VELS

=VELS - LEVEL 1=

Learning focus
As students work towards the achievement of Level 3 standards in the Humanities, they draw on their own experience to help them understand the world around them. Through activities such as developing personal and family timelines, examining photographs and buildings, and visits from community members, they learn about the concepts of time - chronology and sequencing, and change and continuity. Through reading and listening to narratives, including personal stories, and participating in celebrations students begin to learn about the cultures and histories that have contributed to Australian society and by seeing and hearing about other places outside their experience they begin to consider how and why other times and places are different from their own. Students develop an awareness of spacial concepts through structured experiences within their immediate environment. They investigate the relative location, direction and distance of their home, school, classroom, local parks, shops and other significant features of their environment and begin to understand the geography of their local area. They learn to give and follow simple directions, and describe location relative to other people and places using everyday spatial terms such as front/back, up/down, right/left, near/far, above/below. They draw simple pictorial maps from their developing mental maps of familiar environments. Students explore how and why natural factors (for example, changes in the weather) and human activities (for example, the closing of a park) affect their lives. They develop basic narratives that link events in their own experience. Participating in activities such as wearing protection from the sun, saving energy, saving water, and recycling, they develop their awareness of environmental issues.

Standards
In the Humanities, standards for assessing and reporting on student achievement are introduced at Level 3. Specific standards for Economics, Geography and History are introduced at Level 4. The learning focus statements for Levels 1 and 2 provide advice about learning experiences that will assist students to work towards the achievement of the Humanities standards at Level 3 (which focus on historical and geographical knowledge and skills) and the Economics standards at Level 4.