Knowing contentI needed to plan a sequence of lessons regarding the content descriptor, "Experiences of Australia's democracy and citizenship, including the status and rights of Aboriginal people and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples, migrants, women and children (ACHASSK135)", with the focus being the history of Aboriginal peoples rights.
I knew the basics about Aboriginal history, but not in the depth that I wished to teach it. I wanted to create insightful, non-accusatory, fresh lessons that had students examine ideologies of Australia's past. To build this kind of program, I had to do lots of research first. I spent hours reading about major events such as the 1905 Aborigines Act, the 1965 Freedom Ride, and the 1967 Referendum. I then collected approximately 18 sources, including photographs, political cartoons, excerpts from parliamentary acts, newspaper articles, and websites sources, for students to examine and discuss. After spending this time researching the content, I provided informed explanations to my students with confidence and enthusiasm. This then flowed to the students who were thoroughly engaged and interested in learning more. |
Planning and sequencingFor my placement, I was required to create a term program for at least three learning areas. Due to timetabling, these three areas were Maths, English, and HASS.
When planning lesson sequences I first visit the School Curriculum and Standards Authority website to find the content I have to cover for that year level. I also look at the previous year's descriptors to find out what students should already know. I then use this information to organise the content into effective sequences. I always begin with revision of the previous years content, and am always flexible in shortening or extending this revision component. There is no point moving on to more complex content if students do not understand the foundation content first. I then order the current years content descriptors into an effective, scaffolded sequence. I am always trying to link one lesson with the previous one by building on prior knowledge. By ensuring that the foundation knowledge of students is sound before then moving onto teaching new knowledge, will contribute to deeper understanding of the current content, leading to better results. |
Teaching strategiesIn mathematics, South Primary School has the prescribed text 'Envision Maths' that must be used by all teachers. I found that the text did not provide enough practice of concepts before moving to the next.
I tried to find ways to provide students with different learning experiences rather than the direct teaching model normally used. I decided to use the inquiry based, collaborative method of 'stations'. As a 'warm-up' to each lesson, students would rotate between two or three stations. Stations would focus on revising previous skills, using games and questions, and others would have students investigate ways to solve problems using the new skill of focus for the lesson. This meant students were exposed to the new skill before being explicitly taught it, to challenge them and encourage problem solving. By implementing stations, students were more engaged in their maths lessons, and they could learn from each other rather than just the teacher. They improved their problem solving skills, which helped with completing their textbook work more independently than before. |
The English focus I was given for the beginning of term 3 to teach was analysing short stories. This is quite an advanced skill, and I had to plan carefully what I was going to teach.
I decided the best method to teach analysing short stories was providing a scaffolded program, working through each concept in a step-by-step process. I began each lesson with a worked example, followed by having students work in pairs to practice for themselves. To keep the program engaging, I sourced a wide variety of short stories to suit all interests and abilities. If it weren't for this variety and choice for students, I honestly do not think the program would have been as successful as it was. Students worked fantastically through the program, largely due to its structured nature. Their learning was consolidated in a formal assessment, analysing a short story independently, and results were outstanding considering the complexity of the task. |
I often use a reflective strategy to end my lessons. In particular, when I have taught an introductory lesson, I find a reflection activity very valuable.
Following my introductory lesson into the history of Aboriginal rights, I asked students to write an answer to the question, "Now that you have learnt a bit about Aboriginal rights history, what would you like to learn more about?". Students wrote their answer on a post-it-note and stuck it on their name on a grid I had created for this type of activity. I then collected each student's response to read through. After reading through the responses to the question, I had a great variety of things students were interested to learn more about. I then used these ideas to plan my next lesson according to their interests. |
To the left are the resources I created for my introductory lesson on Aboriginal rights history. I collected sources from various online sites, created word documents to display images and extra background information. All resources are on my website and the Word documents (as pictured) are uploaded too, which are accessible to students.
In class, students examined each source considering the question "What does this resource tell you about the treatment of Aboriginal people at the time?". As a class, we then created a timeline of events derived from the sources. |
The iPad 'Clock' application used in the activity.
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On my 3rd year placement, I attended a rural school in the South West and I had to teach 'time' to a year 3/4 class. The school had just received iPad's, however they were not yet connected to the internet. I wanted to use them to create an interactive and realistic way for students to practice reading the time.
To do this, I used the iPad's despite not having internet access. The 'Clock' application did not require internet connection, but provided an authentic experience for students to practice reading the time. I created a list of places around the work for students to search and find the time it was there. This provided them with lots of practice reading an analogue clock. Students then looked up places of their own. For higher achieving students I also got them to try and work out the time difference between Western Australia and the place they looked up. Students loved this hands on, interactive activity. It was very simple, yet very engaging and successful, and will be something I use again in the future. |