1. Unpacking Geography F-6
Welcome to this session today.
I would like to introduce myself ….
With me today I have from the Geography Teachers Association of Victoria or the GTAV..
(next slide) – what we will cover today

2. Objectives This session will introduce you to:
the structure of the curriculum
its key concepts
developmental sequence of the curriculum
In covering the structure, key concepts and developmental sequence, I hope to be able to give you a deeper insight into the intended curriculum, that is, to increase your confidence in reading the curriculum and planning units of work.

3. Key messages No longer general Humanities from F–4
Specific Geography curriculum from F–10
Revised structure
Development of conceptual thinking strengthened
Significant revisions to knowledge and skills
Revisions to achievement standards
We will unpack some of these key messages, but it will not be in terms of what’s different to AusVELS as the revisions are significant enough to warrant beginning speaking about this new Victorian curriculum in its own right.
You will note that now there is a specific Geography curriculum from F-10.
As you begin to see how the curriculum works as a continuum you will begin to see how this can assist with teaching and learning.
The key is to plan carefully. Carefully reading across different curriculum areas will show many opportunities to link together different content if this is what you want to do. Having a stand alone Geography curriculum for example makes it much easier to see the strong links to Science, not just other Humanities.
We will touch on these other key messages throughout this presentation.

4. Aims The Geography curriculum aims to ensure that students develop:
a sense of wonder, curiosity and respect for places, people, cultures and environments throughout the world
a deep geographical knowledge of their own locality, Australia, the Asia region and the world
the ability to think geographically, using geographical concepts
the capacity to be competent, critical and creative users of geographical methods and skills
the capacity to be informed, responsible and active citizens who can contribute to the development of a world that is environmentally and economically sustainable, and socially just.
It is worth pausing to consider the aims of the curriculum.
The curriculum as it was being written, was held accountable to these aims.
It introduces key ideas that underpin the curriculum design and can continue to influence how you develop units of work.
You will see a range of locations around the world that students have to study. They become explorers, and more than mere tourists. They are taught concepts, skills and knowledge to help them make sense of places in the world.
This thinking can then be applied not only in its own right, as a response to the awe and wonder of the world, but also to current issues. Geography is very much a futures curriculum.
(next slide) - structure

5. Structure Structure: Strands and sub-strands Achievement standards
The first achievement standard at Foundation – Level 2 and then at Levels 4, 6, 8 and 10.
A curriculum for students with disabilities is provided in this learning area.
The A-D curriculum is for students with disabilities. It has the same structure as F-10 and focuses on personal geographies.
In terms of transition to primary school for students without disabilities, it is the Victorian Early Years learning and Development Framework or VEYLDF that should be referenced. This is a separate document, designed for birth to eight.
It is worth seeing an overview of a child’s journey through Geography. This slide will give you a sense of where a student is coming from and where they are going to.
Note the structure of two level bands. Each of these bands has a particular theme, which in turn is part of a developmental sequence.
Note that there are two strands: Geographical concepts and skills and Geographical knowledge.
Each of these strands continues through from F-10.
The sub-strands of Place, space and interconnection and Data and information also describe a developmental sequence in skill development and conceptual thinking.
The Geographical knowledge sub-strands describe a range of topics in increasing complexity of knowledge, for example as expressed through the scale of what is studied.

6. Points to note:
Levels A-D is a curriculum for students with disabilities
Content descriptions (CDs) are banded, that is, levels F-2 share common content descriptions, followed by two level bands: Levels 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 and 9-10.
The curriculum describes a continuum of learning
Content descriptions are mandated while elaborations are not mandated, for example:
Suggestions on how a CD could be approached
Each sub-strand is further broken down into content descriptions, which are mandatory content. Content elaborations accompany content descriptions but these are not mandatory. They instead illustrate various possibilities for unpacking the content descriptions.
We will unpack each of the strands in turn, beginning with the Geographical concepts and skills strand.

7. Key messages Geographical concepts and skills
Strengthens the progression of geographical skills essential to working with data and information and conceptual thinking necessary to work with geographical knowledge content descriptions
Seven concepts underpin the whole curriculum:
Place • Environment
Space • Sustainability
Interconnection • Change
Scale
The Geographical concepts and skills strand is divided into two strands – Place, space and interconnection and Data and information.
You will note that there are seven concepts that underpin this curriculum
They are expressed in different ways throughout the bands.
Becoming very familiar with these is crucial to teaching this curriculum well.
This concepts work together to help provide the lens through which content descriptions in Geographical knowledge are taught. What makes a study of a local planning issue from a geographical perspective distinctive from say Economics and Business or Civics and Citizenship?
There may be one real issue in say the local newspaper – for example what to do with land recently opened up. Should it be a new park for local children? Geography will take a distinctive lens to this issue that involves conceptual thinking and geographical skills. The concepts will help to shape the kind of questions that are asked and the kind of responses that are made. The concepts of Geography prompt us to ask where other parks are located and what their distance from this site is and to ask questions about accessibility. They prompt us to think about what the area surrounding the site is like. They help us to see that it matters whether there is an industrial estate or housing nearby. These are critical considerations and make a distinct contribution to thinking about this issue along with Civics or Economics and Business.

8. Geographical concepts
The Place, space and interconnection sub-strand identifies progression in conceptual thinking, with emphasis on the concepts of place, space, interconnection.
The concepts of scale and change are integrated into this sub-strand.
Environment and sustainability are represented in Geographical knowledge strand.
More information about the concepts can be found in “Learning in Geography” (from the Introduction drop down menu on the Victorian Geography curriculum page)
It is highly recommended that you read the learning in section of this curriculum, a link to which can be found on the landing page for the Geography curriculum.
This will build your confidence in working with this curriculum.

9. Progress in conceptual thinking is identified across the Place, Space and Interconnection sub-strand, and students work towards this through engagement with the whole curriculum.
This is illustrated in the elaborations for the Place, space and interconnection sub-strand, which draw on other areas of the curriculum, for example:
The concepts are not separate to the curriculum.
They are used to frame an approach to teaching the Geographical knowledge.
We will now look to see how the Place, Space and Interconnection sub-strand is a developmental continuum.
This is reflected in the elaborations, which are copies from either data and information elaborations or geographical knowledge.
This will be unpacked further as we take a look at Geographical knowledge

10. Example of progression – place, space and interconnection sub-strand
Describe and explain where places and activities are located
3-4
Identify and describe locations and spatial distributions and patterns
5-6
Identify and describe locations and describe and explain spatial distributions and patterns
9-10
Identify, analyse and explain significant spatial distributions and patterns and identify and evaluate their implications over time and at different scales
7-8
Identify, analyse and explain spatial distributions and patterns and identify and explain their implications
In this example it can be seen how student learning progresses.
F-2 focuses exclusively on places and their location.
From 3-4 onwards, this is opened up to spatial distributions and patterns that may be found within a place or examined across a number of places. Students gradually go on to explain spatial distributions and patterns in 5-6 and then are extended to consider the implications of these in 7-10.
Spatial distributions and patterns refers to the way particular geographical features or characteristics such as population, are arranged across the Earth’s surface and the patterns that result.
We will now consider an example (next slide)

11. Example: (3-4): Main climates of the world and similarities and differences between the climates of different places
What type of climate does Melbourne have?
Describe and explain where places and activities are located
(F-2)
Where can this climate be found across Australia?
Where can this climate be found across the world? Is there a pattern?
Identify and describe locations and spatial distributions and patterns
(3-4)
Explain this climate in terms of temperature and rainfall
Identify and describe locations and describe and explain spatial distributions and patterns
(5-6)
So for example in levels 3-4 Geographical knowledge students are required to study the main climates of the world and similarities and differences between climates in different places.
How to approach this from a Geographical perspective distinct to Science? The content description on spatial distributions and patterns prompts us to look at a map of Australia’s different climates and describe what is there and then go on to for example, identify the climate in their own place and find another place in the world with a similar climate, again using a map. Some students could be extended to go on to explain why there are different climates by looking at differences in temperature and rainfall. This progresses their conceptual learning to levels 5-6, within the same topic of climate. On the other hand other students may be working towards focusing only on understanding what the climate type is in their own place without going into the distribution of this climate type around Australia. This is represented in F-2. In fact teaching and learning activities might begin here with their own place and then go on to develop understanding of the distributions and patterns.
This demonstrates how conceptual thinking is used to approach the teaching of this content. Note that there is a link to the data and information sub-strand too, where students learn the skills to be able to describe the spatial distribution using geographical terms such as compass direction.

12. Data and information sub-strand
Overview
describes progression in skills for:
Collecting and recording data and information
Representing data and information
Interpreting, analysing and evaluating data and information
This sub-strand describes progression in the skills necessary to work with Geographical knowledge content.
We can see from the previous example on climate that students need some skill in reading maps and also in working with data and information to learn about climate types.
So they could look at pictures of places with temperate, tropical and arid climates and then examine some data on temperature and rainfall to help them understand the differences between these climate types.

13. Example of progression – data and information sub-strand
Interpret data and information to draw conclusions
3-4
Interpret maps and other geographical data and information to develop identifications, descriptions, explanations and conclusions
5-6
Interpret maps and other geographical data and information using digital and spatial technologies…
9-10
Analyse and evaluate data, maps and other geographical information using digital and spatial technologies and Geographical Information Systems …
7-8
Analyse maps and other geographical data and information using digital and spatial technologies…
This is another example of progression in learning.
It can be seen here that, using our climate example, Levels 5-6 is leading students to look at say google earth for various climate types, whereas using a Bureau of Meteorology climate map of Australia would be at levels 3-4. Of course maps are integral to Geography throughout but the sophistication of interpretation and creation of maps increases.

14. Data and information sub-strand
Mandates the use of digital and spatial technologies from Levels 5-6
This sub-strand could be used as a basis for fieldwork/inquiry, which could be supplemented with, for example:
content descriptions from other curricula. For example content on Questioning and possibilities sub-strand in Critical and creative thinking capability to help teach how to construct a question for investigation or survey questions.
Content within Geographical knowledge, for example in asking students to respond to a geographical challenge, for example:
Fieldwork is integral to Geography.
In our planning example earlier, it should be obvious that nothing can quite substitute for actually going down to the site and having a look. This may need to be supplemented by other data and information but students should be given the opportunity where possible to look, hear, touch, smell and feel.
The metaphor of explorer is an apt one. It is critical that fieldwork sites are selected carefully and the kind of investigations selected carefully to foster curiosity and awe and wonder.
Here it can be seen other curriculum such as the capability curriculum areas can be used to help construct an inquiry.
For example if part of the inquiry is to conduct a survey then the questioning and possibility sub-strand in critical and creative thinking can be used to help teach students to construct good questions.
Inquiry should also be linked to the Geographical knowledge strand and here we can see an elaboration that picks up on the opportunity to investigate a local planning issue as part of student learning about this content.
Let’s look more closely at the Geographical knowledge strand
CD is used to inform an aspect of an inquiry

15. Geographical knowledge strand F-6: Key features
Students begin by learning that places have particular features and that people are connected within the same place or to different places.
They go on to learn that places are both similar and different and then consider why this may be so.
They gradually learn to recognise and explain the complex interconnections within and between places
This progression is integrated with learning essential Geographical knowledge and skills
A mental map of the world is gradually developed from F-2 in a way that supports the development of knowledge within a given band
This sums up the over arching progression in knowledge.
More detail can be found in the band descriptions on the curriculum web-site.

16. Key questions F-2 3-4 5-6 What are places like?
How and why are people connected to their place and other places?
What makes a place special?
How can we care for places?
3-4
How and why are places similar and different?
What would it be like to live in a neighbouring country?
How does the environment support the lives of people and other living things?
How can people use places and environments more sustainably?
5-6
How do places, people and cultures differ across the world?
How do people’s connections to places affect their perception of them?
How do people and environments influence one another?
How can the impact of bushfires or floods on people and places be reduced?
This shows the key questions that pick up on content themes within each two level band.
These can be found in the level descriptions on the curriculum web-site.
You can also see how those themes carry across the levels. One example is illustrated in pink here but there are many other ways to link these questions. In this example a key difference between how and why are places similar and different and how do places, people and culture differ across the world, is one of scale. Students study places at the local, regional and national scales at 3-4 and build up to global at 5-6.

17. Achievement standards
The achievement standards for Geography show development in conceptual understanding and skills and a gradually developing mental map of the world.
They are aligned to Geographical concepts and skills and Geographical knowledge strands
Note that in levels F-6 development of mental map of the world is explicit
The achievement standards are designed as a continuum to support flexibility in curriculum delivery and differentiated classrooms.
We will now go on to consider this in more detail.

18. By the end of Level 2 students describe and explain location
Example
By the end of Level 2 students describe and explain location
Melbourne is in the south east of Australia.
Melbourne is located in a temperate climate area
By the end of Level 4 students identify and describe spatial characteristics
The southern edge of Australia and the eastern edge to just north of Brisbane has a temperate climate.
This follows a pattern of temperate climates in the south east of most continents.
A place with a similar climate to Melbourne is Paris
By the end of Level 6 students describe and explain spatial characteristics
Melbourne has a temperate climate because of its combination of rainfall and temperature over a long period of time, showing warm summers and cold winters
Thinking back to our climate example, here are some extracts from the achievement standards that link to the climate content.
Underneath are examples of evidence that a student might produce. This could be in one piece of work for one student or other students might not go further than 3-4 or F-2.
This is not the only evidence of course. There may be reference to data on temperature and rainfall, annotated maps and the like and this can in turn link to other parts of the achievement standard on using data and information to develop explanations and descriptions.
It can be seen students could be given the opportunity to achieve at 5-6, but this requires planning. (next slide)

19. Example - Working with the Achievement standards
Main climates
Main climates of the world and the similarities and differences between the climates of different places
By the end of Level 2 students describe and explain location
By the end of Level 4, students identify and describe spatial characteristics
By the end of Level 6 students describe and explain spatial characteristics
Content from Geographical concepts and skills
Other than the mental map of the world the achievement standards are free of Geographical knowledge content and deliberately so.
Thinking back to our climate example, planning would begin by recognising that if students are expected or able to explain climate distributions in Australia in terms of temperature and rainfall, perhaps even drawing in the influence of the Great Dividing Range on climate, they would be achieving at Levels 5-6, but with Geographical content from Levels 3-4 on climate. This may then become the higher end of an assessment rubric for students in Years 3 or 4.
Feedback on their achievement, for example in the form of an assessment rubric, is obviously contextualised to refer to climate, that is, what they have been specifically studying. You need to take the conceptual nature of the achievement standards and contextualise them to the knowledge content to create a rubric.

20. Contact and resources
Curriculum Planning, Assessment and Reporting resources
Contact
Monica Bini
VCAA Curriculum Manager, Humanities and Social Sciences
Phone:
The Victorian curriculum demands careful planning and there are resources available to you to assist with this.
This link will take you to three key resources:
Victorian Curriculum F-10: Revised curriculum planning and reporting guidelines
Curriculum Planning resource website link to a range of resources to support planning and documentation of the curriculum across or between year levels.
Curriculum mapping templates which drill down to the unit level, with templates to support learning here.
We will spend the remainder of the session having a look at the Victorian curriculum web-site, the GTAV web-site and then answering questions.