The following response will analyse the effectiveness of teaching through highlighting the conventions and standards necessary when writing a lesson plan. The syllabus, diverse student learning needs, assessment data, and national professional standards for teachers will be explored. If some of the conventions are not used in the lesson plan the response will argue how they can be made effective and improve the product.
The following response will analyse the effectiveness of teaching through highlighting the conventions and standards necessary when writing a lesson plan. The syllabus, diverse student learning needs, assessment data, and national professional standards for teachers will be explored. If some of the conventions are not used in the lesson plan the response will argue how they can be made effective and improve the product.
The following response will analyse the effectiveness of teaching through highlighting the conventions and standards necessary when writing a lesson plan. The syllabus, diverse student learning needs, assessment data, and national professional standards for teachers will be explored. If some of the conventions are not used in the lesson plan the response will argue how they can be made effective and improve the product.
Effective Teaching involves effective planning in the classroom.
Teachers plan lessons in order to deliver their material. As a result
teachers who plan their lessons are able to decide what to teach and how to teach it. Lesson planning however, is not just something that can be done freely. There are conventions and standards that are in place when teachers plan their lessons. Its important to note that without these conventions and standards, teachers would be left to teach their material however they wanted. However, just like students teachers need guidelines when conducting their lessons. The following response will analyse the effectiveness of teaching through highlighting the conventions and standards necessary when writing a lesson plan. These conventions and standards that will be explored are the syllabus, diverse student learning needs, assessment data, and national professional standards for teachers. The response will then use an example of a lesson plan and see if it correlates with the convention and standards mentioned. If some of the conventions and standards are not used in the lesson plan the response will argue how these conventions can be used and be made effective and improve the product. As mentioned in order to be an effective teacher it involves effective planning. The syllabus is an effective factor when making decisions
in regards to teachers planning their lesson. The NSW syllabus is
designed in order to identify knowledge, understanding, skills, values and attitudes that students need to be expected to have developed within each stage of their schooling (BOSTES, 2015). Bush & Zuidema (2013) state that A good syllabus not only provides answers, it also identifies some very important questions what grant Wiggins and Jay Mctighe have referred to as the essential questions that drive a course (Bush & Zuidema, p. 94). An example of how the NSW syllabus supports this statement made by Bush is evident within the KLA of English and how teachers should be considerate of particular students learning abilities, and also assess the community surrounding the school when selecting texts to use in the classroom (BOSTES, 2015). By having these suggestions and considerations the NSW syllabus aims to assist teachers when constructing their lesson plans and also teaching their curriculum to students. A factor that is influential when understanding effective teaching are diverse student learning needs. As a teacher it is their responsibility to cater to students of all levels of knowledge. Teachers must also take into consideration students with learning disabilities. According to the NSW syllabus students may require additional support; this
includes teachers adjusting their teaching methods which would in
turn influence students learning and assessment activities (BOSTES, 2015). An example of how a teacher adjusts their teaching pedagogy to the needs of students with learning needs and disabilities is through technology. Technology can be used to engage students in the classroom. An example of this is through the 5-E lesson planning model (Schad, 2011). According to Schad (2011) The 5-E lesson plan model Helps teachers build deeper, richer, rigorous lessons that use web 2.0 tools or an interactive lesson that truly involves students in learning (Schad, p. 42). Through the use of technology it supports the NSW syllabus statement of teachers adjusting their teaching methods to suit the needs of those with learning needs and disabilities. Effectively it can be seen that technology can be used in the classroom as tool to engage students to the material. Another example of effective teaching is the use of previous assessment data. Through assessing students teachers are able to get an understanding of where their students are good at, and also where some students are struggling. In order to determine the effectiveness of assessment data, this response has to evaluate the two different types of assessment issued by teachers. These two
types of assessment data are formative and summative. Formative
assessment data is often informal and used to monitor student learning and provides students with ongoing feedback, whereas summative assessment is more evaluative based used to deciding grades and also evaluating programs and teachers (Klingner et al, 2015 p. 16). Ideally formative assessment determines the needs of the student and also assists teachers in determining how to help the student in understanding the material. Summative assessment is used to evaluate students and teachers progression, and is seen as an overall evaluation determining teacher and student success. Overall a teacher must be proficient in collecting assessment data in order to identify what to teach and how to teach this material to their students (Klingner, 2015, p. 16). Evidently in order to be an effective teacher; a teacher must incorporate both methods of assessment. Another factor that is essential to effective teaching is the Australian professional standards for teachers. Like students, teachers are required to meet a certain standard. The Australian institute for teaching and school leadership created the national Australian standards for teachers and was produced in July 2010 (Clarke & Pittaway p. 412).
The Australian professional standards for teachers are divided into
three categories professional knowledge, professional practice, and professional engagement (Clarke & Pittaway, p. 412). These three categories of teaching are used to assess the effectiveness of different career staged teachers. These four different career stages are graduate teachers, proficient teachers, highly accomplished teachers and lead teachers (Clarke & Pittaway p. 413). Looking specifically at the graduate stage it is stated that a graduate teacher Possess the requisite knowledge and skills to plan for and manage learning programs for students. They demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the implications for learning of students' physical, cultural, social, linguistic and intellectual characteristics . (AITSL, 2014). Evidently the national standards for teachers is a factor that considers intellectual growth of students, however the standards also consider the physical and social growth of students as this could affect their learning capabilities. Evidently the following essay has explored four factors that are influential when designing lesson plans, in order to become an effective teacher. The following response will now introduce a year 8 lesson plan that incorporates these factors. The lesson plan chosen is based on understanding the techniques of persuasion and how
students can be better at persuasive writing. Students act out
persuasion techniques in small groups and sort from powerful to least powerful. The lesson plan aims to outline and explore five outcomes from the Australian curriculum. An outcome that will be focused in this paragraph is the use of different texts. The lesson plan states that the students aims are that they Select, navigate and read texts for a range of purposes, applying appropriate text processing strategies and interpreting structural features (Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). This specific curricular outcome focuses on the use of texts and evaluates the effectiveness of such texts being used in the program. By aiming to achieve this particular outcome in the lesson plan, the teacher is demonstrating effective understanding of the syllabus by engaging students in variety of different persuasive texts. As outlined earlier in the response, one of the aims of the syllabus is to provide suitable texts for students. These texts that are provided are in contrast to students contexts. The diverse student learning needs in the lesson plan is demonstrated within the methodology of role playing. Stated in the body of the lesson plan the teacher is to Handout persuasive language techniques and ask children to get into groups and look at
creating 4 examples for 1 of the techniques (e.g. group 1 has
ATTACKS so they have to come up with 4 different examples) to be modelled back to the class (role play) (Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). This methodology of role playing engages students far beyond than just reading the texts itself. Through role playing particular examples of persuasive techniques, this could enhance the students learning experience, and as a result students could get much better understanding of the material being taught to them. However, it is also important to take into consideration specific students learning disabilities and also literacy levels, as not all students are on the same level as others. With this lesson plan though it outlines a fun and engaging method of learning persuasive writing, it does not, consider that some students may not have the same understanding of the topic as others, by role playing it could put other students at a disadvantage and defect their interest in the topic. In order for the role play to be effective the teacher should design a much simpler exercise in order to suit other students needs. The lesson plan uses formative assessment data. These forms of assessment data are success criteria, anecdotal notes, and photos of sticky notes with the names of persuasive techniques that are
stronger than others (Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). The
success criterion, anecdotal notes, and sticky notes are a goal oriented exercise of students knowledge of the given topic. This form of formative assessment challenges students to reach their goals in this subject area. Clarke and Pittaway (2014) highlight formative assessments aim is to develop student growth and that findings have shown that formative assessment strategies have raised standards of student achievement, particularly students of lesser ability (Clarke and Pittaway, 2014, p. 313). Evidently this method of formative assessment aims to not just challenge students, but also raise students achievement by engaging their minds in a fun but suitable activity. Through the use of formative assessment in this lesson plan this would ultimately lead to the formal assessment task that will be given to these students. The Summative assessment can be seen as the final goal of an activity (Clarke and Pittaway, 2014, p. 313). This lesson plan serves the purpose of preparing the students for the final assessment task. By incorporating an interactive activity it prepares students to know what could and may be in the final assessment task. The lesson plan demonstrates an outcome in the Australian teaching
standard within the professional practice module. The teaching
standards highlight that graduate teachers Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics (AITSL, 2014). Evidently the lesson plan has a stimulus of role play that is used to intellectually challenge students and engage them in a fun activity that entices their learning experience. Another teaching standard outcome that this lesson plan covers is the proficient use of resources. This teaching standard falls under the professional practice module highlighting that a graduate teacher exhibits knowledge of a variety of resources which include ICT, to engage students in their learning (AITSL, 2014). The lesson plan asks students to watch videos of politicians and evaluate the effectiveness of the politicians persuasion (Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). Though this is an effective way of using resources and attributes to the teaching standard, however by showing political videos it can alienate some students who could be of other races and cultures. This is evident within how the teaching standards evidently state that teachers use strategies to accommodate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (AITSL, 2014). By showing videos of politicians such as different prime ministers of Australia it could
present complications as they are predominantly demonstrating a
white Anglo Saxon perspective. To counter this objective the teacher should also show a video of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander perspective to demonstrate diversity in the classroom. In conclusion this response has explored and evaluated the notion of effective planning attributing to effective teaching. The response has demonstrated the importance of the syllabus, diverse student learning needs, assessment data, and teaching standards when teachers plan their lessons. Furthermore, this response has applied these factors to a specific learning plan, to justify each individual factors importance. On the contrary, the response has also criticised the lesson plan through how some factors were not effectively used. Evidently the response has explored the effectiveness and importance of the following factors in teaching. These foundational factors are important to teachers as this influences what a teacher teaches and how to teach it.