Australia! 

Last Thursday we started our unit on Australia and New Zealand. The students seemed pretty excited to move on to a continent of kangaroos, wombats, and dingos. Australia and New Zealand are so different from the rest of the world, so it's no surprise our unit essential question would focus on why the region is so different. 

Our unit essential question:

I usually begin a unit using a KWL Chart, which is a chart that asks students what they already know about a subject, what they want to learn about a subject, and, at the end of the unit, what they learned about the subject. Often I ask the class to raise their hands and provide answers, but I thought letting the students work on their own KWLs would be fun. The students worked in groups to fill in a "Know" and "Want to know" column. 

A blank chart:

I played music (Michael Jackson, anyone?), and when the music stopped each group stood up from their desks and moved to the next group. There they decided on the best response in that group's K or W column and they recorded it on their "master" copy. By the end, everyone in the class had read everyone else's chart and had a great time doing it. 

Here is an excellent KWL chart from a group in 4th period:

After the KWLS, we moved on to the animals, climate, and geography of Australia. I think the students especially liked the dingos. More on that later!