This mind-map demonstrates how a Thematic Unit of Study can be designed using key questions as Learning Intentions for your students. Cross-Curricular Thematic Units of Study work incredibly well when working with students who experience challenging behaviours and barriers to their learning.

This resource was designed to reinforce student understanding of Purpose, Audience and Form when composing texts. The assessment clearly states three criteria which students have to reflect upon after receiving their teacher’s comment and target. Students then evaluate on how they believe they went in this task and provide a response to the teacher’s feedback. I have found this form of assessment invaluable in setting clear and achievable goals that are personalised to my students needs, both in a mainstream and Special Education/ Support setting. I hope you find the same.

This resource was developed to meet the needs of an IO class within a Secondary Support Unit (SEN). It has been constructed for a Year 9-11 class who experience an intellectual disability and adjustments can easily be made to meet the needs of your learners. Any reviews or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

This unit of work is designed to have students explore various dinosaurs, their habitats and the food chains that existed before their extinction. Students will be required to complete numerous Fact Files on dinosaurs of their choice alongside being creative in designing and recreating dinosaurs of their choice. This unit is particularly creative to be assessible to all students throughout the Support Faculty alongside engaging student interest. Students will conclude the unit by focussing on researching, planning, evaluating and presenting a dinosaur of their choice to the class.

This is a highly scaffolded worksheet which supports students in composing short Cinquain poems about themselves and fellow classmates. Great as ‘getting to know you’ or Social Skills activity.

This cross-curricula program was designed for students to explore and engage with their local area. It incorporates various excursions and Community Access activities which worked extremely well with students who exhibit challenging behaviours or struggle to engage with the curriculum. This unit was a wonderful experience to deliver and the students thoroughly enjoyed being involved in their learning and incorporating their local knowledge into our learning experiences.

This unit teaches students the importance of empathy and compassion whilst engaging students with David Walliam’s humour. Students have previously studied the work the work of Roald Dahl, so they are familiar with this genre and language. This unit is designed to have students’ write in various forms throughout the term and variate their language and structure according the Purpose, Audience and Form. These writing tasks will be marked by the teacher as part of their Summative Assessment with the final task of creating a digital review of the novel in weeks 9 and 10. Students will be continuing the Reinforced Reading component of the MultiLit program with the class SLSO 1:1 as they are selected on a rotational basis to re-read the chapter that has been modelled to the class followed by the completion of a vocabulary and comprehension worksheet for the corresponding chapter. Student accuracy and fluency will continue to be assessed on a fortnightly basis using the MultiLit WARP assessment tool.

This program was designed to cater to the needs of an Australian SSP (School for Specific Purposes) class for students who exhibit challenging behaviours. The program was written for an Australian Stage 4 class (Years 7 and 8) but could easily be adapted for younger or older students. The Key Learning Areas addressed throughout this 10 week program include: English Science Maths HSIE (Geography) PDHPE The outcomes are from the Australian Curriculum (mainstream) with adjustments made throughout to cater for students’ highly personalised learning and behaviour needs.

This program was designed to cater to the needs of an Australian SSP (School for Specific Purposes) class for students who exhibit challenging behaviours. The program was written for an Australian Stage 4 class (Years 7 and 8) but could easily be adapted for younger or older students. The outcomes are from the Australian Curriculum (mainstream) with adjustments made throughout to cater for students’ highly personalised learning and behaviour needs.

This unit is designed to have students think critically and use the strategies taught to form a balanced argument and counter-argument. The theme of Sustainability and Climate Change runs throughout the entirety with students producing a visual letter to someone in power asking them to think about an issue they feel powerfully about. Via this citizenship approach, students are encouraged to recognise not only the persuasive powers of others, but also acknowledge and empower their own persuasive thinking and reasoning.

This program was designed to cater to the needs of an Australian SSP (School for Specific Purposes) class for students who exhibit challenging behaviours. The program was written for an Australian Stage 4 class (Years 7 and 8) but could easily be adapted for younger or older students. The outcomes are from the Australian Curriculum (mainstream) with adjustments made throughout to cater for students’ highly personalised learning and behaviour needs.

This unit has been designed to introduce students to the function of the brain and its development from early childhood to adulthood. Particular attention is paid to adolescence as it is a time of significant brain development and obviously most relevant to our students. By adolescence, the part of the brain associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behaviour – the amygdala (groups of neurons in the brain) – is well developed. However, the part of the brain that controls higher-order or executive functioning – the prefrontal cortex – matures last and isn’t fully developed until we reach our 20s. The prefrontal cortex takes care of decision making and manages our ability to plan and think about the consequences of our actions, solve problems and control impulses. This explains why young people can’t always make complex rational decisions or understand the consequences of actions in the way adults can. This study is intended to teach students these features and stages so that they can acknowledge in their future reactions and emotions that they are still learning and growing. Students are encouraged to form a growth mindset and seek out a learning opportunity in any mistakes or setbacks.

The focus of the Unit of Study is to demonstrate to students the major importance of online safety. As C21st learners, students are susceptible to a variety of dangers when using the internet, communicating electronically and being active followers on numerous social media sites. The main intention of this unit is to outline potential risks and dangers to their privacy and safety via their digital footprint and to understand that there are many precautions they can take in ensuring their digital safety. Our students are particularly vulnerable to many features in this space and they requite explicit instruction in understanding, interpreting and evaluating how much and what sort of information they post online. This Semester-based program covers different areas of learning such as: • Internet Safety • Cyber Bullying • Emailing and Messaging • Online Gaming • Social Media • Your Digital Footprint • Being Cyber Smart • Digital Citizenship

This is a comprehensive study of William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ broken down into 30 lessons in which key scenes from each of the five acts, are analysed by students using the original text. Students will annotate their understanding of the bard’s words and in some lessons, modernise these to enhance understanding. Students will explore not only language devices such as juxta positioning and dramatic irony, they will also work with the concepts of the themes love, hate and fate. Students will learn to express their interpretation of the play via a PEEL (Point, Evidence, Explanation and Link) formula and this will be used as part of their Summative Assessment. Various scaffolds and prompts are available consistently throughout this close study of the tragic text.

The unit engages students in a close study of Michael Morpurgo’s novel ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’. Students will explore the themes, characters and techniques developed by the author and illustrate their understanding of these via a combination of creative and analytical tasks. Students will: • understand the features of a characterisation, narrative and themes and identify these throughout a close reading of the novel • develop their ability to infer meaning from the novel and consider their own interpretation of the concepts covered. • be introduced to analytical writing via the PEE formula and use quotations to support their points of view in their writing • recognise some basic narrative techniques and explain their use and effect on the viewer • adopt these narrative techniques in their own creative writing • use multimedia to compose an engaging Book Trailer. Any reviews or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Students are provided with a modelled descriptive task where students are required to manually or electronically highlight the figurative techniques used. Students are then required to create their own descriptive passage using these techniques.

This is a wonderful introductory lesson on students thinking about what makes them unique and wonderful. They use the Collage pictures to create a cubist -style collage and compose a Cinquain Poem that is highly scaffolded to then publish their work. The collage and poem can be pasted onto some coloured A3 paper or card and put on display in your classroom. A fantastic activity that creates truly unique representations of your student’s interests and qualities. Any reviews would be appreciated.

This lesson was used to engage learners in writing with expression, basic grammar and visual literacy. Students at every level of ability can access this text and get something out of it. This text and activities work well with students who are usually disengaged from their learning.

This Life Skills Program of Study was constructed for students in Stage 4, 5 and 6 within a Support Unit. Resources are taken from various websites and the booklet used is a TES resource (thank you!) Teachers within a Support, Special Education or even mainstream setting, can easily adjust this program to suit the needs of your learners. Any reviews would greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The unit allows students to become readers, writers and performers of written news. This program follows the otline of the wonderful BBC News Unit of Study on TES. Students will access a variety of news articles so that they can identify the common features and apply these when composing their own recount news article. Students will then extend this understanding into the realm of television, whereby they will learn to write and read a script. Students will work collaboratively as class to create a Falcon News broadcast. Students will: • understand the key features and organisation of a news story • To understand the differences between fact and opinion • To compare written news / TV news • To use language which is appropriate to the task, reader/audience and purpose • To use skills learned in written news and apply them to TV news