Tiered unit (Differentiated by Readiness)

Name and student number: Trent Dolling- 2106916

Unit Overview no more than a page long

During this unit students will engage in a visual learning experience through a selected movie. They
will be asked to take note of key events that happened throughout the movie, certain aspects that
they find interesting, and techniques that might have been used to portray a scene in a certain
manner. From this, they will be asked to critically analyse these particulars and report on their overall
thoughts of the movie. A creative aspect of the report will merit extra marks. The class is easily
distracted and social which often leads to minimal work being achieved. Peer work and group work is
an effective method for this class as they are allowed to maintain that social aspect of class, but they
must have clear instructions on what to do. The class interact reasonably well with each other and are
respectful of the teacher.
Curriculum Area

English

Year level : 9

Content Descriptor

Language for Interaction

Investigate how evaluation can be expressed directly and indirectly
using devices, for example allusion, evocative vocabulary and
metaphor (ACELA1552)
Expressing and Developing Ideas
Analyse and explain the use of symbols, icons and myth in still and
moving images and how these augment meaning (ACELA1560)
Creating Texts
Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that present
a point of viewand advance or illustrate arguments, including texts
that integrate visual, print and/or audio features (ACELY1746)

Learner
This year 9 class has a diverse level of learners whose strengths and
differences/disabilities weaknesses vary as do their interest in English. This class requires structure
in your class
in their learning but must have an input in how the unit is run to create a
sense of ownership to induce engagement.
There is also one student with low levels of Autism who engages well with
the class but will need a clear set of instructions to follow.
Achievement standard
ACARA or SACE
objective
(only put in the
relevant part of the
standard for your
Learning objective)

By the end of Year 9, students analyse the ways that text structures can be
manipulated for effect. They analyse and explain how images, vocabulary
choices and language features distinguish the work of individual authors.

Learning objectives
know, understand and
do

Students will know how to identify the who, what, where, when and why of
a movie

They evaluate and integrate ideas and information from texts to form their
own interpretations. They select evidence from thetext to analyse and
explain how language choices and conventions are used to influence
an audience. They listen for ways texts position an audience.

Students will understand that certain techniques, settings and characters

are used throughout movies to present the movie attractively to its intended
audience.

Students will be able to creatively and engagingly present a movie review

including all the key information
Essential Questions
open ended - the Big
Idea
Pre-Assessment
Readiness Task
attached as
Appendices

Why did this particular moment make me feel this way?

Why and How did the author/director do this?
Is it significant in the overall production?
To pre assess for this unit, we will begin with a general discussion about
students favourite movies and what in particular makes it there favourite?
The aim of this is to initiate a deeper thinking about why they like certain
movies and why they dont like others. It aims to spark critical thinking and
looking under the surface of a movie.
Moving on from this I will get students to complete a small report on what
their ideal movie would include, from actors to genre.
This will help me to differentiate by readiness by looking into the detail of
how they describe and talk about their interests in movies. The more
detailed the description of their movie then I will know their level of
readiness, their knowledge and their understanding.
The final pre assessment task is getting the students to analyse two chosen
movie reviews and complete a table outlining the key characters, scenes and
positives and negatives. This pre assessment task aims to show students
what information they should include in a review, whilst showing me their
level of readiness when identifying these important characteristics
(Appendix 1)
Formative assessment will be key throughout this unit as most of the work
will come after we have watched and discussed key parts of the movie.

Overview of unit
lesson 1

lesson 2

lesson 3

Lesson 1: Creating an understanding of movie reviews (80 min)

General overview of the Unit. The aims of the Unit. The process that
will be undertaken.

Task 1: Discussion about what makes individuals like different

movies, Why?

Task 2: Identifying the key aims of a movie review, Who, What,

Where, When and Why

Analysing two different movie reviews. The hangover and Marc

Fennell movie review. Fill out the Movie Review table (Appendix 1).
Which of the two is better? Why?

Task 4: If you were going to create your perfect movie, what would
it include?

Lesson 2: Beginning the Move (80 min)

Task 1: expectations during the movie. Identifying the: who, what,

were, when and why. Fill out worksheet 1 (Appendix 1)

Task 2: Beginning the Movie: Monty Python and the Holy Grail (92
min total)

Lesson 3: Continuing the Movie (40 min)


lesson 4

lesson 5

lesson 6

Finish the movie

Lesson 4: Discussions (80 Min)

Task 1: A class discussion of the movie. The strengths and

weaknesses, characters, notable scenes, any other comments

Task 2: A run through of the rubric and what is expected in this task

Task 2: Begin on individual Movie reviews referring to handouts

provided.

Lesson 5: Continue on Review (80 Min)

Task 1: Continue on with individual movie reviews

Task 2: When drafts are complete self edit

Lesson 6: Finalising the Review (40 Min)

Task 1: Students should be nearing the end of their review. Make

sure editing is done by themselves and a peer.

Task 2: Extension Task- Write an additional ending to the original

Task 3: Extension Task- Review Simpsons episodes.

Lesson PlanCurriculum Area: English

Learning objective (from
Unit Overview) for this
particular lesson

Year Level: 9
Students will know- the characters names, the genre of the movie and
new descriptive words to describe the movie.
Students will understand- that to critically analyse a movie you must go
beyond your personal opinion and dive into why you feel the way you
do, excluding all bias factors and outside opinions

Essential questions for

this lesson
Lesson number from unit
plan sequence
Suggested content or
outline of lesson
Using the information
from your pre-assessment
task design a lesson based
on different levels of
readiness.
Readiness tasks to be
attached as appendices.

Students will do- discuss and present their personal views on why they
developed a certain opinion of the movie. Students will also be able to
respect each students individual opinion.
What were the strengths and weaknesses of this move, what evidence
made you think this?
How does each character add to the success or the failure of the movie?
4
Length of lesson 80 Min
1 This lesson will start with a whole class discussion on the movie,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. An in depth discussion on the
characters, notable scenes in the movie, and the strengths and
weaknesses, will activate students critical thinking and help them to
begin to analyse the movie. Students will discuss this in depth,
referring to worksheet 1 (Appendix 1) as a helping aid which was
filled out during the movie.

2 Students will now begin to construct their Movie Review using the
notes from worksheet 1, and information taken from the group
discussions. At this stage, the tiering of students will be
implemented through increasing or decreasing the detail of the
required steps to create a Movie Review. For the students
considered to be at tier 1 they will receive a less detailed process
(Appendix 2) and students in tier two will receive a more structured
procedure to create their review (Appendix 3). Both tiers will refer
to the same rubric (Appendix 4) and the same overall task
description (Appendix 5).

3 The end of the lesson will conclude with a debrief of where to go

from here. Students will be reinformed on the timeline for this task,
and be made to ensure they are following the rubric for the task.

Check for understanding

i.e. exit card
Visual, verbal, tactile and
technological supports

Instructional approaches
i.e teacher directed,

Exit Cards will be used at the end of the lesson. (Appendix 6)

Both laptops and books will be acceptable methods of presenting your
movie review.
All task instructions will be handed out in hard copy to assist students
should they need to refer back to the process.
A student directed approach will be taken throughout this task to give
students a claim to their own work and a sense of ownership and

strategy instruction

decision making.

Resources or
supplementary materials
Classroom environment
what have you had to
change to meet student
needs
Lesson reflections (to be
done on completion of
lesson in professional
exp.)

attach as appendices
Although this is an individual task, students will be given the opportunity
to openly discuss any questions they have about the task or their
individual opinions with each other throughout the unit.
What worked? What didnt? Why/Why not? What could I change next
time?

Explanatory notes not to exceed 1 page (size 12 font, Calibri)

How have you linked the theory of differentiation to your lesson unit and plan? Use the
readings to support your answer.
Tomlinson & Imbaeu (2010) identify that readiness, interest and learning profile are the
three key characteristics that guide differentiation. In this lesson plan all three have been
addressed. Tomlinson & Imbaeu (2010) note that students learn better when tasks are a
close match to their skills and understandings and this has been catered for by the tiering of
two different assessment outlines. As talked about by Jarvis in Lecture 4 (2014) Tiering
creates more than one version of a task which allows students to be grouped, depending on
their level of readiness, to the tier which matches their skills and understandings.
Students interest has also been addressed in this unit by allowing them to create their own
voice on the movie. Obviously, not every student will be interested and enjoy the decided
movie, but as Tomlinson & Imbaeu (2010) state, interest can occur by igniting a students
passion and curiosity. The students have the opportunity to share their voice, they have the
chance to share how they either passionately hated or loved the movie. Each task is subject
to the students individual opinion.
Finally, Tomlinson & Imbaeu (2010) note, encouraging students to work in their preferred
manner is an important aspect of differentiation. This has been implemented by the
flexibility of allowing students to present their movie review in any given format. Therefore,
students who prefer to present a visual report may, students who choose to present an
audio report may, or students may report in a written format. The option and responsibility
is placed on the students and they are encouraged to be creative.
The final piece of the unit is assessment. Tomilinson states that well-executed preassessment, formative assessment and summative assessment phases play a pivotal role in
how learning instructions come to be differentiated to meet learners' varied readiness,
interests, and learning profiles.

Jarvis, J. (2014). Differentiating in response to student readiness. EDUC 4720/21

Differentiating for Diverse Learners.
Moon, T. R. (2005). The role of assessment in differentiation. Theory into
Practice, 44(3), 226-233.
Tomlinson, C. A., & Imbaeu, M.B. (2010). The how to's of planning lessons
differentiated by readiness. How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability
classrooms.

How are you catering for the varying levels of readiness? Attach your activities one page
per tier maximum, as appendices.
In this task I have created two tiers to cater for varying levels of readiness and then applied
it to an already flexible assignment. The task in question is a movie review based on Monty
Python and the Holy Grail.
Pre assessment: The pre assessment has been modified to cater for levels of readiness by
creating somewhat of an open forum to begin with. A simple group discussion about
students favourite movies, incorporating guided discovery learning, will begin the process
of analysing movies and exactly what it is that makes the students enjoy them so much.
Students also have the opportunity when analysing their first movie review to choose from a
written review, or an audio review, catering for different learning styles and readiness levels
Main Task : The main task has been differentiated for readiness in a two tiered outline. Tier
one (appendix 2) details a simpler set of instructions, so that these students must critically
think what they have learned from the pre assessment tasks and translate that into their
own review. Tier two (appendix 3) has a more detailed set of instructions, so although they
too must think back to what was discussed and analysed in the pre assessment, their
instructions include hints on what to look at and include in their review. The task has also
been catered for the varying levels of readiness by allowing students to choose their own
form of presentation, giving students the ability to play on their strengths and increase
comfort in doing so.

Appendix 1- Worksheet 1
Notable Scene Changes

Characters

Positives

Negatives

Appendix 2- Tier 1 Students

WRITE A FILM REVIEW!

1. Title Create a title which will entice your audience to read your movie view
2. Paragraph 1 Opening paragraph Start to summarise the film and give early
suggestions about your general view of it (positive/negative).
4. Paragraph 2 Discuss what you consider to be the positives of the film, what did
you like? Why?
5. Paragraph 3 Discuss the negatives of the film, what didnt you like? Why?
6. Paragraph 4 Characterisation talk about the characters, did you like them?
What were their strengths, what were their weaknesses? Did one standout more
than the other? Why?
7. Paragraph 5 Finalise your comments Finish with your overall view on the
movie, was it worth seeing or not? Would you watch it again? Include idioms or
similes to get your view across in a humorous way

Common words and phrases used in film reviews that you might want to use
in your own reviews
spectacular visual effects, excessive violence, breathtaking, evocative, mood,
atmosphere, poorly, unsuccessful, detail, scenery, irresistible, perfect,
moments, plot, this movie has been compared to ____ because, wonderful,
hilarious, momentum, unexpected plot twists, unbelievable, phenomenal,
hype, suspense, disappointing, confusion/confused, fake, imitation, genre,
unoriginal, typical, thrilled, was a very moving portrayal, quality of the film, I
was impressed by, credible, clich, a mixture of, classic, captivating

Appendix 3- Tier 2 Students

WRITE A FILM REVIEW!

1. Title catchy, can indicate if review will be positive or negative, you can play with
words to make it funny or different, for example Bullet Boy fires upon your emotions
or Poseidon sinks and stinks
2. Paragraph 1 Opening paragraph can start to summarise film and give early
suggestions about your general view of it (positive/negative)
3. Paragraph 2 Start or continue summary of film, dont give details about the
ending or else no one will go and see the film!!
4. Paragraph 3 positive things you thought about the film, what did you like?
Why? Use descriptive words, think about the story, setting, effects used, music used
5. Paragraph 4 negative things you thought about the film, what didnt you like?
Why? Comment on the same type of things that you mentioned in paragraphs 3 and
4
6. Paragraph 5 Characterisation talk about the characters, did you like them?
Did the actors play them well? What was it about their portrayal that you liked or
didnt like? Other impressions of the characters, will certain audience members be
able to relate to certain characters? How? Will certain audience members not like
certain characters? Why not?
7. Paragraph 7 Final comments general comments that summarize your view of
the film, you may want to say something inspiring to get the reader to want to go out
and see the film or you might say something that would want them not to go and see
it! After the paragraph you would give it a star rating out of 5 to indicate your rating
for it.
Common words and phrases used in film reviews that you might want to use
in your own reviews
spectacular visual effects, excessive violence, breathtaking, evocative, mood,
atmosphere, poorly, unsuccessful, detail, scenery, irresistible, perfect,
moments, plot, this movie has been compared to ____ because, wonderful,
hilarious, momentum, unexpected plot twists, unbelievable, phenomenal,
hype, suspense, disappointing, confusion/confused, fake, imitation, genre,
unoriginal, typical, thrilled, was a very moving portrayal, quality of the film, I
was impressed by, credible, clich, a mixture of, classic, captivating Appendix 4Task Rubric (Both Tiers)

Appendix 4- Task Rubric (Both Tiers)

CATEGORY

Organization

The Review was

presented and
structured at a high
level. All required
information on the
positives, negatives,
notable scenes and
character input of
the movie was
included in the
report.

The Review was

presented and
structured well.
Most of the
required
information on the
positives,
negatives, notable
scenes and
character input of
the movie was
included in the
report.

The Review was

presented and
structured in a
reasonable
manner. Sections
of the required
information on the
positives,
negatives, notable
scenes and
character input of
the movie was
missing from the
report.

The Review was

presented and
structured at a
minimal level. The
report did not
include all parts of
the positives,
negatives, notable
scenes and
character input of
the movie that
was required in
the report.

/10

Quality of
Report

Quality of the report

showed that student
was able to
comprehensively
understand the task
and creatively
presented their
report.

Quality of the
report showed
that student
understood the
task and was able
to present it in a
creative manner.

Quality of report
showed that
student somewhat
understood the
task but more
time and creativity
was required.

Quality of report
showed that
student needed to
spend more time
planning for the
set task

/5

Grammar

No Grammatical
errors were present.
Sentence structures
flowed well.

Minimal
grammatical
errors were found.
sentences were
soundly
structured.

A few grammatical
errors were
present. Some
work was needed
on sentence
structure.

More time was

required on
editing as there
were a number of
grammatical
errors.

/5

Engagement

Student was
engaged with the
task and participated
in group discussions
often

Student engaged
with tasks and
group discussions
on the regular

Student somewhat
engaged with the
task and the group
discussions

Student showed
minimal interest in
the task and
engaging in group
discussions

/5

Appendix 5- Task Description (Student Handout)

Movie Review
Task Description:
Pre Assessment: Students will initially analyse two types of movie reviews, a
newspaper article and a verbal review. From this, students must complete
worksheet 1 to extract as much information about the movie as they can
from the individual review.
Aim: For student to being understanding how movie reviews are constructed
and presented in different genres and what information they contain.

Main Task: Once the movie has been viewed and notes have been recorded
accordingly, students must create a movie review of their own including
positives and negatives, the main characters and their role in the movie, any
other relevant information which might be important to include to entice
the reader, and an overall opinion of the movie and who it might be good
for. This movie review can be presented in a number of multimodal ways, to
be discussed and approved by the teacher.
Aim: For students to be able to quickly and effectively analyse a movie and
then relay what kind of audience may enjoy the movie. This task also aims
to develop student literary skills and creative writing. It also allows flexibility
for development in ICT modes.

Marking: This assignment will be marked out of 20. Please refer to Rubric for
further details

Appendix 6- Exit Cards

To do with this task, name three things you are unsure about?
1.
2.
3.

To do with this task, name two things that could improve this
task?
1.
2.

Name one strength of this task

1.