Leeda

Azadzoi

213158088

Grade Level: Grade 6

Title of Unit
Synopsis of major text used: The Little Refugee

Anh Dos autobiographical picture book, The Little Refugee sets the stage for readers to explore the difficulties after fleeing from his own
country Vietnam in a small boat during the 1970s. The Little refugee discovers notions such as threat, optimism and belonging, either in terms
of comfort and freedom or the ill effects of belonging such as marginalization from a wider society.

.

Links to the Australian Curriculum: Literature/Literacy and the cross curricula link to the Australian Curriculum
Literature: Reading and Viewing
Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imagery and language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads,
limericks and free verse (ACELT1617).
Speaking and Listening
Make connections between students own experiences and those of characters and events represented in texts drawn from
different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1613)

Literacy: Reading and viewing

Use comprehension strategies to interpret and analyze information and ideas, comparing content from a variety of textual
sources including media and digital texts (ACELY1713)
Speaking and Listening
Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas, developing and supporting arguments, sharing
and evaluating information, experiences and opinions (ACELY1709)
Writing:
 Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with text structures,
language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)

Intercultural Understanding

They come to understand how personal, group and national identities are shaped, and the variable and changing nature of
culture. The capability involves students in learning about and engaging with diverse cultures in ways that recognize
commonalities and differences, create connections with others and cultivate mutual respect.
(AusVels, 2016)



Scope of learning:

In this learning sequence, students will learn the concepts connected to the text such as refugee, asylum seeker, migrant and influences that
are associated with refugees such as: what does it feel like to be a refugee, what are some of the countries that they are escaping from
and why might a family leave their country. Students will also learn and grasp an understanding of the Vietnamese culture and history and
unpack crucial concepts associated with refugees such as hope, danger and sympathy towards refugees. Lastly, students will discover a few of
the visual elements of the text in terms of the colour, style of the text, double spreads and the purpose of contemporary cartoon like
illustrations in comparison to real life illustrations (For example cover of the text) and connection associated with different colours used to
convey meaning different messages and themes. Questions such as what differences in visual style do you notice between the spreads
representing Vietnam and those representing life in Australia? What do these differences in style signify to you? Students are expected to think
of as many levels of meaning as they can. How do the switches in visual style intended to position the reader. Students will also have the
opportunity to analyse other critical parts of the book that signify importance such as the cover and double spread page and its importance,
pirate leader spread, Australia spread, Anhs parents clapping spread




NOTE: There needs to be a clear and common thread throughout the unit that focuses on the theme of critical literacies (see chapters 26 and 27 of the
prescribed text for a start) and connections to major themes/concepts/understandings within your cross curricula focus.

Sequence One: Frontloading:

FRONT LOADING:
Experiencing the known:
Review students past experiences and personal accounts
Experiencing the Unknown: Introduce to something unfamiliar through immersion: Real life photographs

Teaching Focus 1 Introduction to the text and understanding important notions connected to the text.

Students will be introduced to concepts such as refugee, asylum seeker and migrant and some of the
 countries they are escaping from today. E.g. Afghanistan, Syria, Vietnam etc.
This teaching focus mainly involves stimulating students in conversation and discussion.
The teacher is required to prompt conversation and encourage students to share their prior knowledge on
the topic.
Stories / past experiences of students in class will bring the topic closer to the classroom as real life
examples offer a deeper meaning and engage students on a personal level.
The teacher will use Getty images website as a resource for students to further enhance their knowledge
about refugees.

Strategic Questions to lead What is a refugee?
the students toward your What is a migrant?
focus
What is an Asylum seeker?
What does it feel like to be a refugee?
 What are some of the countries that they are escaping from?
Why might a family leave their country (Students can give answers such as due to war, poverty, etc.)



Personal experiences

Students are expected to use their exercise books and think of a personal experience of theirs or a family
member/friends etc. and write an account of their personal experiences. Encouraging students to use their own
examples and own stories will allow students to have a closer connection with the topic. For the students that dont
have personal examples and stories can use the photographs as a stimuli to write a fictional story and build on their
prior knowledge.

Whole class Activities to As a class, students will be individually encouraged to share their personal stories. Every student will be given the
engage the students opportunity to share his or her prior experiences, knowledge, examples and personal accounts.

Follow on activities This follow on activity requires students to work in pairs. Students will use their exercise books and write as many
partner/group/independent
reasons as they can think of as to why people move from their homes. This can be due to war, poverty, lack of
health resources, better job, better life, to get married etc. Students can then divide these reasons into two
segments. The findings of segment one will include reasons people may leave their motherland and move to a
country on the basis of a better job, financial stability, marriage and so on. Next, the second segment will
encourage students to write the reasons as to why people move due to involuntarily reasons such as leave their
country due to war, poverty, oppression and so on. The findings will be discussed as a whole class. This allows
 students to differentiate between a migrant and refugee.

Assessment:
The findings based on students personal experiences, stories, their findings on the follow on activity as well as
their overall contribution to classroom discussion and conversation are forms of informal/formal assessment
which allows the educator to assess the students learning.

Resources Real life photographs

Teaching Focus two

Teaching Focus 2 Reviewing the understanding of culture and history

Once students have completed the teaching focus one, it is now suitable to introduce the chosen text.
The teacher will introduce the text, students are expected to use their prior knowledge and make
connections between what they already know and the predictions they can make based on looking at the
text.
Students are expected to look and scrutinize the cover of the text. What predictions can they make based on
the background of the text?
The educator might ask questions that prompt students to think critically such as:
Why might the background of the text be in sepia toned?
Does the image of the boat in the background of the text seem safe? Why/why not?
Why is the cartoon image of the protagonist drawn very closely?
Why is the cartoon image of the protagonist drawn in colour whereas the boat situation in the background
drawn in sepia/black and white toned? What might this suggest?

Students are expected to grasp an understanding of Vietnam culture and history eg. Religion, population,
Food, traditional dress, The Vietnam war and French Colonialism in Vietnam



Strategic Questions to lead
the students toward your What are the main religions practiced in Vietnam
focus
What is Vietnams population?
What are the popular food/cuisine appreciated by the Vietnamese people?
What is their traditional dress code?
Whole class Activities to With the assistance of the teacher, Students are expected to complete KWL chart as a whole class activity to
engage the students
brainstorm ideas about the Vietnam culture and history.
- What they know about Vietnamese history/culture?
- What they would want to know?
- What they learnt?

Follow on activities In groups of 3-4, students are expected to create poster presentations in regards to the Vietnam culture and history
partner/group/independent
covering the topics mentioned above. Each group is expected to use I pads for research purposes.

Assessment:
KWL chart
Informal assessment: discussions
Poster

Resources I pads


Teaching Focus 3
Teaching Focus 3 The focus of this lesson sets the stage for students to learn and comprehend terms such as hope,

fortunate, danger, and fear through the eyes of a refugee.
Students will watch a short video on YouTube to further enhance their knowledge on the life circumstance of
refugees.
Students will engage in conversation and discuss ideas.


Strategic Questions to lead How are the life circumstances of refugees?
the students toward your
focus What are some of the differences and similarities between your life and theirs?
Are we lucky to live in a peaceful country like Australia? Why/why not?

Whole class Activities to As a whole class, students are expected to share their ideas, prior knowledge, connect their own knowledge to the
engage the students
resources such as the YouTube clips and the photographs.
Follow on activities This independent activity requires students to write a fictional letter to a refugee expressing their opinion on
partner/group/independent
refuges/asylum seekers encouraging feelings of sympathy and hope, describing their lifestyle in Australia and how
lucky they are to be living in a peaceful country and expressing their opinion on welcoming them to Australia. The
 letter should aim to position the reader to become aware of the refugees, their situation and finally to express their
opinions that refugees should be welcomed here.

Assessment: Formal assessment: letters to a refugee

Resources YouTube clip

Sequence 2: Explicit Teaching

Sequence Two: Must include at least two explicit teaching sessions. You may also include a summary of other sessions that you need to develop.

Explicit Sessions:

Explicit Teaching Session 1- Analyse the Visual literacy in the text

Introduction Important Note: Prior to the first session of the explicit reading stage, students must have already read The Little
10 minutes Refugee individually.

As an introduction stage, the teacher will read the book once again as a class. The teacher will stop between
pages to discuss questions, raise conversation about features, visual elements and themes of the text.


Elaboration
40 minutes This stage is focused on dissecting the visual elements of the book such as the colour used, the animation like-

contemporary images used vs. real life images and their importance, what do double spreads mean? What the
purpose is, and based on the visual elements of the text what themes does the book suggest? The topics below
will be discussed as a whole class. During this stage, students are expected to write notes based on the topics
that will be discussed. The topics that will be discussed includes:
Why are the images of Vietnam and the protagonists experiences in the boat sepia toned/black
 and white?
How does this make you feel as a reader?
Why are the illustrations drawn in a realistic image- like way?
What differences in visual style do you notice between the spreads representing Vietnam and
those representing life in Australia? How does the style make you feel?
What is a double spread?
What is the purpose of double spreads in the text? What is an example of a double spread? (The
image of the pirate leader spread, Australia spread and Anhs parents clapping spread? Why are
these represented in this manner? What themes does it suggest? For example: (Pirate leader
spread: danger, fear etc.) (Australia spread represents peace, freedom, human rights etc.)
Why do you think the image of Australia is in colour?

Practice Based on either the students personal experiences or watching the YouTube clip, students can draw their
15 minutes
experiences as a refugee. They can use either bright coloured image in a contemporary child like manner to
create drawings that represent happiness such as having a safe home, a right to education, access to clean
water and food etc. Students can also draw their experiences that prompted fear, danger, risk etc., if they do
not have their personal experiences as a refugee, they can draw their ideas from the YouTube clip and create a
fictional image.
Review Students will share their drawings with their partners. Based on their images, students will build on their
7-10 minutes
 knowledge and grasp an understanding of other students experiences.

Resources The Little Refugee text

Explicit Teaching Session 2-
Introduction
5 minutes With students gathered on the floor, the teacher will introduce this session by presenting the students with the Roll and
Retell sheet, and explain how the activity works (Appendix 3.0). As well as treading over the sheet together, this time will
also be used to delegate groups and resources. For this activity, groups of 3-4 would work best.
Elaboration In this section of the lesson, the class will have the chance to practice the activity before they separate into their
15 minutes groups. To practice, the teacher can go through an example of each response, calling on students for participation.
Together, the grade will create an example response to each of the six options. These six examples can be written
on the board to refer back to during the session.
The topics that will be discussed includes:
What sort of answers are expected
How to answer each of the six questions

In what format should the answers be written eg. dot points, full sentences or paragraphs. (Full

sentences are expected at this level).

Practice In this section, all students will gather in their respective groups and take it in turns to roll the dice. Once the dice
30 minutes
is rolled, the student that rolled it will answer the question to their group. All group members are then to write
the answer in the workbook, using their group members answer as a guide. They are to do this once each until
all students in the group have had a go at rolling dice and answering the question. By the end of this section,
each group member should have 3-4 responses in their book, depending on the number of group members.
Review Students will gather in a circle on the floor with their workbooks to have a final class discussion. Rolling a dice in
20 minutes
 the centre of the circle, students will have a chance to read out their answers to that particular number.

For example, if the teacher rolls a 1 (What is the story mostly about), students who answered this question can
raise their hands and read out their responses when called upon.
Depending on the question, multiple students responses may be called upon (e.g. Who are the main characters
is more of a closed-ended question and may only need to be answers once, while What is the story mostly
about is far more open-ended and could be answered in multiple different ways).
Resources The Little Refugee text
Roll and Retell worksheet




Explicit Teaching Session 3- Dissecting the book
Introduction
5 minutes The introduction of this session will see students gathered on the floor, and paired up in groups of 2. This time will also be
used to present the book once more to each student, and delegate each group with a page number.

Elaboration In this phase of the lesson, the teacher will go into the depths of what the activity is about. The structure of the
10 minutes activity will be presented to the students, explaining what they are expected to complete.

The topics that will be discussed includes:
What the task at hand is
How they are to complete the task (on poster paper, dot points and full sentences)
 What will be included on the poster (examples below)

- Dot points of main topic

- When, where, who etc
- Explanation of image (colour, emotion it gives)
- How this section makes them feel
What will be done with the posters once complete (Hung along the wall in chronological order)
Practice In this part of the lesson, the students will work on and complete their descriptive posters. Students are paired in
40 minutes
groups of 2 and delegated a spread of the book (each pair will receive the 2 pages that make up the spread to
focus on). They are to study their section, and create a poster that explains what their pages are about, who is
involved in this section, what the image means, what emotions are given off with this image etc.
The idea of this activity is to create a poster for every section/spread of the book.
Review At the completion of the posters, each pair will return back to the floor to present their posters to the class.
20 minutes
Going in order of the book, each poster will be briefly explained by the creators. These posters will then be hung

in the class to use as references in later activities.
Resources The Little Refugee text
Poster paper
Craft materials such as pens and coloured pencils

Explicit Teaching Session 4- Venn Diagram
Introduction
5 minutes To introduce this session, the teacher will give a brief overview of what is expected, and what will be done in the class.
Students will be reminded what a Venn Diagram is, how to create one and how they work. They will also be introduced to
 the materials being used in this activity (Hula hoops for the final class Venn diagram)
The Diagram will have the headings Australia Vietnam and Both.
Elaboration To elaborate on this introduction, the students will be given examples of the sorts of things they will be putting in
5 minutes their Venn Diagram. Using the whiteboard, the teacher will draw up an example Venn diagram with some
example statements within (brainstorms will be done by the students).
In this part of the lesson, students will gain an understanding of what sort of things they wil be including within
their diagram.
The areas students will focus on for their Diagram:
The setting e.g. Huts, Dirt roads, The Sydney harbour bridge,
Objects e.g. Motorbikes, Armour/guns, sewing scraps
Characters e.g. Pirates, friends, family
Topics covers Crowded houses, war,
Practice During this section, students will work individually to create their own Venn diagram. In their workbooks, they
45 minutes
will fill our what parts of the book are only things you would do/find in Vietnam, which parts are only in Australia
and which are both.
They will use the previous class discussion to help give them ideas, as well as the posters made I the previous
session. These will be used as aids for the students when trying to think of different topics covered on the
different spreads.

The idea of this activity is for students to get a good understanding of what life is like in both Vietnam and
Australia, and how, if at all, they are similar. Getting this understanding will help the students to appreciate how
hard the transition for refuges can be, but also how rewarding, as it can give a better quality of life.
Review In this final section of the class, the students will come together as a group in a circle on the floor. Together as a
20 minutes
 class, they will call out some of their different ideas to add to a class Venn diagram. To create this diagram, two

large Hula hoops will be put together, with their ideas written on bits of paper and added to the middle of the
hoops. These hoops can be hung on a pin board, with the answers pinned within, and will be a good resource to
use in future discussions of the text.
Resources The Little Refugee text
Workbooks and pens
Hula hoops

Sequence 3: Developing a multimodal response
Lesson one

The task:
Students will scrutinize parts of the book that highlights Anhs experiences at school For example: I had different food to the other kids and
some of them laughed at me. Why would students laugh at someone just because they are different? Discuss sharing different cultural
experiences and what students learn from them. Students will scrutinize the differences In Anh such as his food, uniform, background and so
forth. Students will then use the examples of the book and create a role-play that demonstrates the experiences and challenges of moving to a
new school. Students are to re-enact a situation where a student is new to a school, students will role-play some of the challenges that may be
faced for the new student, and how the other students might make them feel welcome/unwelcome and how to overcome the challenges. The
role-play will proceed for 7-10 minutes and will allow students to learn about change and the some of the stress and challenges associated
with changing schools.

Lesson one: (10 minutes)
As a class, the teacher will brainstorm some challenges and past experiences students had with moving to a new school. These ideas and
experiences will be written on the whiteboard for students to reflect. Key topics will be discussed. Such topics include:
Interacting in an unknown environment
Making friends
Bullying
Interaction with teachers

Body: (45 minutes). The second part of the lesson involves the educator explaining the role-play activity to the kids. The students will be put
into groups of 5 students. During this time, students till decide which role each student will play. (The teacher, the bully, the new student, the
friend and narrator.) Students will also decide on their story plot and other elements of the play such as costumes and dialogues. The teacher
will walk around to answer questions, ensure that each group has a different scenario to re-enact and make sure that students are doing the
right thing. By the end of the first lesson, each group should have a story plot; each student should know what their character role is, their
dialogues should be prepared and written and a symbol of attire that represents their character.

Conclusion: (5 minutes) During the last 5 minutes, the educator will answer any questions and uncertainties that students might have. The
teacher will also ensure that students take their dialogues at home for practise and ensure that their costumes should be written as a
reminder.

Lesson two:

Introduction: (5 minutes)
Lesson two involves students acting out their play. The first 10 minutes of the introduction stage will allow students to prepare themselves for
the role-play. This involves: getting together with their group, revising their dialogues, wearing their costumes etc.

Body: (45 minutes). During this stage of the lesson, each group will be expected to re-enact their role-plays. Other students will be expected to
watch and listen attentively. The educator will assess students on
The story plot
Each students participation
Language and vocal skills
Enthusiasm and confidence when acting
What each student learnt in the end of the activity.

Conclusion: Follow up activity: individual. (10 minutes)

During the conclusion stage, students are expected to be seated in their seats. The educator will give a sticky notepaper to each student. The
teacher will instruct students to write one thing they learnt about the lesson. Examples of students responses may be
To be friendly at all times
To make new students feel welcome
To understand that every one is different and we should not judge based on appearance or cultural/religious differences.
To report any signs of bullying.

Students will then read their responses and stick it on the board.



KWL CHART

3.0