APST Standard 6: Engage in professional learning

6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice

6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice

During my last practicum experience I was required to plan and sequence the learning of an English Unit Plan for Foundation Year.  During the implementation of this unit, a lesson required students to begin to explore how to change an event as a class that creates a new ending that will later assist them to complete this on their own.  Before implementation of the lesson, I created Jack and the Beanstalk story sequencing cards (LINK) of the story and introduce ‘changed event’, ‘new event’ and ‘new ending’ cards (LINK) to assist students with the innovation concept.  Before the implementation on the lesson, I had all the resources I required ready including a whiteboard in front of the students to assist in the whole class brainstorm of a new event and the creation of a new ending.

When my lesson took place, it occurred during the student’s book week celebrations. The students had just arrived back from the parade with all their costumes on. As I began to implement my planned lesson the students were quite distracted and their overall engagement within the lesson was low. They were also struggling to comprehend the innovation of a changed event concept. In the moment I spontaneously implemented a different approach to regain their focus and assist in their comprehension of the innovation concept. As I used the ‘changed event’, ‘new event’ and ‘new ending’ cards, I created a sound effect/song for each card that I asked the students to repeat. This immediately regained their focus and I could see added some fun to the lesson. I asked the students questions about what we were doing and what came next and do use the sound effects, and as a whole class they were able to successfully answer me. This showed me the success of the teacher structuring and guiding the lesson and implementing sound effects. 

This spontaneous change with the lesson demonstrated my responsiveness to the students and their learning through play and intentional teaching (ACECQA, 2012).  I also was able to respond to children’s ideas and play and use intentional teaching to scaffold and extend the students learning which connects to element 1.2.2 of the National Quality Standard (NQS) (ACECQA, 2018).

The result of this spontaneous change not only assisted the students at the task at hand but within future lessons. The implementation of the sound effects/songs for each of the events was used to assist students’ progression through the following lessons and their own innovation story. My supervising teacher provided feedback (LINK) following the implementation of my lesson. She stated “The best part of your activity were the sound effects you introduced to remind the class about the changed, new event and ending. The class responded well to this, a useful resource for their memory.”