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Updated: Apr 2000

Perth Zoo (Pre-Visit) Phase of Development: Early Childhood In this series of lessons I placed spotlights on several outcome statements from the Curriculum Framework and the Outcomes and Standards Framework. Of course, many other outcomes, from both of these documents, were also achieved during the course of the unit. Overarching Outcomes Curriculum Framework Values Statements 1. A pursuit of knowledge and a commitment to achievement of potential. Curriculum Framework Overarching Learning Outcomes 1. Students use language to understand, develop and communicate ideas and information and to interact with others. 4. Students select, use and adapt technologies. 7. Students understand and appreciate the physical, biological and technological world and have the knowledge and skills and values to make decisions in relation to it. 12. Students are self-motivated and confident in their approach to learning and are able to work individually and collaboratively. Learning Area Outcomes Curriculum Framework Strand Statements Outcomes & Standards Framework English Writing Students write for a range of purposes and in a range of forms using conventions appropriate to audience, purpose and context. Reading Students read a wide range of texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness. Viewing Students view a wide range of visual texts with purpose, understanding and critical awareness. Science Working Scientifically-Investigating Investigating Scientifically Students investigate to answer questions about the natural and technological world, using reflection and analysis to prepare a plan; to collect, process and interpret data; to communicate conclusions; and to evaluate their plan, procedures and findings. Science Life & Living Students understand their own biology and that of other living things, and recognise the interdependence of life. In the English Learning Area I focused on particular substrands of each strand. here for the relevant Descriptions of Substrand Statements. Since pre-primary students tend to be just beginning to demonstrate behaviours that show progress towards Level 1, I have found the Level 1 Strand Outcome Statements particularly relevant in both English and Science. Brief Description Context Learning Experiences Step 1 Step 3   Step 2 Step 4 Student Examples Reflection Assessment Brief Description Students emailed the Zoo to ask questions prior to an excursion. Purpose: To provide the children with an opportunity and purpose to: explore their understandings of animals, through looking at the zoo website and formulating questions for their emails. progress towards achievement of Level 1 English Writing, Reading and Viewing Outcomes and the Science strands of Investigating Scientifically and Life and Living. increase their knowledge of animals and animal enclosures to the extent that they can design and produce appropriate models of these at a later stage. enhance their understanding of information technology, especially the interactive nature of the Internet. Context Author: Marie McMahon, Sorrento Primary School The School: Sorrento Primary School is a Perth metropolitan school in a middle-class coastal suburb. Class: Pre-Primary with 28 five-year-old students, working towards Level 1 in the English strands. Learning Technology: In the classroom we had a BBC computer which was used every day. It was accessed by all students either individually or in small groups so the children were all familiar with the keyboard. There was one computer accessible to the children with an internet connection, situated in the library, which was a short walk across the courtyard from my classroom. Teacher: Marie McMahon I have been teaching since 1992 but this was the first year that I used the Internet with my students, although I had been using the Internet at home since 1996. Currently teaching at Ellenbrook PS. Learning Experiences Over the course of the year we had looked at our pets, insects and Australian native animals. We then moved on to looking at animals from different parts of the world. As part of this study, we planned and undertook an excursion to the Perth Zoo. Step 1 Individually and in small groups, the children and I explored the Perth Zoo website and noticed what kinds of information were available on it, what it showed about various animals, and how it was structured. We brainstormed questions such as: What would you like to find out? How could we find this out? The students examined the photographs of animals displayed and made observations about them, which they then shared with the rest of the class. The aspects of the site that the children most liked were the: bright colours. photos of animals. photos of children doing the activities run by the zoo education officers. Assessment Observation of students in the light of the English Reading and Viewing Strands and the Science Investigating Scientifically and Life and Living Strands. Step 2 I told the children that they would be sending an email to the zoo, and we prepared for it. We discussed what an email is and talked about its characteristics: We talked about how email is a different type of mail from mail that you post in the post office box. We said that it is electronic mail, sent down the telephone line so it gets to the person straight away (like a telephone call). We also said that we can answer an email straight away if we are at our computer when the message arrives. We then brainstormed what questions the children could ask about the animals, and I wrote them on the whiteboard: What do they eat? Where do they come from? How many of each animal are there? Who feeds them and looks after them? I demonstrated how to send an email, and how to check to see if they had received a reply. Assessment Observation of students in the light of the English Reading Strand and the Science Investigating Scientifically and Life and Living Strands. Step 3 I took the children to the library in small groups of five or six students to send an email to the zoo. All the children had an input into their group's message. I typed the messages then gave all children a turn at the keyboard to type their names. One of the children in each group clicked on Send. Then we waited for the reply. Each day a person from each group went to check to see if a reply had come for them. When they had received their reply, some children chose to reply to that message. This meant that I had to demonstrate to the whole class how to send a reply. Assessment Monitoring of students' skills and understandings in the English Writing and Reading Strands. Step 4 After we returned from the excursion, we discussed how the children could write their thanks, and practised writing some useful phrases. Then the children wrote and sent a thank-you email, in groups as before (see Step 3). Assessment Monitoring of students' writing. Student Examples here for an example of an email written by one 4-year-old child in the class and the reply received. Assessment To determine whether the children were working appropriately towards Level 1 in English, I looked at the relevant Strand Outcome Statements, along with criteria that I had developed for my anecdotal observations: Level 1 Substrand Outcome Statements - English My Criteria Writing Use of Texts Substrand: Produces written symbols with the intention of conveying an idea or message. Contextual Understanding Substrand: Recognises that writing is used by people to convey meanings to others. Writing 1.1: * Are the children willing to have a go at writing? * Are they interested in conveying a message? Writing 1.2: * Are they aware that they are sending the message to someone via the computer? Reading Use of Texts Substrand: Roleplays being a competent reader and recognises familiar symbols. Contextual Understanding Substrand: Makes connections between own knowledge and experience and the ideas, events and information in texts read aloud. Reading 1.1: * Are the children looking at the screen and pointing out familiar words and letters? * Are they asking questions about what is being written by others? Reading 1.2: * Can students relate the replies from the Zoo to their original messages? * Can they remember what the messages were about? * Do they make connections between the emails and other things that are happening in the classroom in relation to the topic? Viewing Contextual Understanding Substrand: Makes connections between own knowledge and experience and ideas, events and information in viewed texts. Viewing 1.2: * Do students look at the graphics and images of animals and enclosures on the Zoo website, and relate them to classroom pictures, illustrations and their own experiences? Level 1 Substrand Outcome Statements - Science My Criteria Investigating Scientifically The student focuses on a problem, responds to teacher's suggestions to carry out simple activities requiring observation and sharing of observations. Investigating Scientifically 1: * Do they ask questions and make comments about the animals, their characteristics and their needs? * Are they able to contribute to the brainstorm? * Are they able to interpret information from the photographs on the website that answer the questions posed in the brainstorm? * Can they share their information with others? Life and Living The student understands that people are examples of living things and that, like all living things, they change over time. Life and Living 1: * Are the children able to discuss what they are learning about animals on the website? * Can they compare what they see to what they learned about animals in earlier units (their pets, insects and native animals)? * Are the children able to identify different animals on the website? * Are they able to identify the types of shelters the animals have? * Do the children know that their personal needs are needs of other living things-such as the need to breathe, the need for shelter, the need for food? * Do they notice and discuss differences between adults and baby animals on the website? * Can they see the same differences between adults and baby humans? Note: From these criteria it would be very easy to create anecdotal record sheets for particular activities. here for a checklist for our discussion at the zoo. here for details of our Perth Zoo excursion and post-visit activities. Reflection The children learnt how to send email and what it is. They were able to take their message home to show their parents. I considered it very important that children have experience with and begin to understand the interactive nature of the Internet. They also explored their understandings of animals and their needs, by viewing the website and constructing a list of questions about animals that they could send to the zoo. For many this was their first introduction to a website. Although we did not discuss the characteristics of websites in general, they were able to watch me gaining access to and moving around the site. This was a good preparation for work with websites in later years, and demonstrated to them that websites are considered by many to be useful sources of information. I can't see this activity working at the very start of the Pre-primary year. Fourth term is when we did it, as a lead up to our end-of-year excursion and Christmas Party. The whole exercise would be a lot easier if there was a computer with an Internet connection in the classroom. Parents could help and could probably be part of the assessment if they had one child at a time and were given a detailed list of the types of behaviours and skills that we were looking at. A good idea would be to organise a time with the people at the zoo each day, so that they could be ready to receive the messages and to reply to them immediately. Marie McMahon mhi@vianet.net.au