Standard 3 Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning.
Standard 3.1 Establish Challenging learning goals
Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics
The two examples provided demonstrate the provision of challenging but appropriate learning goals and the steps towards successful completion of the goal as evident in the learning outcomes and success criteria for a year 8 Drama class.
Firstly, within the lesson plan for this subject, an additional AITSL standard 3.2 (AITSL, 2018).
Secondly, for student viewing and comprehension within a PowerPoint slide.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
The learning Intentions and success criteria clearly articulate the specific skills and knowledge student should possess and demonstrate by the end of the class. Additionally, students comprehend the task in their own words and understand qualities for success.
The three examples provided demonstrate the provision of challenging but appropriate learning goals for a year 7 music class focusing on music analysis and followed by digital music composition.
As evident in both the visual provision of instructions for the cohort and the lesson plan below, these goals were allowed students of different levels of confidence and experience to progress further in their digital compositional activities.
3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
3.1 Critical reflection
Hattie through various resources provides clear examples as to the necessity and successful consideration of learning goals established and communicated by learning Intentions and success criteria (Hattie, 2009; Loehr, 2015).
Hattie (Loehr, 2015) provides clear guidance on how to ensure students comprehend the teacher provided goals and how to achieve this through success criteria, additionally, the importance of student understanding of successful completion. However, instead of showing students what success looks like, I prefer to ask cohorts for their opinion on what success looks like to ascertain whether we are on the same page to avoid unnecessary explanation. Considering these are performing arts subjects and in many cases peer feedback is incredibly useful for goal-setting, it is important that students recognize success in how to work collaboratively as a team, how to demonstrate respect, how to provide effective feedback through analysis and evaluation and how to perform quality dramatic elements that are enhance actor audience relationships. The only concern is that this discussion for full comprehension does take time out of the introduction of the lesson plan so there were times when time management was an issue. It was through repeated practice that I learnt to do this as quickly as possible and find the line between ensuring student comprehension and provide them with enough time to demonstrate this comprehension practically.
In terms of music classes in which digital composition is undertaken, the goals were specifically tailored to reflect the various levels of experience, confidence and skill development within the class. Keeping track of student success, areas for improvement and absences was important to note so goals could be provided to reflect these circumstances. The clear verbal and written instructions provided the class with a step-by step idea as to what success will look like by the end of the class ensured students were well aware successful goal completion.
As an educator, it is important to me to provide students with appropriately challenging learning goals with the inclusion of what success looks like for their level. I believe that to provide cohorts with their best chance for improvement and maintain engagement, all confusion pertaining to quality must be removed quickly before students commit to an activity and engage their full focus.
Standard 3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies
A lesson plan excerpt for a year 10 music, demonstrating engaging activities suitable for all learners with appropriate modifications and extension tasks. In this case, the meaningful activity in question is the creation of a performance rubric in which the whole class may use to gage their and other performance groups level of quality.
1st placement at St Peters
A lesson plan for Year 8 Drama undertaken where students participated in engaging content-based activities developing appropriate skills such as freeze frames, with appropriate modifications to accommodate diverse learning needs.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
3.2 Critical reflection
Designing lesson plans has been a vital part of my teaching experience. It has allowed me to structure my lessons according to different time allocations of each school as well as consider appropriate learning goals, hook activities, content and practical skill development and relevant reflection tasks designed to reflect on various tasks such as goal setting, student feedback, self-assessment and new learning. Additionally, it has allowed me to consider and plan for effective differentiation tasks to cater for all student learning in terms of complexity and to modify as appropriate for students of diverse learning needs, as well as student obstacles and responses to learning which I have thus included techniques designed to remove or reduce such obstacles.
Standard 3.3 Use Teaching Strategies
Include a range of teaching strategies
One frequent strategy used within all placements was small group work and discussion. In this case the year 8 class was placed into working groups of 3-4 students and was asked to individually select their own value in which a digital music composition could be based, then to decide as a group. Further group collaboration was used to discuss the elements of music and to decide which would be appropriate for their song and to justify their responses.
3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
Another frequently used teaching strategy was goal-setting due to the ability to keep students engaged, clear on success criteria and an end-point in which to strive for. In this case, the goal setting activity was for the year 8 music class and was necessary to keep students on task, reduce disruptive behaviour and then to reflect on ways the goal could be achieved in future classes.
3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
Feedback was one of the most common teaching strategies used throughout all of my placement teaching durations and was frequently used as a mixture of both peer feedback (when appropriate) to then be followed by feedback provided by myself.
Feedback is one of my most preferred teaching strategies because when done correctly, it not only allows students to reach new heights of learning, set goals for the next or current class based on feedback, but when provided by peers, it allows for a more supportive classroom environment where not only triumphs but areas lacking in skill development are supported and assisted by those with more knowledge or mastery in the selected area.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
One of the most commonly used teaching strategy used throughout my placement experiences was direct teaching, due to effective teacher modelling for performance-based subjects, however, this was intermingled with as much constructivist teaching as possible to combat the concerns with frequent use of direct teaching, to allow for student agency and a growing student-centred approach throughout two of my placements.
In the third placement direct teaching was used due to time constraints and as necessary for this teaching strategy, there were hook activities, learning intentions and success criteria and teacher modelling with demonstration of steps and processes.
3.3 Critical reflection
Under constant reflection and evaluation were the teaching strategies used throughout my placement experiences, as these needed to be suitable for a diverse range of learners. I often made a strong attempt to have a mixture of individual learning tasks and small group collaborative learning tasks including that of both peer and teacher feedback to enhance social skills and enhance learning opportunities.
Within recent practical placement field teaching experiences as a pre-service teacher, I have discovered the importance of group work activities to promote active learning, problem solving and cooperation skills amongst students to reduce teacher dependency (Killen, 2016). Whilst the direct teaching strategy has been of much use in the modelling of specific drama and performance movements and techniques, group work has always intermingled with this strategy to counteract the negative side effects of direct instruction which predominantly lies in the lack of reflection, discussion, group work and problem-solving capabilities. My most recent learning experience was most enlightening. Whilst the year 8 cohort had little problems with group work, the year 7 cohort had great difficulties working together in a group due to lacking in confidence sharing their opinions and abilities. This was assisted with frequent pair activities such as ‘think pair share’ as recommended by Killen (2016) to enhance trust and discussion skills. However, through utilizing only direct instruction as a teaching strategy, I learnt that without peer assistance, students will constantly ask me for assistance. The number of times spent answering students' questions left me burnt out and exhausted, therefore upon reflection, I decided to use group work frequently in hook activities and increase the amount of student responses as a whole-class until I was ready to gently introduce group/pair learning activities. Eventually, I was able to place students into helper groups with a group leader who was able to assist students with their concerns which helped much to promote student trust, problem-solve, discuss their concerns and reduce teacher dependency.
Standard 3.4 Select and use resources
•Demonstrates knowledge of a range of resources including ICT that engages students in their learning
A variety of resources were selected to engage students in their learning, in particular those relating to ICT. The year 9 Drama class used Quizizz frequently to revise knowledge on current drama styles.
1st placement at St Peters
In terms of music, Quiziz was also used for the same purpose, however in terms of music composition, various digital resources were used to engage students in their learning such as Google Chrome music Lab and BandLab used for digital music composition of various ages and skill development.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar and 3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
The use of activities such as those which can be found in Project Zero’s thinking toolbox Routine were used across all year levels and proved immensely helpful to vary some teaching activities as some could be for individual use and a written activity such as ‘I used to think, now I think’ of designed for small group work/pairs such as ‘Think pair share’ used to cater for students with strong verbal capabilities.
3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
3.4 Critical reflection
Throughout my pre-service teaching experience, many resources were used to engage students in their learning, particularly ICT. In terms of revision, Quizizz activities were a particular favourite for both music and drama, to not only revise important content but to provide students with the task of offering their own opinions with justifications relating to certain topics. YouTube was used frequently to engage learners for both music and drama as well as providing a visual guide for visual learners and audio learners. For music, the students would use YouTube as a tool for music analysis and Drama students could watch YouTube for inspiration for Drama performances, particularly relating to the Melodrama style. For music composition, there are three means that have been used that allow them to compose/ learn about music digitally; Google Chrome MusicLab, Soundscape, BandLab and MusicEDU.
For songs not relating to the use of ICT, there are some resources gathered that have allowed students be engaged in their learning that have proved to be invaluable such as the different techniques and activities found at the Harvard Graduate school of Education Project Zero which includes activities such as think pair share, Take Note and I used to think… Now I think.
Standard 3.5 Use effective classroom communication
Demonstrates a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement
The first lesson excerpt is from a year 6 drama class from my 2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar where clear instructions and consequences for misbehaviour were communicated directly to the cohort. These rules in support of the school’s behaviour management policy were spoken in a darker tone of voice to reflect the difference between a topic to be taken seriously and a fun engaging activity.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
The 3rd lesson plan excerpt created for a year 8 drama class specifically states the use of non-verbal communication such as clapping then followed by clear instructions.
2nd placement at Oakleigh Grammar
This lesson plan excerpt is from a year 9 drama class where appropriate use of questioning was used to gage student understanding of the appropriateness of lighting and to stimulate group discussions on the topic by use of the ‘think pair share activity’. All student responses were acknowledged and answers were expanded upon by more confident members of the class and this lead from closed ended questions to open ended questions and hypothesising effective lighting colours..
3rd placement at Balcombe Grammar
3.5 Critical reflection
As an educator, it is so important to ensure that all instructions regarding learning and appropriate behaviour are communicated clearly and directly and are understood by all students. Therefore, all classes were spoken to with a clear and appropriate tone of voice in the provision of clear instructions with modification to a firmer tone of voice when using behaviour management strategies.
A common method of non-verbal communication was classroom observation and classroom circling to ensure students remained on task with minimal distractions, in addition to clapping patterns to gain students attention and eye contact with proximity in the initial stages of misbehaviour. All of these strategies played a great role in minimising distractions and gaining students attention when necessary.
Standard 3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
Demonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning.
The excerpt below demonstrates one strategy for reflection where behaviour management strategies were evaluated and described, notes pertaining to the lesson plan in general were described and various learning activities were evaluated with ideas as to what must be included or modified for the next lesson. The table concludes with what I have gained from a discussion with my mentor teacher which includes valuable feedback and improvements to be made.
The reflection task below is more detailed using the reflection in action, on action and for future action method (CITE THIS TECHNIQUE).
The reflection in action was made during the class, on action was made promptly after each class and future actions detail what must be altered for the next lesson.
3.6 Critical reflection
Methods of evaluation were highly valuable throughout my pre-service teaching experience, and I believe I have reflected on my lesson plans to a high standard. As a result of such reflections and discussions with supervising teacher regarding appropriate modifications, teaching strategies and considerations for future lessons I have been able to learn from mistakes and errors made on my part and I have sought to correct these mistakes in future lessons. Reflections made during the lesson have allowed me to notate concerns and changes made to the lesson in real time, not necessarily resulting from flaws in the lesson plan but because of unforeseen circumstances such as student behaviour and motivation or concerns with technology. This has enabled me to gain more experience with in- the- moment made decisions and quick thinking.
Standard 3.7 Engage parents/carers in the education process
•Describe a broad range of strategies for involving parents
The reflection task shown below is an account of a conversation held with a parent during parent-teacher interviews where I observed and learnt a structure for effective communication with parent from my mentor teacher during my first placement at St Peters, in addition to having conversations with the parents myself regarding their child’s learning.
The example below is an example of collecting appropriate work taken during my final placement at Balcombe Grammar to demonstrate effective learning to parents/ carers regarding their child’s progress accompanied with relevant feedback on strengths and areas for improvement, written in an appropriate manner to communicate learning to both parents and students.
The quiz is an example of student work in which may be used to report to parents demonstrating knowledge of music terminology and student opinions regarding what has been learnt throughout the 4-week duration. As the example demonstrates, the student has a firm understanding of the elements of music, scale notation and is confident in voicing their own opinions on Indigenous Australian music and has learnt something valuable from the lessons.
3.7 Critical reflection
The necessity of involving parents in the learning of their child is often remarked upon and I agree with this importance. As such, I have strived to collect ample work to inform parents regarding their child's learning such as summative, formative assessments and reflection tasks to discuss with parents/carers during parent teacher interviews. The collection of work to inform progress however is not merely limited to parent-teacher interviews but is also important if the student is making limited progress, hence the need to collect classroom activities to inform judgements and to use as a basis for appropriate conversations with parents/carers. Parents/carers should also be aware of any feedback regarding goal-setting, strengths and areas for improvement so it is important for teachers to consider the best possible means of providing parents with this information when applicable and appropriate, hence why teacher-student feedback has occurred using digital means whenever possible.