25 April is ANZAC day, a significant day in Australian and New Zealand history. The date marks the anniversary of the landing of New Zealand and Australian soldiers – the Anzacs – on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. It was the first major military action for both counties during the First World War.
In honour of this important day we have compiled a list of free resources that our Australian and New Zealand teachers can use to create engaging Activities in Verso. We’ve put some examples of how you could use these below: ANZAC Day: Sacrifice (Secondary School), ANZAC Day: Interviews (Primary School), ANZAC Day: Campaign (Secondary School) and ANZAC Day: Last Post (Primary/Secondary)
Verso Campus subscribers can head straight to the global library here to copy these Activities into their account. Not a subscriber, get in touch to learn how you can upgrade your school.
Australia Remembers: WW1 1914 -1918
http://www.abc.net.au/news/first-world-war-centenary/
ABC Splash
http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/topic/1170683/home
and
http://splash.abc.net.au/newsandarticles/blog/-/b/1818164/top-10-resources-to-commemorate-the-anzac-centenary
Imperial War Museum (UK)
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/15-photos-of-the-anzacs-at-gallipoli
and
http://www.iwm.org.uk/learning/resources/the-gallipoli-campaign
Victoria: Anzac Centenary
http://anzaccentenary.vic.gov.au/get-involved/student-teacher-resources/#shrine
Anzac Day: Sacrifice
This activity makes use of some of the phenomenal case studies exploring the ethnic diversity of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).
https://www.awm.gov.au/
To replicate this activity you will need the following link and text:
LINK:
https://www.awm.gov.au/education/schools/resources/anzac-diversity/
TEXT:
Approximately 420,000 Australians enlisted in the AIF during the First World War, including nurses, Indigenous Australians, and Australians with British, Asian, Greek and Northern European heritage. For some, enlisting was difficult.
The introduction of the Commonwealth Defense Act in 1909 excluded any person not “substantially of European descent” from enlisting in the First World War. The Act was in line with the White Australia Policy, which aimed to ensure that Australia retained its white colonial British character.
Read at least 3 of the Australian War Memorial’s powerful case studies exploring the ethnic diversity of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF).
RESPOND: Based on what you have read, what do you think drove these men and women to risk their lives for a country that had not always offered them equality?
COMMENT: Read other students’ responses and comment on whether the reasons given and the risks taken paid off once the war was over. Think about the lasting effect (If any) their sacrifice had on the Australian identity.
Links to the Australian curriculum: History
The content of these stories and classroom activities will provide opportunities to develop historical understanding through:
Key concepts
Sources and evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance, and contestability.
Cross-curriculum priorities
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures, Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia.
General capabilities
Literacy, IT competence, critical and creative thinking, intercultural understanding.
Anzac Day: Interviews
This activity asks students to go into the community in search of the meaning of Anzac Day. In collecting diverse viewpoints the students can synthesize the responses to look for common ground.
To replicate this activity you will need the following link and text:
LINK:
https://www.awm.gov.au/education/schools/resources/anzac-diversity/
TEXT:
Anzac Day means different things to different people. When you get home speak to a parent, grandparent or somebody close to your family and ask them the question, “What does Anzac Day mean to you?”
SHARE: Share the name of the person you interviewed and then share their response.
CARE: Read some other responses and share a reason why you think it is important that we still commemorate this day. Try to use part of their story in your answer. Remember you can comment on many responses so you can give a different reason each time.
Links to the Australian curriculum: History
The content of these stories and classroom activities will provide opportunities to develop historical understanding through:
Key Concepts
Sources of evidence, continuity and change, perspectives, empathy and significance.
General capabilities
Literacy, ICT capability, critical and creative thinking, Personal and social capability and ethical understanding.
Anzac day: Campaign
This activity asks students to consider the controversy around Woolworths’ 2015 Anzac Day campaign. The “Fresh in Our Memories” website — linking Anzac commemorations to the retailer’s “Fresh Food People” branding tag line — was taken down overnight amid claims that it was in very poor taste. This activity asks students to consider the underlying issues.
To replicate this activity you will need the following link and text:
TEXT:
Woolworths have come under fire for their “Fresh in Our Memories” campaign. Their website encouraged people to change their social media profile picture to one of someone that was involved in the war – a great way of paying tribute to a relative who’s life was touched by the war. However once put through their “profile picture generator” it came out with the words over the top, “Lest We Forget, Anzac 1915-2015″ and “Fresh in our memories” with the Woolworths logo.
The slogan “Fresh in our Memories” offended many and prompted the Veterans’ Affairs Minister to get on to the phone to Woolworths and demand the material be taken down. Woolworths said in a statement, “We regret that our branding on the picture generator has caused offence, this was clearly never our intention.
Like many heritage Australian companies, we were marking our respect for Anzac and our veterans.
We continue to be proud supporters of the RSL and Camp Gallipoli in this important year and look forward to working with them into the future.”
RESPONSE: Do you believe that Woolworths were indeed “marking their respect for Anzac and our veterans?” OR Do you think they had another agenda?
COMMENT: carefully read some responses and think about what your classmates are saying. Whatever their opinion, comment on their response with what you think would be the counter-argument.
Links to the Australian curriculum: History
The content of these stories and classroom activities will provide opportunities to develop historical understanding through:
Key concepts
Sources and evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance, and contestability.
General capabilities
Literacy, IT competence, critical and creative thinking and ethical understanding
ANZAC Day: Last Post
LINK:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Pz5KsyfN0
TEXT:
In military tradition, the Last Post is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day’s activities. It is also sounded at military funerals to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest and at commemorative services such as ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day.
Put your headphones on and listen to the music in the clip.
The Last Post evokes a lot of different emotions in people.
SHARE: Respond in Verso
1. When listening to the music, what type of emotions do you feel and why? Try and explain your reasons.
2. What other music has significant meaning to you and why?
When responding remember that Verso is anonymous. No one but your teacher can see who you are so try and explain your emotions.
CARE: Now find a response that is different to yours but which you like or agree with and leave a comment as feedback.
Links to the Australian curriculum: History
The content of these stories and classroom activities will provide opportunities to develop historical understanding through:
Key concepts
Sources and evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance, and contestability.
General capabilities
Literacy, IT competence, critical and creative thinking and ethical understanding
“The model of those 30 children in neat rows facing a single teacher is (or ought to be) an anachronism. Why shouldn’t children be helped to learn French by French children in French schools or physics by a Nobel Prize winner?”
— David Puttnam
We need to ensure that we take care to bring the best possible resources, expertise and stimuli to our hyper-connected students. With this in mind and in response to requests for recommendations, we have sourced an initial list of what we believe to be exemplary content. As we looked through the following sites we could not help but get incredibly excited about the potential of each and every resource to form the basis of a challenging provocation capable of initiating high quality thinking, cultivating curiosity or challenging every student to arrive in class equipped with big questions to be answered.
The list is by no means exhaustive and we have deliberately tried to dig beyond the usual tried and tested (and amazing!) suspects such as TedEd, Khan Academy or MIT-K12, and we fully intend to add to this list over the coming weeks and months. Hopefully, this will be in response to your comments and contributions. To this end, we would encourage you to add to the list using the comment box at the end of the post.
We have loosely curated the sites under subject headings but please take time to explore as the vast majority of these exciting resources can be used across many subjects. As we have said many times before, it’s all about context and purpose.
All of the resources are free for use in school and the majority allow you to connect and subscribe. We hope that you enjoy using these sites as much as we do, and remember that your feedback and suggestions are what drive us.
Click on the titles to visit each listed site:
(Art, Design, English) Grades 7-12
Education resources use video, multimedia and sound to present some of the stories surrounding the lives of the artists and subjects in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. They feature interviews, animations, film footage and archival documents from collections around Australia and overseas. Although artworks can be searched by medium or type, the education resources are grouped by artist. Using Verso to link to the URL of each item allows teachers to create dynamic provocations guaranteed to stimulate thinking.
(Social Studies, Psychology) Grades 6-12
These videos are taken from the US prime time TV show “What Would You Do”. They show members of the public engaged in moral decision making in response to hidden camera scenarios dealing with controversial issues such as racism, homophobia, weight, peer pressure and crime. All videos are available via their YouTube link and they are incredible conversation starters when used in Verso.
If You like this site I would also recommend:
(Social Studies, Psychology) Grades 7-12
Upworthy offers inspirational and challenging videos curated from around the world. I would recommend that you subscribe as the content is updated almost daily and offers phenomenal opportunities for initiating deep thinking and discussion.
(Spanish) Grades 4-10
A site dedicated to teaching Spanish, developed as a space to share lessons created by Junior High School Teacher Senor Jordan. Engaging videos are listed in order of difficulty and Snr Jordan has added a statement encouraging teachers to use his content with their classes.
(French) Grades 3-12
A comprehensive collection of videos created to improve your French, grammar and pronunciation. Tips are presented in an easy way and the script of each lesson is on the main website http://www.frenchspanishonline.com.
(Science) Grades 5-12
“Veritasium is a science video blog featuring experiments, expert interviews, cool demos, and discussions with the public about everything science”
This amazing site offers exceptionally well produced, high quality videos designed to challenge student thinking. Before using the videos in Verso, I would recommend watching Veritasium Creative Director, Derek Muller’s Ted Talk or reading my previous blog post which shares his remarkable research about the use of video for teaching science.
If you like Veritasium, you will certainly appreciate this collection of Science Channels. We recommend subscribing to these if you have a YouTube account as they can then be added to your favorites for instant use in Verso. Otherwise, use the URL to connect your students to some of the greatest Science content on the web.
(Science) Grades 4-12
Over the last two centuries the Ri has been home to eminent scientists whose discoveries have helped to shape the modern world. For high quality teaching resources I recommend heading straight to their RI Channel.
The Ri Channel is an online project by the Royal Institution of Great Britain showcasing the very best science videos from the Ri and around the web.
Alongside highlights from recent Ri events, the Channel features re-digitised footage from the Ri archive and a range of high-quality videos from filmmakers and scientific institutions across the UK and beyond. The project continues the Royal Institution’s charitable mission to “connect people to the world of science”.
(Science) Grades 4-12
Over the last two centuries the Ri has been home to eminent scientists whose discoveries have helped to shape the modern world. For high quality teaching resources I recommend heading straight to their RI Channel.
The Ri Channel is an online project by the Royal Institution of Great Britain showcasing the very best science videos from the Ri and around the web.
Alongside highlights from recent Ri events, the Channel features re-digitised footage from the Ri archive and a range of high-quality videos from filmmakers and scientific institutions across the UK and beyond. The project continues the Royal Institution’s charitable mission to “connect people to the world of science”.
(STEM, Engineering, Art, Design and Technology, English, History, Geography) K-12
The Science Museum has an incredible Online Science site designed for schools. It also allows teachers to filter content by age, subject and area of learning. I really recommend the museum’s Punk Science Video Channel.
where you will find flippable content designed to cultivate curiosity and stimulate inquiry.
(English, Art, Math’s , History, Science , Geography, Social Studies and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures) K-12
This superb educational resource from ABC Australia has a wealth of high quality content covering all aspects of the Australian Curriculum.
dust echoes.jpg
The content can be searched and filtered by primary / secondary and subject areas. I would recommend the phenomenal Dust Echoes, a series of twelve beautifully animated dreamtime stories from Central Arnhem Land, telling stories of love, loyalty, duty to country and aboriginal custom and law.
(Science, Math’s, History, Geography, Social Studies, English) K-12
Neo K12 offers a range of educational content arranged by subject and topic. The video content is a collection of YouTube clips but it is heavily supplemented by educational quizzes, games, puzzles,, presentations and classroom resources. NeoK12 is a great first place to look for content. Once I locate a video that I like, I click through to the actual YouTube channel that it was selected from and take a look at other content by the same contributor or on the same theme. A really useful repository and a fantastic archive of material for use as provocations in Verso!
(History, Performing Arts, Art, English, Links with Asia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures) Grades 6-12
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia is the nation’s living archive, collecting, preserving and sharing the country’s rich audiovisual heritage. The collection includes films, television and radio programs, videos, audio tapes, records, compact discs, phonograph cylinders and wire recordings. It also encompasses documents and artifacts such as photographs, posters, lobby cards, publicity items, scripts, costumes, props, memorabilia, oral histories, and vintage equipment. Its Australian History Timeline allows users to search the catalog via people, place and decade. Other highlights include Screen Asia, in support of the development of Asia literacy in the middle years and “Australian Biography”, where extraordinary Australians talk about their lives.
(History, Geography, English, Arts, Science) K-12
The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. It presents a fascinating source of primary historical evidence. Each item has its own unique URL, making them perfect for use as part of a Verso provocation.
The Library of Congress is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States, and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. It presents a fascinating source of primary historical evidence. Each item has its own unique URL, making them perfect for use as part of a Verso provocation.
(English, History, Geography, Civics, Social Studies) Grades 4-12
The National Archives Office has selected primary source documents to bring the past to life as classroom teaching tools from the billions preserved at the National Archives. Use the search field above to find written documents, images, maps, charts, graphs, audio and video in our ever-expanding collection that spans the course of American history. Each artefact has its own unique URL, making them ideal for use in Verso.
(History, Maths, Geography, RE, Statistics) Grades 1-12
An award winning archive of more than 1000 years of primary historical artefacts, including statistics and census materials arranged in historical periods in line with the UK curriculum. The site can be searched and has an excellent area for teachers
(Civics & Citizenship, History, Geography, English) Grades 8-12
NAALogo.gif
All content in Vrroom, the NRA’s educational portal, is informed and directed by major curriculum areas for Years 9 to 12. It is highly relevant to 20th-century Australian History and to Civics and Citizenship. It is also a valuable tool for senior secondary students of English, Science and ICT.
Each resource and collection has its own unique URL, meaning that each resource can for the basis of a provocation in Verso
History, Geography, Art, Science, Social Studies, English) Grades 1-7
Discover objects in the British Museum from across the world with the Museum explorer for children.
The British Museum g Explorers offers a unique gateway to images, audio files and video showing primary historical artifacts. Children can search by continent and theme. E.g Asia + tools and technology. Each resource has its own unique URL and can be used to create high quality provocations which can then act as gateways to further connected content.
The site also connects to a very useful video channel featuring 5 minute clips on themes such as “A brief history of time”, “A brief history of money” and “A brief history of writing”. These are really useful for initiating thinking and prompting students to develop their own inquiry questions.
If you like the content from the British Museum, it is worth exploring its partner museums in London, all of which have similar content repositories designed for schools and suitable for use in Verso.
(History, STEM, Geography, English, Art, Social Studies) K-12
The museum has a well organized teacher resource area where users can search by subject and age along with content curated by into collections on themes such as Biodiversity, Climate Change, Space and Evolution. I would recommend flipping a provocation using one of the museum’s naturecams. What student wouldn’t love to develop questions about flesh-eating beetles, ants and bees?
(Art and Design, History, English, Performance Arts, Photography) Grades 4-12
The V&A has unrivaled collections of contemporary and historic art and design. It houses some of the world’s greatest resources for architecture, fashion, photography, theatre and performance, sculpture, contemporary design, ceramics, Asian art and design, furniture, textiles, jewellery, metalwork and many more. There is extensive online access to authoritative information and the knowledge of leading experts. The works are available as collections E.g. fashion, glass, furniture etc… and each resource and collection has a Verso-friendly unique URL.
(History, English, Social Studies) Grades 1-12
Their Past Your Future from the Imperial War Museum gives history teachers and students everything they need to explore the course, causes and consequences of conflict from the First World War to today. The museum has a unique collection of images for use in the classroom (or even better, on Verso!) covering themes such as Life in the trenches, Recruitment and Conscription and Art in warfare.
(History, Geography and Social Studies) Grades 6-12
This unique and Bafta award winning site has offered an invaluable free-to-use resource for students, teachers since 2010. It presents high quality videos in a series of interrelated historical timelines allowing connections to be made within and across time periods. Resources focus on British History, including timelines on Nations and Empire and Journeys in the American West.
This BAFTA award winning resource is now available on mobile devices with new resources, including ‘Nazi Germany’, ‘American Voices’ and ‘The Edwardians’.
English language, Photography, Media, Current Affairs) Grades 2-12
Of the BBC’s extensive multi-language content I would recommend two areas that are particularly useful for creating provocations. Firstly, BBC News in Pictures offers banks of high quality photographs from news reports from around the world. These images are fantastic for initiating student narratives, poetry and of course, as a stimulus for report writing and discussion of global affairs.
The other area is BBC School Report, which offers lesson plans and student guidance on report writing and creating multimedia news stories. The site has a section of student reports along with contributions from news editors, journalists and producers.
(English, Media, History, The Arts) K-12
The world’s finest news and entertainment video film archive. Since the invention of the moving image in the 1890’s, British Pathé began recording every aspect of global culture and news, for the cinema. With their unique combination of information and entertainment, British Pathé’s documentaries, newsreels, serials and films changed the way the world saw itself forever.
With it’s unparalleled collection of historical events and vast catalogue of changing social activity, British Pathé encompasses one of the world’s most prodigious and fascinating documents of the modern age. From fashion to warfare and sport to travel, British Pathé is the definitive source for the 20th century in moving images and each YouTube video can be used to create challenging provocations in Verso
All 85,000 newsreels are now searchable and viewable on YouTube. This equates to 3,500 hours of filmed history.
When our classrooms close it's easy to lose some of the essential connections between teachers and students. Maintaining these relationships and enabling structured collaboration while students are isolated is critical to supporting their learning and protecting their mental health and wellbeing.
Verso helps to enable collaborative discussions between classmates in different locations, while also providing vital feedback on learning to teachers.
Our pedagogically designed features ensure equity in contribution, foster collaboration, and build voice and engagement from all students, while the asynchronous design means students can engage in their own time. This reduces the pressure of ‘live online teaching’ and significantly reduces the need for reliable internet.
We help to reduce workload and professional isolation by supporting you to share resources with colleagues and stay professionally connected, while also enhancing the Google Classroom experience by building stronger online relationships between and amongst students and teachers.
Sign up now to build meaningful online relationships in your classes.
A common problem with remote and blended learning is losing the connection with students. This short video demonstrates how to use Verso to give and receive feedback or work samples from students using images, videos or audio files when they are working from home or in a blended learning classroom. This helps them to maintain a personal connection with their teacher and for teachers to provide personalised feedback.
It shows how teachers can quickly create a collaborative Activity in Verso to provide instructions and model responses for students to use as well as vocabulary they can use to respond. It shows how teachers can allow students to respond using images, audio or video and how teachers can do the same if they wish.
Another challenge with remote learning and blended classrooms is teachers are unable to listen to students responses this is particularly important for english, literacy, modern languages and ELA classes. It also has application for early year students who may not yet be able to respond using text.
This video demonstrates how teachers can use Verso activities to simply enable speaking and listening for students working from home. Teachers can upload a stimulus image, audio or video file and then get the students to respond and then connect with other students and respond to them using audio, video or photos taken directly from a mobile device, iPad or computer.
Looking for something specific? Search the site below.
