Sequence One: Frontloading

Experiencing the known:

Introducing the concept of sustainability through the use of The Lorax (2004), the students will discuss their understandings and prior knowledge of the
concept, with reference to the blurb and front cover of the text. Students will then progress in expanding their understanding of sustainability through the
introduction of the 3 Rs reduce, reuse and recycle.

Teaching Focus 1 Understanding Sustainability

Have students discuss their prior knowledge of sustainability.
Explain that sustainability will be the topic of focus over the next following weeks.
Introduce the text, The Lorax (2004), and discuss the title, front cover and blurb.
Strategic questions to lead What is sustainability?
the students toward your What do you already know about being sustainable?
focus
Looking at the front cover...
Based on the title and front cover of the book, what do you predict the book will be about?
What features of the book makes you predict this?

After reading the blurb

Whole class activities to
engage the students
What habitat is the book set in?
What is happening to the habitat?
What are the effects of this? Who is affected by what is happening?
Discussion about the students prior knowledge about sustainability.
View the front cover and blurb of The Lorax (2004) and discuss as a class, with students sharing their interpretations

Follow on activities
partner/group/independent
Assessment
Resources
Teaching Focus 2
Strategic questions to lead
the students toward your
focus
Whole class activities to
engage the students
Follow on activities
partner/group/independent
Assessment
and predictions about the book.
Students are to complete the first two columns of a K-W-L chart (what I know and what I want to know) based on their prior
knowledge about sustainability. The last column (what I learned) will be completed at the conclusion of the unit.
Teacher will assess students understandings through their K-W-L charts and through student responses during class
discussion.
The Lorax (2004)
K-W-L chart template (refer to Appendix A).
Recognising Healthy Habitats
Have students reflect on the previous lesson, which focused on the front cover and blurb of The Lorax (2004).
Using the information from the blurb, discuss the habitat at focus and the issues that that habitat is facing.
Discuss what a healthy habitat may look like, in comparison to an unhealthy or destroyed habitat.
Based on the blurb, what habitat is focused on in The Lorax (2004)?
What is happening to the habitat?
What implications is this going to have for organisms (living things)?
What do you think a healthy forest should look like?
What do you think an unhealthy or destroyed forest would look like?
Discussion about the specific habitat discussed in The Lorax (2004), being a forest. Further discussion and comparison
between a healthy habitat and unhealthy habitat.
In groups, students are to represent a healthy habitat and an unhealthy or destroyed habitat. They may choose to
represent these through a range of multimodal forms, including role-play, singing, dancing, ICT, writing, etc. Each group
will then present their representations of a healthy and unhealthy habitat to the rest of the class.
Teacher will conduct assessment through students contributions to class discussion, as well as through the quality of their
2

Resources
Teaching Focus 3
Strategic questions to lead
the students toward your
focus
Whole class activities to
engage the students
Follow on activities
partner/group/independent
Assessment
representations of a healthy and unhealthy or destroyed habitat.
The Lorax (2004)
iPads
Laptops.
Identifying Key Aspects of Sustainability
Introduce the reduce, reuse, recycle concept through the use of a YouTube video
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtoeZ9Nkeq) (refer to Appendix B).
Discuss what was addressed throughout the video and how it can be applied in students households.
Before viewing the video
What does reuse, reuse and recycle mean?
After viewing the video and playing family waste tracker game
What are some ways that you can be sustainable at home?
What will happen to our environment if we are not sustainable?
Which bin would you put polystyrene in?
Students will watch the reduce, reuse and recycle YouTube video, and discuss the ways they can implement the
strategies displayed in the video into their households, school or local community.
Working independently on their iPad or laptop, students will access the family waste tracker website, and through this,
will determine whether the particular type of waste belongs in landfill or a recycle bin. Furthermore, the website
progresses into discussion about the importance of utilising the Recycling and Waste Centre.
At the conclusion of the family waste tracker game, the students will be required to submit their scores to the teacher as
a form of assessment.
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Resources
Teaching Focus 4
Strategic questions to lead
the students toward your
focus
Whole class activities to
engage the students
Follow on activities
partner/group/independent
iPad/Laptop
Internet Access
Identifying Events that Cause Damage to the Environment
Brainstorm the story of The Lorax (2004) are articulate the specific events that occurred, which resulted in
damage to the environment.
Students will then research any other environmental issues that have occurred within their living environment,
and will discuss the similarities and differences between their experience(s) and the text.
What significant events happened in The Lorax (2004) that led to environmental damage?
Are there any other possible environmental issues that can occur that were not highlighted in the text?
How do these issues impact our environment?
What can you do to prevent these issues from negatively impacting our environment?
Brainstorm the key events that occurred throughout the story utilizing a mind map, completed as a whole class discussion.
Ask the students to return to their tables and individually articulate these events in their notebooks. Furthermore,
they will then individually brainstorm how these actions provided a negative impact on the environment and ways
in which they could have been resolved.
Additionally, they will then work in pairs and research any further environmental issues that are possible, other
than the events that have occurred in the text.
Once they have researched these additional environmental issues, the class will come together to further a
discussion that addresses the problems portrayed in the story and events that occurred within their own
environment. They will then discuss if there are similar characteristics between the story and the events that they
researched.
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Assessment The teacher will conduct assessment throughout the entirety of the class discussion by assessing the students
contributions. Additionally, their individual responses to the text and partner research to represent their understandings
of similarities and differences between the text and living environment will also be used as a form of assessment.
Resources Whiteboard and Markers - used for brainstorming
The Lorax (2004)
iPad/Laptop
Internet Access
Notebook
Pen.

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 Sequence 2: Explicit Teaching
Explicit Teaching Sessions

Session 1: Focus - Discussing Possible Positive Contributions to the Environment

Introduction To begin the lesson, the students will be seated together and a brainstorming activity will be utilised to introduce the topic.
The teacher will begin to prompt the students understanding through questioning, such as, If you could do anything to
positively impact the world, what would you do? For example, ensure that land clearing is diminished or stop people from
littering to avoid it entering the drains and injuring wildlife. Students will be asked to complete a diary entry to the future
generation and are required to articulate what they can do to ensure they have a sustainable future.
Elaboration The teacher will model an example of a diary entry that would have been prepared earlier. This will be displayed on the
SMARTboard and will be used to guide the students understanding of the teachers expectations.

Some key prompts would include:

I wish I didnt leave the tap on when I brushed my teeth.

I wish I told my mum to turn the tap off when she was washing the dishes; she couldve just filled the sink with
water instead.
I wish I didnt tell my dad to cut down all the trees in the backyard so I could have a basketball court.
I wish I used containers at school, instead of packaging that may end up in the ocean and harm the wildlife.

Practice Students will begin to write their diary entry to the next generation. This diary entry will be used to articulate the current
environmental status and global warming issues, and simple ways they can make positive contributions to the
environment. The students will utilise the relevant prompting statements that were addressed in the elaboration phase.
This will be a key assessment within their unit, so it is essential to ensure that the students are able to effectively

6
 communicate their understanding and knowledge.

The students are able to utilise additional literature to research sustainable concepts that can be utilised to inform their
diary entry response.

The teacher will be continuously roaming around the classroom, ensuring that the students remain engaged and are
including relevant concepts.

Review Students will share their draft with the person sitting next to them, as well as their teacher, in order to ensure that they
have discussed appropriate statements.
Resources Interactive SMARTboard
Example of diary entry
Writing Paper
Pencil and Eraser.

Session 2: Focus - Peer and Self-Editing Review of Diary Entries.

Students will be asked to share their diary entry with a friend, and they are required to edit their peers work. They will be provided with a sheet to guide
their editing (refer to appendix D). Once both students have peer reviewed each others work, they will revise and edit their own entry according to their
peers recommendations. Students will then create a good copy utilising Microsoft Word. This will be used as a form of summative assessment, for the
overall completion of the unit.

Session 3: Focus - Analyse Fiction Text

Students will be required to analyse and interpret the text The Mountain, written by Peter Parnall. This environmental story articulates the various
environmental impacts that it was exposed to. The last pages of the book detail the impact that infrastructure has on our environment, as the mountain

7
 was declared a National Park and roads were being built around it, which lead to littering and destruction of its original structure. Students will partake in
Literature Circles and will be allocated various roles, which will be used to interpret different aspects of the text. The roles will include passage picker, word
wizard, artful artist, summariser, connector, and discussion director (refer to appendix E). At the end of the lesson, one group will team up with another
group within their class and they will share their findings through their particular roles. Students will remain in these groups and will be required to analyse
each story, finding out the purpose of the text, the intended audience, the key facts discussed, and providing a brief summary of each text.

Session 4: Focus - Analyse Non-Fiction Text

Introduction Students will be introduced to the lesson by reading a few pages of the text Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People
Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet, written by Harriet Rohmer. This story will be utilised to empower the students to have a
positive impact on the environment.

While reading the text as a class, the students will be analysing the photographs and illustrations, allowing the learner to provide
relevant connections to the text. Furthermore, the story will highlight various true stories of twelve different people that
provided a positive impact, essentially focusing on a story of a young teenage girl. This ensures that the students develop an
understanding that you can be of any age to provide a positive contribution.

Elaboration The teacher will enact some common roles; this enactment will provide a valuable insight into the expectations and will guide
the students understanding of the task.
Practice Students will partake in Literature Circles and will be allocated various roles, which will be used to interpret the relevance of the
text. The roles will include the passage picker, word wizard, artful artist, summariser, connector, and discussion director (refer to
appendix E), ensuring that students do not receive the same role as last lesson.

The teacher will continuously roam around the classroom and monitor the students participation.

Review At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will share their responses and interpretations that they discovered in their roles.

8
 They will then share their findings with another group within the class and discuss the purpose of the text, the intended
audience, key facts discussed and a brief summary of the true story that they analysed. Furthermore, the students will discuss
what they could do to provide a positive impact on the environment.

Resources Heroes of the Environment: True Stories of People Who Are Helping to Protect Our Planet, written by Harriet Rohmer.
Literature circle role play cards - detailed information of their role
Paper and pen.

9
Sequence 3: Developing a Multimodal Response
The Task - Create a Behind The News Episode about Sustainability

To effectively conclude the unit, the students will be required to, in groups, create a four-minute Behind The News (BTN) information segment. Each
segment will reflect the big ideas of the unit, including community, change over time, the ability to make a difference, and equity and fairness, through the
perspective of sustainability. Groups will have the option to focus on either of these big ideas, however, it is vital that all areas are addressed by at least one
group. Groups must conduct research on the area they have chosen and plan their information segments accordingly (through the creation of a script and
storyboard), before commencing the filming process. Upon completion of the recording process, each groups information segment will be joined together
to create a full Behind the News episode, which will be played at school assembly. This task will be the students major assessment piece, and will allow for
formative and summative assessment to be conducted throughout each process. Students will be assessed on their quality of research, planning methods
undertaken, final product of their information segment, and most importantly, their ability to work collaboratively as a team. In addition, students will be
required to conduct a self-assessment, through the rubric that will also be completed by the teacher (refer to Appendix F). The development of the Behind
The News information segment ensures that all learning styles and abilities are catered for, through the various interdisciplinary and multimodal methods,
including visual, spoken, gestural and written.

Session 1: Focus - Laying the Foundations of Effectively Creating an Information Segment

Introduction To begin the lesson, students will watch the latest episode of Behind The News, without any prior discussion or teacher
prompting. Following the episode, the teacher will ask students to consider the process of creating an episode, just like the one
they watched. The teacher may need to prompt the students with questions, including:
Do you think creating a Behind The News episode would be easy or difficult? Why?
What do you think the process of creating an episode would include?
What needs to be completed before filming begins?

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 How may the workload be separated?
Reflect on your roles during literature circles - how does the separation of roles help you?
What roles may particular people have?

Teacher will introduce the multimodal response to the students, explaining that, in groups, they are to create their own Behind
the News episode, based on the big ideas explored throughout the sustainability unit. Together, the teacher and students will
discuss the marking rubric, ensuring that all students are aware of the process in creating their episode (researching, planning,
filming), as well as their expectations.

Body Students will be placed into groups and must collaboratively decide on the big idea they would like to focus on. When a decision
has been made, the group must consult with the teacher in order to ensure that all big ideas are addressed by at least one group.
Using the laptops and iPads, students may then begin researching their topic at focus. Students may decide to set each group
member with a particular role in order to increase productivity during each session.

Conclusion Each group must then allocate a member to be the Progress Reporter, who will be required to report the progress in which their
group has made during each session, to the rest of the class. Following this, there will be an opportunity for students to raise any
questions or concerns that may have arisen regarding the creation of their information segment.

Follow On Activities Students may find a partner, who is not in their group, and discuss the research that they have conducted so far.

Assessment The teacher will conduct formative assessment through students responses to whole-class discussion, and through the level of
team collaboration and research conducted throughout the session.

Resources Interactive whiteboard

Behind The News episode - http://www.abc.net.au/btn/stories.htm (ABC 2016)

11
 Marking rubric
Laptops
iPads
Material(s) for noting research.

Session 2: Focus - Research and Scriptwriting

Students will continue researching about their topic and will need to apply their research into creating a written script for their episode. In order to increase
productivity, students can, again, designate each person in the group to a particular role. Therefore, one student may choose to continue researching, while
another begins writing the script. While writing the script, it is important that students consider the setting that their information segment will take place
in, for example, whether it will be filmed inside, outside, sitting at a desk, standing in front of the interactive whiteboard, etc. Students have the
opportunity to decide this for themselves, in relevance to their chosen topic and type of research conducted. The Progress Reporter of each group will
report progress to the rest of the class, and teacher assessment will be made based on groups levels of productivity and quality of scripts.

Session 3: Focus - Creating a Storyboard

Introduction Introduce the focus of the session, which is the creation of a storyboard. Prompt the students to determine their prior knowledge
of storyboards.
What is a storyboard?
What are storyboards used for?
What do storyboards look like?
Who may use storyboards?
What are the benefits of storyboards?

12
 Display the example of The Lorax Example Storyboard (refer to Appendix G) on the interactive whiteboard. Discuss the
characteristics of the storyboard, mainly focusing on the concept of setting within each scene.
How is the setting being represented?
How has it changed?
Thinking about your own information segment, will you be changing setting throughout it? How will you represent this on
a storyboard?

Body Students are to create their own storyboard using the template provided (refer to Appendix H). They are to represent each scene
of their information segment, including the setting, characters present and props needed, though representational drawing.
Students may also provide additional notes to aid the future filming process.

Conclusion Each group is to find another group, who are not focusing on the same topic as them, and share their storyboards with one
another. They must thoroughly explain each scene, taking into account all of the important aspects, including setting, characters,
props, camera angles, etc.

Follow On Activities Following the sharing of their storyboards, students can, in their groups, discuss any changes or improvements they may make to
their storyboard.

Assessment Formative assessment will be made based on the students abilities to work collaboratively. The quality of their storyboard will
also be used to make formative assessment, as well as summative assessment.

Resources Interactive whiteboard

The Lorax Original Storyboard - http://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/tara_leigh18/the-lorax-original-storyboard
(tara_leigh18 2015).

13
Session 4: Focus - Creating a Virtual Storyboard

Using the ACMI Storyboard Generator, students will represent their hardcopy storyboards as an online, virtual storyboard. This storyboard generator
allows students to upload photos to represent each scene, enables people to be placed into each scene, and is able to reflect the appropriate camera action
needed for each scene. When complete, storyboards will be exported into video form, allowing for students to briefly visualise the end result of their
information segment. The session will conclude with each group presenting their virtual storyboard to the rest of the class. Formative and summative
assessment will be conducted throughout this process.

Session 5: Filming

This session will allow for students to begin the filming process. In order to do this, groups will have video recorders, iPads and laptops available to them. It
is important that the written script and storyboards, whether hardcopy or virtual (or both), are referred to during this process. This will provide the
students with a form of guidance and structure in carrying out the filming, and will ensure that all planned scenes are addressed. When filming is complete,
each group will provide the teacher with their recordings, in which the teacher will then edit and join together to create a full Behind The News episode.
This episode will then be played at the next school assembly in order to effectively promote sustainability amongst the whole-school community, in a
multimodal, engaging and creative way. The filming conducted by each group will be used as summative assessment for this unit of learning.

Session 6: Self-Assessment and Completion of K-W-L Chart

Begin the session by watching the students finalised Behind The News episode. Refer back to the marking rubric that was explored during the first session
of sequence three, and critically discuss. Students are then required to conduct a self-assessment using this rubric, reflecting on their contribution to each
stage in the creation of their information segment, including researching, planning and filming, as well as their ability to work collaboratively in a team. The
teacher will also use this rubric when assessing each group. Students will then complete their K-W-L chart from the beginning of the unit, stating what they
have learned throughout the unit. Teacher will hold a discussion enabling students to share what they have learned throughout the unit, with the rest of
the class. Through this, the teacher can make further assessment of students levels of understanding and learning throughout the unit, as a whole.

14
Appendices
Index

Appendix A K-W-L Chart

Appendix B Reduce, Reuse and Recycle YouTube Video
Appendix C Family Waste Tracker Game
Appendix D Peer Review Assessment Form
Appendix E Literature Circles - Role Play
Appendix F Behind The News Information Segment Marking Rubric
Appendix G The Lorax Example Storyboard
Appendix H Storyboard Template

15
Appendix A: K-W-L Chart (2014).

16
Appendix B: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle YouTube Video (2009).

17
Appendix C: Family Waste Tracker Game (2016).

18
 Peer Review Form
Name of Students Work: ____________________________
Name of Peer Assessor: ____________________________

Read the following diary entry carefully and provide relevant feedback to enhance the piece. Ensure that you are truthful and give effective
feedback so the author is able to make effective changes to their entry.

1. Has the author provided relevant key facts of environmental issue?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Is the diary entry engaging? If not, what could they do to make it more engaging?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. What could be improved from this entry?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. What is your favourite aspect of this writing and why?
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

Appendix D: Peer Review Assessment Form.

19
Appendix E: Literature Circles - Role Play.

20
Appendix F: Behind The News Information Segment Marking Rubric.

21
Appendix G: The Lorax Example Storyboard (2015).

22
Appendix H: Storyboard Template (2009).

23