Authentic Planning & Assessment Format

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Topic: Christmas

Year
Duration:
level: 5/6

Curriculum Links:
Religious Knowledge and Understanding

Year 6 - Church - Liturgy and Sacraments: CHLS9 The Churchs liturgical year
is told through a framework of different seasons (Advent, Christmas, Lent,
Easter, Pentecost, Ordinary Time), revealing the story of salvation and
drawing inspiration from Jewish tradition. In liturgical celebrations, forms of
sacred art (including music, visual arts, drama, dance, media) are used to
inspire believers to prayer and a deeper understanding of the mystery of
God. In liturgical celebrations, believers are encouraged to actively
participate through action (e.g. sign of peace, Genuflecting, sign of the
cross), word (e.g. acclamations, responses, singing), posture (e.g. kneeling,
bowing) and observing a reverent silence at appropriate times.

Year 6 - Church - Liturgy and Sacraments: CHLS8 In the Eucharist, believers

remember and celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus (the Paschal
mystery). This is the focus or theme of every Eucharistic liturgy. The saving
events of the Paschal mystery are made present in the Eucharist through
which believers are offered to share in the new life of Christ (1 Cor 10:16-17).

Year 5 - Church - People of God: CHPG6 Mary is the mother of Jesus and of all
Christians. Marys role in the Church community (e.g. advocate, mother,
helper) can be described using a variety of titles and images. New
Testament texts reveal Marys role as mother of Jesus and her role in the
early church community.
Skills

Eucharist is memorial, sacrifice, prayer, nourishment and community. The

Mass challenges believers to go out and live the good news that Jesus
proclaimed.

Make connections between some key celebrations of the Churchs liturgical

year and the story of salvation.

Identify where, how and why forms of sacred art are used in liturgical
celebrations.

Identify ways in which believers actively participate in liturgical celebrations

and interpret the meaning of these for believers.

Communicate an understanding of the key purposes of the Eucharist for

believers (e.g. memorial, sacrifice).

Explain how some titles and images of Mary found in New Testament texts,
including Luke 1:39-45, reveal her role as mother of Jesus and her role in the
Church community.

Students will be assisted to:

Understand that the Catholic Church celebrates the season of Christmas

beginning with the Vigil Mass until the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Recognise and describe the five feasts in the Christmas season: Christmas
Day, the Feast of the Holy Family, the feast of the Mother of God, Epiphany
and the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
Understand that Mary has an important role in the liturgical life of the
Church.
Describe symbols, actions, and words which are connected to the feasts.
Use scripture to gain an understanding of the five feasts and the key people
in each.

Fertile Question:
In groups of five, you are required to explore
the five feasts within the liturgical season of
Christmas. Your task is to create and deliver
an informative and engaging presentation
which explains the importance of the feasts to
the season of Christmas and key symbols and
people relevant to each.

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Summative Assessment:
Group oral presentation (including
visual aids eg. Glogster) to be
presented to teacher and peers. The
presentation will include:
What each feast celebrates and
when they are celebrated.
The importance of the feasts to
the lives of believers, past and
present.
Key symbols and people in each
feast.
Relevant scripture passages.

Learning Episode 1
Formative Assessment
Introduce the liturgical season of
Assessment as Learning
Christmas. Ask students to share prior
Students engage in discussions
knowledge about the celebration of
with other group members about
Christmas and why it is important to
approaches to the assessment
Christians.
task and presentation methods.
Introduce the five feasts of Christmas allow students to discuss in pairs then
offer responses as to what they think the
feasts might represent.
Explain the assessment tasks with
students and discuss ways in which it can
be presented.
Students will: Be allocated into groups of
ideally 5 students and each student will be
given a particular feast to investigate:
Christmas Day, the feast of the Holy
Family, the feast of the Mother of God,
Epiphany and the feast of the Baptism of
the Lord.

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Learning Episode 2
1. Once each group member has been
assigned/chosen a Feast Day to
research, students will firstly work with
other students who have the same
Feast day to become experts on their
topic and participate in discussions
about the importance of the Feast
days. Students will use
computers/iPads to research their topic.
2. Each expert group will research
different aspects of the feast, eg. what
the feast celebrates, who is involved in
the feast, when the feast occurs in the
Christmas Octave, symbols and any
other key aspects.
3. Once students have gained a good
understanding of their Feast day, they
will rejoin their assignment groups and
discuss their findings and fill in a group
research template.

Formative Assessment
Assessment for Learning
Student contribution in group
discussions.
Individual students will be given a
research plan which they will
record all their gathered
information about Feast days
which they will complete in the
first part of the learning episode.
The group research template will
be filled out as a group to ensure
each group has covered the
necessary information.

Learning Episode 3
1. In order to deepen their understanding
of the history behind the Feast days
and their relevance to scripture, each
student will use a Bible to look up the
scripture passages (below):
Christmas Day - Matthew 1:18-25
The Holy Family - Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
The Mother of God - Luke 2:16-21
Epiphany - Matthew 2:1-12
The Baptism of the Lord - Matthew 3:13-17

Formative Assessment
Assessment for Learning
Students will reflect on their
learning so far and add
information from the scripture
passages to their individual
research plan.
The teacher will ensure that they
meet with each group to discuss
their progress with the
assessment tasks.
Groups will fill out a checklist to
ensure they are on the right track
and to make sure they have
sufficient information to begin
planning the presentation.

2. Students will make connections between

their research from learning episode 2 and
their findings from the scripture passages.

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Following the completion of the presentations, Assessment for Learning

students will be required to reflect on the
Students reflect on the
planning, organisation and deliverance of
knowledge and
their groups presentation, their individual
understanding gained
performance and the knowledge gained
throughout the unit and their
through the process. The following questions
performance.
will be used to help students to reflect:
Did your group work well as a team?
What are some examples of this?
Were you able to locate reliable and
informative resources when research
your Feast day?
What are some things that you could
have improved on individually, or as a
group?
Is there anything you think could have
been done differently to make the
assignment task more interesting?
(Important feedback for teachers in
designing the task).
This will allow students to reflect on their own
learning to establish their knowledge and
understanding of the topic.