- Article
- Orbit, Year 5
- Issue 6, 2019
Sylphie's Squizzes: Bushfires
Learning resource
Outcomes
Worksheet: Making a bushfire poem
Understanding EN3-3A
Complete a Three Facts and a Fib thinking routine to ascertain student understanding. This thinking routine gives students the chance to develop their skills in narrowing choices.
Complete an article analysis to demonstrate student understanding of the text using this Article Analysis worksheet.
Engaging personally EN3-5B & EN3-8D
Write a summary of ‘Bushfires’ using one of these Summary worksheets. Students highlight the main points, facts and bushfire prevention strategies outlined in the article.
Point of view: Write paragraph from the fire’s point of view, about its role in the Australian bush. Highlight the relevant facts in the text as a class and encourage students to use these textual elements to enhance their creative writing endeavours. Explore further the English Textual Concept ‘Point of View’.
Connecting EN3-8D
Text-To-World connections occur when we relate the text with what we already know about the world.
Text-to-World: How do the ideas in this text relate to the larger world—past, present and future? Students complete the following statements using a Text-to-World Connections worksheet activity:
- What I just read makes me think about (event from the past) because …
- What I just read makes me think about (event from today related to my own community, nation or world) because …
- What I just read makes me wonder about the future because …
Discuss as a class or use a Think, Pair, Share worksheet to record responses.
Teaching Strategy explained: Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World Rationale.
Engaging critically EN3-7B
Conduct a Question Starts visible thinking routine to generate creative questions about what the story could be about. Brainstorm a list of at least twelve questions about the story. Use these question-starts to help students think of interesting questions:
- Why ...?
- How would it be different if ...?
- What are the reasons ...?
- Suppose that ...?
- What if ...?
- What if we knew ...?
- What is the purpose of ...?
- What would change if ...?
Review the brainstormed list and highlight the questions that seem most interesting. Then, select one or more of the highlighted questions to discuss. Students could use this Question Starts Thinking Routine worksheet.
Write a letter to author David Hill using the Writing a Letter to an Author guidelines and worksheets and the Narrative Praise Question Polish Peer-Review worksheet as a scaffold. Encourage students to highlight three elements within the narrative that they would Praise, Question and Polish:
- Praise: What I like about the author’s writing style or ideas.
- Questions: For the author to remove any confusion.
- Polish: Things to improve, I would change, I wish that …, I wonder if …, I couldn’t believe …
Support: Write a postcard
Experimenting EN3-6B, EN3-8D & EN3-7C
Research and Create a crossword about bushfires, with this Free Crossword Creator or Crossword Puzzle Maker, using unfamiliar words from the article. Use the crossword on page 34 of Orbit as a guide for suitable questions. Remember answers can only be letters or words, not numbers. Students can access information about Australian bushfires at kidcyber: Bushfires and Kiddle: Bushfire facts for kids.
Support: Question Creation Chart
Extension: Create a Kahoot.
Create a script for a news reporter interviewing people who have lost their homes due to a bushfire. Option to film using iMovie or Microsoft Movie Maker.
Intertextuality: Use the poem ‘The Dry Country’ by Vanessa Proctor (page 33), as a scaffold to write a poem about bushfires. Appropriate the structure, imagery and some words of the poem. Explore further the English Textual Concept ‘Intertextuality’.
Design a bushfire prevention poster or infographic using Canva. Locate relevant information from the article or this Bushfires in Australia – Facts for Kids video.
Reflecting EN3-9E
Conduct an I used to think ... But now I think … routine. This routine helps students to reflect on their thinking about a topic or issue and explore how and why that thinking has changed. It can be useful in consolidating new learning as students identify their new understandings, opinions, and beliefs. Record responses on this I Used to Think … Now I Think … worksheet.
Exit Slips are a formative assessment that can be used to quickly check for understanding. The teacher poses one or two questions in the last couple minutes of class and asks student to fill out an ‘exit slip’ (e.g. on an index card) to ascertain student thinking and understanding. Here are Instructions on filling out an Exit Slip and two Exit Slip worksheets.