The year 11 class that my TPA3 Unit and lesson plans was created for is a Visual Arts class (figure 2 and 2a), for their stage 1 SACE. This involves 3 parts, a visual study, a folio and a practical major. The visual study was undertaken in the majority of term one, with the folio task beginning in the last 2 weeks of term one. When I arrived for this class, the students had started working on their folios. This task is large and has been heavily scaffolded by the teacher, ensuring all areas are addressed and it has become a process of working through the guide. This has meant that creating lesson plans within this unit was hard, and the lessons needed to be short to allow for ample time to continue work on their folio tasks.
The snapshot for the Folio part of the SACE requirements (figures 3, 3a) shows the breakdown of the Folio and is the largest body of work in the course outline as the visual study and the practical major are both weighted at 30% each.The main challenges I faced in designing the unit and sequential lessons for the folio were that the unit was already outlined, and work commenced before coming to the school, so I needed to implement adaptations to this without just creating more work for the students. I did this by observing where individual students had progressed to and what they were finding challenging. I then worked into the existing structure some group time to collaboratively come together to explore line drawing, watercolours and art history, to develop their art language and provide inspiration for their analysis work within their folio as this was the largest challenge the majority of the class faced (figure 4). Introducing new artists works to them also helped to develop their understanding of techniques and visual thinking strategies (Education World, 2024).
In my unit planning I have used WALT (We are learning to-) establishing clear learning intentions,
this can also be known as a KUD (Know, Understand and Do), incorporated explicit teaching and utilised some of the High Impact teaching strategies- HITS (Department of Education and Training, 2023) to ensure my planning targeted the most effective outcomes for my students. I used prior knowledge questions at the start of the lessons to establish what they already knew and finished the lessons with a recap on some of the safety rules and exit card questions. This was verbal and fast, and students participated well.
Literacy use strategies incorporated into my lesson planning involve students reading out small texts based on the topic of the lesson (figure 4). This may be sentences on an artist or a technique that we are working on, and it encourages group participation too through the whole class being involved. Students do have the chance to pass, but they are reminded that they will be asked again next lesson.
I used a survey to pre-assess students (figure 5) with self-reflection questions, skills reflection and goals, their own understanding of their art skills and to find their preferred way to learn. I then used this information to help design the lesson plans within the unit to reflect that the majority of students preferred hands on activities or challenges over written.
Some of the tools used to differentiate within the class were simple but effective, such as pop sticks (figure 6.) with students names on to ensure fairness when asking to contribute to discussions and an arranged seating plan for effective use of time in class and less distractions. My aim is to try to differentiate in some way in my planning to increase engagement by making the lessons interesting and challenging for all students, as discussed by Carol Ann Tomlinson (2014), ‘you may not always achieve that goal, but it should still be something to strive for as a measure of growth as an educator.’
Other tools that are on high rotation in my classes are PowerPoint slides. These help to share learning intentions, visual examples of learning outcomes and general information to communicate what is needed for the lesson.
Below is a snapshot (figure 7) of the term 1 grades for the year 11 art class. Students A and B are marked with black lines, A being the top line and B below that. Student B had not submitted work beyond this and at the parent/ teacher interviews (figure 8) was sitting at a D grade in Art and an E grade for Photography. Discussions at the interview resulted in an arrangement to assist student B to complete and submit work that was due to obtain the SACE points needed.
The cohort has a majority of the students with a satisfactory grade for the subject without all work complete. Only 4 students had submitted their second unit of work at the time of the snapshot. I noticed, while involved with this class, that the students were not very motivated and engaged in their work and did not demonstrate an urgency to complete the tasks on time. I was inspired to lift their engagement for their benefit, unfortunately, I was unable to continue working with this class in weeks 5-8 due to my mentor teacher needing to take immediate bereavement leave. I was switched to 2 alternative classes and continued my placement in this way. I am endeavouring to report as much as I can from the original classes but it’s not possible for me to finish some of the activities and plans I put into place.
Discussion with my mentor and school placement coordinator helped me to select the students A and B, based on their experience of working with these students. Student A would benefit from some extra interest and support, but they are doing well across all of their subjects, have no diagnosed learning challenges and complete their work without too much intervention.
Student B has a recently diagnosed learning disability, but what this was, was not disclosed in the parent teacher interview, they admit they are easily distracted in class, and this leads to them not getting their work completed and submitted. They need some extra support to achieve work completion and submit to ensure passing the topic.
Maintaining student safety is a major part of being a teacher, our schools are designed to be safe places for us and our students. Participating in work health and safety inductions (figure 9) and carrying first aid kits on out of school excursions (figure 10.), along with staff meetings and ensuring safety rules for art areas are specific examples of maintaining student safety.
Allocated yard duty times also maintain student safety (APST 4.4). This is a great opportunity to see students outside of the classroom and to encounter other students that I don’t have in my classes as well. Observing friendship groups outside the classroom is useful too. This helps to see the students in a different context. For example, one student in my class is very shy and quiet in class, but in the school yard with their friends, they are quite animated and talkative, and participates in quite outgoing situations. This gives me more insight into a different perspective of students.
The last standards I will address in this action section is 1.4- Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and 2.4- Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non- indigenous Australians.
The school has a number of programs focussing on Indigenous students and ways of including Aboriginal ways into many aspects of learning. Some of the ways I have been able to participate in this has been on a local walking excursion (figure 11), looking at the links to tourism and community and the Indigenous dreamtime stories surrounding the landforms and animals of the area. During my first observation days was when this excursion took place. There were signs that named the animals and the landmarks in the local indigenous language, students were encouraged to read and take note of the names and stories.
In the Visual Arts there are connections in the curriculum with exploring environmental issues and sustainability and the surrounding marine parks of the area are prominent for exploration, animals within them and their importance in the area and sea country, as well as their relevance in the global sphere, providing global perspective to explore. A Uni SA spokesperson came to talk to the students about National and local marine parks and conservation. The school has Marine science as a topic, with the local area situated near many of these marine parks. This led to discussions and exploration into the local Indigenous language, dreamtime stories related to the area, and this created some excellent engagement in these lessons with the linking of places and stories (figure 13).
Reconciliation week (Reconciliation Australia, 2023) (figures 14, 15) presented many prompts for discussion on matters of racism and inclusivity along with situations of inequity to provide discussion opportunities. There were opportunities in House time each morning, and this program (figure 14) provided a full program to discuss with students.
I acknowledge that this context section is large, but there were many APST focus areas covered in these opportunities, and they show the way that creating connection and community by presenting different perspectives and inclusive opportunities to learn new things (figure 16) can be broad and varied and full of stories to share.
(Recapping APST focus areas met 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 2.1, 2.4, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2, 3.7, 4.4.)
