Australian Curriculum History Book - Year 4

Historical Knowledge and Understanding Strand: "First Contacts"

Australian Curriculum History is a seven book series linked to the requirements of the Australian National Curriculum for each stage of primary school from Foundation to Year 6. The aim of the series is to use the Historical Knowledge and Understanding strand of the Australian Curriculum as a vehicle for practising the skills laid down by the Historical Skills strand to answer the key inquiry questions.

Each book is organised into sections dependent on the number of content descriptions in the Historical Knowledge and Understanding strand for that year. Within each section is a number of 4-page units which explore different aspects of the content description linked to the key inquiry questions. The activities in each unit give students the opportunity to practise historical skills while addressing concepts which aid historical understanding.

Where appropriate, links between the content of each unit and the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities have been recognised.

The books and 4-page units in the Australian Curriculum History Book Series are all laid out in a similar way.

The front pages of each book include:

• an explanation of the layout of the book
• a general note on the importance of historical skills and an overview and explanation of the skills specific to the year level
• a historical skills class record for teachers to record each student’s progress
• an overview of historical skills, key inquiry questions, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities
• a list of additional R.I.C. Publications’ resources that would support the teaching of history

Features of each 4-page unit include:

A supporting Teacher's Page which provides:

• the content description being addressed
• an elaboration relating to the specific aspect of the content description being developed
• the key inquiry questions being addressed
• the historical skills practised by completing the activities
• the historical concepts addressed by the activities
• background information to support that given in the student pages
• teaching notes to assist in classroom organisation or to highlight specific activities
• additional activities to extend the topic and develop historical skills
• resources to supplement information/activities for teachers/students
• time line related to specific people and events

Three Student Activity Pages:

• a stimulus text to inform students about the theme and to promote discussion
• an activity page related directly to the text but requiring research, evaluative comprehension and application of historical skills
• an additional activity page which may be either a continuation of the previous page or an extension activity related to the topic but not directly related to the text
• a fact file on each of the two activity pages provides an interesting or unusual fact related to the topic

Additional features:

• a series of quizzes - for each 4-page unit, a seven-question multiple choice quiz with answers is provided
• an answer page - for each 4-page unit, specific or possible answers are provided for activities unless they are open-ended

R.I.C. Publications Book