Know students and how they learn
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1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.2 Understand how students learn
3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
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Critical Reflection
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The evidence I have provided to indicate meeting Standard 1 is an example of my lesson planning and delivery, with feedback from my Practicum Liaison Officer. The lesson was created for Stage 2 year 4 Students, which had demonstrated a broad range of abilities. The lesson focus was on history incorporating Indigenous perspectives (1.4), while also incorporating an English focus to meet a personal goal to plan and teach Across KLA. I used content knowledge (Weatherby-Fell, 2015, p.5) from the NSW 5-6 Curriculum, prior Pedagogical (Weatherby-Fell, 2015, p.5) knowledge, and implemented pedagogical skills (Weatherby-Fell, 2015, p.5) in the planning and delivery of the lesson. At the beginning of the lesson, I provided clear expectations on the IWB of desired behaviour, learning intention and what the students would know by the end of the lesson (Weatherby-Fell, 2015, p.133-134) (1.1). Some students within the class were familiar with the Dreaming stories selected, while others had less prior knowledge (1.1). Therefore, it was important for me to begin the lesson by linking to students’ prior knowledge, through a brainstorming activity (1.5). Children were then informed of what they may need to listen for in the story; Orientation, Complication, Resolution, Coda. These were further scaffolded with definitions. The lesson then included guided instruction (1.5), following the principles of Vygotsky’s (1987) ZPD (1.1, 1.2). Children were then put into groups, where each child had a role (1.5) and was provided with the instruction to listen for an element of the story. Children were directed back to their seats using music rather than using my voice (1.2). A teaching strategy that I found to be very effective. Groups shared their individual jigsaw pieces, which were then placed back together, to create a shared learning experience. At the end of the lesson, students engaged in reflection. Through using open questioning, I found that students of all abilities could participate (1.1). When asked to infer (See the lesson on inference) what is meant by the story ‘Tiddalick the Frog,’ I was surprised students by the in-depth response. He stated, “Water is a precious resource, and we need it to survive.” This prompted discussion about sustainability, further creating links in learning for students including in durability and Science conceptualisations. Through this experience, where I released ‘control’ of the learning experience I could facilitate learning and able to observe how students engage with their peers in small groups (1.1, 1.5). It provided insight into their individual behaviours, and this information was used to develop my teaching instruction and to plan further (1.5,1.1, 1.3). The feedback I received on the lesson from my Practicum Liaison Officer was very positive, remarking on the planning, clear instructions, linking to students prior learning, effective behaviour management, and reflection strategies used. After the lesson, I felt I had achieved a high-level engaging experience. However, I would like to continue to improve on using nonverbal cues within the classroom (1.5), as discussed with my Practicum Liaison Officer. Therefore, I have could address reflection on action, in action, and for action (Weatherby-Fell, 2015, p.70) This is reflected in my goals my upcoming EPT329 Professional Experience. However, while this lesson was comprehensive, it did not reveal strategies to support students with a disability, although it could be achieved through incorporating a picture sequence for students with learning support needs, where the child can sort into sequential order. Additionally, students with visual impairments could retell in sequential order (1.6).
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Vygotsky, L. (1987). Zone of proximal development. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes, 5291, 157.
Weatherby-Fell, N. (2015). Learning to teach in the secondary school (1st ed.). Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
This evidence is a lesson plan and report on the teaching of the developed lesson. The report and lesson plan meets the AITSL Standard 1: Know students and how they learn. With a focus on 1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students. 1.2 Understand how students learn. 1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities and 1.6 Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
Understanding how I learn predominantly as a kinesthetic and auditory learner helps me to understand that there are many different learning styles. Knowing my personal preferences, allows me to be aware that I don't over compensate learning experiences in these areas. This will ensure that I am able to cater to vast learning needs including, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading learners.
Understanding how students learn is important as an educator. This work sample was collected as part of EPT127 course requirements. This work sample helped me to gauge student comprehension of syntax, phonemic awareness, directionality and how the student uses high-frequency words. From this, I can understand how to scaffold the learning experiences and lesson planning to extend and promote engaging language, literature, and literacy experiences.