Mini+Beasts+Unit+Overview





**Aim of Unit** The unit “Mini Beasts” aims to develop student understanding of insects as part of the Science and Technology outcome “ LT S2.3: Identifies and describes the structure and function of living things and ways in which living things interact with other living things and their environment. Identifies, describes and evaluate the interactions between living things and their effects on the environment.” Students will develop an awareness of the physical structure of an insect, and will explore how insects interact with the environment, by conducting research on an insect of choice. The unit will aim to achieve this through the integration of both Science & Technology and English outcomes. The unit will explore how both written and visual grammar can be manipulated and incorporated in order to create meaning and produce literacy texts enhancing conceptual development.



**Outcomes and Indicators used in this unit**

//FOCUS OUTCOME: Science and Technology Stage 2// LT S2.3 - Identifies and describes the structure and function of living things and ways in which living things interact with other living things and their environment.   //LITERACY OUTCOME: English Stage 2// TS2.1 Communicates in informal and formal classroom activities in school and social situations for an increasing range of purposes on a variety of topics across the curriculum  TS2.2 - Interacts effectively in groups and pairs, adopting a range of roles, uses a variety of media and uses various listening strategies for different situations.   RS2.5 - Reads independently a wide range of texts on increasingly challenging topics and justifies own interpretation of ideas, information and events. retells and discusses interpretation of texts read or viewed, with attention to main ideas and supporting details in factual texts.
 * Identifies insects and describes their interaction with their environment
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Identifies the features of an insect that make it an insect.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students discuss different aspects of a ladybug’s structure and way of living
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students create their own headings to describe different aspects related to the ladybug
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students read short written texts that identify and describe the structure of a specified insect.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students use the written texts to identify the structure of a specified insect and label its parts.
 * Identifies and describes lions, giraffes, hedgehogs and stone fishes and/or the ways in which they interact with people/animals and the environment
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Offers opinions about documentaries
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Justifies responses with supporting evidence
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discusses and reflects on a variety of responses and views
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">identifies specific information from a documentary on insects
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">acts as reporter for group, summarising the main points of a discussion.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Works cooperatively to make decisions and complete the tasks
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Listens and considers other student’s opinions
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discusses why they have taken a particular viewpoint
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students work in pairs and groups to interpret a written text and produce a Conceptual-Analytical-Structured visual text.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students contribute to class discussion and interact equally when working with their partners
 * Uses different listening strategies for group work and viewing documentaries.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">contributes to a class summary after reading or viewing
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">identifies a range of features on modality in the deconstruction of a documentary video
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students read a visual image and analyse it in terms of visual grammar
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Students identify characteristic aspects of a Conceptual-Analytical-Structured visual text.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">RS2.8 - Discusses the text structure of a range of text types and the grammatical features that are characteristic of those text types.
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Discusses the main idea of different paragraphs in an information report
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Develops headings that match different sections of an information report
 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Organises sentences into the appropriate sections of an information report
 * Draws on the features of other text types (factual description, explanation, factual recount) that may appear in documentaries
 * <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Draws on the grammatical (written and visual) features of information reports and discusses how they are adapted in a multimodal text

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">WS2.14 - Discusses how own texts have been structured to achieve their purpose and the grammatical features characteristic of the text types used.


 * <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Creates a scripted storyboard, organising information into a logical sequence for use in a documentary



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Evidence of learning/achievement** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//Formative:// The students will be engaged in a number of tasks over the course of the unit, the products/samples of which willl form the assessment for their learning. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Teachers will constantly be observing students as they complete their tasks and engage in discussion. This will help the teacher assess their learning and create appropriate modifications throughout the lesson if necessary. The teacher will ask various questions to answer about the students after each lesson that relate to the indicators of the lesson. By doing this, the teacher will be informed about the students' development of understanding of the concepts relating to the focus outcome and the development of understanding of the literacy outcomes. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//﻿Summative:// Students will be undertaking a summative assessment task in the form of a rich multimodal task of creating a documentary using their scientific conceptual knowledge of Mini Beasts. This is aimed to be completed at the end of the unit.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Explanation of how the five lessons follow a logical sequence** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The lessons detailed in lesson plans follow a logical sequence as they allow students to initially build field knowledge of the focus outcome and semiotic knowledge of the rich multimodal task. The first lesson begins with an introduction to both insects and the rich task, using an insect documentary to facilitate the learning of both. The second detailed lesson follows on as it gives students an awareness of the different features to research about an insect, which leads into the learning experience of deconstructing the text type in the context of the unit focus, mini beasts. Subsequently, the third detailed lesson provides students with a deeper knowledge of the structure of an insect, incorporating a learning experience of the visual grammar associated with conceptual structured analytical visuals. Following this learning experience is a lesson focused on facilitating students' understanding of the purpose of a documentary in order to begin construction of their own, the learning of which is enhanced by the next lesson on the creation of a practise documentary, allowing students to use their literacy knowledge and knowledge of multimodal tasks.



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Description of the rich multimodal task** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** Students will be required to create a fact-file documentary relating to the topic of insects using the Windows Movie Maker software. Students will use a range of features applicable to this multi-modal text to suit a particular purpose and audience. These features may include but are not limited to the use of voice over, use of technical terms, combination of dynamic and static images and the appropriate use of written facts or descriptions. ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">** The students are required to include written and visual grammar that was explored during the unit, such as a conceptual structured analytical visual of their chosen insect, which also demonstrates students' knowledge of the stucture and function of an insect. Also, students are required to logically sequence their documentary so that it deals with the content based on the text type of information report. ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">