Topic 1: The power of literature – a study of Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress by Dai Sijie
Mind mapping software:
Photographs of China:
Topic 2: Identity and belonging – how experiences and memories define us
References
Australian Association for the Teaching of English & Australian Literacy Educators Association 2003, MyRead, DEST, Canberra, www.myread.org, accessed on 16 February 2013.
Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress 2004 (film), directed by Dai Siije, People's Republic China/France.
Brown, J & Isaacs, D 2005, The world café: shaping conversations that matter, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco.
Brown, MD 2007, 'I'll have mine annotated, please: helping students make connections with text', English Journal, vol 96, no 4, pp 73–78.
Callow, J 1999, Image Matters, PETA, Newtown, NSW.
Callow, J 2008, 'Show me: Principles for assessing students' visual literacy', The Reading Teacher, vol 61 no 8, pp 616–628.
Cayley, V 1994, Children of Tibet, Pearlfisher Publications, NSW.
Chen, Jiang Hong 2008, Mao and me, Lion, New York.
Dai, S 2002, Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress, Vintage, London.
Dai, S 2003, 'Rediscovering China', in Y Layma, China, HNA, New York.
Hall, L 2008 How to be Japanese, in A Pung (ed), Growing up Asian in Australia, Black Inc, Victoria.
Layma, Y 2003, China, HNA, New York.
LeBlanc, A 2009, Barroux (illustrator), The red piano, Wilkins Farago, Albert Park, Victoria.
Li, Cunxin 2007, A Spudvilas (illustrator), The peasant prince, Viking, Camberwell, Victoria.
McLaughlin, M & DeVoogd, GL 2004, Critical literacy: enhancing students' comprehension of text, Scholastic, New York.
Na, Liu & Martinez, AV 2012, Little white duck, Lerner Publishing Group, Minneapolis.
Pung, A (ed) 2008, Growing Up Asian in Australia, Black Inc, Victoria.
Thompson, H 2011, Orchards, Ember, New York.
Tong, S 2008, 'Beat of a different drum', in A Pung (ed), Growing up Asian in Australia, Black Inc, Victoria.
Further reading
Cheng, C 2011, The melting pot: my Australian story, Scholastic Australia, Lisarow, NSW.
House, S & Vaswani, N 2012, Same sun here, Random House, New York.
Ly, Many 2008, Roots and wings, Random House, New York.
Pung, A 2011, Her father's daughter, Black Inc, Collingwood, Victoria.
Russell, Ching Yeung 2009, Tofu quilt, Lee & Low, New York.
Woo, Sung J 2010, Everything Asian, St Martin's Griffin, New York.
Xinran 2007, Miss Chopsticks, Random House, New York.
Yang, Gene Luen 2006, Chinese born American, First Second Books, New York.
Assessment overview
A range of assessment tools are included to promote self, peer and teacher assessment.
Self-assessment capacity matrix
In a self-assessment capacity matrix (DOC 159 KB), the capacities move from knowledge (I have heard of this) through to deep understanding (I have taught others) and includes a final capacity on work habits. Students may tick or date each capacity as they achieve them.
A self-assessment capacity matrix:
- encourages self-reflection and metacognition
- ensures accountability
- promotes collaboration
- supports students to monitor their own progress in completing tasks
- sets high expectations for the levels of achievement; the highest level is at understanding, demonstrated by teaching others.
Criteria/Quality assessment rubrics
CQ rubrics make assessment criteria explicit to students for self-assessment, peer assessment and for feedback to the student by the teacher. Students use them as a guide when completing assessment tasks and for peer feedback. Once students have received their peer feedback, they submit the work to the teacher. In the feedback, teachers comment on areas of strength and provide suggestions for improvement. This feedback can be used to write a final draft or be referred to during the next major assessment task.
Grades should not be included with the CQ feedback to ensure students focus on the feedback rather than the grade in order to improve learning. Grades should be provided to the student at another time, not on or near the day the feedback is provided.
CQ rubrics are included for:
Years 9 and 10 Australian Curriculum achievement standard rubrics
These rubrics align the content descriptors from the years 9 and 10 Australian Curriculum: English that have been addressed in the assessment tasks with the relevant parts from the years 9 and 10 achievement standards. These rubrics are completed by the teacher. A student may be ranked as below, at, or above the achievement standard.
Digital assessment tools
For peer assessment, there is a variety of tools available so that students can provide feedback to each other. These include Google Docs, CGScholar, Edmodo and the Review toolbar on Microsoft Word.