Year 9 Sos: Working in the Goldilocks zone #4a: The Dawn Raids Content

In year 9 Social Studies, I decided to introduce learning about the Dawn Raids as part of our migration unit.  In the past, I have left it for the seniors to learn about but I felt it was a good example of an ‘intervening obstacle’ that made life difficult for Pacific migrant groups in the 70’s.  It also allowed us to explore the social actions that led to the apology by the Government.  This part of the unit took 8 periods to teach, including learning how to write a good dawn raids essay.  I have divided this blogpost into two parts: The Content and the skill building.

PART ONE: 

Learn…the content

Through a series of in-depth lessons about the Dawn Raids.

We started by revisiting our 7 key concepts and making links to the 'intervening obstacles' created by the Dawn Raids'. 

We then explored the social action and the lead up to the apology.

 

Create…a presentation to show your understanding (individually and in groups)

Students worked in groups to discuss and create a powerpoint to show their understanding of dawn raids to New Zealand history.

Individually, students then created a document that allowed them to further explore the dawn raids and how a group of people presented a petition to parliament that caused the government to apologise. 

Share…a blogpost

Students wrote about their thoughts and views around the Dawn Raids and why they thought it was important to learn about.

Reflection

I tried to use a variety of mediums to capture and engage students through videos and discussions about how people were feeling at the time.  I think my kids enjoyed these more than me trying to teach and talk them through the events of the time.  We pointed out vocab and words we weren't familiar with reinforced them throughout the teaching so that kids would become more and more familiar with them.  Engagement wise, I felt the kids enjoyed the lessons.

Linking to my inquiry

Creating contexts that kids would want to learn about.