Assessment Guide for Parents – Term 2 2015 (Year 5)
To help parents better understand the expectations on students around assessment for Term 1, here is an outline of what
is being looked at and the assessment in the different subject areas. We have structured this to work on our webpage (for
convenience and ease of viewing online) but large copies will also be available in classrooms – on walls or windows –
where children can see them every day and refer to them. Feel free to talk to your child’s teacher about these guides as
they will be used to mark your child’s achievement and be used to offer feedback to your child about improvement.
What is the difference between Assessment Tasks and Monitoring Tasks? Assessment Tasks are activities that students
will complete and the teacher will mark and allocate a rating (A, B, C, D, E) based on specific criteria. Monitoring Tasks are
activities the students do in class while the teacher makes observations but will not rate them.
English
During Term 2, students will complete two 5 week Units.
Examining media texts
In this unit, students listen to, read, view and interpret a range of news articles and reports from journals and newspapers
to respond to viewpoints portrayed in media texts. Students apply comprehension strategies, focusing on particular
viewpoints portrayed in a range of media texts. They create a digital multimodal feature article, including written and
visual elements, from a particular viewpoint.
Examining characters in animated film
In this unit students listen to, read, view and interpret a range of animations including film and digital texts. Students
present a point of view about personal conflict and ethical dilemmas faced by fantasy characters through a panel
discussion. They produce an animated story exploring a character’s behaviour when faced with an ethical dilemma.
Monitoring student learning
Student learning will be monitored throughout the teaching and learning process to determine student progress and
learning needs.
Assessment task 1 – Comprehend a feature article
Students interpret and analyse information from a feature article.
Assessment task 2 – Create a multimodal feature article
Students select information and create a multimodal feature article that presents a particular point of view about an issue.
Assessment task 3 – Short story animation
Students create a short story animation that focuses on two main characters' behaviours when faced with an ethical
dilemma.
Maths
During Term 2, students will complete two 5 week Units.
In these units students apply a variety of mathematical concepts in real-life, life-like and purely mathematical situations.
Monitoring student learning
Student learning will be monitored throughout the teaching and learning process to determine student progress and
learning needs.
Monitoring task 1: Delivering decimals
Students represent, locate and order decimals to and beyond hundredths.
Fractions and decimals
• Recognise that the place value system can be extended beyond hundredths.
• Compare, order and represent decimals
Monitoring task 2: Mastering multiples and factors
Students identify and list factors and multiples including common factors and multiples.
Number and place value
• Identify and describe factors and multiples of whole numbers and use them to solve problems.
Monitoring task 3: Sailing through symmetry
Students identify and describe line and rotation symmetry.
Location and transformation
• Describe translations, reflections and rotations of two-dimensional shapes. Identify line and rotational symmetries
• Apply the enlargement transformation to familiar two-dimensional shapes and explore the properties of the resulting
image compared with the digital
Monitoring task 4: Shaping up
Students connect 3D objects with their 2D representations.
Shape
• Connect three-dimensional objects with their nets and other two-dimensional representations
Assessment task 1: Generation geometry
Students will estimate, measure and construct angles, to make connections between three-dimensional objects and their
two dimensional representation, to describe the symmetry and transformation of two-dimensional shapes and designs.
Assessment task 2: Chance and data mathematical guided inquiries
Students will use simple strategies to reason and solve chance and data inquiry questions.
Geography
During Term 2, students will complete one 10 week Unit.
Exploring how people and places affect one another
In this unit, students extend their mental map of the world with a focus on Europe and North America. Students learn to
identify and describe the relative location of places at a national scale and to complete maps using cartographic
conventions. The concept of place is further developed by exploring the human and environmental factors that influence
the characteristics of places. The interconnections between people and environment are examined through climate and
urbanisation data, and maps of vegetation distribution and landforms. Students will represent and interpret data to
identify simple patterns, trends, spatial distribution, infer relationships and draw conclusions. Human impacts on the
environmental characteristics of places are further explored through a case study.
Students will investigate the inquiry question identified from the Australian Curriculum: geography
• How do people and environments influence one another?
The content provides opportunities to develop the following concepts for geographical understandings: place, space,
environment, interconnections, change, sustainability, and scale.
Monitoring student learning
Student learning will be monitored throughout the teaching and learning process to determine student progress and
learning needs.
Assessment task 1: Collection of work (Part A, B & C)
This assessment provides opportunities to gather evidence of student learning in Geographical Knowledge and
Understanding and Geographical Inquiry and Skills.
Science
During Term 2, students will complete one 10 week Unit.
Survival in the Australian environment
In this unit students will examine the structural features and behavioural adaptations that assist living things to survive in
their environment. Students will understand that science involves using evidence and data to develop explanations.
Students will investigate factors that influence how plants and animals survive in extreme environments.
This knowledge will be used to create a creature with adaptations that are suitable for survival in a prescribed
environment.
Monitoring student learning
Student learning will be monitored throughout the teaching and learning process to determine student progress and
learning needs.
Monitoring task 1: Planetary data: Recording sheet (Lesson 3)
Check students' responses to gauge their capacity to:
• research information about planets in the solar system
• record data about planets in the solar system
• compare two planets in the solar system based on data collected
• communicate ideas about planets in the solar system.
Monitoring task 2: The transit of Venus (Lesson 6)
Check students' responses to gauge their capacity to:
• describe safety considerations for observing the sun safely
• identify contributions from different people to our understanding of the transit of Venus
• communicate ideas about people's contributions to our understanding of the transit of Venus.
Monitoring task 3: Apollo 11 (Lesson 9)
Check students' responses to gauge their capacity to:
• research and record relevant information about the Apollo 11 mission
• understand that science involves gathering data and using evidence
• discuss mission considerations
• communicate ideas and explanations.
Assessment name: Exploration of the solar system
Assessment description: Describe features of the solar system and developments in science that improve people's
understanding of the world.