Doorways to Waste

Doorways to Waste

Lesson 8 of 10 in this unit

  • Primary
  • Year 3 - 4
  • English
  • Reading
  • Discussion
  • Environmental
  • Recycling
  • Sustainability
  • ...

Lesson summary

Students will look at how waste was managed in Australia before and after colonisation. Students will listen to an audiobook that tells a story of First Nations peoples caring for Country in Lutruwita/Tasmania, and will generate questions about how First Nations peoples might have managed waste. Students will then compare this to how we manage waste now.

Learning intentions:

Students will...

  • understand how First Nations peoples care for Country and use sustainable practices
  • use questioning skills to identify changes in living.

Success criteria:

Students can...

  • use questioning techniques to predict changes in living
  • identify changes to Australia’s waste management practices.

Lesson guides and printables

Lesson Plan
Caring for Country Factsheet

Lesson details

Skills

This lesson is designed to build students’ competencies in the following skills:

  • creative thinking
  • critical thinking
  • communication
  • cultural understanding

Curriculum Mapping

Australian Curriculum (v9.0) content description: 

Year 3 English

Students learn to:

  • use comprehension strategies when listening and viewing to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features (AC9E3LY05).

Year 4 English

Students learn to:

  • use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning, to expand topic knowledge and ideas, and evaluate texts (AC9E4LY05).

Relevant parts of Year 3 English achievement standards: Students read, view and comprehend texts, recognising their purpose and audience.

Relevant parts of Year 4 English achievement standards: Students read, view and comprehend texts created to inform, influence and/or engage audiences. 

NSW Syllabus outcomes:

A student

  • reads and comprehends texts for wide purposes using knowledge of text structures and language, and by monitoring comprehension (EN2-RECOM-01)

General capabilities: Critical and Creative Thinking, Ethical Understanding, Intercultural Understanding, Literacy, Personal and Social Capability 

Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Sustainability 

Level of teacher scaffolding: Medium - lead students in class discussions and oversee students working on independent and group tasks.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

UN SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

  • Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse

Resources Required

  • Butcher’s paper
  • Caring for Country Factsheet
  • Device capable of displaying audiovisual material
  • Sticky notes
  • Student Worksheet - one copy for each student
  • Whiteboard

Additional Info

This unit of lessons is designed for students to build their literacy comprehension skills while exploring the real-world issue of waste. Cool.org thanks our philanthropic funder, Eldon and Anne Foote Trust, through the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, for their generous contributions in creating these resources.

Related Professional Learning

Beginning to Include First Nations Peoples’ Perspectives in Your Classroom

Quick Summary: This course is designed to inform and upskill educators in incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.

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