group work throughout this I-Quest also allows the students to scaffold each other's learning, and creates a fun and engaging learning environment. Our rich tasks are also designed to be open-ended as this will allow students of higher ability to extend themselves further and develop creative and critical thinking skills. Explicit scaffolding and modelling of how to complete the rich tasks has also been provided to ensure all students, particularly those of lower ability can successfully complete these tasks. We have also provided the students with a choice in how they present their rich task (for example poster, poem or creation of a piece of artwork) to ensure all learning styles are catered for within this I-Quest.
Desired Goals:
As we are heading into the 21st century way of teaching and learning we want our students to develop critical thinking skills that will allow them to explore a deep sense of the world including people and their reactions to random acts. It is also important for students to explore their inner emotions which are often sub-consciously hidden due to acting in a way that is deemed socially acceptable. Students are also expected to challenge their belief system and values, by being open to consider the views and opinions of others.
By the end of this I-Quest it is intended that students will:
*Understand that every act of kindness or thoughtful deed is appreciated and that each and every student has the personal power to make a positive difference to those around them.
*Develop a strong sense of ownership and power toward their chosen act of kindness and pledge and commit to performing this act of kindness on a daily basis.
*Commit to continuing the ‘Paying it Forward’ domino effect by giving a random act of kindness to others, who in turn will continue this domino effect.
*Understand that individual power is extremely powerful within our society, students will also realise that they too can make a positive difference through an individual and collective commitment to treat others with kindness.
Click on the picture opposite to view information on the Inquiry Model we have chosen, Bloom's Taxonomy. This link will also explain why we choose Bloom's Taxonomy to scaffold this
I-Quest .
We have created a comprehensive outline of how to structure this I-Quest and implement it within your classroom environment. This planning documentation includes a weekly outline of each rich task and when they should be introduced to the students as well as assessment requirements. Click on the image below to access the planning documention associated with this I-Quest.
To access the planning documentation for our
I-Quest click on the image opposite.
To access the assessment checklist which has been designed for Rich Task 'My Pledge' click the green tick. This rubric is to be used by the teacher.
To access the assessment checlist which has been designed for Rick Task 2 'Awareness Presentation' poster format click the green tick. This will checkilist will be used for self and peer assessment.
To access the evaluation criteria which has been designed for Rich Task 2 'Awareness Presentation' poem format click the green tick. This will checklist will be used for self and peer assessment.
To access the teacher rubric which has been designed for Rich Task 2 'Awareness Presentation' click on the green tick.
To access the rubric that has been designed for Rich Task 3 'Who are we kind to' click on the green tick. This rubric will be used for self and peer assessment. This rubric will not be used for teacher assessment.
Click on the image below to access the VELS and AusVELS learning standards and outcomes that are relevant to this I-Quest, and the target year level of Grade 5 and 6 students . The subject areas that are addressed in this interdisciplinary online unit are The Arts, Literacy, Civics and Citizenship as well as Interpersonal Development.