Standard 2 Know the content and how to teach it
Standard 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
The example below is an excerpt from a year 8 music lesson plan from Balcombe Grammar where students engaged in meaningful activities by discussing their values and how these may serve as the inspiration for their music composition. The curriculum links and general capabilities clearly link this subject to the Victorian Curriculum and ensure students are engaging with important Australian Curriculum general capabilities.
The example to the right is an excerpt of a year 6 Drama lesson plan focusing on Melodrama undertaken at Oakleigh Grammar. The students engage in meaningful connected activities by using their favourite stock characters to create a Melodrama performance.
2.1 Critical reflection
Regardless of whether the subject is music or drama, it is important to me that students are participating in meaningful activities connected to their interests relevant to the subject topic. I encourage students to create music or drama pieces that demonstrates a topic or area connected to their interests such as the year 8 music subject on values and the year 7 Drama activity where a Melodrama performance was created using students own preferred characters to represent melodrama stock characters. The students engaged in frequent performance and feedback tasks enabling them to gain valuable performance and feedback experience scaffolded to their level.
It is also my preference to consider other units of work and connect my own teaching areas with similar or applicable content in other subjects. An example of this the use of values in the previous excerpt, as a deep consideration of values will be applicable to the drama/media subject in next years class. Additionally, the task of devised script writing as applicable for drama which the students took in the following week.
Standard 2.2 Content selection and organisation
Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence
This is an excerpt from a year 9 music class from my first placement at St. Peters. The lesson plan shows links to the Victorian Curriculum, a clear introduction, development and conclusion with the selection of Quizziz to revise learning for student engagement. The importance of adhering to students' strengths and the need to consider students well-being was important, as was the need to make select groups a top priority due to a lack of submitted work.
This excerpt taken from a year 7 music lesson plan which demonstrates not only relevant Victorian Curriculum descriptors but relevant General Capabilities as relating to the subject. This lesson plan shows a connection to the assessment task, differentiated activities for the student with a disability with goal setting and self-assessment task for students to gain an understanding oh what needs to be improved upon and how they can make this happen.
2.2 Critical reflection
Throughout my lesson plans, they have always followed a similar structure and was closely related to Blooms taxonomy. The introduction consists of either a revision activity to activate prior knowledge relevant to the lesson or it will consist of an activity designed to introduce a new concept that will transition into the main body or development section of the lesson, typically remember and understand. The development section for drama particularly consists scaffolded activities culminating of a performance with peer and teacher feedback and music activities consist of differentiated activities either in music literacy, music composition whether practical or digital to be presented to the class for peer evaluation depending of student confidence and preparation. In terms of Blooms Taxonomy this ranged from apply analyse, evaluate and create in many of the performance-based subjects, as students would analyse different music performance works, evaluated the use of elements of music and created based on this evaluation with much circling between these two throughout the process. In drama, this was similar as students would analyse their elements of drama, evaluate their skill and refine as needed. All activities concluded with an activity which ranged from student feedback, goal-setting or reflection on learnt content to enhance metacognitive thinking. Blooms taxonomy create would frequently conclude this lesson as students would create a goal for the next lesson based on the evaluation of their commitment throughout the duration of the lesson.
Standard 2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
Use Curriculum assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans
The excerpt from the lesson plan is for a year 9 Drama class from my first placement. Here the class was preparing for their formative assessment task for voice on Greek Drama with the use of masks. The task was differentiated for each group, taking into account their progress with script development and practice with the expressive skill.
The excerpt below is how I tracked the lessons of the year 9 drama class with notes pertaining to the formative assessment task on the expressive skill voice.
2.3 Critical reflection
It was important that students understand not only how they will be assessed but have sufficient opportunity to develop the skills required for the assessment task. Therefore, all lessons were designed using the backwards by design approach by Wiggins and McTighe designing all lessons to cover essential topics for assessment and using essential questions to promote learning and comprehension.
I made it a priority to build on and develop prior knowledge with clearly scaffolded tasks, goals designed for students at all levels, appropriate differentiation and activities designed to develop sufficient skills for the Summative assessment task. In addition, students were made explicitly aware of assessment tasks by providing their own opinions as to what the assessment ask will contain and comparing them with the rubric for the Summative assessment task.
Standard 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of, and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.
The excerpts below are from a year 7 lesson plan from Balcombe Grammar focusing on promoting reconciliation with Indigenous Australians through using composition methods of Indigenous Australians learning how the land may provide for their needs whilst respecting the land and aural skills as opposed to written notation and developing respect for the practices of their culture.
These examples are excerpts from lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations taken from a year 7 drama class on promoting reconciliation through acting, as conducted at Oakleigh Grammar. In some cases, the students developed or revised knowledge concerning the importance of land and past atrocities of conflicts between Britian's and Indigenous Australians. The students developed freezeframes to show how to heal Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian relationships and proposed means to avoid their exclusion.
2.4 Critical reflection
It was of great importance to me to educate the students across my two main methods about the significance of Indigenous Aboriginal culture, it’s relevance and the reasons behind the promotion of reconciliation.
In terms of music. The students underwent a learning journey where they discovered the importance of combining elements of western music and Indigenous Australian music to create a song that promotes the joining and acceptance of both cultures, afterwards the students thoroughly enjoyed using whatever their environment provided to create sounds of different timbres and textures to create meaning, or they had the option of composing a song that combines Digeridoo music and elements of their preferred western instruments digitally. My wish was to allow the class to see the relevance of Indigenous music, to deepen their understanding and embracement of another culture and challenge their previous ideals as to Indigenous Australian instrumentation and composition and as the reflection task demonstrates, this was a success.
In terms of drama. The year 7 cohort underwent a different process of recognizing past atrocities to have a firmer understanding of the need for reconciliation, but also the understanding of the nurturing element of the land was important to portray. My goal was for the students to learn the value of embracing another culture and the need for reconciliation due to damaged relationships caused by previous crimes. Therefore, the drama activities centered on how to promote friendship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and the recognition of land preservation.
Standard 2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.
Evidence of literacy in drama can be seen in the PowerPoint presentation slide below instructing group collaboration. Literacy encompasses effective group collaboration in planning for a performance and in the writing of scripts.
1st placement at St. Peters
This scaffolded activity within the following class as seen below allows students to develop the expressive skill voice, through effective scaffolding. Firstly, to allow the class members to practice as themselves to gain confidence, then displaying the emotions and energy connected to their characters emotional state.
As demonstrated, evidence of numeracy in drama is displayed in an excerpt of a year 8 lesson plan acknowledgement of general capabilities and in following self-reflection task displayed underneath concerning strengths, areas for improvement and future changes to pedagogical practices because of new learning.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
2.5 Critical reflection
There is much scope for the use of literacy and numeracy within the Drama subject.
As mentioned in Australian Curriculum, assessment and reporting authority (n.d) document specifying literacy in Drama for year 10 students, it is expected that students work together in every stage of the production process including the scripting process, it is expected that students perform in this case, devised drama in different spaces which thanks to Covid lock down restrictions was effectively implemented, and this took much encouragement and scaffolding to accomplish. Additionally, students must develop and sustain different roles which the next lesson was scaffolded to achieve, in reference to the development of the expressive skill voice in the performance of dramatic action within the performance of a Greek Theatre production. Lastly, through contributing to script writing, students compose informative texts which explain storylines clearly to audience members and uses their imagination in the creation of a script using a theme or social dilemma as the centre focus (ACARA, n.d).
In terms of numeracy, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and reporting authority (n,d) document provided clear examples of how year 8 students may use spatial reasoning and symmetry in order to convey a sense of tension to audience members. It is using body and prop placement in symmetric lines which causes this realization instantaneously for audience members who gain a visual context of a complacent group standing symmetrically, then use different levels and body shapes to contort themselves into less pleasing forms and asymmetrical groupings to display tension and conflict. While the use of numeracy is most obviously displayed in the dramatic element space, many students could use different levels to create tension naturally despite this not being their selected dramatic element. However, for those who did not grasp the true clarity of levels this was a concern and peer feedback, and responses were used to rectify this problem.
Standard 2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Implementing teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.
This is evidence of the use of Quizizz to keep the year 9 music class engaged during remote learning. As student responses were downloaded after completion allowing me to gage student awareness of the structure and use of chords, song form structure and melodies.
1st placement at St Peters
Due to remote learning, it was expected that teachers communicate directly through the zoom chat function and use this method to provide the written instructions in addition to verbal communication of instructions.
1st placement at St Peters
The excerpt from the lesson plan not only provides evidence of ICT but is highly conscious of the need for this to be fun and engaging due to low levels of student motivation and well-being concerns.
1st placement at St Peters
2.6 Critical reflection
As the various uses of ICT is a 21st century skill under the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities, I believe it is of vital importance to students in this modern era to become accustomed to ICT for the multitude of benefits it has to offer and engage student learning.
I have used the website Quizizz to engage students in revision tasks in a familiar and enjoyable lesson, analyse the data to determine comprehension of the current topic, and connect the content to learning tasks. I have used various web apps for digital composition such as google chrome musiclab, soundtrap and BandLab to provide greater autonomy to students in their digital journey. As ACARA (n.d) states, under the element ‘Creating with ICT’ (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, n,d, para. 3) students utilise ICT to problem solve creatively and fulfill creative goals. Additionally, ICT can be used for collaborative purposes, particularly, with regards to sharing ideas as they learning to navigate communication with various platforms. I have used various digital means for this purpose such as google docs, zoom chat function, and comment sections within web apps such as Soundtrap These examples provided a secure means of assisting student collaboration and the opportunity for group-tailored feedback.
Lastly, I have used YouTube in multiple learning activities, not only to provide engagement and inspiration for music and drama performances but with the inclusion of google also to assist students problem-solving capabilities. Questions such as ‘If I have a problem, how might I solve this?’ Would result in many students concluding they may conduct their own research through watching YouTube tutorials or google to assist their learning, therefore reducing teacher dependency and enhance problem solving capabilities.