Global Education

Letters to Woodstock

(Woodstock is a school located in Mussoorie Northern India)

 1. What students could learn from this resource (VELS/AusVELslevel & learning focus statement).

Learning focus statements from VELS:
The Humanities- Level 2

The recognise the globe as a model representation of Earth and can locate Australia and other places with which they have links.

By observing the characteristics of different places, and prompted by questions, students think about environmental differences, locally and in other parts of Australia and the world, and why these differences exist.

2. How and why the resource would be used in the classroom for HSE learning (Prep – Year 2).

After learning about Indian culture, school and sharing my own experiences from India, students  would have some basic knowledge about India. Specifically Mussoorie in Northern India where the sister school Woodstock is located. Each student would write a letter, draw a picture or making something for another grade 2 currently attending Woodstock, India. Students will be telling the students in India about Australian culture and asking them any questions they have. I hope that this will be something that we can do throughout the year to develop a relationship with our sister school Woodstock and that students can continue to write letter to the students. On display in the classroom we will have a large map of India with Mussoorie pointed out on the map, along side the map we will have images of the school  and hopefully some responses from the students at Woodstock.

 

3. A brief description of how your resource/activity responds to an aspect or aspects of the readings for that week.

This resource allows student to look at the area ‘Identity and Cultural Diversity’ (Bourke, 2008 p. 34), they are able to ‘learn about other cultures to enable a deeper appreciation of cultural differences’ (Bourke, 2008 p. 34). It is more than just learning about Indian culture but students can develop a relationship with students from Woodstock and gain cross-cultural awareness , they can learn to see ‘the person not the stereotype’ (Tudball and Stirling, 2011 p.4). As the school is in India students will also be able to learn about connections between Australia and India, such as the large amounts of clothing and bedlinen that are made in India.