Planning in Religious EducationSome

considerationsWhat are

we reaching

for?

What do we aspire to

through our planning?

Who are the students I

teach?Class context: What do I need to take into account when planning for my particular group of students? Consider cultural and religious backgrounds, learning needs of students…

How will I teach?BCE model of

pedagogy:Principles and practices of learningand teaching that leads to success for all learners.

Identify the Content

Descriptions• What Religious Knowledge and Deep Understandings will the unit cover? (What will students know?)

• What will students be able to do as a result of their new knowledge? (Skills)

Line of Sight • Read the Year Level Description and the Achievement Standard and identify the learning that matches the Content Descriptions grouped together for this unit. This enables the overarching ideas to be identified, which are the deeper concepts that need to be taught through the unit.

Learning Intentions• A learning intention

describes what students should know, understand or be able to do by the end of a lesson or series of lessons. Learning intentions identify new learning and focus on transferable skills.

Through this unit of work students will:• Investigate some of the challenges (poverty, isolation, access to

Eucharist…) and the impact they had on Catholics in colonial Australia

• Engage students in the story of Mary MacKillop• Explore Mary MacKillop’s letters and identification of how her

challenges in life shaped her faith and core beliefs• Research how Mary MacKillop shaped and strengthened the

community of believers in her time• Investigate ways that Mary MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens

and shapes the lives and faith of believers today

This is what

students will learn throughout the unit

Be specific and name what you expect to

cover

The design of learning intentions starts with the answers to these questions.

What do I want students to know?What do I want students to understand?What do I want students to be able to

do?

Learning Intentions

Success criteria are

directly related to the

learning intention.

Teaching and learning

opportunities are designed to provide

students with opportunities to

meet the learning intentions.

Feedback is based on the

learning intention and the success

criteria.Learning

intentions are informed by

the curriculum.

Teacher questioning

always keeps the learning intention

in focus.

Students self assess in light of

the learning intentions and

the success criteria.

Peer feedback reflects the

learning intentions and

the success criteria.

The assessment task / activity matches the

learning criteria.

From: https://kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/LandT/LearningTeaching/Pedagogy/Pages/Learning-Intentions.aspxDiagram adapted from http://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au

Success Criteria

• Success criteria describe what successful learning looks like at the end; how the learner will know when they have reached/achieved the learning intention successfully.

• • • •

Learning Intentions Success CriteriaThrough this unit of work students will be able to:

• Investigate some of the challenges (poverty, isolation, access to Eucharist…) and the impact they had on Catholics in colonial Australia

• Engage students in the story of Mary MacKillop

• Explore Mary MacKillop’s letters and identification of how her challenges in life shaped her faith and core beliefs

• Research how Mary MacKillop shaped and strengthened the community of believers in her time

• Investigate ways that Mary MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens and shapes the lives and faith of believers today

By the end of this unit of work students will be able to:

• Describe one challenge faced by Catholics in colonial Australia

• Retell the story of Mary MacKillop

• Describe how Mary MacKillop’s writings identify some of her challenges and core beliefs in life (especially her advocacy for the poor)

• Describe a way that Mary MacKillop shaped and strengthened the community of believers in her time

• Identify a way that Mary MacKillop’s story influences, strengthens and shapes the lives and faith of believers today

If success criteria are to be any use to students, they need to •be written in language that students are likely to understand•be limited in number so students are not overwhelmed by the scope of the task•focus on the learning and not on aspects of behaviour (e.g. paying attention, contributing, meeting deadlines etc.)•be supported, where necessary, by exemplars or work samples which make their meaning clear•created, ideally, with input from students so that they have greater understanding and ownership.

Success Criteria

Are directly related to the

learning intention.

Are discussed and agreed with

students prior to beginning the

learning activity.Are used as the

basis for feedback.

Are specific to an activity.

Describe what successful

learning looks like.

Should be written in

language that students are

likely to understand.

Are used as the basis for peer feedback and

self-assessment.

Can be a series of dot points or in the form of a

rubric.

From: https://kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/LandT/LearningTeaching/Pedagogy/Pages/Success-Criteria.aspx

As a teacher you are responsible for identifying the learning

intentions and the success

criteria. However, the

success criteria can be written in

more student friendly

language after student input.

AssessmentAssessing student learning is an integral part of the school classroom. It improves learning and informs teaching: it is the process through which teachers identify, gather and interpret information about student achievement and learning in order to improve, enhance and plan for further learning.

Assessment should:•include the collection of

assessment data used to monitor a student’s progress

against the curriculum

•assist teachers to evaluate the success

of their teaching approaches

•provide evidence to inform students, parents and the

system about student progress and achievement.

It is important to keep data to assist in making professional judgements about whether each student has achieved the success criteria, or whether they are ‘above standard’ for each unit of work. ‘Above standard’ would be indicated by students demonstrating one or more of the following:• Greater depth of knowledge• Greater depth of understanding• Greater sophistication of skills

Assessment plays a key role in

determining:Where the learner

is right nowWhere the learner

is goingHow to get there

Therefore, diagnostic,

formative and summative

assessment are all essential elements

for planning in religious education.

Student self assessment is now regarded as vital to success at school. 

For strategies for assessment as learning and self assessment see these resources.

Teachers will use a range of different

assessment strategies to

ascertain what each student has learnt

(actual achievement) and will make

judgments about the extent and quality of

each student’s achievement in relation to the

Religious Education Curriculum

achievement standards.

Reporting• Reporting to parents will provide information about a student’s actual achievement against the achievement standards. The use of Religious Education Curriculum achievement standards as a common reference point for reporting to parents will contribute to consistency in reporting in RE across all BCE and Archdiocesan schools.

• There is flexibility in terms of what information may be displayed on the report (how helpful will it be to parents?).

• The report informs parents about what their child has learnt in religious education (not their behaviour or their perceived level of faith).

Fertile QuestionsWhat are the

assumptions that students come with that you wish to challenge? Construct a question that challenges one of these assumptions, ensure it is open-ended and make it connected to the learner by including a personal pronoun such as ‘I’, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘me’, and it will probably meet the 6 criteria for a fertile question.

An example from a year 1 class:Assumption of the majority of students: Prayer is about talking to God (it doesn’t have anything to do with listening)Fertile question: Why would God want to talk to me?The result: Through engaging in gentle dialogue, meditation and other prayer activities, by the end of the unit students were saying: “If God wants to talk to me, then God must really love me”. These students had moved to a whole new point in their faith journeys.

The key to developing a good fertile question is

determining where students’ thinking

needs to be challenged. If the

majority of students think that Mary MacKillop is not

really that relevant for us today because she lived a long time ago, then a possible fertile question could

be: Why is Mary MacKillop still

important for us today?

To access more resources about fertile questions

go to:the Brisbane Catholic Education RE Curriculum site

Connections to other learning

areas• Look for connections with other learning areas, the general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities.

• NOTE: We do not want to integrate one into the other. Rather, we want to make legitimate connections, ensuring that students will still be able to learn what they are entitled to learn in all areas.

So how do I connect with other learning areas?Begin with the approved curriculum

Example: History – Year 5CONTENT DESCRIPTION:

HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING HISTORICAL SKILLS The Australian Colonies

Reasons (economic, political and social) for the establishment of British colonies in Australia after 1800. (ACHHK093)

The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns of development, aspects of the daily life of the inhabitants (including Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples) and how the environment changed. (ACHHK094)

The impact of a significant development or event on a colony; for example, frontier conflict, the gold rushes, the Eureka Stockade, internal exploration, the advent of rail, the expansion of farming, drought. (ACHHK095)

The reasons people migrated to Australia from Europe and Asia, and the experiences and contributions of a particular migrant group within a colony. (ACHHK096)

The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony; for example, explorers, farmers, entrepreneurs, artists, writers, humanitarians, religious and political leaders, and Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. (ACHHK097)

Chronology, terms and concepts

Sequence historical people and events (ACHHS098)

Use historical terms and concepts(ACHHS099)

Historical questions and research

Identify questions to inform an historical inquiry(ACHHS100)

Identify and locate a range of relevant sources (ACHHS101

Analysis and use of sources

Locate information related to inquiry questions in a range of sources (ACHHS102)

Compare information from a range of sources (ACHHS103)

Perspectives and interpretations

Identify points of view in the past and present (ACHHS104)

Explanation and communication

Develop texts, particularly narratives and descriptions, which incorporate source materials (ACHHS105)

Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies (ACHHS106)

What do I need to teach and what are students entitled to learn?

When you have identified what

students are entitled to learn through each learning area then you

can make decisions about how to connect

the learning areas (teaching what is

relevant at the same time).

Connections to the Religious

Life of the SchoolSometim

es the RE Curriculum needs to make explicit links to one or more elements of the Religious Life of the School.

PedagogyPrinciplesHigh expectations - for successful learning for every learnerEquity and excellence – in every classroom through evidence based practiceContinuity of learning – through access to learning entitlement for every learner

The Religion Curriculum P-12 promotes inquiry

learning, a learner centred pedagogical approach to learning and teaching, that aligns closely with

the directions taken in the Australian

Curriculum.

Inquiry LearningSome questions to

consider:• How can we document our planning in RE so that inquiry learning does not look like a linear process?• As a teacher, where am I on the continuum for how I implement inquiry learning? (Structured, guided, open, student initiated.)

Some resources for Inquiry LearningGo to Resource Link to find a https://

kweb.bne.catholic.edu.au/ResourceLink/resources/RLproductions/inquiringminds/Pages/InquiringMinds.aspx

Resources from Kath Murdoch

Articles, information and websites

What is inquiry?

What does an inquiry classroom look like? Overview of inquiry

Digital Learning

•Religious Education in the Archdiocese of Brisbane seeks to engage students in the critical, creative, and responsible use of digital tools which is an important component of digital citizenship. This enables them to express their learning in rich and relevant ways.

In planning, the question to ask is:

Where could teaching and learning be

enhanced through the use of digital tools?

Some resources:Web 2 tools

Cool tools for schoolsDigital tools to support inquiry learningApps and websites to support inquiry learningWeb 2 tools and edtech

Dialogical teaching and

learning• Religious Education needs to be more than a series of activities. Deep learning occurs through conversations – reciprocal dialogue between teacher and students. Consideration needs to be given to the questions and opportunities for dialogue that are an intrinsic part of teaching and learning opportunities.

Dialogue with students about their own learning increases participation in

their learning. Quality conversations assist

students to move from knowing content to achieving a depth of

understanding. Consider how key comments and

phrases used by students through quality

conversations could be recorded (e.g. web 2

tools) to assist in making professional judgements

about whether each student has achieved the

success criteria, or whether they are ‘above

standard’.

ScriptureCore Scripture texts taught throughout the year need to cover the following three elements:

• A study of the world of the text

• A study of the world behind the text

• An exploration of the world in front of the textSee BCE RE Curriculum

Teacher evaluation and

student feedback• Spending even 5 minutes

recording your evaluation of the unit in key areas can be enormously helpful for informing future planning and professional dialogue. Target key areas (where things went really well or where further support would be most beneficial)• As the target audience for our planning, how can appropriate feedback from students be obtained?