Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: My thoughts matter

20 minutes

Find Out: Viewing

20 minutes

Take Action: Messages of Blue

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions:

Students will...

understand some of the key features of two marine creatures: marine turtles and seabirds
understand how to communicate a message about our oceans.

Success criteria:

Students can...

share their thoughts with others to express an idea or viewpoint
express their ideas as a picture, poem or story
identify ways we can all help the marine species.

Tune In: My thoughts matter

Step 1

Provide a piece of recycled paper and a pencil to each student. Invite them to write 'The Ocean' at the top of the page. Students must then describe their thoughts about the ocean using a colour, a symbol and an image (this could be a photo or a drawing students draw themselves).

For example:

Once complete, invite students to get up and move around the classroom, sharing their ideas with other students, making a note of similarities and differences between ideas.

You can then engage students in a class discussion around their ideas. In addition, consider the following questions in your discussion:

How are our ideas about the ocean similar and different?
How do you feel about the ocean? What keywords can you think of to describe how you feel?
Is the ocean a place you like to visit? Why or why not?
What is special to you about the ocean?

Find Out: Viewing

Step 1

Now, watch the following two Blue clips as a whole class. As students watch the clip ask the them to pay attention to the way that the clip makes them feel. On the piece of paper each student should write down 3-5 words in response to each of the clips.

Watch the clips separately and provide reflective time between the clips for students to write their responses.

A turtle's life - (https://vimeo.com/1056609745/7e4fc7c04f)

Ode to seabirds - (https://vimeo.com/1056609559/4415169959)

Step 2

Once both of the clips have been viewed and the students have written their words, encourage the them to share their responses with these guiding questions:

What did you see in these clips?
How was science used to describe or understand what was happening in these clips?
How did you feel about the clips you saw?
Did they make you feel happy, challenged, frustrated or sad?
What did these clips make you think about?
What questions do you have about these clips?
What message was being conveyed in these clips?

Capture the students' responses as a class by drawing a word cloud. As each student offers a response write the word clearly on board/paper.

A hand drawn word cloud is developed by writing over the words to demonstrate more than one student response. The word becomes bolder as an expression of the number of students that have similar thinking. The hand drawn word cloud shows the process of how a word cloud is developed. It is a very interactive tool inviting all students to be involved. This collaborative sharing allows for shared expression of the whole class and can be used for inspiration for the remainder of the lesson.

Learning extension: This can also be done using a word cloud site, such as Wordle or WordClouds.com

Take Action: Messages of Blue

Step 1

Explain to students that they will now be creating their own message for Blue. Using the words from your Word Cloud as a starting point, invite the students to create their own connective message to express their thoughts and ideas about the big blue ocean. Encourage the students to be as creative as possible using one of the following mediums:

Stories/poems
Spoken word raps
A drawing with a message
Visual performance
Digital mediums

The students can choose either clip as the central theme of their messages: the aim of this activity is to encourage students to think about what is important to them about the ocean and how they feel about this.

Step 2

Once complete, create a gallery walk to share your students' work with the class.

Use a gallery walk format to provide peer feedback on student work. Display the students’ work around the classroom and place a piece of blank paper next to each work for writing feedback. Invite groups to rotate around the room and provide feedback to the creators of the work. As groups view the works they are required to record one thing they like about the work displayed, one thing they wonder about it, and one thing to improve the work or where to go next. Consider doing this before work is submitted to the teacher so that students can incorporate any feedback to improve their work.

Reflection

Invite students to share and discuss their ideas with a classmate. Students should reflect on the work of the classmate they have shared their work with using the following questions (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What is the main message of this student's work?
Why I like this work...
The best bits of this work are...
I agree with this message because...
One improvement I would suggest is...

Remind students to be kind, helpful and specific when providing feedback:

Tips for providing feedback

Be kind - It can be hard sharing your ideas with other people so make sure you remain kind and supportive.

Be specific - Be clear about what you think and why. Rather than saying 'I like the colours', say something like 'I like the way these colours help create a mood that supports your message.

Be helpful - Try not to just say what is strong or weak, but also make suggestions about how things could be awseome.

Extension

Determine if more time is needed to develop these pieces further. You could consider extending the gallery walk for other students and teachers at your school.

Assessment

Teachers can use the following items as part of their formative assessment:

Watching a clip for meaning.
Formulating personal responses.
Participation in discussions to express ideas.
Sharing personal responses
Creating a message for an audience.

For summative assessment, visit the Drawing Conclusions lesson - Blue: Ripples of Change - Years 3 & 4.

Take It Further

Invite students to apply their learning in a real world context by participating in the Social Action lesson: Ocean Guardians Saving the Shearwater Birds - Social Action - Year 3 & 4.

Blue - Messages of Blue

Go to

Summary

Learning intentions:

Students will...

Success criteria:

Students can...

Lesson Guides and Printables

Lesson Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

UN Sustainable Development Goals

Additional Info

Related Professional Learning

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