Champions Choice

Overview

This is lesson 1 of 2 in the unit “Champions of the Commonwealth”. Students explore a range of New Zealand athletes who have participated in the Commonwealth Games, practise researching, and begin evaluating sources for reliability and relevance so they can choose an athlete for a biography poster in lesson 2.

Learning intentions

• WALT research a New Zealand athlete by gathering background information, achievements, and contributions to sport.
• WALT ask questions that help us understand an athlete’s life and impact.
• WALT evaluate sources for reliability and relevance (who made it, why, and how it helps our research).
• WALT use findings to consider diverse perspectives on sports and representation.

Success criteria

• I can identify key facts about a chosen athlete’s background and achievements.
• I can explain why a source is reliable or not (at least one reason).
• I can select information that is relevant to my research questions.
• I can record notes clearly enough to use in my biography poster.

Curriculum links

• Social Sciences — History (New Zealand History): use evidence and explain how events, people, and contributions shaped New Zealand sport and identity.
• Social Sciences skills: locate, interpret, and use information from sources; consider perspectives and make connections to the present.
• Key competencies: thinking (evaluating sources and evidence), using language/symbols (taking notes and synthesising), managing self (staying on task).

Lesson structure (45 minutes)

1. 0–5 min · Hook and purpose Teacher displays images or short descriptions of 3–4 New Zealand Commonwealth athletes and asks: “What makes someone a ‘champion’ beyond winning?” Students turn-and-talk, then share one idea about what “champion” could mean (skills, character, role model, impact).

2. 5–12 min · Mini-teach: researching athletes Teacher models a research approach: background (where/when from), sports achievements (what and when), contributions (community, inspiration, changes to sport). Students underline or highlight the teacher’s research categories on a student planning sheet and choose one athlete name to start thinking about.

3. 12–22 min · Source detective (reliability and relevance) Teacher gives each group a small set of printed source excerpts about different athletes (e.g., a sports database entry, a news report excerpt, and a short biography paragraph). Students use a “Source Detective” checklist:

• Reliability: Who created it? Are they knowledgeable (coach/organisation/journalist)? Is the information specific (dates, events)?
• Relevance: Does it answer my questions about background, achievements, or contributions?
• Bias/limits: What might be missing? What perspective is shown? Teacher circulates and prompts groups with questions like: “What makes you trust this?” and “Which part helps most?”

4. 22–35 min · Research stations: gather notes Teacher explains the task: “Choose an athlete you may want for your poster. Collect at least 6 notes: 2 background facts, 2 achievement facts, 2 contribution/impact facts. Include a short ‘source reason’ for each set of notes.” Students rotate through 2 stations (10 minutes each):

• Station A: Print/booklets with athlete profiles and Commonwealth Games results (teacher pre-selected).
• Station B: Teacher-prepared information packs or classroom digital documents without links (text and images provided in-class). Students record notes in a table with columns: Fact, Which category (background/achievement/contribution), Evidence snippet (short), Source reason (reliable/relevant because…).

5. 35–41 min · Choose and justify Teacher directs students to pick their athlete choice (or narrow to a top two) and write a 3-sentence justification:

• Why this athlete fits “champion” in our unit
• Which sources they used so far
• One question they still need to research for lesson 2 Students complete the justification on the back of the notes sheet.

6. 41–45 min · Exit ticket Teacher collects an exit ticket with two prompts:

• “One way I checked if a source was reliable was…”
• “One piece of information I will use for my poster is… (and why it’s relevant)”

Resources

• Student “Research Categories” sheet (background, achievements, contributions)
• “Source Detective” checklist (reliability, relevance, limits/perspectives)
• Pre-prepared athlete source packets (print excerpts and/or offline classroom documents)
• Research note-taking table (Fact / category / evidence snippet / source reason)
• Highlighters and pens/pencils
• Timer or visual schedule for stations
• Optional: teacher example of a completed short note set

Assessment

• Formative during source detective: teacher listens for student explanations of reliability and relevance.
• Formative during research stations: check note tables include categories and at least one “source reason”.
• Exit ticket: evaluate understanding of reliability/relevance and readiness for lesson 2 poster planning.

Differentiation

• Support:
• Provide sentence starters for the “source reason” column (e.g., “I think this is reliable because…”).
• Offer a partially completed note table for students needing structure.
• Use smaller excerpt sets (fewer sources) for students who require less reading load.
• Extension:
• Challenge students to identify one missing perspective or limitation in a source (e.g., what it doesn’t tell us).
• Ask students to add a “connection” sentence: how the athlete’s impact links to New Zealand sport or community today.
• EAL/SEN:
• Highlight key terms on the checklist (reliable, relevant, perspective, evidence).
• Allow note-taking in point form and include an image-based evidence option (e.g., event photo captions).