Designing Teaching and Learning Assessment task 2

Deanne Barlow Armaya

98743881
This task involves, Part A - Identifying in a lesson plan 4 Australian
teacher standards and how they are achieved with respect to 4 focus
areas within these standards. Part B Reporting on how each focus
area would cater for students learning needs taking into consideration
literacy needs, individualised learning needs such as indigenous,
cultural and linguistic needs. Also explaining how modifications
incorporated peer feedback.

Part A
The lesson plan that has been selected was written by Jaeger (2014),
for a science class learning physical and chemical change. This lessons
title is See For Myself: Chemical and Physical Change It is the second
lesson in a unit and is primarily a practical lesson. The lesson allows
the teacher to demonstrate a number of focus areas within the
Australian professional standards for teachers (APST), of which the
following will be focused on, Standard 2.2.1, 3.4.1, 4.1.1 and 5.2.1.
This lesson plan by Jaeger allows the teacher to clearly illustrate that
they Know the content and how to teach it (Australian professional
standards for teachers 2014, pg17); this is seen across a number of
focus areas within the standard but in particular in 2.2.1. This focus
area is concerned with content selection and organisation (APST
2014, pg17). The content for this lesson is selected to reflect the
requirements of the curriculum and is clearly organised into sections
that enable students to learn effectively. Teaching is sequenced within
this lesson which is in turn sequenced within the unit of study. Each
section is timed in a way that shows consideration of students
attention spans and leads onto the next activity. The lesson is
organised into 3 sections, introduction, main body and conclusion. The
introduction allows for revision of the previous lesson, organising the
class into working groups and revising of safety procedures. The main
body being the longest section is again divided up among 3
experiments to be performed and observed. Finally the conclusion
allows students to pack up, collate their observations with the rest of
the class and to discuss their observations with their allocated small
groups.
Jaegers (2014) lesson plan enables the teacher to show that they Plan
for and implement effective teaching and learning (APST 2014,
standard 3, pg19), by the way it Select(s) and use(s) resources (focus
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Designing Teaching and Learning Assessment task 2

Deanne Barlow Armaya
98743881
area 3.4.1). The lesson plan allows the teacher to demonstrate
knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, (Australian
professional standards for teachers 2014, pg20). ICT is used in 2 ways,
by students using excel to input data and observation and by the
teachers use of the electronic whiteboard to collate the classes data.
By using ICT for these tasks instead of conventional methods
observations and data is able to be manipulated and processed into
usable information faster. It also allows students to have the
experience of being a scientist and using resources commonly used in
the daily work of a scientist. Collaborative work is also used, in which
students learn together in small groups and learn from each other.
Being a practical lesson students learn by participating in hands on
experiments, by making observations. Finally students learn from
group discussion again within small group. All of these activities are
resources used in this lesson to engage students in learning.
Embedded into this lesson plan is strategies to Create and maintain
supportive and safe learning environments (ASPT 2014 standard 4,
pg21). As well as promoting safety within the class during science
experiments this lesson promotes student participation (focus 4.1.1, pg
21) in group work by providing the students with roles that are to be
filled within each group and tasks that are to be completed within each
role. This helps students understand how to work as a team drawing on
students strengths and challenging others to fill roles they may not
have filled before.
This Lesson encourages the teacher to assess, provide feedback and
report on students learning (ASPT 2014, standard 5, pg23). This is
seen in providing timely feedback to students as they are learning
(focus area 5.2.1). The teacher is encouraged to provide feedback to
each group during the conduction of the experiments, to help students
to recorded observations in a scientific manner. The teacher is also to
observe groups to make sure they are working together and that each
team member is able to contribute.

Part B
Section 1
In every science lesson a graduate teacher seeks to engage every
student in their class no matter what the students learning needs may
be. The graduate teacher wants to engage students with literacy
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Designing Teaching and Learning Assessment task 2

Deanne Barlow Armaya
98743881
needs, students from indigenous backgrounds, diverse cultural and
linguistic backgrounds, not only to achieve in their class but also to
deepen and extend higher level thinking that can be applied in
everyday life. The lesson plan and standards already discussed assist
the teacher to achieve this in a number of ways.
The way this lesson is structured in its content and orientation (APST,
2.2.1) helps the teacher meet individuals learning needs. That work is
broken up into sections which are clearly explained at the beginning of
the lesson. This instruction of the sequencing of the lesson would assist
students with Autism spectrum disorders (Marsh 2014, pg258 -259) to
manage anxiety associated with change. Also having multiple learning
styles and strategies would help cater for the diversity of learners
represented in the class.
The content of the lesson is designed to help students think about
science in their everyday life. This is seen in the experiments that use
items found in an average Australian kitchen. This could be used to
help cultural or indigenous students in the class by using items that
are common place in the students home environment (Lewthwaite and
associates 2015, pg151)(Windle and Miller 2012, pg319). For example
if the teacher has a large number of Indian origin students, they may
alter one of the experiments to look at the effect kneading has on
gluten when making Indian bread (roti), or with a majority indigenous
class an experiment may be changed to looking at the change that
happens to wood in a bushfire. In this way this lesson plan could be
adapted to meet the students learning needs.
This lesson shows its ability to cater to students learning needs best in
its selection and use of resources (APST, 3.4.1). Whilst its use of ITC
maybe linked to students achievement (Marsh 2014, pg 247), its
incorporation of collaborative work in practical groups and discussion
shows great insight into inclusion of all students in the learning
process. Group work is highly recommended for low-literacy refugee
background students (Windle and Miller 2012, pg 321), as it helps
students to scaffold literacy, language and culture learning within
norms of behaviour from peers of their own age. Group work has also
been seen to assist engagement for indigenous students as it reduces
teacher talk (Lewthwaite and associates 2015, pg151,153) allowing
students to learn from each other in a more culturally appropriate
manner.

Designing Teaching and Learning Assessment task 2

Deanne Barlow Armaya
98743881
The collaborative work in this lesson also promotes student
participation (APST, 4.1.1). This can present both positive and negative
results for students outside of the norms of the class. Students with
cultural and linguistic needs may have difficulty relating in a small
group (Windle and Miller, 2012, pg319) due to limited language and
cultural learning. Also students who have had limited group work
experience may not know what is expected of them (Gillies and
Haynes, 2011, pg350). Jaeger tries to alleviate these potential
problems by encouraging the teacher to move between the groups and
by giving group roles that are to be fulfilled.
By moving between groups the teacher is also able to give timely
feedback (APST, 5.2.1) to students on scientific inquiry. Feedback
during the learning process enables teachers to gently correct
students, meaning fewer disciplinary actions (Gillies and Haynes, 2011,
pg363) and promoting discussion between students. This discussion
helps students develop scientific vocabulary and reasoning skills
(Gillies and Haynes, 2011, pg363), helping students with low literacy,
cultural and linguistic needs to scaffold learning from prior knowledge
(Windle and Miller, 2012, pg320) into higher thinking skills that can be
transferred into other subject areas (Gillies and Haynes, 2011, pg363).
Further more timely feedback has also been noted as assisting
indigenous students to active.

Section 2
In the peer feedback 3 points were made in regard to use of standards
and how they relate to student learning. Firstly it was noted that
standards were well chosen in relation to the lesson plan obtained,
secondly key words need to be identified in each standard used. Finally
links were not made between the standards used and students not
learning these. Because of this feedback, the choice of standards was
revised to be more in line to speaking to students individual learning
needs. Key words found in the standard were incorporated in the
explanations and a greater focus was given to individual student
learning needs.

So we can see that Jaegers lesson plan See For Myself: Chemical and
Physical Change allows the graduate teacher to demonstrate focus
areas within the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers,
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Designing Teaching and Learning Assessment task 2

Deanne Barlow Armaya
98743881
standards 2, 3, 4 and 5. It also allows the graduate teacher to cater to
the individual learning needs of the students within their class
particularly in the areas of literacy, indigenous students needs,
cultural and linguistic needs.
References
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2014),
Professional Standards for Teachers, Standards List. www.aitsl.edu.au,
10/03/16.
Gillies, R. M., & Haynes, M. (2011). Increasing explanatory behaviour,
problem-solving, and reasoning within classes using cooperative group
work. Instructional Science, 39(3), 349-366.
Jaeger, M. (2014). Year 6 Science: Physical vs Chemical Change /
Lesson Plan. www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au.
Lewthwaite, B., Osborne, B., Lloyd, N., Llewellyn, L., Boon, H., Webber,
T., ... & Harrison, M. (2015). Seeking a pedagogy of difference: What
aboriginal students and their parents in north Queensland say about
teaching and their learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education
(Online), 40(5), 132.
Marsh, C. (2014), Marshs Becoming a Teacher/Maggie Clarke, Sharon
Pittaway, 6thEd: Pearson Australia, 245 263.
Windle, J., & Miller, J. (2012). Approaches to teaching low literacy
refugee-background students. Australian Journal of Language and
Literacy, The,35(3), 317.