1. Know students and how they learn.
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students.
Daily reflection: Monday 11/4/16.
Today I witnessed an incident between students, which was disrupting their learning. The students had produced an egg box design and an advertisement in Science. The students had worked in collaborative groups. In one particularly group of three students, the team were not collaborating well and could not resolve an issue on their own about who was taking the egg box model home.
All three students in the groups were very visibly upset. Even when I tried to brainstorm options with the students they were unable to resolve the issue. The first option I offered was for them to leave the egg box at school and therefore no one got to take it home. This did not resolve the issue and the students were still visibly very upset. After this I suggested that perhaps they take it in turns to take it home so that they would all get a turn to showcase the item to their family. This again did not resolve the issue. The agreed outcome was for me to photocopy the design on the front of the box so all three students could take an egg carton home. The students stuck the photocopied design to the front of another two egg boxes so that all three students had an egg box carton to take home.
I was quite surprised by the extent to which students were upset by this incident, since in the previous health lesson we had just discussed the concept of resilience and some strategies to remain resilient when things don't go your way. I discussed one of these resilience strategies with students, the ant and elephant problem. Despite recognising that this was an “ant” problem, students still were unable to let go and come to a compromise.
This experience highlighted to me the development stages these students were going through. This linked back to my learning on Erickson’s theory of Psychosocial development. Erickson proposed that between the ages of eight to twelve students are gaining confidence and this comes from getting a sense of accomplishment from teachers but most importantly from parents, for the work produced at school (Shaffer and Kipp, 2010).
When asked the reason for students being soo upset they all stated the predominant reason was that they wanted to show their work to their parents. This experience not only demonstrated Ericksons theory of Psychosocial development but demonstrated my understanding of AITSL standard 1.1 , Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, AITSL, 2013).
Today I witnessed an incident between students, which was disrupting their learning. The students had produced an egg box design and an advertisement in Science. The students had worked in collaborative groups. In one particularly group of three students, the team were not collaborating well and could not resolve an issue on their own about who was taking the egg box model home.
All three students in the groups were very visibly upset. Even when I tried to brainstorm options with the students they were unable to resolve the issue. The first option I offered was for them to leave the egg box at school and therefore no one got to take it home. This did not resolve the issue and the students were still visibly very upset. After this I suggested that perhaps they take it in turns to take it home so that they would all get a turn to showcase the item to their family. This again did not resolve the issue. The agreed outcome was for me to photocopy the design on the front of the box so all three students could take an egg carton home. The students stuck the photocopied design to the front of another two egg boxes so that all three students had an egg box carton to take home.
I was quite surprised by the extent to which students were upset by this incident, since in the previous health lesson we had just discussed the concept of resilience and some strategies to remain resilient when things don't go your way. I discussed one of these resilience strategies with students, the ant and elephant problem. Despite recognising that this was an “ant” problem, students still were unable to let go and come to a compromise.
This experience highlighted to me the development stages these students were going through. This linked back to my learning on Erickson’s theory of Psychosocial development. Erickson proposed that between the ages of eight to twelve students are gaining confidence and this comes from getting a sense of accomplishment from teachers but most importantly from parents, for the work produced at school (Shaffer and Kipp, 2010).
When asked the reason for students being soo upset they all stated the predominant reason was that they wanted to show their work to their parents. This experience not only demonstrated Ericksons theory of Psychosocial development but demonstrated my understanding of AITSL standard 1.1 , Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, AITSL, 2013).
Above is a lesson plan on Bullying, which I taught in Health. The lesson was part of the Program Achieve unit of work that underlies the schools pedagogy. The lesson demonstrates teaching social development of students (AITSL, 2013) by teaching students what is bullying, strategies to deal with bullying and encourages the importance of friendships and acceptance of others as a method to prevent bullying.
1.2 Understand how students learn.
Students have been introduced to the different learning styles in their Thinking Skills lessons. I assisted a student to identify her most preferred and least preferred learning style. This is visualised using the different colours. The students coloured in the entire quadrant if it was their preferred learning style, in this case Analytical was her preferred learning style. Her least preferred learning style was a Planned and Organised learner. This is indicated with the least amount of colour of all the quadrants. This demonstrates AITSL standard 1.2, understand how students learn (AITSL, 2013).
Lesson Reflection: Wednesday 30th March.
Today I ran a lesson in math’s and introduced a new topic to the class, area.
After introducing the topic and then the task to the class, it became apparent that the class were quite confused about what exactly they were being asked to do. Although I used two methods to try and assist them in understanding the task, the class appeared to be very confused about what they had to do.
I repeated instructions several times and asked a student to relay instructions to the rest of the class. When I was discussing this lesson in the staff room one of the other teachers mentioned to me that it is likely that the cause of this is not just that the students had not listened but also that the students in the class were predominantly visual learners.
I received feedback from my mentor teacher that showing students a sample of the work i.e something made ahead of the lesson would better support student learning.
This assisted me to plan better for the following days math’s lesson. In order to assist student learning I created a scaffold which assisted students to visualise the task. This can be seen in the picture on the right.
This method of introduction was very effective and I will plan to incorporate visual aids when describing lesson expectations. This demonstrated AITSL standard 1.2, understand how students learn and 4.1, support student engagement and participation in learning activities (AITSL, 2013).
Today I ran a lesson in math’s and introduced a new topic to the class, area.
After introducing the topic and then the task to the class, it became apparent that the class were quite confused about what exactly they were being asked to do. Although I used two methods to try and assist them in understanding the task, the class appeared to be very confused about what they had to do.
I repeated instructions several times and asked a student to relay instructions to the rest of the class. When I was discussing this lesson in the staff room one of the other teachers mentioned to me that it is likely that the cause of this is not just that the students had not listened but also that the students in the class were predominantly visual learners.
I received feedback from my mentor teacher that showing students a sample of the work i.e something made ahead of the lesson would better support student learning.
This assisted me to plan better for the following days math’s lesson. In order to assist student learning I created a scaffold which assisted students to visualise the task. This can be seen in the picture on the right.
This method of introduction was very effective and I will plan to incorporate visual aids when describing lesson expectations. This demonstrated AITSL standard 1.2, understand how students learn and 4.1, support student engagement and participation in learning activities (AITSL, 2013).
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Daily reflection: Wednesday 18th May.
Today I witnessed a double literacy block with year three students. This class contains sixteen out of twenty with learning support needs. One of the students I was working one on one with has diverse linguistic needs as a result of his parents being from a non-English speaking background. I worked with this student one on one to observe the strategies in place to support his diverse needs.
The first strategy I noted and worked with was in literacy rotations. This student is working through letter formation and fine motor control in handwriting whilst other students are linking script. This student is given one on one assistance in letter formation of a-h letters. This strategy assists the student to understand the basics of letter formation, fine motor control and sounds that letters produce. Naturally, since this student is from a non English speaking background they might not have the skills to support this students learning at home and therefore additional support is required at school.
Another strategy used to assist this student is one on one support from a learning support officer. The student receives daily assistance from a learning support coordinator to assist him in learning vowels and pronunciation in order to assist him in building up these core skills in language.
This was a very interesting lesson to observe, it demonstrated AITSL standard 1.3 ( AITSL, 2013) strategies to support students with diverse linguistic needs. Some pictures of the learning support resources used with this student are pictured below.
Today I witnessed a double literacy block with year three students. This class contains sixteen out of twenty with learning support needs. One of the students I was working one on one with has diverse linguistic needs as a result of his parents being from a non-English speaking background. I worked with this student one on one to observe the strategies in place to support his diverse needs.
The first strategy I noted and worked with was in literacy rotations. This student is working through letter formation and fine motor control in handwriting whilst other students are linking script. This student is given one on one assistance in letter formation of a-h letters. This strategy assists the student to understand the basics of letter formation, fine motor control and sounds that letters produce. Naturally, since this student is from a non English speaking background they might not have the skills to support this students learning at home and therefore additional support is required at school.
Another strategy used to assist this student is one on one support from a learning support officer. The student receives daily assistance from a learning support coordinator to assist him in learning vowels and pronunciation in order to assist him in building up these core skills in language.
This was a very interesting lesson to observe, it demonstrated AITSL standard 1.3 ( AITSL, 2013) strategies to support students with diverse linguistic needs. Some pictures of the learning support resources used with this student are pictured below.
Daily reflection: Wednesday 5th 2016.
Today I spent the afternoon in a year one class. The class has one student with Downs Syndrome. I observed the strategies the teacher uses in this class to differentiate the lessons to encompass this students diverse learning needs since he has delayed speech and intellectual development as a result of his downs syndrome.
The teacher predominantly teaches this student the early years curriculum and combines this with some aspects of the year one curriculum she has deemed appropriate. The student also receives a lot of one on one support to assist him to with his linguistic development.
The teacher has also created a very positive social environment for this student in the classroom by pairing him in collaborative groups where possible, the class also all wave goodbye to him everyday when he leaves since he leaves thirty minutes before the rest of the class. This has resulted in an excellent opportunity to socialise with his peers and as a result this student has a number of different friends that play with him at lunch and recess.
At the beginning of the year the teacher also spent some time with the class to explain to students what Downs Syndrome was and how it effects development. This observation was really vital to my understanding of strategies to incorporate students with diverse learning needs into a classroom. It is essential to ensure adequate support both intellectually and socially to ensure the well being of students with diverse learning needs. There are some images below of the learning support cards used to assist this student with speech development. This observation demonstrated AITSL standard 1.3 (AITSL, 2013).
Today I spent the afternoon in a year one class. The class has one student with Downs Syndrome. I observed the strategies the teacher uses in this class to differentiate the lessons to encompass this students diverse learning needs since he has delayed speech and intellectual development as a result of his downs syndrome.
The teacher predominantly teaches this student the early years curriculum and combines this with some aspects of the year one curriculum she has deemed appropriate. The student also receives a lot of one on one support to assist him to with his linguistic development.
The teacher has also created a very positive social environment for this student in the classroom by pairing him in collaborative groups where possible, the class also all wave goodbye to him everyday when he leaves since he leaves thirty minutes before the rest of the class. This has resulted in an excellent opportunity to socialise with his peers and as a result this student has a number of different friends that play with him at lunch and recess.
At the beginning of the year the teacher also spent some time with the class to explain to students what Downs Syndrome was and how it effects development. This observation was really vital to my understanding of strategies to incorporate students with diverse learning needs into a classroom. It is essential to ensure adequate support both intellectually and socially to ensure the well being of students with diverse learning needs. There are some images below of the learning support cards used to assist this student with speech development. This observation demonstrated AITSL standard 1.3 (AITSL, 2013).
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students.
Daily reflection: Tuesday 15th March 2016.
Today I observed a visit from an Aboriginal artist who was visiting at St Johns Grammar School. Her name was Sally Scales. She introduced herself to students and explained the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APL) Lands that she and her mother, famous artist Josephine Wicks had travelled from. Sally and Josephine are artists in residence at St John’s Grammar as a result of an exchange program the school have with Pipalyatjara Anangu School in the APY Lands.
When I discussed the exchange with Sally she explained that each year a group from the lands travels to Adelaide to create a dot painting with St Johns which represents their collaboration.
In return, students from the city also travel to the APY Lands, a fantastic opportunity for students to visit a remote Aboriginal community. The aim of the exchange is to for each school to provide students and teachers with the opportunity to learn about each other’s culture, to help form friendships and break down cultural and linguistic barriers. As a result students and teachers are able to understand the impact culture and linguistic background has on education and teaching strategies.
Sally also explained to us all the importance of incorporating Indigenous culture such as dot paintings into their curriculum. This lesson clearly demonstrated AITSL standard 1.4 and 2.4, (AITSL, 2013), strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people to promote reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
In this lesson student created dot paintings with Sally that they felt represented the important things in the students lives. Below are some links for further reading about the exchange program as this was featured on ABC news.
Today I observed a visit from an Aboriginal artist who was visiting at St Johns Grammar School. Her name was Sally Scales. She introduced herself to students and explained the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APL) Lands that she and her mother, famous artist Josephine Wicks had travelled from. Sally and Josephine are artists in residence at St John’s Grammar as a result of an exchange program the school have with Pipalyatjara Anangu School in the APY Lands.
When I discussed the exchange with Sally she explained that each year a group from the lands travels to Adelaide to create a dot painting with St Johns which represents their collaboration.
In return, students from the city also travel to the APY Lands, a fantastic opportunity for students to visit a remote Aboriginal community. The aim of the exchange is to for each school to provide students and teachers with the opportunity to learn about each other’s culture, to help form friendships and break down cultural and linguistic barriers. As a result students and teachers are able to understand the impact culture and linguistic background has on education and teaching strategies.
Sally also explained to us all the importance of incorporating Indigenous culture such as dot paintings into their curriculum. This lesson clearly demonstrated AITSL standard 1.4 and 2.4, (AITSL, 2013), strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people to promote reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.
In this lesson student created dot paintings with Sally that they felt represented the important things in the students lives. Below are some links for further reading about the exchange program as this was featured on ABC news.
Based on my learnings from Sally Scales I created a lesson plan to demonstrate strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Students, AITSL standard 1.4 (AITSL, 2013).
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Literacy group rotations are an example of standard 1.5 (AITSL, 2013). As can be see from the above photographs, students are placed into groups according to their ability in the topic of literacy. Students are grouped with similar ability students to encourage student collaboration and confidence. This is done by differentiated groups so that students of similar ability can work together and allows for students to support each other and the teacher to set varying levels of tasks to varying groups.
This lesson plan incorporated the use of differentiation since students who were identified as needing support were offered wooden shapes as a scaffold to support their learning.
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability.
This is a Learning Management plan I produced in order to support the full participation for a student with Autism. The aim was reduction of any Anxiety the student may have at the time of the lesson. I also utilised the positive reinforcement to reward his good behaviour which is something the student was used to experiencing. This demonstrated AITSL standard 1.6, strategies to support the full participation of students with a disability.
Another student in the class at had a hearing impairment. In order to support his full participation my mentor teacher and I wore a microphone with speakers set up around the classroom to ensure that this student was able to hear us. This was a great example of AITSL standard 1.6 strategies to support participation of students with a disability. An image of the microphone that was worn during the lessons is featured below.
References:
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2015). The Australian curriculum v7.1 Foundation to Year 10 curriculum browser by subjects and columns retrieved from
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Browse?a=E&a=M&a=S&a=H&a=G&a=ENB&a=CNC&a=da&a=dr&a=ma&a=mu&a=va&a=DI&a=DE&a=HPE&y=5&y=6#page=2
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). (2013). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers retrieved from www.aitsl.edu.au/sustralian_professional_standards_for_teachers