EPORTFOLIO PRESENTATION

EDUC 4206 Professional Experience 4

Melissa Mountfort
 CONTEXT

The school is an independent, co-educational and inter-denominational school,

located in Adelaide’s North. It begins from reception to year 12, however, the
school is divided into three zones, each with their own resources: junior school,
middle school and high school. The school’s core value is “Intentionally Christian,
Inclusive and Excellent”, which aims to provide an excellent, inclusive education
that equips their students to serve God and His world. Although an R-12 school,
the junior primary zone caters for children from reception to year 5.
 CONTEXT

About the classroom:

• I was placed in a straight year 3 classroom
• Consisted of 28 students:12 were females and 16 were males.
• Multicultural classroom
 LEARNING NEEDS

• More than half of the class are able to work at a satisfactory level
• Effort over ability

• 6 of the 28 students are below satisfactory

• ESO comes in throughout the week to work with 4-5 students
• 3 of the students are on a NEP
• 1 student should be on a NEP however it has not been signed off

• Supporting and developing students who are academically gifted is important and a programme of
withdrawal has been developed for students from Year 2 to Year 9. Students in the Gifted and Talented
programme meet with other gifted students in their year level to engage in a variety of extension
activities including units on electronics, psychology, philosophy, computer coding, energy systems,
bridge building.
 LEARNER PROFILE

• Student 1 Below satisfactory standard

9 Year old boy, NEP, works with ESO, completes work to a below satisfactory-
satisfactory standard

• Student 2 Satisfactory standard

9 Year old girl, completes work at a satisfactory standard

• Student 3 Above satisfactory standard

9 Year old boy, “Gifted student”, completes work above a satisfactory level
 CURRICULUM FOCUS

Australian Curriculum English: Literacy

Curriculum Link
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language
features and selecting print, and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose (ACELY1682)

Learning intentions
Students will be able to demonstrate their knowledge of structural writing to successfully write an explanation text.

Students will
Select appropriate text structure for a writing purpose and sequencing content for clarity and audience impact
Using digital resources to gather information about a topic
Use appropriate simple, compound and complex sentences to express and combine ideas
Use vocabulary, including technical vocabulary, relevant to the text type and purpose, and appropriate sentence structures to express and
combine ideas
CURRICULUM CONTENT KNOWLEDGE
 PRIOR LEARNING

Before getting into the learning experiences, through a class discussion it was
made clear that students understood:
• there are different text types
• different texts have different structures
• explanation=explaining
• punctuation: full stops, capital letters and paragraphs
• Full sentences
UNIT PLAN
 LESSON 1

Introducing learning experience

 QUESTIONING

• Class discussion
• Prior knowledge
• Text types
 CHILDREN SELF ASSESSMENT AND
FEEDBACK

Students were ask to express their understanding of the

concept of explanation texts by responding using hand
gestures.

Strength:
- Students were not intimidated by a simple question
- Easier than to verbally explain themselves

Weakness:
- Being in front of peers, students who did not
understand may not put their thumbs down as they did
not want to stand out.
 STUDENT LEARNING

• Student 1: Maybe
Understood what an explanation text was, however was worried about writing one

• Student 2:Yes
Understood what an explanation text was

• Student 3:Yes
Understood what an explanation text was
 MENTOR TEACHER FEEDBACK

Feedback on self-assessment
• Immediate feedback
• Presents students that need extra guidance
• If many students put a thumbs down it would have been a clear sign that
explanation needed to be more explicit
• Less pressure of students to ask for help

Feedback on lesson
• Students were engaged and understood what they were learning (4.2, 4.3, 4.4)
• Well communicated
 REFLECTION OF LESSON: ENHANCING
STUDENT LEARNING USING PRIOR
KNOWLEDGE

Using prior knowledge to enhance learning

Prior knowledge is a major aspect to consider when teaching primary children. It enables children
to use previous experiences to stimulate learning, forming a foundation for new information and
construction of content and skills (Campbell & Campbell 2009, p. 7).
“A primary responsibility is to enable connections to be made between the 'already known' and
the 'new', and to acknowledge how what the child already knows might impact upon how he or
she responds to new information or ideas”. (Debra Myhill 2004, p. 265)
There are two approaches to underpinning prior knowledge within a primary classroom:
stimulating previous knowledge or constructing new background knowledge (Campbell &
Campbell 2009, p.9). Teachers need to use these approaches to encourage students to form
connections and build on their understanding of English skills. Children present literacy skills in
their everyday life and bringing their knowledge from the real world into their learning
encourages meaning making.
This approach is key to children’s development. Students who have little prior knowledge or are
unable to stimulate learning using their previous knowledge may find it difficult to progress,
therefore it is a teacher’s concern to activate this understanding (Campbell & Campbell 2009, p.
9).
 LESSON 2

Develop learning of specific topic

Recap
 STUDENTS

• Student 1:
Struggles to read therefore able to engage in multimodal learning

Student 2 & 3:
Able to use ICT to enhance learning.
 MENTOR TEACHER FEEDBACK

• Relevant scaffolding

“A PPT was used which made the learning intention clear for students. This
learning intention was clear for students and was included on their work which
scaffolded their writing.” (2.6)

• Well planned lesson, with relevant scaffolding. Good lesson structure and
learning sequence (3.2)
 REFLECTION

Engage learners by incorporating ICT

• ICT is an important tool to use in the classroom. It can introduce a wide range
of learning tools beneficial for students and teachers. Over the last few years
ICT has been encouraged in the learning and teaching of students to increase
the effectiveness of teaching and improve the learning of students (Higgins
2003).
 LESSON 3

Creating an explanation text

Student 3
Student 2

Student 1
 MENTOR TEACHER FEEDBACK

• Support was provided for students that needed it (1.2,1.5, 1.6)

• The content was relevant for students (2.1, 2.2)
• Series of lessons on the topic of explanation text so students could develop
and progress over the teaching time (3.2)
 REFLECTION

Self-assessment
Self assessment: Student becomes fully involved as insiders in the learning culture
of their classroom. It prepares students for reflection on their performance
(Groundwater-Smith et al. 2015).
• Guides future learning
ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST/RUBRIC
 ASSESSMENT

Teachers should use many forms of assessment to meet the demands of schools, teachers and
student (Groundwater-Smith et al. 2015)

Feedback is effective to help students understand what they are learning and how they can
improve, and therefore should be a greater focus in the education environment (Bellon et al.
1991).
• Using a simplified rubric
• From 2 stars and a wish, checklist to simplified rubric (more specific)
• Students would use these comments to inform future learning
• In books to refer back to
• As a teacher, it was also a guide on what areas needed more focus
 STUDENT 1
B E L O W S AT I S F A C T O RY : N O T M E E T I N G Y E A R 3 L E V E L
 STUDENT 2
S AT I S F A C T O RY : M E E T I N G Y E A R 3 L E V E L
 STUDENT 3
A B O V E S AT I S F A C T O RY : C O M P L E X T H I N K I N G , A B O V E Y E A R 3 L E V E L
 SUMMARY

Student learning outcomes

• Students were able to demonstrate their knowledge in explanation writing.
• Use a digital resource to gather information about a topic
• Use appropriate simple, and complex sentences to express ideas
• Use technical language

Future teacher direction

• Own research
• More detail
 REFERENCES

• Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) 2018, The Australian
Curriculum v8.1, English, viewed 20 Sep 2018, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-
curriculum/english/
• Bellon, J, Bellon, E & Blank, M 1991 Teaching from a Research Knowledge Base: A Development and
Renewal Process, Facsimile edition, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA.
• Campbell, L & Campbell, B 2009, Beginning with what students know: the role of prior knowledge in
learning, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Groundwater-Smith, S, Ewing R & Cornu RL 2015, Teaching challenges and dilemmas, 5th Edn, Cengage
Learning, Victoria.
• Higgins, S 2003, Does ICT improve the learning and teaching in schools?, Newcastle University, viewed 15
Sep 2018, <https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ict-pur-mb-r-f-p-1aug03.pdf>
• Myhill, D 2004, ‘Making connections: teachers' use of Children's prior knowledge in whole class
discourse’, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 263-275.