2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
2.2 Content selection and organisation
- Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
2.3 Curriculum, assessment and reporting
- Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans
During my professional experience at an all boys independent school in Toowoomba. I was placed in a year 2 classroom for three weeks. The class consisted of 18 students mostly from high socio-economic families with diverse cultural backgrounds. Within this three week period drawing from the Australian Curriculum I planned a sequence of learning in mathematics in the topics of length, area, mass and volume. Firstly, I carefully considered the Australian Curriculum achievement standard, content descriptors, elaborations and general capabilities to backward map my sequence of learning beginning with my summative assessment (Churchill et al., 2019). This aligns with standard 2.2 organising content into an effective teaching and learning sequence. The achievement standard clearly states the expectation of capability in the related learning topic, in this case use informal units to measure and compare shapes (ACARA, 2023).
The lesson sequence consisted of collecting pre-data, followed by three lessons, finishing with a summative assessment. The teaching strategies I utilised throughout the lesson sequences were varied. I began with a link to prior knowledge through real-world connections, showing students a video of measurement being used in the workplace. This was followed by questioning and a whole class discussion to ascertain students’ prior understanding and giving me an opportunity to address any misconceptions (Churchill et al., 2019). Next, I explicitly taught the concept length and modelled how to measure the length of an object using a metre long string. I then facilitated hands-on learning (Churchill et al., 2019) providing each mixed ability pair with their own metre long string with an object to measure. In conclusion, we had a whole class reflection guided by questioning (Churchill et al., 2019). What did you find challenging with this task? What strategies did you use to help you estimate and measure the length of your object? Each pair were required to document their estimation followed by their measurement which I used to inform my next lesson along with the anecdotal notes I took from observing students through their hands-on learning. These teaching strategies relate to standard 2.1 demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
To finalise the lesson sequence students completed a summative assessment which was 40 questions on Maths Online, made of multiple choice and calculating questions from topics of length, area, mass and volume. These were varying in difficulty to provide differentiation for students and to provide students with ample opportunity to demonstrate their level of understanding. Through this teaching and learning cycle I am demonstrating my capability of standard 2.3 use curriculum, reporting and assessment knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans. The teaching strategies I used were effective, engaging, meaningful and provided successful educational outcomes for all students.
Please click link to artefacts for standard 2. https://create.usq.edu.au/renee-cook/examples-of-teaching-impact/standard-2-artefacts/
References
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2023). Mathematics – Year 2. ACARA https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/learning-areas/mathematics/year-2
Churchill, R., Godinho, S., Johnson, N., Keddie, A., Letts, W., Lowe, K., Mackay, J., Mcgill, M., Moss, J., Nagel, M., & Shaw, K. (2019). Teaching making a difference. (4th ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
