4.1 Support student participation
Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
4.2 Manage classroom activities
Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions.
4.4 Maintain student safety
Describe strategies that support students’ wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements.
Maintaining a safe and supportive learning environments is fundamental to student engagement and effectively management of classroom activities for student success (4.1, 4.2, 4.3) (Parrett & Budge, 2020). During a Year 9 HPE lesson, students were learning about the alcohol content in different drinks, and how to know what a standard drink is. The class included several students with learning difficulties as well as EALD. To ensure that all students were supported in their learning, and felt safe in doing so, I decided that it would be appropriate to include ICT within the lesson to cater for all students learning needs, making visual learning the focus, rather than verbal.
To ensure that students did not feel embarrassed being involved in the discussion of alcohol, I decided that it would be fun to have the interactive tool being used, projected onto the whiteboard, and then allow students to use a wireless mouse from their desk to use the Interactive ICT – Refer Artefact “ICT” (4.2). This ensured that students felt safe within the classroom, whilst still being involved in the learning. Using the interactive ICT, also allowed those students with learning difficulties to comprehend the information through a visual display. Students were provided with clear instructions (4.2) on how to use the ICT, allowing the whole class to learn and have fun whilst doing so. By providing clear instructions, I ensured clarity, conciseness, and directness, enabling students to respond to a manageable number of instructions at any given time. Explicit instruction and presentation help all students, particularly lower performing students, given step by step instruction provides students with the exact thinking process to use, giving them the tools for success (Hollingsworth & Ybarra, 2009). Allowing students to remain in the seats for the activity, demonstrated my ability to support inclusive participation of all students in a safe and supportive manner (4.1).
The result of delivering the lesson activity in the format discussed, allowed all students in the class to feel included and supported in their learning. Students remarked how much fun they had in the lesson, which was another confirmation of providing a safe environment (4.4) for learning.
