Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

Summary Sheet for Assignment 2: Differentiated Learning

Experience
Name & Student Number: Daniel Bousfield (2119375)
Curriculum (Learning) Area of Lesson or Learning Task: HASS (Sub-Strand - History)
Specific Topic of Lesson or Learning Task: Continuity and Change
Year Level/s: Year 4

Differentiation Choices
Mark the appropriate box/es

1. For this assignment, I have chosen to design a differentiated:

Learning Menu or Agenda
Choice Board
RAFT
Summative Assessment Task or Unit of Work
Lesson with Specific Adjustments for Students with Special Needs
Series of Tasks for Learning Centres or Stations
Learning Task or Lesson with Innovative Use of Technology to Support
Differentiation

2. My lesson or learning task is differentiated to address differences in student:

Readiness
Interest
Learning profile preferences

Lesson Context

This lesson fits into the discipline of HASS, sub-strand History. The unit of work looks at
European settlers and their journeys, specifically, how they affected Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples, why they journeyed to Australia, and how Australia was prior to
their settlement. The aim of this lesson is to acquaint students with a specific
nation/culture and encourage them to use prior knowledge, and the knowledge learnt
throughout the topic to construct a persuasive text. The persuasive text piece is to be
written from the point of view of an individual and/or group from a specific cultural
background/decent, persuading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples as to why
they should be allowed to settle in Australia. This lesson draws on the concepts of change
and continuity and cause and effect, as part of the History Concept Wheel (Association of
Independent Schools of SA, 2017). During this lesson, students will be asked to create a
text connecting their understanding of a specific settling nation, using persuasive writing.
Students have specifically covered persuasive texts in previous years, during English
lessons/units. As this is the last lesson of a 10-lesson unit (60 mins per lesson), students
will be summatively assessed to gauge individual knowledge, understandings and skills
Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

learnt throughout the unit of work. This content knowledge may then be transferrable to
learning tasks associated with future units across multiple disciplines.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives of this lesson have been adapted from the Australian Curriculum
Year 4 concept for developing understanding; students learn about the diversity of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, their connection to place (sources,
perspectives, significance) and their contact with other societies (change and continuity,
perspectives, empathy). Through a study of navigation, exploration and/or trade (sources),
students come to learn about Australias early colonisation and develop understandings
about contact between societies (continuity and change, cause and effect) and its effects
on people and their environments (perspectives, empathy) (ACARA, 2017). At the
completion of this lesson, the standards which students should achieve, in relation to
content descriptors (ACHASSK085) & (ACELY1694), include:
Students compare and contrast different settling nations
Students analyse how settlers impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Peoples
Students can transfer their historical knowledge into written form (persuasive text)

History Achievement Standard:

By the end of Year 4, students recognise the significance of events in bringing
about change. They explain how and why life changed in the past and identify
aspects of the past that have remained the same. They describe the experiences
of an individual or group in the past.
Students sequence information about events and the lives of individuals in
chronological order with reference to key dates. They develop questions about the
past and locate, collect and sort information from different sources to answer these
questions. They analyse sources to detect points of view. Students develop and
present texts, including narrative recounts, using historical terms.

English Achievement Standard:

Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 4, students understand that texts have different text structures
depending on purpose and context. They explain how language features, images
and vocabulary are used to engage the interest of audiences. They describe literal
and implied meaning connecting ideas in different texts
Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)

Students use language features to create coherence and add detail to their texts.
They understand how to express an opinion based on information in a text. They
create texts that show understanding of how images and detail can be used to
extend key ideas. Students create structured texts to explain ideas for different
audiences.

Content Descriptor:
1. Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to
Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHASSK085) - This is the
primary content descriptor for the lesson.
2. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing
key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences,
demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features
(ACELY1694) - This is the secondary content descriptor for the lesson.

As a result of engaging with the lesson, students will:

understand that:
Students will understand the significance of historical events and how they brought
about change
Students will understand how different text types can reflect the past
know: be able to (do):
Students will know dates Students will be able to
surrounding early settlers in chronologically sequence
Australia information about events and
Students will know the key individuals
components involved with Students will be able to compare
persuasive writing and make connections between
different cultural groups
Essential Questions

Why did the great journeys of exploration occur?

Why did the Europeans settle in Australia?
What does influence mean to you?
Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

Differentiated Learning Task & Rubric

Introduction (5 mins)
Hook students by asking them to brainstorm ideas about what to include in a
persuasive piece
Clearly state students will be constructing an individual persuasive piece of text
Provide students with appropriate assessment task dependent on readiness levels
(pre-determined using multiple assessment methods throughout the unit)

Body (20 mins prep, 30 mins writing)

Students will co-construct knowledge, understandings and skills by creating a draft
and researching specific aspects of their text, that they would like to include within
their persuasive text
Students will construct their persuasive text and hand up at the completion of the
lesson

Conclusion (5 mins)
Discuss how persuasive texts are a great way of portraying bias
Summarise key content learnt throughout the unit of work

Resources
Interactive Whiteboard
Tiered Assessment Tasks
Assessment Rubric

For this assessment piece, students have been separated into three individual groups that
have been determined based on student readiness. All three groups will be marked using
the same rubric.

Group 1 (Minimal Readiness)

Students will be able to write at least a paragraph that successfully states and supports a
main idea.
Group 2 (Intermediate Readiness)
Students will be able to write at least 2 paragraphs that states a point of view and
successfully defends the idea of the point of view, using main ideas and supporting details.
Group 3 (Advanced Readiness)
Students will be able to write at least 4 paragraphs that state a point of view, defends the
point of view, and uses resources to support the point of view.
Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

Summative Assessment Persuasive Piece Rubric

Achievement
Needs Work Satisfactory Proficient
Standard

Draft/planning
design element of
persuasive piece

Content is
historically/cultural
ly accurate

Appropriately and
correctly represent
the historical
references present

Explanation

For the learning activity (persuasive piece), students will be organised into tiered groups, as
to better cater for their learning needs and readiness levels. This will be achieved by
providing individual assessment expectations for each readiness group. Tomlinson (as cited
in Doubet & Hockett, 2015) explains that tiered tasks are useful when a teacher wants to
ensure that students with different degrees of learning proficiency work with the same
essential ideas and use the same key knowledge and skills (p. 180). Therefore, this lesson
reflects a suitable route with which all students can achieve the same learning objectives,
whilst taking varying paths throughout.

This summative assessment was chosen as it provides students with a way of critically
thinking about historical aspects within a persuasive piece and being able to portray their
knowledge and understandings, using a multimodal format. Mayer & Moreno (2003, as cited
in Moreno & Mayer, 2007) suggest that, meaningful learning occurs when the learner
spends conscious effort in cognitive processes such as selecting, organizing, and integrating
new information with existing knowledge, when discussing the positive aspects of
multimodal learning based on cognitive and motivational research (p. 313). Summative
assessment is not just done to determine a students grade, there are benefits that occur
when implementing this form of assessment. Moon (2005) says that summative assessment
can, provide insight for students on what they do well, the degree of skill that they have in
Daniel Bousfield EDUC4721 - Assignment 2 2119375

an area, and in what areas they may need additional work. In all instances, students are
facilitated in becoming self-reflective learners (p. 231). This of course is dependent on
teacher feedback but, if implemented correctly and if given the appropriate and necessary
feedback, teachers are providing their students with the next stepping stone to becoming a
self-reflective learner.

Although this lesson is a History based, HASS lesson, as seen, it is also able to incorporate
curriculum content from the discipline of English too. By utilising cross-curriculum learning,
not only does a students overall workload become lighter but, it also allows them to deepen
their understanding and make connections across multiple disciplines. It is not only the
students who benefit from this process though. Collaborative moderation presents the
chance for informed professional development, where teachers can access new ways of
thinking, verify their judgements and improve teaching practice (Jones & McInerney, 2016).

References

Association of Independent Schools of South Australia (AISSA). (2017). Learning

Areas, History, Retrieved from: http://www.ais.sa.edu.au/teaching-learning/learning-
areas
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2017). F-10
Curriculum, Humanities and Social Sciences, F-6/7 HASS. Retrieved from:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/humanities-and-social-
sciences/hass/curriculum/f-10?y=4&s=H&s=G&layout=1
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2017). F-10
Curriculum, English, Retrieved from:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1#level4
Doubet, K. J., & Hockett, J. A. (2015). Differentiating according to student readiness.
Chapter 7 in Differentiation in middle and high school: Strategies to engage all
learners (pp. 173-206). Alexandria, Virginia; ASCD.
Jones, S. & McInerney, M. (2016). Lecture 2: To assess or not to assess? That is
the question [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from
https://flo.flinders.edu.au/mod/lecture/view.php?id=1473685
Moon, T. R. (2005). The role of assessment in differentiation. Theory into
Practice, 44(3), 226-233.
Moreno, R., & Mayer, R. (2007). Interactive multimodal learning
environments. Educational Psychology Review, 19(3), 309-326.