Element 3
Teachers plan, assess and report for effective learning
I have achieved planning, assessment, reporting and evaluation during my professional experiences in conjunction with the Assessment Resource Centre, ARC (Board of Studies Website). In my lesson plans, I have been expected to articulate clear learning goals that are appropriate for the students as well as coherent with their current learning. I have provided one of many lesson plans where I have successfully achieved this. In this lesson plan (which is provided through the link at the bottom), I needed to consider the COGS unit I was provided with to meet the needs of the class. The lesson was towards the beginning of the unit. I needed to clearly introduce new concepts of different types of electricity conductivity and then assess my teaching. I managed to do both in the one lesson effectively.
This lesson also shows my use of appropriate yet engaging resources to support students' learning. I chose materials from around the classroom and home to show conductivity of materials. This was effective because students where connecting learning at school to their surroundings. I aim to make all my learning experiences for students have significance, by including background knowledge and connectedness (Quality Teaching Framework). As the activity was completed in pairs on a rotation, it worked well because the students could assist each other. During this time, I walked around to each pair and observed the learning. This was a form of formative assessment (McInerney & McInerney, 2004). At the end of the lesson, we came to the floor to have feedback and comments. It was during this time, where I could provide timely feedback to students about their strengths and weaknesses such as "Great cooperative group work and helping each other out". Social support and inclusivity are keys to a successful classroom (Quality Teaching Framework). Also it helped me see and reflect on my teaching.
As I mentioned before, through my tutoring I have been able to gain more experience with reporting (which is provided through the link at the bottom) and program evaluation. All the work I do requires evaluation by me. This is an ongoing and spontaneous process. I need to combine the students' school work, home life and tutoring to make their learning effective. I have achieved this in a number of cases, but with no evidence to prove it. Continuously I ensure that I have time to speak to parents about their child's progress. I show respect and have build a safe and confortable environment for the parents to ask about their child's education. I also speak Tamil which helps the parents incredibly as they, sometimes, have language barriers to speak with the school teacher.
In this element, I need to develop a recording system to show me the progress of my students. I want this to be an effective strategy. Parents want to know how their children are handling their school world. They want - and need open and honest communication (Groundwater- Smith, Eqing, Le Cornu, 2006, p. 284). I want parents to feel comfortable with me and ask my anything regarding their child's schooling. A major area that interests and I want to make development in is developing a unit of work using the 'backward stepping plan'. I will achieve this by not depending on the units provided by the teacher but from my base work.
I believe that for me to effectively teach a unit or lesson to a class, I need to have created it. This means working it again to fit the class and my teaching pedagogies. I enjoy this and it makes my work feel close to me.
Link to lesson plan with annotations:
http://s850.photobucket.com/albums/ab63/brindi0/?action=view¤t=Image.gif&t=1250293132280
Link to writing criteria with annotations:
http://s850.photobucket.com/albums/ab63/brindi0/?action=view¤t=Image0005.jpg&t=1250460632037
