1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Demonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
The context for the artefacts chosen to review is as follows. The class that the artefacts were created for was a year 9 visual art class. The school is in a low socio-economic area and has many linguistic, cultural and religiously diverse students. The year 9 class included, two students with severe anxiety, a type 2 diabetic, and 3 English as a second language (ESL) students. The students had been learning about pottery and ceramics, the lesson outlines a guide on how students will be expected to add colour to their ceramic pieces by using underglazes. The different needs in this class allows a teacher to differentiate to better suit different needs. the identified students need regular check ins to assess if they need support. The ESL students had translators who accompanied them to lessons, this was not recorded, however needed to plan to ensure the translator understood the task and so did the student. This lesson had been verbally critiqued by a mentor teacher, improvements were not added but were included when teaching.
While I was teaching this class, I needed to plan this lesson in collaboration with my teacher. I needed to make sure that my lesson aligned with the unit plan created by my teacher and was in line with what the students were learning. Artefacts 9, 10 and 14 (click here to view) will be referred to as they are the resources used to teach this lesson. Artefact 9 shows the 3 lessons I planned where I taught the students how to write an appraisal of their artwork, how to underglaze and how to fire their ceramics. Before I was able to plan, I met with my teacher. They had already made a PowerPoint (Artefact 10) on how to approach an appraisal, along with a work sheet that allows students to match art vocabulary to the correct definitions (not included in artefacts). Artefact 10 is the powerpoint I had used to teach under glazing and firing of ceramics.
The course I was completing for this placement focused on social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) so when I planned my lessons, I had to ensure I was being mindful of differentiating for students who needed support in this area. I followed the Australian Student Wellbeing Framework (Student Wellbeing Hub, 2024) to ensure I could make my lesson and class as supportive as possible.
As a result of my planning with my mentor, I was able to improve my lessons. The first lesson did not go to plan as there were interruptions. My mentor told me where I needed to improve to minimise the interruptions and improve my expectations. The next lesson flowed better and the students were more engaged because I worked on setting clearer expectations. I felt as though my students were wanting to learn about glazing and finish their ceramics. I was confident with my resources (Artefact 10 and 14) and received feedback from my teacher which allowed me to improve on my differentiation for students who needed support with social and emotional wellbeing.
Although it had not been added to my original lesson plan, I needed to ensure I was setting clear instructions for translators. I had to plan regular check ins with the students with severe anxiety and make sure the student with type 1 diabetes was regulated and comfortable. I believe I have been able to achieve standards 1.3 and 1.5 as I was able to differentiate my planning and understand how to respond to students who are needing support.
