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Dates for consultation on the new draft syllabus for Senior Geography have recently been announced. To find about about the dates click to see the Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 Draft Syllabus Consultation page.
There are several documents worth reviewing prior to consultation sessions: - The Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 syllabus review (released 2018) - Geography and Geography Life Skills Stage 6 Draft Directions for Syllabus Development (released for the consultation period July-September 2018) - Feedback from GTANSW and ACT Draft Directions At this stage four different options for course structure have been provided by NESA for review and consultation. The new syllabus draft that will be released just prior to the consultation meetings (22 July) is likely to be based on one of these models. Preliminary course All Preliminary options provided included a topic on The Nature of Geography, a Geographical Investigation and a Global Transformations topic. This last topic may be drawn from the Australian Curriculum and can be found at the Australian Curriculum (Global Transformations) page. Two of the proposed course structure options included Natural and Ecological Hazards, likely drawn from the Australian Curriculum (Natural and Ecological Hazards) topic. One option included Biophysical Interactions, likely drawn from the existing Stage 6 syllabus. One option includes a topic Physical Environments and Natural Hazards, possibly a melding of the existing Biophysical Interactions topic and the Australian Curriculum Natural and Ecological Hazards. HSC course Sustainable Places looks certain to be included in the HSC course, being in each of the 4 proposed options. This is one of the Australian Curriculum topics and the national version of the topic can be found on the Australian Curriculum (Sustainable Places) site. The Ecosystems at Risk topic has been retained in all four options, but in Option 4 to a lesser extent. Until the draft syllabus is released we won't know how much of the actual topic is likely to be changed or retained. Population Change is a topic in two of the proposed course structure options. The topics Human and Ecological Change, People and Economic Integration and Landcover transformation are each found in one option. It is possible that these will draw on the Australian curriculum topic Australian Curriculum (Landcover Transformation), or the existing People and Economy Activity topic. Overview - What we know so far... Preliminary course 3 topics and an investigation: - Nature of Geography - Global Transformations - One topic still to be announced - possibly some combination of Biophysical Interactions and Ecological Hazards or one or the other. - Geographical Investigation HSC course 3 (possibly 4) topics: - Sustainable Places - Ecosystems at Risk (but may be a shorter version of the current topic) - One topic (or possibly two) still to be announced. There are a few different options as to what this topic will be. This is the first time there has been change in the Senior Geography syllabus in NSW for many years. It is important that as many people get involved in the consultation sessions as possible. Make sure you attend and have your say. ****************************************************************************** Later edit following release of Draft Syllabus: Preliminary topics are: - Earth's Natural Systems - Human Systems - Human-Environment Interactions - Geographical Investigation HSC topics are: - Planning for Sustainability - Urban and Rural Places - Ecosystems and Global Biodiversity In Designing a Liveable City - Part 1, students designed a town In Designing a Liveable City - Part 2, students completed a self-assessment of their town. In Designing a Liveable City - Part 3, students gave and received peer feedback on their towns and responded to the feedback. In Designing a Liveable City - Part 4, students developed their towns working in a larger group, by applying the 5Cs of community building. When students arrive in the class all group tasks have been attached together to make one large city. Some additional land/building spaces has also been added (additional pieces of paper). Students are still responsible for their own area and ensuring the liveability of their residents, but they will now have a say in how the whole city develops. Students will be provided with a number of development proposals that will go before a combined council meeting involving the whole class. They are provided with 5 minutes in their original group to determine which of the developments they might like in/near their original development area. They will also need to assess how each of the developments will impact on liveability of residents.
Developments:
Highway A new highway has been built along the edge of the city. Parts of the city which are connected to the highway will have greater access to other parts of the city, other cities and regional areas. However, people around the area of the off-ramp will also be negatively affected by construction and possibly some demolition to make way for new roads. You will need to decide where the off-ramps for the highway will be located. You are allowed to have three off-ramps in total. (Off ramps - minimum 8 cm long) Resort Complex A large multination corporation wants to build a resort complex and marina. It will include several large hotels, a golf course, and specially designed harbour with moorings for yachts and pleasure craft (boats). It needs to be located on the coastline to take advantage of beach locations and provide an appropriate location for the marina. It also needs to be accessible by road. Choose an appropriate location. (Marina - 8cx8cm, resort complex 10cmx10cm). Recreational Complex The Federal government is going to provide substantial funding for a recreation and lifestyle complex and regional park. It will include a number of tennis courts, basketball/netball courts, soccer fields, football fields, as well as some open parkland with bike paths and foot paths. The complex will contribute positively to the quality of life of your residents. Choose an appropriate location. (Recreation complex 12 cmx12cm). National Park Lobbyists have proposed the creation of a national park. The park will protect environmental quality, provide opportunities for recreation (e.g. bushwalking, mountain climbing or snorkelling), and provide opportunities for tourism activities. Choose an appropriate location for the national park (12 cmx12cm). Technology hub A giant technology firm wants to set up a Tech Hub which will include a number of start-up businesses (new, small businesses) as well as several large technology businesses all in the one space. This will provide opportunities for employment in the city. (Tech Hub – 10cmx10cm) Assessing impact As individuals, students need to consider how each of these proposals will impact on liveability for residents, by determining the pros and cons of each proposal. Proposing a site In their original groups, students need to choose the proposal they are most interested in, propose an appropriate site and explain the impact on liveability. Council meeting As a whole class, the students will need to make decisions by consensus, debating and assessing the developments for Liveability. They will need to determine which developments will go ahead, and the best locations for each development proposal. In Designing a Liveable City - Part 1, students designed a town In Designing a Liveable City - Part 2, students completed a self-assessment of their town. In Designing a Liveable City - Part 3, students gave and received peer feedback on their towns and responded to the feedback. When students arrive for this lesson, their towns have changed. The work of two groups has been joined together, so that two towns are now stuck together with some blank space in between. After working together with the one group for a while, at first students may be a little reluctant to work with others in a bigger group, but before long you will find that they will get on board knowing that they have more space to expand their town. Begin the lesson by revising content about Community and the characteristics that influence community identity. Discuss different suburbs or towns close to the school and how each of them have different identities and why. Discuss the culture of different places, and how the culture is expressed through public events and architecture. Revise the role of transport, technology, open spaces, meeting places and employment in building community. Read: The 5 "Cs" of community planning The students will be able to use the 5 "Cs" to guide the way they continue to develop their towns. Students move to their new, combined town and begin working with a larger group. They need to begin by explaining the different aspects of their initial town with the other half of the group and vice versa. Next they need to join the two towns together with roads and public transport and negotiate on how the land between the two towns will be used. Give them a set period of time (5-10 minutes depending on how much is left of the lesson) to work on each of the 5 'Cs'. At the end of the lesson they need to do a quick reassessment of the liveability of their new town based on the criteria provided in the previous lesson.  In Designing a Liveable City - Part 1, students designed a town. In Designing a Liveable City - Part 2, students completed a self-assessment of their town. Peer feedback provides an opportunity for students to assess liveability in a practical way, and also allows students to reflect on the feedback of others to make improvement in liveability. Hints on providing feedback. It is important to provide some guidance to students on how to provide effective feedback to their peers. If feedback is too harsh or personal it will not have the desired effect on progress. Provide the students with a brief criteria to base their judgements on, and go through the items listed to ensure the students know what all of the terms mean and the purpose of the task. In this case the criteria is a list of items that contribute to liveability. Students might just make simple suggestions such as "You need to build a high school" or "You need to build a hospital", but hopefully they will provide more detailed responses that indicate more knowledge of course content. In this lesson there were 6 groups of students, and each group rotated around to comment on the town plans of each other group. They were given "Peer Pointer Postcards" to write their comments on. They then returned to their own town map and had to reflect on the feedback given and consider changes to make to their plan. It is worth asking students to hand in their peer feedback to the teacher so you can check the comments that are made. This can then enable the teacher to ask the student to review any comments that are too personal or not detailed enough. Hints on receiving feedback Students who aren't used to peer feedback, may initially become defensive or upset about negative feedback. As the teacher it is important to prepare the students so they are ready and willing to accept ideas from others. A few tips for students:
 In Designing a Liveable City - Part 1, students designed a city. Once students have planned their city, they need to undertake a self assessment of their work. As a group they can sit and talk about the different aspects of their city and how they have addressed liveability. Provide them with a criteria to refer to. This might also be a good opportunity to provide students with a summary of the content that has been covered in class in relation to liveability, so that they can make connections between the activity they have been undertaking and course content.
The aim of this series of lessons is to allow students to apply their understanding of Liveability to a city design task. Students work in groups of 2-3 to design a small town, as the activity progresses they will reflect on what they have learnt in the Place and Liveability topic and apply it to their town. Phase 1: Design your town The first phase of this task involves designing the layout of the town. This will involve the initial road layout, agricultural land uses, some initial commercial land uses, power supply, and water storage. Provide some student choices so that you can provide a few variations in the first round of feedback. Provide students with a base page ( it may or may not have some geographical features on it such as mountains, coastline, rivers, etc). Also provide students with some blank, coloured pieces of paper, or you can copy the templates onto coloured paper - green (agricultural land), blue (water storage), pink (commercial), red (power supply), grey (roads). 
Design feedback This is an opportunity to provide some initial feedback to ensure the students get the basics right. Design the feedback so that it refers to the students as though they are members of the local council. For example, “The roads in your town don’t meet the requirements set out by the state government. You have been asked to resurface and redesign your roads. You need to complete this job before anyone moves into your town.”
Phase 2: Moving in... In the second phase of the task, students design the residential layout and density of the town. By placing a relatively small limit on the number of dwellings students have to focus on the layout of the town in the initial phases. 
Town plan scenarios Provide students with some scenarios that will allow them to start to think about the liveability of their towns. By this stage some of the groups' conversations will have already addressed aspects of liveability, but they may not have actually considered in much depth. Students are required to write a brief description of how they addressed each scenario.
Phase 3: Enhancing liveability Students will need to respond to the scenarios above, and should have started to consider some of the additional needs of a community. As a class discuss the content related to liveability that you have already covered in class, and then provide students with time to make changes to their town plan.  Next... refer to Designing a Liveable City - Part 2.
The Australian ran an article today by Barry Maley titled "Public education fiasco can be fixed by restoring power to parents".
Maley discusses the apparent lack of power and authority that parents have in public schools, particularly emphasising their lack of control of learning. Maley claims that, “…parents are powerless to influence what their children are being taught”. The reality is that NSW public schools teach the syllabus developed by NESA. The Australian Curriculum was developed and received sign-off from state government Education Ministers before being modified to meet the needs for NSW (inclusion of outcomes, etc). All schools (public/private) are required to teach a syllabus – not just public schools. Teachers don’t just make it up on the day, they have to follow a fairly lengthy document that specifies what they teach and when. Parents don't determine what is taught in public schools, but they can't do it in private schools either. In terms of parental involvement, Malley does school P&Cs a disservice by failing to recognise their importance in driving key initiatives and improvements through applying for grants, making decisions about the types of resources P&C funds will be spent on and shaping the directions of the school through ongoing consultative processes. There are many processes and opportunities for parents to be involved in public schools, and many parents give much of their time to having a say and shaping their child's education. A great deal of this article made false claims about public education. Maley makes several statements regarding public schools underperforming or “lagging behind”. However, eight of the top ten ranked schools for HSC performance in 2018 were public schools – James Ruse High School, North Sydney Boys High School, Sydney Girls High School, Baulkham Hills High School, North Sydney Girls, Sydney Boys High School, Hornsby Girls High School and Northern Beaches Secondary, Manly Campus. Read: 2018 High School Rankings He also claims that, “Despite more and more money for schools….student achievement shows “little improvement”…”. This fails to take into account that as the Australian Education Union reports 85% of private schools get more public funding than public schools. Public schools also manage many more complex cases in terms of students with behavioural needs (private schools ”ask them to leave”), learning and support needs and disability (many private schools choose not to enrol these students or claim not to have the right facilities). Public schools are at the "coal face" of dealing with students in need (issues of domestic violence, homelessness, family breakdown, mental health issues). Public schools receive less money and are expected to do more with it. Malley uses a range of emotive phrases to make implications about the morality of public education and its teachers and students. He clearly has little understanding of what really happens in a public school. Examples of his phrases include public education’s “moral failure”, its apparent absence of “respectful and responsible conduct”, and discussion about whether public education should be “value free” (with the implication that it already is). The public education system is driven by a set of values which guide student welfare and discipline. The public schools that I have taught at have been underpinned by three core values. Focusing on three values makes it easy for students to remember and becomes like a motto or mantra when discussing behaviour. The values have varied from school to school, but they have generally been concepts like respect, responsibility, engagement, care, etc. The "discipline" structure (more commonly known as a behaviour management system these days) is based on PBL - Positive Behaviour for Learning. PBL provides consistent language to explicitly teach students about values and expectations. Public education is anything but value free. We do "social justice" and "service" every day of the week. That's our job. A bit of advice for the next social commentator who wants to tell us all what we are doing wrong - try stepping inside a school. Try finding out what actually happens on a day-to-day basis. Find out about the complexities, the achievements and the struggles. In other words, do your homework. There has been recent media attention regarding teaching of controversial issues in schools after a primary school was directed to remove two sections of their school newsletter which showcased student work. The showcased work was two letters to the Prime Minister regarding climate change. This was reported in the Daily Telegraph. Can we teach controversial issues? There is a lot of discussion in online teacher Facebook groups and on Twitter regarding teachers’ concerns about teaching their subjects given this recent media article. Subjects such as Legal Studies, Geography, History, Society and Culture and Studies of Religion cover a vast amount of content that could be considered controversial depending on the context. NSW public schools are guided by the Department of Education’s Controversial Issues in Schools policy and our Code of Conduct policy, while religious/independent schools are likely to also have other layers determining what is and isn’t controversial (e.g. religious doctrine). The department policy does not state that controversial issues can’t be covered in class, but does give some guidelines about how to cover them. The policy states that it is a teacher’s responsibility to “...ensure that the delivery of curriculum, school programs and activities, presentations and activities by external providers or other events involving students are age appropriate, relevant to curriculum aims and objectives and consistent with the values of public education and the school’s purpose and goals.” The department’s policy states that once staff identify a controversial issue that they need to “...ensure balanced and reasonable consideration of various viewpoints occurs in the delivery of curriculum, school programs and activities, in presentations to students by visitors, staff, contractors or external providers and on school excursions.” In other words, if you are teaching an issue like climate change, same-sex marriage or a controversial urban development, teachers are meant to provide a range of viewpoints about the issue. In most HSIE subjects this is quite easy because the syllabus usually requires it, but what about sections of the syllabus that don’t ask for different perceptions? There are some cases where the syllabus doesn’t ask us to look at a range of different viewpoints. For example, in 2015 around the time of the referendum, same-sex marriage may have been considered as a controversial issue. In Legal Studies when examining contemporary issues in the Family topic the syllabus does not ask for a discussion on perspectives, only legal and non-legal responses. So what do we do in this situation? Teach the syllabus. It’s that simple. A discussion on non-legal responses would provide the scope to examine a range of perspectives. Teachers just need to use professional judgement to know when to pull the conversation back or when to move onto another topic.  A further example of this includes contemporary issues in the Human Rights topic such as genocide, treatment of refugees, asylum seekers or abuse of children.  Age appropriateness A question raised in some online discussions was whether it was appropriate for students to be studying extinctions or climate change at primary school. These topics could be covered in multiple places in Geography in primary school (for example in Stage 3 Factors that Shape Places topic). The NSW Geography syllabus is based on the Australian Curriculum which was signed off by ministers from each state in 2013. Both the Australian and NSW syllabus had many rounds of consultation, at which point any of those issues could have been removed, but weren’t. Climate change and extinctions could be covered in the Key Inquiry Questions in Stage 3 (see below) "How do people influence places and the management of spaces within them?" A range of other issues would also be addressed such as farming, land clearing, and settlements, but other more controversial issues such as climate change and extinctions are equally valid.  The previous Geography syllabus actually encouraged student activism. In Year 10 students were encouraged to propose actions to promote sustainability, social justice and equity as part of “Active Citizenship”. Letter writing and protests were key features of the course content, and found in most of the text books and online resources for the topic at the time. While this specific content has been removed from the Geography syllabus, Sustainability is one of the cross curriculum priorities and Civics and Citizenship is identified as "...important learning for all students..." across all new NSW syllabuses that have been introduced thus far.
Values of public education The values of public education are: integrity, excellence, respect, responsibility, cooperation, participation, care, fairness and democracy. The descriptions of the core values from the DoE are found on the website, but some of the key values in this case are: INTEGRITY: Being consistently honest and trustworthy. EXCELLENCE: Striving for the highest personal achievement in all aspects of schooling and individual and community action, work and life-long learning. RESPECT: Having regard for yourself and others, lawful and just authority and diversity within Australian society and accepting the right of others to hold different or opposing views. RESPONSIBILITY: Being accountable for your individual and community's actions towards yourself, others and the environment. COOPERATION: Working together to achieve common goals, providing support to others and engaging in peaceful resolution of conflict. PARTICIPATION: Being a proactive and productive individual and group member, having pride in and contributing to the social and economic wealth of the community and the nation. CARE: Concern for the wellbeing of yourself and others, demonstrating empathy and acting with compassion. FAIRNESS: Being committed to the principles of social justice and opposing prejudice, dishonesty and injustice. DEMOCRACY: Accepting and promoting the rights, freedoms and responsibilities of being an Australian citizen. Managing controversy In any school it is not unusual for staff to have regular conversations about what is and isn’t acceptable, controversial, sensitive, etc. Society and the students we teach are always changing, and what was acceptable 5 or 10 years ago, might not be ok now. Conversely what was considered controversial once, may be central to a syllabus now. Different school communities will have different beliefs, values and viewpoints even within the same system. Teachers have to get to know their own community to get an understanding of what will be considered as controversial within that context. While it isn’t unusual for these discussions to happen in schools, what is unusual is for it to be reported by national media. Elections and schools What is and isn’t a controversial issue is largely about context - the age of the students, the links to the subject, etc. It is often not only about the factors listed in the policy but also where we are in the political cycle. In the lead up to a state election schools are not able to make political statements, statements about controversial issues or do photo opportunities with politicians. This is called “caretaker period” and many NSW government departments and organisations have similar processes in place. This is because public schools are overseen by the NSW government. It is not usual practice that there would be intervention regarding a federal election issue, and it is interesting to note that only the Daily Telegraph ran an article about this particular issue. Given the scientific evidence, many would feel that climate change is a topic that doesn’t require an analysis of different viewpoints, but rather just myth de-bunking. Students who have experienced significant difficulty completing the 7-10 Geography may consider completing the Life Skills course. For information about how to determine whether a student is suitable for a Life Skills course, and the processes that need to be followed (e.g. consultation with parents, etc), see the HSIE Life Skills course on the NESA website. Preparing for a student completing the Life Skills Preliminary Geography course can be daunting. In many ways it will be like running two courses in the one classroom, but there are ways to make it a bit easier. Here are a few hints and tips... Running two courses at onceWhile Life Skills content and outcomes don't match the mainstream course, there are enough links between the two courses that they can run in parallel. Essentially you will running two courses at once in your classroom. You will run your mainstream course with the majority of your students, and then address the outcomes and content of the Life Skills course at the same time with the one (or couple of) Life Skills student/s. Have a look at the Life Skills course and see where the content and outcomes match the mainstream course. Even if it means rearranging the order, design the delivery of the Life Skills course so that as much as possible you are delivering similar concepts and content at the same time. For example cover the Life Skills content related to recognising physical elements of environments at the same time as mainstream students address content related to biophysical environments at the beginning of the Biophysical Interactions topic. Or cover the Life Skills content on patterns of human activity, when the mainstream class is covering Population. This will mean that all students are part of the same conversations and discussions, but can be given different individual work. It may work out that the Life Skills student can also be involved in some aspects of class group activities, depending on the complexity of the tasks. Seeking supportMake sure that you access any support that you can from the school. This might be the Learning and Support Teacher (LaST) or a Student Learning Support Officer (SLSO). Not everyone is comfortable having a support teacher in the classroom, and you need to work with the person and establish a bit of a routine to make it work well. You will need to get used to having another instructor that might talk when you're asking the students to be quiet, or that repeats instructions, but if this is what has to happen for the student to engage in the work, then you have to deal.Don't expect them to design the resources for the student. Support staff are unlikely to be Geography trained. They might be able to give you some lesson ideas to engage the student, but you will need to design the actual resources. Lesson modificationsModifying class activities might be as simple as giving a few extra clues. For example, you might include a cloze passage in a lesson to help build student literacy skills and provide a quick recap of information. A Life Skills student may require the following modification: - extra time to complete the task (mainstream students might take 5-10 minutes, but Life Skills students may need considerably longer). - some extra clues (e.g. providing the first letter of the answer) - larger text and simplified layout to make it less daunting - one-on-one assistance from the classroom teacher or SLSO. Below is an example of a cloze passage that has been modified, including the downloadable files. 
Fieldwork It is possible to lead a Life Skills student through the same fieldwork skills and tools as the rest of your class. If you do activities outside with your class practicing soil testing, water testing, field sketches, etc, the student can still participate in much of this, but may not be able to analyse the results in the same way as the mainstream students. These activities also provide a great way of providing some mentoring and leadership opportunities for your mainstream students. They could take turns in being paired with the Life Skills student to model fieldwork techniques or assist in conducting tests. This is also a nice way to help your students to bond and teaches them some responsibility and understanding. Senior Geography Project and FieldworkThe SGP will need to be scaffolded heavily. You might choose to provide the student with some picture books or geographically themed magazine to help them identify topics they are interested in. Depending on the student's capabilities, it may be the case that the teacher ends up identifying a topic for the student. Unless the Life Skill student's parents are very engaged, it is likely to be easier to develop the SGP project around the school playground so that they can be guided through different parts of the project at school. It might be worth providing the student with a separate exercise book that they keep all their SGP notes, fieldwork, articles, etc in. The teacher or SLSO might find a couple of relevant websites and print them for the student. The SLSO could spend some time in class underlining key points and concepts and helping the student to write a couple of sentences about the topic. The completed assignment for a Life Skills student would include the student's SGP exercise book, as well as a short description on the project. The teacher would need to make a judgement based on the student's abilities regarding the length and depth required. Below: Excerpt from SGP program. Downloadable file below. 
Sourcing resourcesIt may be useful to look at resources for lower ages groups/stages. For example, if you are studying Biophysical Interactions you might choose to supplement your resources with activities from Stage 3 Water In the World and Landscapes and Landforms. You may also look at picture books and non-fiction books designed for late primary or early high school. Have a chat with your school librarian about the topics for Year 11 and ask them to find some suitable texts.
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Louise SwansonDeputy Principal at a Sydney high school. Coordinating author of the new Geoactive book series. Archives
January 2020
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