TKI - Assessment: Exemplars: Social Studies

Place and Environment

Keeping Records

Stories Along the River

What the work shows Curriculum links The learning context Where to next?

Curriculum links

The curriculum links below relate to the whole unit of work and may not all be evident in this particular exemplar.

Achievement objective

Level 1: Place and Environment
Students will demonstrate knowledge and understandings of how and why people record the important features of places and environments.

Social Studies in the New Zealand Curriculum, page 38
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/socialscience/curriculum/strands_place_e.php

Process
Inquiry

Setting
New Zealand

Essential Learning about New Zealand Society
Contributes to the physical environment of New Zealand and how people interact with the landscape

Concepts
Recording; remembering; the past; he kōrero; i ngā ra o mua.

Strand 2: Belonging – Mana Whenua

Goal 1
Children experience an environment where their families experience an environment where connecting links with the family and the wider world are affirmed and extended.

Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna
o Aotearoa/Early Childhood Curriculum, page 56

(PDF, 454kb)

The learning context

This teacher wanted the students to identify how and why people record the important features of places and environments. They did this by carrying out an inquiry into the reasons why people record important features of the Waikato River and of places along the river. During the inquiry, the students talked about the relationship between the physical environment of the river and how people interact with it when they make records.

The class gathered information from a range of sources, first at school and then on a walk along the river. During the walk, the students conducted an 'information hunt', working in groups to locate different ways that important features had been recorded. They looked at records such as the wall of remembrance, a peace walk, a time capsule, plaques, memorial seats, and a gate.

The students used a number of strategies to process the information gathered, including sharing their river-walk experience by completing a photo-story. They also collated the information from the plaques and monuments to produce an information pamphlet and wrote a 'river rap', which they performed to other students.

Chelsea, Shaydn, and Cameron worked together to complete statements showing how and why people record the important features of the Waikato River.

Teacher-student conversation

The teacher encouraged the students to make a link between the features of the river that they had seen and recorded on their walk and how they themselves had used and produced records:

Teacher:	Before we went on our river walk, we used records to learn about the important places along the river.
Cameron:	We found all those photos and charts and maps and things in the resource room.
Shaydn:	And we listened to all those stories about the river a long time ago.
Teacher:	Why do you think it is important we have all those records?
Cameron:	Because the river tells a story.
Chelsea:	So people can take photos, and when they go home from a holiday, they can show their kids.
Shaydn:	It's a special place, and you could make a postcard out of a photo of it.
Teacher:	We've kept records of our river walk, too, haven't we?
Shaydn:	I think our charts and things can tell other people about the places along the river.
Chelsea:	I like to look at the photo of my dad and me and my friends in front of the wall of remembrance. It makes me remember our walk.

Where to next?

To take Chelsea, Cameron, and Shaydn towards the next learning step, the teacher could help them to:

	compare two methods of recording features of places "Monuments and maps are both ways of recording features of places. How are these different? What can maps show us that monuments can't? What can monuments show us that maps can't?"
	select a map, story, monument, or song that records the important features of a place that is significant to them.