KellieWilson30071244

EDN 568 Assignment 2

Context
The classroom Im using for my assignment is my current prac classroom, which is a year 5
classroom in a middleclass area of Perth. The students are reasonably well-behaved, with
only a few lower level behavioural issues (i.e. talking, fiddling, etc).
This assignment will focus on the subject of History, and in particular, Australian History. I
want the students to explore the reasons people came to Australia, and the impact and
experiences these people had on the colony. The two lesson that will I will be focussing on
are lessons that will be done about 4 weeks into term, the first three lessons will have looked
at where a lot of the first white Australians came from, how they arrived here and what the
basic living conditions were like.
The curriculum outcome are as follows:
The reasons people migrated to Australia and the experiences and contributions of a
particular migrant group within a colony (ACHASSK109).
The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony
(ACHASSK110).
I have chosen these outcomes, as I feel there is scope to be able to research plenty of
information about pioneer and aboriginal Australians, and the following instructional
methods and assessment methods connect really well to these outcomes.
I will be using one instructional method per lesson and one assessment method per lesson.
The instructional method for lesson one I have chosen is Graffiti, as it will allow the students
to put their prior knowledge on paper and prepare them for the assessment in that lesson.
Graffiti allows the students to also see what their peers know about the topic, as a topic like
colonisation, everyone has a varied bank of knowledge. The main attributes of Graffiti are
that it consists of multiple, large pieces of paper, each with a topic or headings within a topic
in the middle of the paper, allowing students to write words or comments about that topic or
heading on the paper. The students are able to walk around the room and write on any of the
pieces of paper that they feel they can contribute to.
The assessment method I have chosen for lesson one is a multiple-choice test, as a way to see
what the students know from the first four weeks (including this lesson) and should enable
me to split the class into groups that include a variety of abilities. This lesson will be an end
to this specific part of the topic. The multiple-choice assessment gives the students questions,
with 4 or 5 possible answers, with only one of those answers being correct. While there is
some question as to the relevance of multiple choice tests as an effective method to assess
students, there are many advantages which makes this test applicable and relevant to this
exercise. Multiple choice assessment is objective in nature (no marking bias), distractors can
be included (answers that are similar to the correct answer but not fully correct, will
determine if students understand the concept fully), and its low-level learning, meaning it can
assist in understanding the students initial understanding of the topic (University of
Wisconsin, 2003).
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For the second lesson, I have decided to use this lesson as a beginning to a final project that
will be done by groups within the class, and completely by the end of the term. I have
decided to use Placemat as the instructional method for this lesson, to be able to, as
individuals, put their ideas and thoughts of a particular significant pioneer and Aboriginal
Australian. As per the Department of Healths webpage Growing and Developing Healthy
Relationships, placemat helps students to:
Brainstorm and generate ideas around an event or issue
Encourage collaboration and team problem solving
Increase accountability and involvement in own learning
A placemat involves a large piece of butchers paper being placed in the centre of each group,
the page being split into sections for each member of the group, with the topic in the centre of
the page. The above reasons are why placemat is ideal for this lesson, ideas about the person
can be shared, collaboration can occur and every student can be involved while feeling safe.
Extended written responses for lesson two has been selected to see the students
understanding and initial thoughts of their person, as they will begin researching more about
their person in subsequent lessons. The structure of a written response is a main idea as the
first sentence (introducing the topic), referencing details in the text about the topic, make
interpretations about the text, extension (explain understanding) and conclusion. This enables
the students to show how they understand the text and their own opinions on it.

Rationale
Graffiti
I chose graffiti as the instructional strategy for the first lesson, as it enables me to have a
better idea of what the students already know so that I can build on that prior knowledge. The
students have already had a few lessons on the reasons why people came to Australia and a
general feel on what life was like in the beginning of colony life, so I need to know what they
have retained from the previous lessons.
I feel that graffiti would be the best to do at the beginning of the sequence of lessons, and it
also enables those students that are less likely to contribute in an all class discussion, to be
able to put forth their ideas in a more safe and secure environment. I will make sure that all
students use different coloured pens, so that I can ensure everyone puts something down.
I dont need to know what each individual student knows about the topic, but to be able to get
an idea of what the class as a collective knows. The information from the graffiti activity can
then help students to refresh the information they have learnt so far about colonisation and
assist in completing the multiple-choice assessment. An American website that reinforces this
concept is from Facing History and Ourselves. They talk about the purpose of it being a
strategy is to help students hear each others ideas. It also mentions that it is an activity that
can be implemented in a short period of time (5-10 minutes) and can be referred to at a later
date. The main reason I like it for this lesson is that it can help students to organising any
existing knowledge about the topic.
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Graffiti aligns to the outcome of The reasons people migrated to Australia and the
experiences and contributions of a particular migrant group within a colony
(ACHASSK109) in that it allows all of the students to provide a written account of what
they have learnt about these reasons for migration and the experiences, and something that
they can come back to at a later date, should they need to.

Multiple Choice
As this lesson is the third in a whole term topic, I want to get a feel on what the students
know about colonisation and the reasons that many people came to Australia. I felt the best
way to assess this would be through a multiple-choice test. Given that the topic will go on for
the whole term, I wanted an assessment method that was objective, that there is a given
answer for each question, as any further assessment methods will be part of a whole project
and be more subjective in nature.
All the multiple-choice questions will be in relation to the information that was talked about
in previous lessons with regards to the colonisation topic, and what the students put down and
discussed during the graffiti activity. While the graffiti activity will help me to see what
knowledge and information the students as a whole class have taken in, the multiple-choice
test will allow me to see how each student individually has taken in that information, and can
assist me in picking the groups for the next lesson. In allowing me to mix up the groups so
that there are stronger and weaker students in each group.
Facts can be taken from the outcome of this lesson, enabling the students to be able to show
that they have learnt what they are required to as per the lessons outcome. The curriculum
requires different methods of teaching and assessing, and this will be one of the low-level
thinking assessments, that can assist in providing information to the teacher on how to
proceed with the topic for the rest of the term, to ensure everyone has a understanding, and
that there is nothing that needs to be reinforced or has been completely misunderstood.

Placemat
As I will be placing the class into groups for this lesson, I felt placemat would be the perfect
instructional strategy for this lesson. This will allow the students to give their individual
inputs to the group, in a safe and secure way. It will allow all students in the group to
participate, without the stronger students taking over and the more weaker students stepping
back.
The students will be doing an extended written response each based on the information
provided on the placemat that will be part of a final project, therefore, it is important for the
information on the placemat to be done by each individual member of the groups. Not all
students in the class are completely comfortable giving answers in front of the whole class,
and therefore, placemat can assist those students in getting their thoughts down, and prevent
the stronger and more outgoing students from dominating.
The students, in their groups, will be given information about a particular person of
significance in Australias history, as well as an extended written response question (one
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question for each member of the group, all members will have a different question about their
person. They will note down the key words from the information given on the placemat, to
assist them in writing their assessment. Placemat also is a permanent way of students putting
down their thoughts and discoveries of the topic (per the learning outcome), and the
placemats can be retained for future reference, should the students need to go back to see if
their observations have changed.

Extended Written Responses

Based on the information found by each student on the placemat, the students from each
group will be given an extended written response to complete that will become part of a final
project. Each group will have 5 students and therefore there will be 5 different extended
written response questions, one for each student in the group. The extended written responses
will be based on the important person in Australias early history that their group is to do
their project on.
I chose this assessment method because it enables the students to be able to explain what they
know about their nominated prominent early Australian and make some assumptions about
this figure which can lead to more research and information for the rest of the project. Many
of the students are confident in giving answers in a whole class discussion, but there are still a
few that are less willing to put their hands up. This assessment method works as there is a
specific structure in how to write them, and it allows the students to use some more higher
order thinking and deeper understanding (NSW Government, 2017), rather than just a one or
two-word answer
The method provides the students to begin a project that will provide information about the
intended learning outcome for this lesson. It will enable them to show their understanding of
the role that the person in history played in the colony, and they are then able to use the
feedback from this assessment to learn more about their person.

Assessment instruments
The assessment method of multiple-choice will provide feedback to both the teacher and the
students. The outcome of the multiple-choice test will enable the teacher to split the class into
groups dependent upon how much they know of the topic so far, and enable each group to
have multiple abilities. The students will also mark each others tests, and will receive the
tests back to find out how well they did. It will enable them to understand where they went
wrong, and go to the teacher if they have any queries and/or get further feedback based on the
results.
The second assessment of extended written responses, will be marked by the teacher and be
handed back to the student to see how they did and where they could improve. A rubric will
also be provided with the marks, so the students can see what part of their answers were
incorrect, or on the wrong track, or where they were correct, and were able to think critically.
The teacher would also be available for any additional feedback, should the students require
it.
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Moderation Strategies
For the Graffiti and Placemat activities, I would ensure that all students use different coloured
pens (if possible) to ensure all students are participating. To ensure a safe environment, I
would also make it explicit that no answer is incorrect, that the activity is not being marked,
and that they have the right to pass a sheet if they dont have an answer or comment (in the
Graffiti activity specifically). I will walk around the classroom while both activities are being
carried out to ensure all students are given the opportunity to participate, that no one is being
bullied for their answers, and that everyone is making an effort to participate.
With the multiple-choice test, I will ensure all students get the same test, so that the answers
can be consistent and comparable, and no one can be advantaged or disadvantaged by getting
questions that differ from others. After the multiple-choice tests have been peer marked and
reflected on by the students, they will be collected to ensure the tests have been correctly
marked. The teacher will also walk around the classroom while the tests are being marked, to
ensure there is no cheating or changing of answers.
The extended written responses will be provided to each student before beginning the
placemat, so that all students know what they need to focus on before making notes about
their person. Should these not be provided, there may be more information for some students
than others, depending on what each person focuses on about their person.
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References

The National Acadamies Press. (1993). https://www.nap.edu/read/2235/chapter/6. Assessing

to Support Mathematics Learning. Retrieved on 30/08/2017

Department of Health. (2017). https://gdhr.wa.gov.au/learning/teaching-strategies/finding-

out/placemat. Growing and Developing Healthy Relationships. Retrieved on 31/08/2017

Facing History and Ourselves. (2017). https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-

library/teaching-strategies/graffiti-boards. Graffiti Boards. Retrieved on 31/08/2017

NSW Government Education Valid Program. (2017).

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/student-assessment/assessment-and-
reporting/media/documents/VALID-infosheet-nongovt-schools.pdf. Validation of
Assessment for Learning and Individual Development. Retrieved on 02/09/2017

Australian Curriculum HASS (version 8.3) F-10 Curriculum. (2017).

http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1. Retrieved on
30/08/2017