Standard 2 - Know the content and how to teach it
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Evidence as to how I meet this Standard:
2.2
I plan units of work in detail but am always flexible and adapt to the students' progression of the knowledge and skills being learned. This is an example of my planning overview for a Maths learning unit on Fractions for years 3 and 4 students. These plans detail the small group learning sessions. In addition to these sessions students engage in specific learning activities through Mathletics and are presented with self-paced activity cards related to the topic. SSO and volunteer adult support in the classroom has also been planned to support students in these activities or further hands-on learning needed to consolidate their understanding.
I prefer to hand write my plans as it helps me set the plan in my head.
I plan units of work in detail but am always flexible and adapt to the students' progression of the knowledge and skills being learned. This is an example of my planning overview for a Maths learning unit on Fractions for years 3 and 4 students. These plans detail the small group learning sessions. In addition to these sessions students engage in specific learning activities through Mathletics and are presented with self-paced activity cards related to the topic. SSO and volunteer adult support in the classroom has also been planned to support students in these activities or further hands-on learning needed to consolidate their understanding.
I prefer to hand write my plans as it helps me set the plan in my head.
2.2
I plan class learning on a weekly basis ensuring I maintain a routine timetable as much as possible. Although the week is fully planned I am flexible to change as required in a school environment.
Below is a copy of our routine timetable and an example of a planned week.
I plan class learning on a weekly basis ensuring I maintain a routine timetable as much as possible. Although the week is fully planned I am flexible to change as required in a school environment.
Below is a copy of our routine timetable and an example of a planned week.
2.3
I use the Australian Curriculum to plan all areas of learning (where applicable) but am weary of it's limitations and aim to cover a topic in depth rather than simply addressing the Content Descriptors within each curriculum. That being said, I have found these checklist extremely useful for assessing and reporting on individual student attainment. They also allow me to see progression throughout the year.
I use the Australian Curriculum to plan all areas of learning (where applicable) but am weary of it's limitations and aim to cover a topic in depth rather than simply addressing the Content Descriptors within each curriculum. That being said, I have found these checklist extremely useful for assessing and reporting on individual student attainment. They also allow me to see progression throughout the year.
2.1 2.5
2015 With my class of year 3/4 students, I used a class novel to focus on reinforcing the reading comprehension strategies promoted by Sheena Cameron http://sheenacameron.co.nz. Over a five week period I read 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl. I chose this particular novel because the story is engaging for this age group, is rich with opportunities for literacy learning activities and 2014 was its 50th year of publication! I focussed specifically on 'inferring', 'visualising' and 'summarising' and explicitly taught these in the morning reading groups before doing related novel-based activities. |
Depending on the character the students chose to work with, each had different tasks to complete centring on each of these strategies. For example, for 'visualising', the Oompa Loompas had to visualise Loompaland and draw it; the Mr.Willy Wonkas had to visualise and draw the factory - whether it be a map of the whole factory or one particular room. For 'inference', the Veruca Salts had to write about what happened to them when they went down the rubbish chute; the Mike Teavees had to write about what happened to them when they were only 2 inches high. The final task was to each summarise their character in only 25 words. This proved to be the most engaging task for the students. We started this activity with a class effort at summarising Grandpa Joe's character. This was followed up with small group brainstorming characteristics and then individual writing.
Putting their writing/drawings onto their characters was more exciting for the students than simply doing the work in their books. Their characters become more visually appealing and classroom visitors often commented on how fantastic they looked which was rewarding feedback for the students. Even those students (including a student with ASD) who usually struggled with writing or literacy tasks, fully participated and engaged with each of these activities, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they had chosen the character that most interested them.
So proud of their efforts were the students (and I!) that they asked to show their characters in a whole school assembly.
I cannot wait to use this book in this way again with a future class. There are so many more activities I would like to do - I wonder, too, if we could summarise the whole book in less than 50 words?
Putting their writing/drawings onto their characters was more exciting for the students than simply doing the work in their books. Their characters become more visually appealing and classroom visitors often commented on how fantastic they looked which was rewarding feedback for the students. Even those students (including a student with ASD) who usually struggled with writing or literacy tasks, fully participated and engaged with each of these activities, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they had chosen the character that most interested them.
So proud of their efforts were the students (and I!) that they asked to show their characters in a whole school assembly.
I cannot wait to use this book in this way again with a future class. There are so many more activities I would like to do - I wonder, too, if we could summarise the whole book in less than 50 words?
2.4
Wherever possible in any topic I begin the the Aboriginal perspective. This is particularly evident in my approach to teaching Australian History and Geography.
Wherever possible in any topic I begin the the Aboriginal perspective. This is particularly evident in my approach to teaching Australian History and Geography.
I use the ABC website to access an online map of Indigenous Countires. This map allows the user to magnify different parts of the map to make boundaries clearer and discuss Country names, etc. It is particularly engaging for students to have a go at this themselves and look at our local Kaurna country and where its boundaries lie.
|
I used the book 'My Place' by Nadia Wheatley as part of a Literacy/HASS unit looking at our connection to 'place' and how cultures have evolved over time. The School Aboriginal Support Officer came and talked to us about the Aboriginal concept of time and he presented an exciting explanation of how much time had passed from when Aboriginal people were in Australia to when other peoples came to Australia. We discussed archaeological findings of human habitation in Australia 80 000 + years ago!
As a class we added our own photos and detail to a timeline to represent when our family life began in Australia. There is one student who identifies as Aboriginal in our class and she was proud to be able to place her photo at the very beginning of timeline. We also created a class ebook about ourselves and our family life. We displayed our timeline and printed version of our ebook in the school office for all visitors to see.
As a class we added our own photos and detail to a timeline to represent when our family life began in Australia. There is one student who identifies as Aboriginal in our class and she was proud to be able to place her photo at the very beginning of timeline. We also created a class ebook about ourselves and our family life. We displayed our timeline and printed version of our ebook in the school office for all visitors to see.