Getting to know studentsI had the opportunity to spend the first two weeks of term 1 in the classroom to get to know students. With 54 students, this was a daunting challenge, but one I was determined to begin right away.
For day one, I had to run an art lesson. Art is a great way to express who you are in a non-confrontational way, so I planned a 'getting to know you' lesson. I created PowerPoint slides full of pictures of things represented me. I feel it was important to open the lesson by sharing a bit about myself so then students felt comfortable to do the same. Students had a plain A3 page, various materials, and free creative license to create an artwork each. I wandered the classroom, viewing, questioning and discussing what students were doing, and I learnt so much about them in such a short period of time. It was a rich, yet casual lesson that students thoroughly enjoyed, and finished pieces are still displayed in the classroom in term 3. |
Using choiceI often implement aspects of Glasser's 'Choice Theory' into my programs. If students have choice, they become intrinsically motivated, and can be held more accountable for their work output.
In HASS, students had formed political parties to complete tasks. The class brainstormed things they valued, and these became the values for the parties. A preference system was then used to place students in parties. Using this method meant students' had created the party values, as well as chosen which parties to be in. They were therefore engaged with the work and took an interest in the content. In English, students were given choice by writing their own debate topic question. Topics were voted on by the class to find the top 4 which were then debated. As topics were created by the students, they were engaged and really enjoyed the unit of debating. |
Catering to abilityMy class of 54 students, had 22 that needed extra academic support, including one with dyslexia, and one with level 2 Autism. Most students had a multicultural and multilingual background also.
Catering for this diversity was a real challenge. I worked with students in term 1 and made some notes. By having regular discussions with my mentor, I established a better understanding, but still found it challenging to cater for so many students in my lesson planning. During my FPE in term 3, when students worked individually, I always provided a 'challenge' activity for higher achievers to extend their learning. I monitored student progress by walking around the class, assisting when required. Most lessons, students work in pairs or groups, and I tried to make these mixed ability. This meant higher achieving students could increase their understanding by assisting others. Catering for diversity for such a large group was challenging, and I feel that if I had the whole year to work with them, I could've tried more strategies. Using work stations for ability groups is something I aim to use in the future. |
With a multicultural and multilingual class, I had to make sure that everyone understood what was required of them at all times.
There was one student who struggled to understand instructions and what she had to do. She was very shy, and I thought the best strategy was to build a strong and trusting relationship with her. I did this by spending one-on-one time with her explaining tasks and breaking down maths questions for her to understand. I provided prompts to encourage her to problem solve, and provided constant moral support. By spending this extra time with this student, she trusted me and always asked for help when she needed and didn't feel embarrassed to do so. She showed constant improvement in all learning areas throughout the term. |
An Indigenous student in the class informed me that she didn't have internet at home and therefore could not finish off any incomplete work at home required for the next lesson.
So I printed off the resources instead of needing to download them as a PDF, and I arranged that she could come into class before school while I was there, to complete any work on the computers she needed. These simple solutions ensured she had equal opportunities to complete the work as all other students, and resulted in her receiving excellent marks. |
Upon observation of students at the beginning of the year, I found that students had issues understanding instructions, and some would use this as an excuse to not completing tasks. So I set out to ensure that students of all abilities would understand what they had to do, to hold them accountable for their work.
I created a website to display all instructions for tasks, marks allocations and resources for students to complete in HASS. Students used a laptop, went onto my website and brought up the lesson and its instructions. I also displayed the relevant page on the interactive whiteboard and verbally went through each step. Students could work independently and refer back to task instructions, know what marks each task was work, and also access all of the information if needed at home. This eliminated having to repeat instructions throughout the lesson, as well as enabled students of various abilities to work at their own required pace to complete tasks. |
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Examples of different group activities for differentiation: Instruction cards for the table
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On my 3rd year placement, I attended a rural school in the South West. I had to teach 'time' to a year 3/4 class with a huge range of abilities.
I spent the first lesson doing activities which helped me gauge where students were at, and gave them all a test to show me their understanding. Drawing upon their test results and through observations I made in class, I grouped students by ability and each group had a set of tasks to complete for each lesson. Group 1 showed weak understanding of the concept and therefore worked in their small group with my mentor teacher. The remaining groups worked through tasks with my assistance. By the end of the two week placement, I gave students who originally scored under 80% on the test, the same one again. I saw great improvement in the test results. The differentiated groups enabled students to work on concepts they still struggled with before moving onto more complex ones. It also allowed the higher achieving students to complete tasks that challenged them. Another method I used during this time was differentiating mental maths. As a warm-up to each lesson, I had students answer mental maths questions regarding 'time'. However, I gave each ability group a different skill focus that suited their level, and this progressed each lesson. Creating the differentiated mental maths enabled students to warm-up by working at their level, and provided extra practice of the key concepts. |
There was one student in the class with Autism. She always had strong opinions and liked taking part in normal class activities.
In HASS, we were forming political parties based on students' values, and used a 'majority rules' approach to vote on our top eight. However, this meant her idea had not been voted on, and she became upset. I decided that I could change out one existing topic for hers to ensure she would participate in the activities. She had lots of great ideas and assisted her group in many ways to complete the tasks. Making the small change, which the rest of the class were happy to do, meant that she had a voice and a purpose to participate in the lessons to follow. |