A demonstration of an activity linking two curriculum content descriptions from English, one sustainability organising idea, and one sub-element from the critical and creative thinking general capability for a Year 5 class.

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Content Descriptors:
Literature – Creating literature
AC9E5LE05 Create and edit literary texts, experimenting with figurative language, storylines, characters and settings from texts students have experienced.
Literacy – Creating texts
AC9E5LY07 Plan, create, rehearse and deliver spoken and multimodal presentations that include relevant, elaborated ideas, sequencing ideas and using complex sentences, specialist and technical vocabulary, pitch, tone, pace, volume, and visual and digital features.

Sustainability organising idea:
SD2 Design – Creative and innovative design is integral to the identification of new ways of sustainable living.
Stemming from visual arts elaborations (AC9AVA8C02) in this task students are to consider sustainable design practices when generating ideas for designs in response to a brief which includes exploring sustainable materials to create their puppets for their English performance.

Critical and creative thinking general capability:
Generating – Consider alternatives – Level 4 (years 5-6) consider alternatives by challenging or creatively adjusting existing ideas in situations where current approaches do not work and recommend a preferred option.

Activity:
For a year 5 English unit, students are required to create a story in groups of 3-4.  They are to develop their story into a script that they will create puppets for their characters, rehearse and perform for prep-year 2 students for under 8’s day for which the theme for this year is ‘storytelling through play’.  Students must consider sustainable solutions to create their puppets.  Specifically, they will be presented with examples of puppets to design their own and will research options to make them sustainably using recycled and recyclable materials.  They will work together in their groups to complete a table of the required materials for their puppets and will research options on the internet to find alternatives to make them as sustainable as possible.  Groups will share their findings and use this information to plan for and create their puppets.

Explanation:
This engaging unit aligns English CD’s of creating texts through multimodal presentations with a purpose of performing for younger students.  The task is scaffolded from the writing stages through to planning and creating puppets and then to rehearsing and performing allowing for feedback throughout the process and development of 21^st century skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and creative thinking.  As Scott (2015) emphasised the importance of twenty-first century pedagogies, this unit allows students of all abilities to utilise their strengths in a collaborative project that engages participation through the ability for students to personalise their stories and characters according to their interests.

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.) Australian Curriculum: English – Year 5 (Version 9). https://bit.ly/4eVsBkR

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.) Australian Curriculum: Sustainability (Version 9). https://bit.ly/3xSbL5H

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (n.d.) Australian Curriculum: Critical and creative thinking (Version 9). https://bit.ly/3zBAR9g

Scott, L. (2015). The futures of learning 3: What kind of pedagogies for the 21^st century? UNESCO.