Florey Primary School, ACT: Information Literacy in SOSE

For Celebrating Democracy Week, Florey Primary School looked at CCE in an historical context and used an information literacy research focus to research the role of the citizen in ancient societies.

By Suzanne Boutsis, Teacher Librarian

Description of the activity

The Year 6 Information Literacy Research focus this semester has culminated in a Celebrating Democracy event which shared the students' findings in their quest to answer the question:

Preliminary discussion took place about the terms 'citizen' and 'society' and the nature of freedom of the individual in society.

The 60 students were then enrolled in eight groups, each group focusing on one of the following societies: Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Ancient China, the Vikings, the Middle Ages and the Aztecs.

Parameters were established so that the research enquiry remained manageable since there is such a plethora of information about ancient civilisations. The students confined their investigations about ancient citizenship by answering:

• What time in history?
• Who held the power?
• Justice, guilty or innocent?
• Death and burial
• Fun and games
• Greatest achievements?

The students were required to prepare a profile of an eminent citizen from their chosen society. They chose Tutankhamun, Hammurabi, Pericles, Julius Caesar, Qin Shuaung, Leif Eriksson, Charlemagne and Montezuma II. They were also required to construct a model indicative of the time and prepare a poster which had to include a map. Most of the teams prepared PowerPoint presentations which were looped and played continuously during the presentation afternoon. Some students also dressed in costume to help dramatise their talks.

Involvement by others

Our school has a very culturally diverse student population so we were fortunate to have the assistance of our ESL teacher and three STAs when the Year 6 students worked on their projects during their weekly library session. The presentation was staged on a small stage in the library, so audience capacity was limited to parents, friends and other community members. Several representatives from other classes were also invited.
 

Learning outcomes

This exercise has provided a great opportunity for the students to place their knowledge about Civics and Citizenship in a historical context. After viewing the research material, one student commented that 'Democracy has certainly been a long time coming!'

Using citizenship as an analytical tool, the students have become familiar with the history of a variety of ancient societies. This focus has enhanced their understanding of the way society worked in different contexts in the past compared to their own era.

A multiple intelligences approach ensured each student was inspired to contribute to the team effort in an appropriate way based on individual talents. Those who chose art, created some truly impressive work. The computer buffs created imaginative electronic presentations and the technologists proudly displayed some amazing models.

The enthusiasm shown by the students is a strong indicator of the success that can be achieved with this pedagogical approach. The learning process occurs as a natural outcome of the engagement the students experience when given the opportunity to display their talents and to pursue their particular interest in some aspects of a broad topic.