Professional Practice
Plan For And Implement Effective Teaching And Learning
Over the last 4 years of Uni, I have planned and implemented a number of Units/Lessons that have met the needs of all differentiated learning groups. The one unit of work in particular that worked best was during my 3rd year placement at Elwood Primary. During that placement I had the grade 3/4 students and planned a whole unit on Mapping. The effective teaching strategies I used included; creating lessons that all levels could complete, provided different learning environments to work in, provided opportunities for students to guide the learning and most importantly enabled students to have fun! This unit of work came back with great results as all students understood the outcomes of drawing/creating/positioning of maps.
Create And Maintain Supportive And Safe Learning Environments
Creating a safe learning environment can take a lot of work but if started early enough, then the better chance of providing it. Keys to providing a safe learning environment include; Student/Teacher trust, Student/Student trust, Parent/Student/Teacher Trust. If you are capable of getting the trust of your students and their parents, you are 90% of the way there. With students placing their trust in you, it enables you to stretch their learning capabilities as they have the confidence that you will not test them way beyond their limits. Without the trust of your students, the more chance they will not come to you when in need and therefore create unwanted issues.
Assess, Provide Feedback And Report On Student Learning
Assessment of, for and as learning play a vital role in the teaching and learning process as assessment provides students, teachers and parents with important information about the student’s learning progress. Assessment tasks need to be rich, purposeful and informative and act as a springboard to further extend each individual student. Teachers need to ensure that they are using a variety of assessment tools to continuously monitor students’ progress throughout their learning, as it is a vital strategy for developing the teaching and learning sequence. Knowing and identifying students’ points of need ensures that the teaching is targeted.
During my school placements I have demonstrated my competency using several forms of assessment. These include:
Examples of how I utilise assessment and monitoring include:
Over the last 4 years of Uni, I have planned and implemented a number of Units/Lessons that have met the needs of all differentiated learning groups. The one unit of work in particular that worked best was during my 3rd year placement at Elwood Primary. During that placement I had the grade 3/4 students and planned a whole unit on Mapping. The effective teaching strategies I used included; creating lessons that all levels could complete, provided different learning environments to work in, provided opportunities for students to guide the learning and most importantly enabled students to have fun! This unit of work came back with great results as all students understood the outcomes of drawing/creating/positioning of maps.
Create And Maintain Supportive And Safe Learning Environments
Creating a safe learning environment can take a lot of work but if started early enough, then the better chance of providing it. Keys to providing a safe learning environment include; Student/Teacher trust, Student/Student trust, Parent/Student/Teacher Trust. If you are capable of getting the trust of your students and their parents, you are 90% of the way there. With students placing their trust in you, it enables you to stretch their learning capabilities as they have the confidence that you will not test them way beyond their limits. Without the trust of your students, the more chance they will not come to you when in need and therefore create unwanted issues.
Assess, Provide Feedback And Report On Student Learning
Assessment of, for and as learning play a vital role in the teaching and learning process as assessment provides students, teachers and parents with important information about the student’s learning progress. Assessment tasks need to be rich, purposeful and informative and act as a springboard to further extend each individual student. Teachers need to ensure that they are using a variety of assessment tools to continuously monitor students’ progress throughout their learning, as it is a vital strategy for developing the teaching and learning sequence. Knowing and identifying students’ points of need ensures that the teaching is targeted.
During my school placements I have demonstrated my competency using several forms of assessment. These include:
- Collecting work samples, both draft and published work to determine students’ level of achievement, using the VELS Progression Points.
- NAPLAN testing, which I was lucky enough to be involved with during my time at Caulfield Junior College (2009). This involvement provided me with an insight in to the process of national standardised testing.
- Reviewing Running Records to follow students’ reading progression, identifying at risk learners at both Elwood Primary (2011) and Sandringham East (2012).
- Gathering information from parents through formal (parent/teacher interviews) and informal meetings (prior/after school discussions).
- The provision of written assessments identifying student’ sporting abilities and behaviours that contribute towards their term report cards. (Camp Australia/Caulfield Grammar)
- Reflecting on completed work by asking students how they felt while undertaking the completed activity and identifying problems experienced.
- Conducting the Maths Online Interviews with students in level 2 at SEPS (2012).
Examples of how I utilise assessment and monitoring include:
- Applying formal and informal assessment results to determine student groupings.
- Including students in the assessment process as frequently as possible. Self-assessment for all students is vital as it allows them to map their progress against criteria, for example – teacher generated rubrics
- It provides evidence for writing my reports, parent-teacher interviews and general conversations with parents.
- It provides information for transition between grades and/or teachers.