1. Religion Curriculum Gathering 2013
October cluster
Paving the Way
Religion Curriculum Gathering 2013

2. Welcome

3. EMMAUS SONG
Monica Brown

4. EMMAUS SONG
Monica Brown

5. Come journey with us

6. walk with us
listen to our story

7. Our hopes our dreams,
our struggles our joys,
our story of life, we share with you,
as we journey Jesus our God

8. May our hearts
be warmed
and strengthened by
your presence here

9. In your holy word
and bread of life
in the love we share

10. May we go forth, on our journey with you

11. Come journey with us,
talk with us tell us of your story

12. Open our minds
to understand
the mystery
of your life with us,
your risen life
Jesus our God

13. May our hearts
be warmed
and strengthened by
your presence here

14. In your holy word
and bread of life
in the love we share

15. May we go forth, on our journey with you

16. Come journey with us,
stay with us, make us one with you

17. In the blessing of bread, the breaking of bread,
may we truly know
your life in us,
your love for us Jesus our God

18. May our hearts
be warmed
and strengthened by
your presence here

19. In your holy word
and bread of life
in the love we share

20. May we go forth, on our journey with you
Words & Music By
Monica Brown
© 2006 Emmaus Productions

21. Prayer

22. Uncertainty newness creativity wonder
This Place of…………………
life struggle
expectation contentment
Uncertainty newness creativity wonder
challenge routine
discovery decision excitement renewal delight
anxiety letting go surrender

23. Together We Pray Together We Pray
O God of small beginnings and small steps,
You inspire us through a heritage that is rich in blessings,
You challenge us to grow, as we remember the struggles of our past,
You call us as partners in the Catholic educational community
To be inclusive of all who seek to learn in the light of faith.
We ask you to bless our work over the next two days
And may your presence in what we do, encourage us to dare.
May solidarity and togetherness be our strength.
We make this prayer, through Christ our Lord.
Amen
The two days in this gathering are to primarily address the new curriculum in a very practical way, so that you feel confident and empowered with a plan & skills to engage your staff in implementing the new curriculum. Over the past 2 years we have been waiting with anticipation as we heard from John at previous APRE gatherings about the new Religion curriculum – John has given us the background of the curriculum from its draft form, informing us of the philosophy, aims and pathway it would take. Today we are very excited to begin the process of working with the curriculum on a very practical level. All of you are at various stages of implementation with the new Religion Curriculum – some are at the very beginning stages and ready to start looking at your scope and sequence for your school, others have completed their scope and sequence, have teachers trialing units and are already planning units of work for next year. Some schools are beginning implementation in Semester 1, while others Semester 2 next year. We are all on the learning journey at a pace which meets the needs of our school community. And that is a good thing– we hope we have planned the 2 days with flexibility in mind – so that you can work on what you need to, starting from the point you are at. We do have some targeted input sessions, which we would like everyone to take part in, and hopefully time for you to get to know the curriculum.
Please remember that we are all learning together and together we will support each other in implementing the new curriculum – small steps. The more time I spend looking at the content and skills, the deep understandings and the digital tools and resources, the more I am convinced that we have an engaging curriculum which is challenging and connects with the life experiences and realities of our students.

24. The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.
Bill Copeland

25. Gathering Goals
Increase knowledge and familiarity with the Religion Curriculum P-12- new website
Develop a Scope & Sequence for your school
Deepen understanding of assessment
Collaboratively plan a unit of work based on a fertile question
Identify useful resources and digital tools
Develop an implementation plan for your school.
Utilizing the backward planning method – John and I looked at what we hoped you would achieve at the end of the 2 days - we really want it to be your 2 days and very practical Slide 24
Look at the new website for the Religion Curriculum
develop a Scope & Sequence or at least be well on the way
assessment
know how to plan a unit of work based on a fertile question
knowledge of resources & digital tools to provide meaningful and relevant learning experiences for all students
develop an implementation plan for your school
We then developed a sequence of teaching / learning which we hope will achieve these goals.

26. Day 1 - Tuesday 8:45 Welcome & Prayer
9:00 Orientation of the Curriculum - What is new?
9:30 Scope and Sequence Development
10:30 Morning Tea
11:00 Scope and Sequence Development
12:00 Assessment Critique
1:15 Lunch
1:45 Sharing of Resources by APRE’s
Digital Tools Critique
6:30pm Dinner: Encores Restaurant – Next to Empire Theatre (Neil St Toowoomba)

27. What Are Your Goals? Compass Points Thinking Routine
N: something you Need to know (or still need to know)
E: something that you are Excited by/ Energized by
W: what Worries/concerns you?
Slide 26 Folder for Handouts: Compass Points – thinking and reflective tool for the three days. (time now for N – something you need to know – elbow partner – share)
S: Suggestions (something I might do now/do next)
Compass Points Thinking Routine

28. What’s New?
TCEO RE Website
‘Soft Launch’ of New Website
App & Print Copy
Scripture
Prayers
Prep / Yr 1 Working Party
DLP Codes
Trial Units – Term 4
27 Latest news on RE curriculum –
Our own TCEO Website
TCEO RE Website on Intranet – Great starting point for you to get orientated, familiar with the curriculum and also for your teachers. Good tools for you to use with your staff:
Teacher background – Church History; Life and times of Jesus; Teaching Judaism
Teacher tools – Learning Bytes – 8 available
Documents - Inquiry Learning; teacher Professional Development; Sample Units of Work; Teacher Background; Cd’s & Elaborations; Achievement Standards and Year Level Descriptors.
Direct link to BCE site - links to the Brisbane site (soft launch stage – not everything is open as yet

29. Print Dedicated website App New Religion Curriculum P-12
Print version – Brisbane producing before the end of the year.
Website – now linked to our CEOT Religion website
App – before end of year
New Religion Curriculum P-12

30. Scope & Sequence Whole school planning:
how entitlement to learning is ensured and how flexibility in offerings meet the needs and aspirations of the community
how the school’s curriculum is organised and structured to enable the best outcomes for all students
how entitlement is met and students have the time needed to achieve agreed standards through time allocations that are made within stated guidelines (2.5hrs per week; )
Developing a Scope and Sequence of learning progression for your school – this session will hopefully be very practical and ensure that you complete or at least be well on the way to completing your scope and sequence for your school.
Once your Scope and Sequence is developed it is important for you to critique it with your teachers, ensuring they have an understanding of why you have put a selection of cd’s together into a unit of work. The process of looking at the Year Level Descriptions and Achievement standards and discerning what are the key understandings or flavours, that are coming through for this year level, is vital. This is an important process for you and your teachers to do, in order to get to know the curriculum and work out what is important for their students to know and do. This scope and sequence is a working document and you will probably adjust and ‘fine tune’ as the year progresses. Remembering that this curriculum utilizes a cross - strand approach – the strands work together are interrelated and their content is taught and learnt in an interrelated way. So in a unit of work we may take cd’s from Sacred Texts, Christian Living, Beliefs, Church which will give students the opportunity to develop their Religious Knowledge, deep understandings and skills – or the main ‘flavours’ that you have identified.

31. Scope & Sequence Learning progression for each year level
Cross – strand approach (Beliefs, Sacred Texts, Christian Life, Church)
Year Level Description; Achievement Standards, Content Descriptions
Religious Life of School, celebrations, important events

32. Scope & Sequence
Templates for Scope and Sequences available on the TCEO RE Website
Planning Booklet
Learning Byte Map with DLP Codes
Brisbane developed one way of organizing the Religion Curriculum to ensure entitlement to learning. You need to organize the curriculum to best suit your school context and student interests.
Important to look at the religious life of your school and important events, the liturgical calendar, sacramental program, which impact upon or needed to be included when working out your sequences. Eg. Patron saint of school, Catholic Education week
Now we will have different groups operating for this session:
Schools that have developed their S & S – may wish to collaboratively critique those then perhaps start developing fertile questions for their term units
Schools that need to begin S& S – work in small group clusters eg. Similar size or class groupings.
Secondary schools discussion of S&S or unit writing

33. Timeline of LBs:
By beginning of Term 2: 2 LBs
By beginning of Term 3: 6 more LBs
By beginning of Term 4: 4 more LBs
By end of Term 4: 4 more LBs
Total: 16 LBs this year across 2 – 10
Show map and highlight those that we aim to develop this year. (This is linked from the map)

35.
Learning Byte Analysis - What is a Learning Byte? Learning Bytes are resources specifically designed to support the Religion Curriculum P-12 ( i.e. the classroom learning and teaching of religion) from which teachers might develop a unit of work. They are not units of work in themselves but include many of the elements that a teacher would need to consider when planning for teaching, learning and assessing (e.g. year level description, achievement standard, content descriptions, success criteria, inquiry learning, fertile questions, teacher background, connections with the Religious Life of the School P-12).

36. Learning Byte Analysis
Assessment Tasks – Select one of the assessment pieces and develop a rubric for what an A / B / C might look like for this piece of assessment?

37. Resource Sharing
Name of Resource
Area of Use

38. Digital Tools
Digital Tools – Select one of the digital tools recommended for use in this Learning Byte (preferably a tool you haven’t used before), then utilize it to create an example to show the larger group and give some further insights as to how it might be used in the classroom.

39. Digital Tool Sharing
Name of Tool
Area of Use

40. Questions

41. Day 2 - Wednesday 8:45 Prayer (Grace, Raymond, Joseph)
9:15 Steps to Planning an RE Unit with your teachers
Writing a unit of work – templates, working in small group clusters
10:30 Morning Tea
11:00 Continue Writing a unit of work
12:00 Resource Centre Update (Liz Newman)
Visit Resource Centre
1:00 Lunch
1:30 DLP multi-age & reporting (Mark Gregson)
LAP’s
2:15 Implementation Plans for your school
Reflections
2:45 Blessing

42. Year level planning:
organisation of curriculum across the year connecting learning areas, contexts, curriculum intent and content
the global and local contexts and student interests that will be used as organisers across the year to engage students in learning
learning intent and success criteria visible to all students
resources to provide meaningful and relevant learning experiences for all students
a range of effective assessment practices that enable students to demonstrate the full extent of their learning
Schools may like to consider these when organising their curriculum across the year.
Key messages:
Begin with the curriculum – other things are considerations only
Integrity of the Religion Curriculum intent and content needs to be foremost when considering connections with other LAs.
The Religion Curriculum aligns with the liturgical year but is not in service of it.

43. Class and individual planning:
the curriculum applicable to the year level in relevant  contexts
how available time is used to ensure learning success for each student
pedagogy that is most effective in engaging and enabling students to achieve the standards
resources to provide meaningful and relevant learning experiences for students
effective assessment practices to be used so that students are able to demonstrate the full extent of their learning against the achievement standards
how feedback is to be used to enhance student learning progress and development
Sue – to refer to the key features of class planning

44. Planning a Unit of Work
planning
teaching and learning
assessment

45. Planning a Unit of Work
What learning experiences will help students acquire the knowledge and skills and foster critical and creative thinking, insight and inquiry?
What learning experiences make meaning of the key understandings and equip them to transfer their learning to real life situations?
Inquiry Model - Darryn Kruse range of books
ITC Thinking Skills Framework

46. Planning a Unit of Work Proformas – placemat strategy
Practical way to work with your teachers

47. Tuning In
Engaging students in the fertile question / topic – discerning / dissecting a fertile question collaboratively
Establishing relevance/ worth of the question, topic.
Focusing students on their prior knowledge and experience of the topic
Keying teachers in to the needs and knowledge level of the students
Beginning to identify questions or problems to investigate

48. Finding Out / Sorting Out
Locating and gathering information from a range of sources (beyond what they already know)
Further clarifying or extending question
Challenging students prior knowledge, beliefs and values
Providing shared experiences for students to process and reflect on
Developing research and information literacy skills
Making sense of experiences and data collected
Organizing information gathered in a variety of ways
Analyzing information from a range of perspectives
Developing an understanding of processing tools and strategies

49. Communicating Articulating new understandings
Developing skills in synthesizing and generalizing
Answering and refining questions
Stimulating newer, deeper questions for independent investigations

50. Evaluating & Reflecting
Making further conclusions – articulating, synthesising, generalizing, answering and refining questions demonstrating students’ progress towards the goals / key understandings
Consider the bigger picture: what does this mean for me as a learner? How does this relate to real life?
Can I answer the fertile question?
Celebrating the learning journey

51. Going Further
Doing something with or about what has been learnt

52. Let’s Get Started 1. Cluster groups Year level Multi-age Small school
Secondary
2. Placemat Template
3. ITC Thinking Skills Framework
4. Learning Byte resources / Modules

53. Let’s Get Started Scope & Sequence Take back to staff Multi-age
Small school
Secondary
2. Placemat Template
3. ITC Thinking Skills Framework
4. Learning Byte resources / Modules

54. Implementation Plan Parent Pamphlet
Use your Compass Points Sheet to assist in this process
What do I need to do this term? Next year?
What in-service will you need assistance with / Personnel?
What Resources will I need?
What time will I need to work with teachers?
Staff planning booklet
How will I inform my school community about the Religion Curriculum?
Parent Pamphlet

55. Final Blessing
God our loving companion, we thank you for journeying with us during these past two days and for the many ways you constantly care for and nourish us. As we prepare to launch the new Religion Curriculum in our school, we particularly ask that Your Holy Spirit goes before us and prepares the way.
We find strength and comfort knowing that you make the journey with us. May we support and encourage each other as we journey together. May the work you have entrusted us to do be well received, May the curriculum’s content and its pedagogy speak into the hearts of many, that they may come to know your more.

56. Blessing Tile

57. Leader:
In this time of transformation, when something is asked of you as an educative and religious leader ….
May Jesus Christ, crucified and risen,
Be your inspiration, your centre, your strength and your hope.
All: Amen
May you have the grace and wisdom
To act with compassion and justice in all things.

58. May you act always in a spirit of service,
And may those who work with you know that you see and respect them.
All: Amen
May you treasure the gifts of the mind and the heart,
Where vision and discernment draw enrichment from the past,
Even as new horizons are embraced.

59. May you know the wisdom of deep listening.
May you know the supportive power of community;
And may leadership be for you a true adventure of growth.
All: Amen
And may Almighty God bless us, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.