YEAR 5: GOLD FEVER

GOLD FEVER SMASHES THE SERENITY OF THE YEAR 5 LEARNING SPACES 

(AN EPIC SAGA OF 24 CARAT PROPORTIONS)

You would think, in meandering through the learning spaces of Year 5 at certain times during the day, that student personalities have been alien-ly altered and the behaviours observed are akin to those of the crazy gold seekers of the 1800’s. 

AND YOU WOULD BE RIGHT!     100% CORRECT!      TRUE TO A TEE!

The world of the normally sedate and somewhat laconic if not boisterous Year 5’s has been dramatically upended via the delving into the discovery of gold in Australia during the mid 1800’s. And what a tumultuous and riotous up-ending it has been. Would-be thieves now abound, hard-nosed businessmen and women are turning up in the most unexpected places, deals are being wrangled, gold discovered, license avoiders fined and others escaping jail by the skin of their undernourished gold-panning teeth.

You may ask: What is he raving on about? GOLD!!!!!!!!!!! That’s what the raving is about.

It all started a long, long time ago. Actually it started early this term, but it seems way longer than that, with the introduction of the Year 5 Gold Rush. It is through this simulation that students savoured a taste of, albeit in a somewhat safer and softer environment, the highs and lows of life on the Australian gold fields during the time of the Gold Rush. 

Gold nuggets (spraypainted gravel) were hidden in various locations and quantities throughout the wild space goldfields and the students gold diggers informed that it was there for the taking with very few rules. Unleash the beast!! And so the beast was unleashed. A herd of stampeding Year 5’s searching high and low for the elusive precious metal. Some found much, some little, some worked in groups, some alone, some lost gold to the unscrupulous teachers/learning assistants (come on, those words are paradoxical …. aren’t they?) police, while others continuously and fervently participated in the gloriously ragged search for gold. 

We de-briefed afterwards, as all good teachers should do, relating the student’s experiences experienced to the experiences experienced by the experienced and not-so-experienced miners of Australia (a country inexperienced in regard to the experience of gold rushes). And what an experience it was! 

I think in the end (actually, we were too tired to think much, so probably ‘upon reflection’ would be better suited), upon reflection, most of the students understood a few of the issues the gold diggers faced in their struggle for riches, glory and that one big nugget. I can safely say that these nuggets were far more profitable than the ones available to children today. 

Now, for the pedagogical curriculum purists: We flipped the classroom by making this a student based, backward-by-design learning experience. We scaffolded their learning, differentiated the outcomes and expectations, delivered a mountain-top experience, set common-core benchmarks, engaged the students in higher order thinking and allowed for co-operative learning. We incorporated technology akin to the time, monitored student’s learning through informal assessment (who had the most gold) and finished off with peer assessment (I did better than you!). While not creating digital natives, we did see some native-like behaviour. We future-proofed many of them by exposing them to a high level of failure unsuccess and it was real-world enquiry based, hands-on learning. AND we allowed for BYODB (bring your own brain).

Following on from this (I love digital newsletters …. [hang on, did I just confess to loving something digital? I did] because space is unlimited!!!!), we embarked on an uber-excursion to Sovereign Hill. In a nutshell: we left school at 7.30am, spent the day doing all goldie type things (gold panning, gold pour demonstration, musket firing, street drama, gold mine tour, the popular and well-patronised (very heavily patronised actually) lolly shop, printing press, education session, confectionery making, horse and cart ride, purchasing old world goodies, candle making an blacksmith among other things) at Sovereign Hill, ate pizzas in the park and returned back to school at around 8.15 pm.

You would think that after all that, the students would be gold-ed out. But no, not if we maintain our ludicrously creative bent. All this in the middle of our own in-class gold game in which the students take on the persona of an 1850’s gold-fevered fortune hunter and again are exposed to the giddy heights of success and the depressing depths of despair that these men and women faced. This game will go on into next term and the object is to be the one with the most money in the end. Money is earned by gold found, businesses which will be bought soon, astute assaying, clever liaisons, strategising, avoiding the police and some old-fashioned good luck. 

Gold shaped much of what we see in Australia today and every day we see the way gold is shaping our students (not sure if that is a good thing or not).

For further information, talk to one of the Year 5 students. Tell them they have 2 minutes to produce their miner’s license and watch the blood drain from their gold-seeking ravaged faces.

Gold: an expensive personality altering substance available at all good gold mines. 

Yours sincerely (in gilded colonial script)

Jo Noy & Leo Wanders

(The Year 5 Gold Commissioners extraordinaire)