Component B: Planning for Teaching and Learning

Name: David Allan Watson

Student No: 32352806
Course Code: B1319

PEx site for EDB174

Year level/s taught: Three
School context – metropolitan
Was there a whole school pedagogical approach? Yes No

Classroom section only pertains to the class you taught for your learning sequence
Classroom context: My year three class contained 18 boys and 5 girls. The class was culturally diverse with 4
students having an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander background, 2 students having an Asian background and
one boy recently moving from France to Australia and could speak fluently in both languages.

Who was your learning sequence directed to: The learning was directed at two year three students who have a
below average reading age.

High Frequency words checklist

Student A Commented [DW1]: The high frequency checklist was not
Anecdotal Notes the best way to determine student A and B’s reading ability.
However, it did show a few trends with particular words. In
the future, I would definitely have students take the
Student A Waddington test. This would help to determine the areas of
learning that needed the most improvements and how to
plan and teach the learning sequences. The Waddington
test would highlight a bigger range of areas that needed
improvement.
Commented [DW2]: Anecdotal note taking was a great
way to identify what students knew and what to include in
the next lesson or lessons. It also helped me to reflect on
my own teaching. As my teaching career continues, I will
make it a personal goal to collect more concise anecdotal
Student B Student B notes.

Figure 2. Anecdotal notes of student A and Bs reading

ability

Figure 1. High frequency checklist from

student A and B
 Component B: Planning for Teaching and Learning

Background Information

To give you a better understanding of the students discussed through the QTPA, I want to talk about the previous
reading group arrangements and the changes I made for inclusion and engagement during reading groups. Two
classes of around 23 students were streamed into reading groups based on ability. There were four groups
altogether and each day they rotated through specifically designed learning activities. Unfortunately, group four
were at a very low cognitive and social level and lessons were not catered to their abilities. The first week taking this
reading group proved very difficult, with poor behaviour a standout, because activities were too difficult. In short, I
managed to communicate with colleagues- evidence of APST standard 7. Engage professionally with colleagues,
parents/carers and the community- and move five students back to decodables and keep two students on the same
reading books, which I will refer to as student A and student B during the QTPA assignment.
Note: I took both of the low ability groups on Tuesdays and Thursdays- the other group, containing five students,
who were at a lower reading level than student A and B. This proved to be a significant challenge for the term and
was sometimes very overwhelming with all the support and one on one that was required by most of the students.

Teaching and Learning Statement

From the evidence above and constant observations, I was able to determine the level of student achievement and
learning to determine learning goals and teaching styles I would use in my learning sequence. I chose explicit
teaching alongside the inquiry approach (5-E model) because student A and B needed a detailed explanation before
and during the lesson to understand exactly what was expected of them. The inquiry approach also fitted well
because the students’ attention spans were limited and keeping focus on one or two activities for the entire lesson
was challenging. The inquiry approach to teaching and learning provides a range of quick and engaging activities
that allows student knowledge be used and exploration to take place during the lesson. This limits disengagement as
a result of activities not dragging on or becoming stagnant.

On initiation of the new reading group, my goal was to increase participation and engagement. After a few sessions,
it was evident that, students were very capable of achieving specific goals if learning activities were short, fun and
suited to their abilities, including attention spans and cognition. This relates directly to APST standard 1- Know
students and how they learn. An example of a learning goal was to increase students’ pronunciation and spelling of
high frequency words. At the start of each lesson I would conduct a spelling test on student whiteboards, these
words could either be from the reading book or from the high frequency word checklist- see above. Students would
challenge each other when the words were being spelt and they would always be eager to see if they could improve
on their spelling by the end of the lesson. Student A and B were always excited to come to reading because they
knew lessons provided realistic and achievable goals through engaging activities.
 Component B: Planning for Teaching and Learning

Overview of Learning Sequence

# of learning Five learning experiences

experiences
Overall learning There were three overall learning goals and they were:
goal of learning - Know that if an ‘e’ is at the end of a word the vowel will change from a short sound to
sequence
a long sound (exceptions apply)
- Make connections between print and images to identify unknown words, and
- Make valid inferences using information in a text and students’ prior knowledge

Brief overview Throughout the five learning experiences, students learnt about making valid inferences from
of content information and pictures; they learnt about the segmentation and blending of high frequency
and low frequency words; they learnt about some familiar letter sound relationships i.e. a_e,
i_e and u_e. These are the content descriptors that were chosen as the learning content
through the learning sequence (ACELY1669), (ACELY1670), (ACELA1471)

Overview of - The Ice Festival book x 3

resources use - Segmenting blocks (graphs, digraphs and trigraphs)
- Mini whiteboards
- Picture/spelling game
- iPads- studyladder.com
- Reading scrap books
- Reading choice board
 Component B: Planning for Teaching and Learning

One Learning Sequence

Lesson objective/learning goal:

*Learning objective one- understand that the short vowel is changed to a long sounding vowel if an ‘e’ is at the
end of a word. Commented [DW3]: This learning objective was chosen so
student A and B could achieve a higher score on the high
*Learning objective- connect text to pictures to identify unfamiliar words
frequency word checklist.
*Success criteria: student will be able to vocalise and spell a list of five words by the end of the lesson. Commented [DW4]: This learning objective was chosen so
* Higher participation and engagement levels from both students student A and B did not have to rely solely on letter
blending; they could use the reading strategy of connecting
Content/skills Engage & Explore pictures with text.
being - Spelling - say the following 5 words- students write down on whiteboards (mule,
taught/practiced: tune, fuse, tube and fluke) Commented [DW5]: The inquiry approach using the 5-E
model was a great way to engage the learners and maintain
*Letter sound - Students take in turns reading out the words- what sounds do you hear? Why is it the their attention.
relationship with long sounding vowel, not the short sounding vowel? Commented [DW6]: Continuous questioning was a way
the following Explain that I was able to assess formatively throughout the lesson
graphemes: a_e - Student A and B come up with a rule/s for words that end with the letter ‘e’- make it and give immediate feedback.
& u_e clear that there are some exceptions (display student definition on the board for the
(ACELA1471)
week). Students can add or modify rules through the lesson. Commented [DW7]: Students use their own knowledge
and understanding to generate a rule/s. This relates back to
*Connecting text my teaching philosophy- students inquire about specific
- Read out learning object and success criteria- LO- students will know the short vowel
to pictures to content.
identify turns to a long vowel if an ‘e’ is on the end of a word- SC- students will be able to
unfamiliar words spell and say five words from the with an ‘e’ on the end- display on whiteboard. Commented [DW8]: Visual display of the learning objective
(ACELY1670) and the success criteria is a good way for students to
Elaborate understand the reason for the lesson and refer back to
constantly.
- Student open their books and identify all the words that end with an ‘e’- If you find
Resources:
one please put your hand up and say the word to the teacher- write these words on
*The Ice Festival the whiteboard. Are these words different to the words we spelt at the start? Do you
book x 3 say them differently? Commented [DW9]: This is a great way to make your rules
for the concept being taught- which is letter-sound
*Letter blocks relationship between the a_e and u_e changing the short
- Start by identifying the author and illustrator- where do you find the author and
(for segmenting vowel in to a long vowel.
illustrator?
Commented [DW12]: Student A and B responded well to
and blending
hands-on activities and enjoyed learning when they could
- Each student takes turns to read a page- does what you read match the illustrations? manipulate objects. This resource supported the learning
words)
and achievement of the learning goal.
*Whiteboard - Explain worksheet and make student A and B know what to do. Students work
and marker x 3 independently to finish the worksheet- Finished worksheet is attached below. Commented [DW13]: Changing between the whiteboards
Evaluate and pencil and paper provided higher engagement levels
Teaching from student A and B. Activities were not stagnant and
strategy used: A - Use the letter blocks to make as many words that end with ‘e’ in 3 minutes. Students student attention was maintained as a result.
say their words while the teacher records on the board- what sounds do you here?
blend of explicit
What happens to the vowel if the word ends with an ‘e’? What are some exceptions? Commented [DW10]: By being able to segment and blend
instructions and the blocks, students could visually see which letter and
- Test student on the same word at the start of the lesson and the words identified in letter combinations made the sound in the word.
inquiry approach
the book using personal whiteboards. Commented [DW11]: This was used as a great formative
assessment to gage whether the learning objective was
achieved.
 Component B: Planning for Teaching and Learning

How did I measure the achievement of the learning goal?

- Spelling test at the start and the end of the lesson- /5
- Observation of student A and B segmenting and blending word using the word blocks
- Record on checklist or write in student observation booklet Commented [DW14]: This was a quick and easy way to
record student achievement through the lesson. I then
Evaluation: made informed teacher judgements whether I needed to re-
- From the learning experience student, A and B practiced letter-sound relationships and linking pictures teach the content.

with text to identify unfamiliar words.

- Planning the lesson again I would make small changes to the worksheet to include another small activity
which would work on identifying works with an ‘e’ at the end and making students record saying those
words on an iPad. Commented [DW15]: It would have been a great time to
use ICT to record how student A and B verbalised words
with an ‘e’ on the end.