Tsunami/Teaching Guide

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Overview of Process and Constituent Learning Tasks
In this course, students work through three successively richer phases of engagement with text, rich media and activities about tsunami. A mission/game framework situates learning about tsunami both as an interesting adventure and as an act of social responsibility. This cross-curriculum unit challenges students to build an understanding of tsunami as a physical phenomenon, a social phenomenon, an opportunity to develop a sense of personal power and agency, and an opportunity for personal and community preparedness.


 * 1) The first phase asks students to discover how to identify and describe tsunami through real life lenses (physical characteristics and warning signs, international standardised signage) and to develop understanding of the physical causes and processes associated with tsunami. This initial level of familiarity with tsunami builds awareness of tsunami as a potential danger / natural disaster. Learning tasks include: engaging with rich media, reflective responses, multichoice quizzes, multimedia presentation, tsunami simulation experiment
 * 2) The second phase asks students to explore and respond to the physical, social and human impact of tsunami. The course seeks to evoke a personal response from students, developing a sense of empathy with disaster victims and survivors, and motivating students to be prepared for tsunami. Learning tasks include: engaging with rich media, reflective responses, multichoice quizzes, multimedia presentation, creative writing
 * 3) The third phase asks students to develop preparedness for tsunami (survival plan, escape route, getaway kit) for themselves and their community. This promotes an inspiring sense of their own potential agency as community life-savers, and builds a community which is better prepared to encounter tsunami. Learning tasks include: online tsunami game, a full survival plan which constitutes the summative assessment for this course - see assessment criteria.

Analysis of the role of specific learning tasks and activities (within the larger course structure) can be downloaded here.

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Intended Audience
The intended audience for this course is middle school students world-wide aged approximately 11-14 years (years 7-10 in New Zealand). This audience has an English proficiency within or near the literacy level years 5-8 (ages 9-13) in the New Zealand curriculum. The intended audience is able to access the course online and may also be attending classes in a school setting. To support this, developed materials can be used to resource a class room type learning environment or as a stand alone, interactive learning module suitable for home schooling, self-directed learning, supervised extension etc. Some of the activities require students to use equipment from around their environment.

The materials will however be able to be tailored for use in other countries since a) tsunami can occur in any coastal area world-wide and b) the course materials have been developed for world-wide distribution via the Internet. The materials can also be adapted for use with younger or older age groups of students by modifying learning activities so that students use and develop cognitive skills that are appropriate for those age groups. Further suggestions for adaption can be found in the following section of this teaching guide: Suggestions for Adaptation And Other Uses

Links to NZ Curriculum Objectives
The following Level 4 Achievement Objectives of the New Zealand Curriculum are relevant to this course:

Investigating in science


 * Build on prior experiences, working together to share and examine their own and others’ knowledge.
 * Ask questions, find evidence, explore simple models, and carry out appropriate investigations to develop simple explanations.

''A three-stage structure lets students develop their knowledge, working in groups on various activities to build understanding. Students investigate the physical forces involved in tsunami. For example, group activity experiment invites students to simulate a small-scale tsunami and share their observations with other groups both within and beyond their class.''

Communicating in science


 * Begin to use a range of scientific symbols, conventions, and vocabulary.

International standard tsunami warning signage and appropriate technical vocabulary are introduced and used consistently throughout the unit.

Participating and contributing [in science]


 * Use their growing science knowledge when considering issues of concern to them.
 * Explore various aspects of an issue and make decisions about possible actions.

Students develop disaster preparedness planning for themselves and their communities.

[From the Science Achievement Objectives: ‘Nature of Science’]

Understand that events have causes and effects.


 * Understand how formal and informal groups make decisions that impact on communities.
 * Understand how people participate individually and collectively in response to community challenges.

''The causes and effects of tsunami, and possible minimising or mitigating strategies for tsunami damage, are explored. Tsunami are presented as a catastrophic event in the life of a community, and students are encouraged to develop a sense of agency as well as explicit preparedness for such a disaster in their community.''

[From the Social Sciences Achievement Objectives: ‘Social Studies’]

Communicating and interpreting


 * Explore and describe ways in which meanings can be communicated and interpreted in their own and others’ work.

[From the Arts Achievement Objectives: ‘Visual Arts’]

AND

Processes and strategies Students will:


 * Integrate sources of information, processes, and strategies confidently to identify, form, and express ideas.
 * INDICATORS:


 * 1) uses an increasing understanding of the connections between oral, written, and visual language when creating texts
 * 2) creates a range of texts by integrating sources of information and processing strategies with increasing confidence
 * 3) seeks feedback and makes changes to texts to improve clarity, meaning, and effect
 * 4) is reflective about the production of own texts: monitors and self-evaluates progress, articulating learning with confidence.

[From the English Achievement Objectives: ‘Speaking, writing and presenting’]

''Students are encouraged to respond empathically and artistically to the experiences of those who have lived through tsunami. They are invited to share their constructed understanding about the physical processes associated with tsunami, and to report on their own experimental observations. These opportunities for creative and factual response can be used to assess students’ interpretation and expression of ideas.''

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Strategies

 * 1) To support and guide students to engage with ideas of what tsunami are, how they are caused and how to recognise the signs of one by (tactic) setting learning tasks and assessments that develop and test this knowledge
 * 2) To facilitate students’ understanding of the personal relevance of the topic and students’ motivation to be disaster-prepared by (tactic) using examples from places and people they can identify with, explicitly encouraging students to identify with examples by setting reflection and discussion tasks that ask them to relate examples and scenarios to their own circumstances.
 * 3) To facilitate students’ preparedness for a tsunami by (tactic) setting assessment tasks whose deliverables are the elements of disaster preparedness.

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Session plans
Detailed session plans for each of the 3 phases can be found in the file below.

[[Media:Session_plans.pdf|Session plans]]

Discussion spaces within and beyond your class
While this unit is designed to be accessible to a range of student situations, including self-directed study, certain components of the course aim to provide avenues and ideas for class teachers as they adapt this unit of study for their context. One element that aims at serving both of these interests is the occasional strategic links to discussion threads outside of Wiki Educator.

Wikispaces 

At certain stages of the course you may notice a discussion link. Each of these discussion links leads to a page on http://tsunamiwiki.wikispaces.com where questions and starters are given related to the activity of the corresponding Wiki Educator page. For example, in page 1.1.3 of the WikiEducator Tsunami unit, the students can complete a short quiz; the discussion link on this page connects to a wikispace discussion thread that gives students an opportunity to talk about the quiz experience and share their views with other students taking the course currently and in the future.

While each of the links provided on the course pages take the user directly to the relevant discussion thread, there is also a directory in the main page of http://tsunamiwiki.wikispaces.com, which provides links to each discussion thread and parallel links back to the corresponding Wiki Educator pages.

The wikispaces discussion space is especially well suited for connecting with other teachers and classes who are using this unit.

List of wikispaces discussion links within WikiEducator course

Phase 1


 * wikieducator.org/Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson1_1 What is a tsunami?
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson1_3 Wave Energy
 * wikieducator.org/Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson1_6 Simulation
 * wikieducator.org/Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson2_3 Official Warnings
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson2_4 Unofficial/informal warnings
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson3_1 Tsunami Signage
 * wikieducator.org/Tsunami/Phase_1/Lesson3_2 Signs Quiz

Phase 2


 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_2/Lesson1_1 Effects
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_2/Lesson1_2 Physical Impact
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_2/Lesson2_1 Social Impacts: could this be us?
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_2/Lesson2_2 Diary Activity (two links)

Phase 3


 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_3/Lesson1_2 Emergency Plan
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_3/Lesson2_1 Escape Routes
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_3/Lesson3_2 Plan Activity
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_3/Lesson4_1 Assess the Risk
 * wikieducator.org//Tsunami/Phase_3/Lesson4_2 Tsunami Game

Alternative discussion spaces, online and offline

As the class teacher, you are most welcome to introduce these discussion links to your students and have them take part in discussion with other classes and with students who are working through the course on their own. If you would prefer to keep the discussions within your class then you might consider recreating the same discussion threads


 * on a new wikispace page
 * on your school's Moodle, intranet or other web-based learning management system
 * on any other email forums or electronic bulletin boards your class uses

where your students can interact with their classmates online (instead of clicking on the links in Wiki Educator, your students would simply open the relevant thread in your class wikispace or other forum in each case).

If you are planning to run the course offline, or aim to emphasise vocal discussion in the classroom, you might also consider using the questions posed in these discussion links as a basis for vibrant discussions in the classroom.

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Suggestions for Adaptation and Other Uses

 * Remember that WikiEducator is a publicly editable site. You can update the resources if you wish, and others may have done so before you.
 * This course is suitable for adaptation for geographically dispersed groups: the use of wikispaces to facilitate class collaboration is recommended.
 * This course is somewhat suitable for groups who do not live in a coastal area. Phases 1 &amp; 2 of this course are most suitable for such groups, and could be delivered as short modules. Possible summative assessments include multi-choice quizzes, presentations about the characteristics and impacts of tsunami, and creative responses to survivor stories. Phase 3 (planning and preparedness) could potentially be undertaken for a designated coastal area.
 * Phase 3 of this course could be adapted to other natural disaster preparedness contexts for a variety of groups.
 * This course is suitable for adaptation to offline use. Apart from the use of the print-friendly versions of course resources (links below), the following changes are recommended to facilitate offline use:

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Rationale for Teaching and Learning Time
As this course is primarily designed for the online learner its aim has been to minimise the number of instances of pure ‘click and read’ learning and include as much authentic interactivity and practical application of knowledge opportunities as possible. Preparing for emergencies such as tsunami requires knowledge of the hazard itself and an understanding of how the hazard ‘works’ and the implications it has for communities. This content must be conveyed in an engaging and interactive manner with the student provided enough time to pause, think and consider the information they have just read about, viewed or listened to.

Some learning tasks are introduced online but are in fact completed offline. For these learning tasks particularly, teacher guidance or facilitation time is required. Teacher guidance/facilitation will increase significantly when suggestions for delivering or adapting this course for offline delivery are employed. For ‘class mode extension activities’ (links provided in Suggestions for Adaptation And Other Uses table), teacher guidance and some degree of preparation, as noted in each guide, is essential for effective facilitation of these collaborative activities. Time allotted to extension activities in class is over and above time estimates provided for the course in Session plans and the estimated totals provided below.

A practical approach has been taken to learning tasks in all three phases of this course. Students are provided opportunities to apply their knowledge through a range of practical learning tasks which are aimed at preparing students adequately for a tsunami.


 * Phase 1 of this course is the most content heavy of the three stages and it is anticipated that students will need approximately 7 hours to complete the learning and associated learning tasks including the carrying out of a scientific experiment and familiarising themselves with tsunami signage in their local area. Actual teaching time is approximately 5 hours.
 * Phase 2, the briefest of the three phases, requires considerable reflection/group discussion, culminating in a short story or diary task. Anticipated learning time required is approximately 5 hours. Actual teaching time for this stage is approximately 2 hours.
 * Phase 3 learning and learning tasks are heavily practical suggesting students will need a further 10 hours to complete this stage. Actual teaching time in this phase is approximately 3 hours.

Approximate total learning time required: 22 Approximate total teaching time required: 8

(Teaching time does not include time spent marking assessment.)

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Assessments (formative and summative): overview, rationale and marking criteria
Formative Assessment

The formally identified formative assessment activities for this course are the multichoice quizzes in Phases 1 &amp; 2. Successful completion of these activities will indicate that learners have effectively constructed an understanding of how to identify tsunami and the impacts of tsunami, both factors which enable and motivate preparedness. These quizzes are self-marking, but marking keys are given in the suggestions for adaptation section under the relevant lessons. (Many activities within the course could be adapted for use as assessments: see this section for suggestions.) Summative Assessment

The summative assessment activities for this course involve:


 * the completion of a household emergency plan
 * assembly of emergency survival items and a getaway kit
 * plotting and practising a range of tsunami escape routes
 * the successful completion of an online community preparedness game.

On successful completion of these assessed activities, learners and their families will be well prepared for the possibility of natural disaster. These assessment activities have been selected and designed to be authentic, useful and relevant in the real world. The theory section(s) of this teaching guide expand on the (pedagogical) role of authenticity and genuine context in effective learning.

The summative assessment criteria for each learning objective are detailed in this file (click to download): [[Media:Tsunami_Summative_Assessment_Criteria.pdf|Summative assessment criteria]]

Also see this section for other assessment suggestions.

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Relationship Between Audience, Views of Learning, Pedagogy, Learning Tasks and Assessment
Detailed analysis of learning tasks can be obtained by following the link below: Learning task analysis

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