Manor Lakes College

Inquiry Learning
Planner

Inquiry Learning Unit Planner

Name of Unit: From Manor Lakes to the World

Year Level: 007

Student Needs / Interests:

What prior knowledge and experiences do the students have?
What are the misconceptions?
What skills or knowledge do the students need to have before the inquiry can begin?
What are the current issues and interests?

Teachers:
Gail Pomfret, Kate Sykes, Jason Crebbin, Samantha
Johnson, Sam Irwin, Amanda Martin, Rohan Clifford
Inquiry Question:
The first question is the overarching question which is rich and fertile – has room for growth and inquiry. Cannot be
googled!

What does it mean to be a good citizen?

Further Questions: Expectations:

These questions help to either guide or unpack the Inquiry
Question.
*What are the attributes of a positive member of the
Manor Lakes College community?
*Why is it important to be a good citizen/community
member?
*What are the consequences of not being a good
citizen/community member?
*Do the expectations of the members of the Manor
Lakes College community extend to the wider
community? To the global community? To the cyber
community?
*How? What does this mean to us?
What do we want the students to gain from the unit
inquiry?
What do we need from them at the end of their learning?
*For students to have a greater understanding of what
it it means to be, and how, to be a good citizen.
*For students to help themselves to be a good citizen
at Manor Lakes College by understanding their learning
styles and preferences and putting these into practice.
*For students to understand that the values and
behaviours of good citizenship extend beyond the
school environment to the global environment.
*For students to be safe and responsible in their use
of technologies.
*What are the ten or twelve’s key terms that students
need to know, understand and be able to spell about
Cyber Safety by the end of the unit.

Victorian Essential Learning Standards (Overview)

We will continue to use Google Docs to identify and unpack the standards in more detail.

Strand Domain Specific Dimensions

Physical, Personal and Social • Health and PE Building Social Relationships
Learning • Interpersonal Development Working In Teams
• Personal Learning The Individual Learner
• Civics and Citizenship Managing Personal Learning
Civic knowledge and
Understanding
Community Engagement
Discipline-based Learning • The Arts Reading
• English Writing
• The Humanities Speaking and Listening
o Economics
o Geography Measurement, Chance and Data
o History
• LOTE
 • Mathematics
• Science

Interdisciplinary Learning • Communication ICT for Communicating

• Design, Creativity and Reasoning, Processing and
Technology Inquiry
• Thinking Processes Creativity
Reflection, Evaluation and
Metacognition

Approach Style: Not all units have the same style or approach. What approaches will you take?

Negotiated: Play based:

Students plan a personal or small group investigation based on a
topic or question of their choice (usually within a defined area).
They may sign on an agreed contract.
Students explore a range of materials within or outside the
classroom.
Through strategic teacher interaction, whole class, small group or
individual inquiry may develop from discoveries or observations
made during the day.

Issue or problem based: Shared inquiry units:

Problems or issues in the school, community or wider world are The topic or the question is usually determined by the teacher, but
identified (by student or teachers). may be negotiated with the class.
Students consider possible actions/solutions to address the
problem or meet the goal. They design questions to guide
inquiries.

Numeracy Links Literacy Links

These links are the natural links that fit with the unit. There is no need to add all your Literacy and Numeracy here for the term.
Choosing appropriate ways to record data Reading:
Graphing Reading, comprehension and critical evaluation of a
range of texts e.g. Newspaper Articles, information
from web pages, books
Writing:
Letter to Self
Informational texts
Speaking and Listening:
Class discussions
Presenting their informational text to the community

Stages of Inquiry
Engaging the students –
the ‘hook’, immersion,
tuning in.
Learning sequences – Assessment Resources needed
These sequences need to be For – Formative Eg; websites, printed materials,
clear for any teacher to follow. As – Reflective graphic organisers
The name of the activity is not Of - Summative
enough.
What does it take to be a
good citizen?
What is expected of
citizens of Manor Lakes
College?
 What does it mean to
be a member of the Think, Pair, Share using
Manor Lakes College Post-It notes. Collate to
Community? make a poster

* What does Dream,

Believe and Inspire
mean to you? Class to
discuss and share their
thoughts.

* Write a letter to yourself Letter to Self

to be opened at the end
of the year. What do you
think of MLC? What do
you like/dislike about
MLC? What do you want
to achieve here? What
are your fears?

* Looking at our Y chart (Looks Like,

expectations. What do Sounds Like, Feels
we expect from members Like) /T (What is it? What
of our community – our isn’t it? /Plus, Minus,
citizens? What does it Interesting charts to
mean to Act Safely, explore expectations
Show Respect, Aim High
and Value Our
Community? Unpack the
expectations with
students –
What are our values?
What behaviours do we
want to see?
What behaviours are
non-tolerated?

From these, create a

class code of conduct

Exploring – planning,
researching, adding to * How do you learn? Multiple Intelligence
knowledge bank. Students to complete a Questionnaire
Multiple Intelligence
questionnaire and Lane Lane Clark/Andrew
Clark/Andrew Edwards Edwards Diversity of
Diversity of Learning Learning Styles
styles. Students are to
examine the results and
consider whether they
agree with these findings
about their learning
needs. Discuss these as
a class exploring class
preferences
* Students to create
‘MySpace’ posters of My Space Poster,
their Diversity of including a self and
Learning Styles and teacher assessment
Multiple Intelligences rubric
results. Students are to
include information about
themselves, e.g. their
likes and dislikes.

* Using their laptops, Comic Strip – peer

students are to create a assessment and teacher
comic strip showing assessment rubric Comic Life
examples of students Photo Booth
demonstrating the Manor
Lakes College
expectations using
Comic Life and photo
Booth.

* Class discussion to
explore the concept of
‘Good Citizens’ – do the
expectations of members Venn Diagram
of the Manor Lakes Venn Diagram
College community
extend to the wider
community? To the
global community? Why
do communities expect
their members to abide
to these expectations?
What happens if they
don’t?
In pairs students are to
create a venn diagram of
MLC expectations and
those of the community
outside the college.

* Watch ‘The Talent

Show’ and a range of
short videos about
bullying and discuss
Do the expectations of
MLC extend to the cyber The Talent Show
world?

*How does this effect

us? Are we safe in the
cyber world?
Students to complete a Cyber Safety Survey
cyber safety survey and
discuss the results (not
personal results – collate Cyber Safety Survey to
answers and report on be created from copies of
results as a class, not on survey that Kate created
individuals) in 2009
 *How can we keep CyberNetrix
ourselves safe in the
cyber world?
Use Cyber Netrix to
explore concepts of
cyber safety and cyber
bullying – Look at Cyber
Netrix for activities

CyberNetrix
activity:Banner-Web
page banner that
presents a key safety
message

Explaining –analysing, *Class to collect articles Newspaper/web articles

communicating, relating to Cyber Bullying
presenting. and discuss.

*CyberNetrix Activity: Speaking and Listening

CyberGuru-Students anecdotal notes taken
anomynously write down during discussions
a safety problem then
place in box, each
student draws one out
and leads discussion
with class

Elaborate – new Cyber Smart Detectives? Anecdotal assessment

questions. Extending Students participate in a during Cyber Smart
experiences, challenging real time activity in pairs Detectives activity
assumptions. on their laptops.
*See if we can arrange
this, even if it is for term
2 as it will be a good
form of assessment.

*Rohan*
Introduction to copyright-
Is it ok to copy and share
music /games/DVDs?
Watch ‘Copyright’ short
video
What is copyright?
Why copyright?
What does it mean to
you?
Linking to being a good
citizen

Students are to choose

an area of cyber
safety/cyber
bullying/copyright that
interests them and
research further.
 Look at the features of
an informational text.

Evaluate – reflection, Students to use their Informational text

taking action, making a research to create an
difference. informational text on their
laptops to be distributed
to the Manor Lakes
Community
Students can choose
their audience and target
their informational text to
their audience. Students
can choose how they
present their information-
Information can then be
published –
on the Manor Lakes
College website
Displayed at General
Office
Presentations to other
year levels
In school newsletter –

Student Self Reflection Self Reflection

of their learning

End of Unit Reflection

P M I