Action Research Report 9 : A Local History Study of Kincoppal-Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart

by H. Webster and M. Heaney

"Change and Continuity"

Overview:

Students engage in inquiry-based research as they become historians who explain significant people, places, groups, actions and events in developing the identity and heritage of Kincoppal-Rose Bay School. Their role as historians is to contribute to a Year 6 book based on investigations and research carried out in the course of this unit of work.

Unit Duration:

6 weeks: 1 lesson per week

Subject matter focus:

In this unit students will learn about

• The skills and processes involved in historic research \
• Significant people who have contributed to the school community
• Significant events that have shaped the school
• Places of historical interest within the school
• The gathering of evidence from primary and secondary sources
• Note-taking
• The need to consider and include, different perspectives in the development of their contribution to The History Book

Implications for learning:

In this unit, students have opportunities to

• Develop observation skills as they identify clues to the past in the school.
• Listen to the stories of guest speakers, ask appropriate questions and note-take with accuracy
• Locate primary and secondary sources of information
• Select relevant sources
• Identify evidence
• Construct sequences of events using timelines
• Examine different viewpoints presented through guest speakers, sources and evidence and express these viewpoints in discussion, debate etc
• Differentiate between fact and opinion, omissions, points of view
• Analyse sources of information for usefulness, reliability, accuracy and bias
• Explore similarities and changes in the roles of the religious community, teachers and students
• Explore the goals of the school: what they tell us about our school, our foundress, how they have withstood the test of time
• Synthesise a range of information from evidence (include different perspectives)
• Organise information for desired presentation format.
• Evaluate findings and consider implications of research if appropriate
• Develop empathy from a broad range of perspectives
• Critically reflect on purpose and intended audience of finished product.

Literacy links:

Information reports, literary and factual recounts, explanations, discussions, interviews, role plays, maps, flowcharts

Links to other key learning areas:

Visual Arts: sketching various items of interest

Resources:

Archivist, archival material, Living Stones book, KRB site, past pupils, teachers, non-teaching staff

Outcome:

To develop historical skills in the students as they acquire information, gather relevant information, organise their information and take responsible action. Indicators: Communicates the importance of past events on the development of our school to this point.

Outcome:

To see the history of the school as a continuum to which students are actively contributing Indicators Demonstrates an awareness that students have been and still are contributing to the history story of the school. Chooses stories from the past to communicate to new students.

Outcome:

To identify significant people, events and places in the story of the school Indicators Examines viewpoints of past students, sisters, teachers, parents and grounds staff about events and people associated with the school. Describes ways of life of people within the school community as it evolved/grew. Identifies events occurring in Australia at the time the school was founded.

Outcome:

To deepen student connection with the KRB community Indicators: Demonstrates an awareness and appreciation of the establishment of KRB. Communicates with members of the KRB community to gather information.

Learning experiences:

Assessment material

Learning Experience 1

What is a historian? Students think, pair, share. Living Stones: What would Leila Barlow have had to do to write this book? Reflect on skills needed to write a historical book. Do we know anything about the schoolÕs past already? Share that.

Learning Experience 2

Information flood: Tour of school. Students collect clues from the past as they engage in tour: sheet Map of school as is: students colour-code to show various time frames. Sites of particular interest: Chapel, graveyard.

Learning Experience 3

Follow up on tour: Tour summarised into headings in Inspiration. Notes added to headings to reflect information gathered. Inspiration: Summary of tours of school

Learning Experience 4

The Panel: Teachers organise a group of past school members to form a panel to answer student questions. Different perspectives catered for here as past students, teachers, novices and grounds staff are included in the group. ¶ Students devise questions for the panel in advance of session. ¶ Students record answers relevant to their questions

Learning Experience 5

Students share information gathered to date as a group and brainstorm possible headings for The History Book.

Learning Experience 6

Students choose a heading of interest and work with a partner to develop a page for The History Book, to include a sketch. Students use information gathered to date, e-mail and images of historical interest, placed on school Intranet, to assist with the process.

Student Worksamples:

History Booklet: Our School: A Collection of stories about our history. Where to next? Students continuing to Year 7 will engage in a program focusing on the Religious history of the site and its community. This local history unit will provide an excellent foundation for these students. For those students moving on to other schools, the process we engaged in should provide them with the interest and skills to engage in subsequent local history projects.

Evaluation:

This unit went well. The students engaged in the enquiry process and enjoyed the change of focus. In this instance, skills such as the ability to interview, make observations and listen were developed. Time was our big problem. Term 4 was not a good term for this project. We were under extreme pressure to publish the book on time, in fact we posted it out to students after the end of term. In order to avoid this in future, we will cover this unit in Term 3. As teachers, we felt that this was a very worthwhile unit. We were pleased that our students felt "connected" to the school as a result of their work.