Implementing strategies that are appropriate for the learning environment enhances student engagement and promotes student success towards their learning. It is important that as a middle school teacher, I research concepts and effective strategies that deliver subject content efficiently and appropriately structured. I always ensure before teaching a new content to the students, that I make myself an expert on the topic during my planning and preparing time. By thoroughly understanding the concept, substance and structure of the content, strategies can be considered and implemented accordingly to ensure the curriculum standards are being met.
I organise and plan lessons where students apply knowledge of the content and deliver teaching strategies of the subject area that develop engaging activities and makes learning interesting. Further, creating learning intentions and success criteria's that are challenging, yet achievable. This is evident in my teaching through multiple subject areas. A key strategy that has challenged students higher order thinking skills is through Maths. At Keithcot Farm, part of our SIP goal is to increase the number of students achieving in the higher bands of NAPLAN Numeracy. Prior to the 2021 NAPLAN testing, Maths lessons were dedicated for opportunities of practice and questioning. As part of their practice, when looking at every new questions, no matter the topic, students were asked 'what could be a common misconception in this question?' I found this strategy to be incredibly effective as students had to think outside the box of possible pathways.
Evidence:
As teachers, being organised and productive makes it easier to transition between lessons. Ensuring all planning and preparation is completed before the day or lesson arrives, makes it a smooth and sequential transition throughout the day. Additionally, it provides more time for teachers to achieve their goal for the lesson, work with the students and get through all the content that is required and planned. This potentially allows students to stay up to date with the curriculum and not fall behind.
As a Year 5 team, we meet together to plan a term overview. In this overview, explicitly states what topic will be taught in each subject for the term, and what weeks the topics will be covered from. This gives us a timeframe and goal of when to start and complete a unit of work so we can cover all areas of the curriculum adequately throughout the year. Further, it promotes collaborative planning and preparing before the term commences. This allows us as a team, to share resources and ensure all Year 5 students across the school are being taught the same topics at the same time.
Evidence:
Utilising the Australian Curriculum as a guideline for sequencing lesson plans allows myself to ensure that the unit of work flows naturally whilst all students are meeting the appropriate standards. Understanding the Australian Curriculum efficiently allows effective planning to be put into place to achieve the expectations of the meeting the content descriptors. This has allowed me to find beneficial and reasonable resources when planning each lesson of work. This is also important for differentiation. If a student has learning difficulties, I look at the content descriptors for the same topic at the appropriate year level that the student is aiming towards. For example, I have one student in my class who is a low levelled learner in Maths. When differentiating a task for him in Fractions, I look at the Year 3/4 content descriptors before preparing the differentiating tasks, so it allows this student to be set up for success.
Assessing and reporting students ability on areas of work comes from what expectations they must meet. This allows myself to explore with different assessment activities that work effectively and demonstrate where a student has progress within topics. I tend to use open-ended tasks where possible as it provides students the opportunities to show exactly what they know, understand and have learnt. It is important to also implement several formative assessments during a unit of work to allow educators to recognise where their students are at to allow them to modify tasks accordingly. One aspect of teaching that has been useful to recognise the growth of students is the mid semester and end of year reports. This has been an effective way to clearly outline how a student has progressed.
Evidence:
It is important to show students respect towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Students must acknowledge and understand the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages. Further, teachers must consider Aboriginal traditions in the classroom for students to grasp an understanding and show their respect towards the culture.
As a staffing community, we have participated in multiple staff meeting PDs. This has provided me an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding on the Aboriginal culture. Additionally, I have completed a professional development online program names 'Working Together - Cultural Awareness'. This online PD allowed me to reflect on the overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, perspectives and culture, which is rich and powerful in shaping how they relate to the natural world, to each other and to non-Aboriginal people, whether at work, home or in the community. Therefore, this PD has allowed me to provide deeper meaning to teachers when further educating them. This is done effectively through Aboriginal Art looking at specific symbols that create a story in the Aboriginal language.
Evidence:
I have implemented multiple numeracy and literacy thinking into lesson plans that has allowed students to be more involved as well as continue to develop basic life skills. This has been a strategy that have supported students achievements. I have recognised that when effective strategies are implemented and general capabilities of the curriculum are taken into consideration when planning, students learn more than just the subject content as they continuously use basic numeracy and literacy skills.
When planning lessons, I consider the school's SIP goals. The goals focusing on 'to increase student achievement in writing' and 'increasing the number of students achieving in the high bands of NAPLAN.' Through pre-assessments with students in their writing, I observed a general factor and highlighted a key part of their writing that needs practice for improvement. A major one that was noted was their grammar and punctuation skills as well as sentence structures. Therefore, I put together lessons that focus on different aspects and editing pieces of writing that is grammatically incorrect. After giving this a go independently, students then came together in small groups and discussed their findings. This has been an effective learning task as students are aware of what factors to look for when the self edit their own writing pieces.
Evidence:
I have thoroughly deepened my knowledge around effective implementation of ICT. in the classroom. Implementing ICT strategies benefits student learning as well as enhancing engagement. It has opened up numerous opportunities for students now and in their future to complete tasks effectively. Learning basic ICT skills at a young age can help students develop their knowledge and understanding on how technology can work. Knowing how to operate a computer and understanding background information on how hardware and software works, can have students extend their knowledge and understanding through activities such as research tasks, designing websites, completing Study Ladder activities and generally have greater access to student resources. Incorporating ICT into lessons has provided me with an opportunity to be creative with their tasks. This may include; students creating their own websites that portrays a learning portfolio and submission tool for what they do in different subject areas. There are several ways ICT can be incorporated into the curriculum where students build their skills and present their work in new and creative ways.
Evidence: