INVESTIGATING SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
ABOUT:
The Modified SOSE program at the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre endeavours to equip our students with knowledge from the humanities and social sciences. SOSE is the study of human behaviour and interaction in social, cultural, environmental, economic and political contexts. The humanities and social sciences have a historical and contemporary focus, from personal to global contexts, and consider challenges for the future. Students are engaged with explicit learning experiences focusing on engaging topics and a modified curriculum that allows students to participate successfully. Unit themes and topics mirror those of the mainstream SOSE curriculum, but with modifications to content and adjustments to assessment to ensure differentiation according to the varying abilities and disabilities of the students.
At the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre:
Modified SOSE is offered to all students with disabilities from Year 7 to Year 9 in the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre. Students engaged in this curriculum will have pedagogy implemented to address their needs, which will influence and reflect the specific learning expectations and teaching strategies used to assist the students to enhance their knowledge.
Why study Modified English?
The Modified SOSE curriculum helps students to engage positively with historical and environmental investigations. By mirroring topics and themes of the mainstream curriculum, the Modified SOSE program allows students to essentially stay in step with their mainstream peers with regards to content, therefore allowing transition into the mainstream SOSE curriculum if/when ready, be it in Junior or Senior years of study. The smaller class sizes and presence of additional support staff enhances individualised attention and monitoring, as well as creating a less disruptive or distracting learning environment. Provision of heavily-scaffolded and modified formative and summative assessment tools also assists students to complete tasks successfully and with minimised anxiety.
Facilities and Equipment:
Students in Modified SOSE utilise their own BYOx devices, and also have access to all the facilities and equipment of the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre, including the Sound Fields speaker system, Sensory room, Equine Assisted Learning program, Therapy Dogs, teacher aide support and visiting advisory consultants (eg Speech Language Therapist). Use of specific assistive technology and personnel is determined by the individual disabilities of the students.
Units of study:
| YEAR 7 | YEAR 8 | YEAR 9 |
| TERM 1 | HISTORY OF MARYBOROUGH (Written report on Maryborough) | LANDSCAPES & LANDFORMS (In class research assignment) | WW1 (Open Book Exam) |
| TERM 2 | ANCIENT PAST (OTZI Workbook/Response to stimulus) | THE MIDDLE AGES (Project and 3D model on Castles) | WW2 (Persuasive Arguments) |
| TERM 3 | ANCIENT EGYPT (Short response test/Workbook) | BLACK DEATH (PowerPoint) | RIGHTS & FREEDOMS (Novel Study and Book Review) |
| TERM 4 | WATER IN OUR WORLD (Short response test/Booklet/Multimodal presentation) | INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Research of an inventor/Tombstone) | NATURAL DISASTERS (Refugee Journal) CREATIVE WRITING (Writing Journal) |
PATHWAYS:
Modified English students gain the literacy skills and knowledge to assist with the completion of basic standards needed to transition to the mainstream curriculum, to enrol in Senior elective subjects to gain their QCE and/or to gain employment and supportive assistance upon leaving school. Students doing Modified HPE in Years 7-9 may continue with a similar program in Senior schooling, via the Functional English curriculum offered through the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre, if they have not progressed sufficiently to complete QCE standard English.
Teacher:
Mrs Dianne Higgins and Mrs Kathryn Brandseth are currently the teachers coordinating the Modified SOSE program within the Aldridge Learning Enhancement Centre. They are assisted in their roles by numerous teacher aides from the Learning Enhancement Centre, who support students in the class.