[msletizia]

Thanks Michael. I saw you speak at the conference last year and really appreciate all the sharing you are doing of your skills-based approach.

[msletizia]

Thanks Sue! I have enjoyed using the Russell Tarr book this year and will try to get hold of the Seixias book too. Not sure if I will be at the conference this year but will try!
Pauline

[msletizia]

Thanks Sue!

[msletizia]

And, if I might be forgiven for replying to myself :), this all ties in with what Geoff Masters has just posted over at ACER: the arbitrary and problematic nature of progressing students in age-bound groups. Yes, granted they will want to be with their peers, and I recognise that it might be humiliating to be the big kid in the room, but nevertheless, together I reckon we can find a way to implement a road-map based continuum of historical skills, a “time-free curriculum”, where students get choices and a sense of achievement. And also, get a report card where we describe what the kid can do, and what they will work towards next, and avoid the horrible Ds and Es when kids are graded against a standard they just aren’t up to yet. See: //www.teachermagazine.com.au/columnists/geoff-masters/the-school-curriculum-about-time

[msletizia]

My feeling is that the most significant challenge for me as a history teacher is explicitly teaching the historical skills to students with fairly limited current literacy and critical thinking ability so that they reach the year level standard and they develop the “twenty-first century skills”. I don’t want to water down the curriculum whatsoever but I have found it tough as a first year teacher to put all the jigsaw pieces together in time to get my students over the line. I would benefit from: a way of testing students straight up so I understand where they are at in their history skills, a range of resources that I can use to engage students and build skills, and perhaps some differentiated resources so that I can get everyone achieving.

[msletizia]

Hi Sue and all others!
I’m a brand new teacher, six months in. I taught year eight history at Babinda State School in semester one. We studied Vikings and Polynesians. It was challenging for the kids. We used C2C materials adapted for a school-wide explicit teaching pedagogy. I will be doing a lot more work around breaking the historical skills into bite-size chunks so that next year the kids are more able to meet the standard. I’m feeling sad that I am done teaching history for the year already! I would love to hear more from others about how they are adapting materials to meet the needs of their students.
kind regards
Pauline Letizia

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