Accelerate Your Thinking!
Program
Rationale
Students in year 8 and 9 who have been identified through the TORC test as reading at or
above their year level ability have been placed in the „Accelerate Your Thinking‟ program.
The program has been designed to teach students different thinking skills and strategies that
will help them with their classes, assessments, and with problem solving in the real world.
The aim of the program is to provide students with a toolbox of thinking strategies in which
they can use across different learning areas as well in real life situations.
In year 8, the focus of the program is to understand what type of learner they are through
the Dove, Owl, Peacock and Eagle (D.O.P.E) Personality test and the Multiple Intelligence
test. Students will learn how to think at different levels using BLOOMS Taxonomy and various
cooperative and collaborative strategies.
In year 9, the focus of the program is to continue to develop students‟ critical thinking skills.
The first half of the semester focuses on teaching students higher order thinking skills with a
focus on persuasive writing techniques. This will aid them in their preparation for the NAPLAN
test. The second half examines how higher order thinking skills can be applied to specific
subject areas including English, Mathematics, Science, the Arts and Studies of Society and
the Environment. In semester two, students put all the skills and strategies learnt over the
course of the two years in various activities and projects.
Year 8 Accelerate Program
2014
TERM 1: THINKING SKILLS
Week 1
Student Profiling
 DOPE
 MIT
Week 2
Introduction – familiarisation with Bloom‟s Poster, fun activities
Levels card
Week 3
Level : Remember
Levels card
Memory games
Week 4
Level : Understand
Week 5
Level : Apply
Week 6
Level : Analyse
Week 7
Level : Evaluate
Week 8
Level: Create
Creating something from reverse garbage, new meaning for a word
Week 9
Thinking Skills – using these thinking skills together
TERM 2: HOW DID WE FIND NEMO?
Week 1
 Examine image of a clownfish and then compare it to the image of Nemo
 View film – Finding Nemo
Week 2
 Finish viewing film – Finding Nemo
 Group Activity – Highlight an issue/theme from the movie and create a concept
map
 Discuss – This is an American film made about Australia. How do you think the film
has been designed to appeal to an American audience? How do you know this?
 How does this film appeal to different audiences? Create a table to record your
response.
Week 3
 Hot Potato Activity – Character analysis sheet
Week 4
 View Behind the Scenes documentary
instruct students to take notes and answer the questions from their handout
Week 5
Character Information Report - students produce an information report (500-700 words)
on one of the characters from Finding Nemo.
Criteria:
 describe the character
 describe their role in the movie
 show research of the creature upon which the character was built
 describe the habitat of the creature
 compare any similarities or differences between the character and creature.
Discuss why these changes has been made
 describe any environmental issues for that creature
 include pictures of the character and creature
 use an interesting layout to present your information
 include clear heading, sub-heading, page numbers
 include your name as a footer
 include a bibliography if applicable
 proof read and edit your work
 save your work on your school laptop and G Drive folder
 print a copy of your report
Week 6
Pair/Small Group Project – students pick one of the topics below to research and create a
presentation
 Animals in captivity – preserving our marine life or imprisoning them?
 Ocean Garbage Patch – whose problem is it?
 Impact of climate change on our ocean environment
 Other topic – to be negotiated with the teacher
Independent group work
Week 7
Independent group work
Week 8
Independent group work
Week 9
Finalising ideas - projects
Week 10
Presentation
TERM 3: DISASTERS AND THE WORLD AROUND US
Immersion Activities
Learning stations:
 Watch documentaries on disasters on DVC
Week 1
 Collect newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs and internet images of
disasters and make a wall montage
 Listen to music from various disaster movies
 Read stories about disasters
What do they know?
 Brainstorm as a class
 Remember – all the contributions from the brainstorm
 Consider recording the information as pictures rather than words or a simple web
Week 2
format
 In groups, students create a simple song, poem, play, poster, or story about
disasters or particular disasters
 Use the wall montage, created from the previous activity, to attach brainstormed
information
Investigate types of disasters that might affect our community
Jigsaw activity
 Each „home‟ group finds out about different types of disasters
Week 3
 Using a chart, students visit various „expert groups‟ to collect information
 Individuals return to their home group where the information is collected on a
group chart
Examine various events, including each of the types of disasters, to see if they fit the
definition of a disaster
Week 4
Find out
 The who, what, when, why and how? of various emergencies (Research stations)
Internalise the information

Groups select a method to present their information to the class and prepare their
presentations. Methods can include: an audio presentation, a play, a dance, a
Week 5
story, a picture, an advertisement, a chart, a book etc.

Groups present their information to the class

Class combine information from the group chart on a class chart
Week 6
Presentations
Learning Centre Task
Week 7
 Students pick a task/s
 Independent work
Week 8
Independent work and research
Week 9
Independent work
Week 10
Independent work
Week 11
Presentation of work
TERM 4: THE ARRIVAL AND OTHER TALES OF IMMIGRATION
Fact Finding Mission – will ultimately form the basis of a creative response on the topic
 On an A3 paper, students are to create a mind map with an inquiry question at
the centre: What are some of the key experiences of migrants?
Week 1
 The mind map needs five branches; one for each of the rotation activities.
 Students are divided into five groups and will rotate through each of the activities.
Their job is to record key ideas from each rotation.
Explore
Week 2
 In groups students complete the rotation activity
 Review what students learnt at the end
Explain
Week 3
 Collate any questions that have been generated from the rotation activities
 Divide questions amongst students. They search for the answers in a mini-inquiry
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
 Some questions may need to be addressed by the teacher
Elaborate
 Using the mind map and mini-inquiry, student plan and develop a creative
response. Possible responses include:
Multimedia presentation on the experience of immigration
Series of letters between an immigrant and family left behind
Analytical essay on the topic „Reducing immigration will solve Australia‟s
population dilemma‟
Audio-visual or written summary of an interview with an immigrant to Australia
 Students pick response – independent work
Independent work
Extension:
 Students compare the illustrations in The Arrival to those in other Shaun Tan books.
What are the similarities in Tan‟s works? What are the differences? How does he
use colour? How would you describe his style?
 Students can also compare The Arrival with other „wordless‟ picture books such as
Leaf and Midsummer Knight. How does each book tell its story? What are the
similarities and differences?
Independent work
Independent work
Presentations
Review
End of year activities
Year 9 Accelerate Program
2014
TERM 1: PERSUASIVE TEXTS
Week 1
Australia Day
Weeks 2-3
Student Profiling
 DOPE
 MIT
Weeks 4-5
Persuasive Texts – Booklets
Weeks 6
Looking at Both Sides of the Argument
Weeks 7-9
Deconstructing Persuasive Texts
TERM 2: PERSUSAVE WRITING & HOTs Activities
Weeks 1-2
Writing persuasive texts
Week 3
NAPLAN Testing
Week 4
HOTs Thinking Activities
Introductory Thinking Activities
e.g. Scatergories
Week 5
English: Power and the media
Week 6
Science: Ethics in Science
Week 7
Mathematics: Bridges
Week 8
The Arts: Mao‟s Last Dancer
Week 9
SOSE: Population Overload
Week 10
Presentation – preparation time
Week 11
Presentation to class on a chosen subject area – evaluation
TERM 3: HUMAN RIGHTS
Week 1
Human Rights
 Overview
 Needs vs. wants activity
Weeks 2-3
Sujit “The Chicken Boy” & Human Rights
Weeks 4-5
Saving Annie
Weeks 6-7
Losing Matty
Weeks 8-9
Is it a bird? Is it a plan?
Weeks 10-11
Child Brides
TERM 4: FORREST GUMP
Reintroduction to HOTs
Week 1
Thinking Games
Forrest Gump movie
Weeks 2-3
- viewing
Forrest Gump as „picaresque‟
Week 4
 Define what „picaresque‟
 Group task – Iron Man vs Forest Gump (Plotting the film structurally)
Lead Characters in Movies
 Hollywood movies and the division of characters into types
 Class discussion: character types
Week 5
 Group brainstorm: words and phrases to describe Forrest
 Classifying: Positive and negative character traits
 Ethical class discussion: and yet we cheer Forest on. Whatever his faults, he
wins the audience over. Why?
Movies Depicting History?
 Use worksheets from weeks 2 & 3
 Prepare a list of key historical events featured in the film
 Reflect on your knowledge of these events prior to the film
Week 6
 Class discussion – How much did the film enable you to understand more
about them?
 Ethical/Empathetic Discussion: Dark vs Light events and Forrest‟s reaction
to them
The Vietnam War
 How is war portrayed in the movies
Week 7
 What „line‟ does Forrest Gump take on the Vietnam War?
 Class dissection – How Dan, Buba and Jenny relate to the war?
Dreams
 The character‟s dream
 Dan – a noble death
Week 8
 Bubba – a shrimp boat
 Jenny – flight
 What are Forrest‟s dreams and how does he help the other characters in
the film realise theirs?
Week 9
Individual writing and reflection tasks