102086 - Designing teaching and learning

Part A.

Standard 1: Know students and how they learn.

Focus area: differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of
students across the full range of abilities.
1.5.1.
This standard primary focus is on the understanding of different learning needs
of students and implementing teaching strategies that accommodates to the diversity of
the class. Specifically, the standard focuses on the teachers ability to construct a lesson
plan that can accommodate to diverse learners to support the learners. In the domain of
teaching standard one is part of the Professional knowledge domain this means that
teachers use this professional knowledge to respond to the needs of the learners. The
lesson plan incorporates this standard in various aspects of the structure. The lesson plan
incorporates the standards in the class tasks and in the reflections; the reflections that
have been made by the teacher to follow up in students, records the lesson outcomes and
a documentation of student skills, attitudes, and knowledge.

Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it.

Focus area: Curriculum, assessment and reporting.
2.3.1.
Standard two is also part of the Professional knowledge domain of teaching
strategies. This standard emphases the importance of applying the curriculum in lessons;
teachers must be familiar with the content and learning outcomes. It states that the
curriculum must be implemented while designing assessments and learning sequences.

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

The standard focuses heavily on the teachers understanding of strategies, learning

sequence, general capabilities of students, and the application in order to maximize
student outcomes. The curriculum outcomes are noted in the syllabus outcomes
section of the lesson plan, there are no more than two achieved. The lesson plan is based
around the BOSTES curriculum content and outcomes. The objective of the lesson for
students to gain an understanding of Australias involvement in World War two through
the analysis of Prime minister Menzies speech (ACL, 2015). This strongly affiliates to
the content structure of ACDSEH095 ,ACDSEH024, ACDSEH096 and ACDSEH109
(BOSTES, 2016). It also adheres to two syllabus outcomes of the curriculum, HT5-10
and HT5-5 (BOSTES, 2016).

Standard 4: Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments.

Focus area: manage classroom activities.
4.2.1.
Another standard achieved is 4.2.1, which states that a teacher must be able to
effectively organize classroom and articulate directions to their students. The lesson
plan breaks up the lesson into section, as seen in the lesson stage section. The teacher
instructs the students on what the lesson is about and what the aim is, see the lesson
aim section. The lesson plan clearly directs students in class activities. It provides a
coherent and clear schedule that is articulated by the teacher. The lesson plan offers a
schedule that orders from role call, introduction, activity one, then activity two, and
finally a revision/ conclusion.

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

Standard 5: Asses, provide feedback and report on student learning.

Focus area: Make consistent and comparable judgments.
5.3.1.
This standard focuses on providing feedback and reports on students learning.
The standard also highlights that teachers must recognizes their students capability and
make judgments that are compatible for the advancement of their learning. Teacher must
examine their students performances in order to establish a lesson plan that caters to
their diverse learning needs. Furthermore, self-reflections conducted after each lesson
executed will assist the teacher in constructing new lessons. Within the lesson plan there
are two activities that are tailored to the capability of the class, the first activity is used
to help the students establish an understanding of the topic, they are to complete a
simple table that outlines the allies and axis information. The second activity is an
observation and reflection task, students are to observe a video and write a two
paragraph personal reflection.

Part B.
Report.

The year 9 history lesson plan constructed by the Australian Curriculum Lessons
(ACL) does focus on diverse learning needs (2015). The main objective is to assist
underperforming students, this is evident throughout the lesson plan in various areas,
such as: the tasks, and the teacher reflections. Therefore the lesson plan only standard

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

1.5.1 focus area differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students
across the full range of abilities (AITSL, 2014). However, this lesson plan is mostly
constructed to assist under performing students and over looks gifted students. Gifted
students tend to prefer challenging learning materials to stimulate them. In Capern and
Hammonds research on the behaviors of gifted students and students with
Emotional/behavioral disorders (2014). This research had discovered that gifted
students often face sociological issues (Capern and Hammond, 2014). In addition,
students who excel academically are often bored in classes this is because they finish
the set tasks and are unable to reflect on the lesson (Capern & Hammond, 2014; Walker,
2015). The tasks set out in the lesson plan are simple and cater to diverse learners.
However in order to accommodate for gifted students a simple adaptation to the
reflecting aspect of the lesson can be made. Rather than have two or three students read
their letters the conclusion to the lesson should be a class discussion on the video, this
allows all students to reflect on the speech and relate it back to the curriculum topic.
This change allows gifted students to actively participate and it eliminates boredom.

Nonetheless, the lesson plan adheres to diversity in the second standard is

implemented, 2.3.1 Curriculum, assessment and reporting (AITSL 2014), which focus
on out comes and content that are outlined in the Australian curriculum for history. The
Australian curriculum focus on general literacy capabilities in all subject areas, not just
in English, this is a requirement that all students are to meet (Lu & Cross, 2014). The
lesson plan caters to diverse literacy needs by using mixed approaches in delivering
information to students. Students are only require to use basic literacy skills, there is no
extensive writing that requires specific format knowledge, for example essay writing

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

that requires students to know how to form topic sentences and organizes writing into
and introduction, body and conclusion. The lesson teaches the curriculum content
through a video and a short reading. After each activity students are required to write
reflections, specifically seen in the second activity, or to construct basic maps/timelines,
as seen in activity one. Literacy skills are interwoven in the curriculum across various
subjects these are categorized as general capabilities, which is then supported by the
national standards (Lu & Cross, 2014; Leu, Mcverry, OByrne, Kiili, Zawilinski,
Everett-Cacopardo, Kennedy & Forzani, 2011).

Standard 5.3.1, make consistent and comparable judgments (AITSL 2014), is

present in the lesson plan. The structure of the activities is catered to the students
capability and the teacher makes judgments that are compatible for the advancement of
the students learning. The activities are made to support students with limited literacy.
The activities use technology to support students who are achieving less than the
BOSTES general literacy capability standard (Leu, Mcverry, OByrne, Kiili, Zawilinski,
Everett-Cacopardo, Kennedy & Forzani, 2011). The lesson uses minimal readings and
relies on students having basic writing knowledge, understanding sentences and
paragraphs. This construction of the lesson is based on the teachers prior knowledge of
the students capability. After and before the lesson the teacher takes notes on the
students abilities and which students need to be followed up on. The teacher documents
the specific needs of the class in order to effectively address diverse learning needs in
the class. This standard overlaps with standard 4.2.1, manage classroom activates
(AITSL 2014). Through the management of classroom activities the teacher is able to
tailor the material to different learning needs. The original lesson plan made by ACL

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

primarily focuses on underperforming students with limited literacy skills. And by

simply adapting the class discussion, which concludes the lesson, gifted students are
able to engage more, and this eliminates boredom.

The lesson plan addresses diversity in the classroom, it addresses literacy levels
and cogitative understanding. The diverse cognitive learning levels have been addressed
and can be seen in the activity structure, 4.2.1. The initial activity is to give the students
a basic understanding of the chronological ordering, through the world map/ timeline
activity (Ewing, Foster & Whittingtion, 2011). This activity allows students who are
still adapting to formal operational thought to better grasp an understanding of the topic
being taught (Swing, Foster & Whittington, 2011). The order and management of the
activities help to gives students a linear structure, allowing them to process the content.
There is diversity amongst students development as well as in the academic ability,
such as literacy skills. The four standards achieved in the lesson plan: 1.5.1, 2.3.1, 5.3.1
and 4.2.1, cater to diverse learning needs.

Peer Feedback.
The feedback that had been given by four peers had stated that there had to be a
clear link between the lesson plan and the standards, specifically Esen and Mark had
stated this. The report plan had been changed in it s orientation to accommodate this
feedback. Every paragraph contains a standard with links to the chosen lesson plan. And
also to make it more clear the standards focus area have been quoted as well as having
the graduate standard documented, 1.5.1, 2.3.1, 5.3.1 and 4.2.1. In addition, Phillip had
commented that there needed to be more explanation of the standard in Part A, this had

102086 - Designing teaching and learning

been done. Naomi, mention that there had to be more detail in the benefits of the
activities and how they relate to the standards, this had been addressed in part B.
Furthermore, all peers had agreed that the standards selected had been appropriate, and
were related to the lesson plan. Overall the peer review has assisted in organizing the
structure of the report and had provided critical feedback on what needs to be
incorporated and improved.

102086 - Designing teaching and learning