Professional Practice
Literacy skills such as reading and writing need to be learnt together by students as they reinforce one another. When developing a broad range of assessment strategies you must consider that there will be a diverse range of students in your classroom. Some students may be ESL or have some form of learning difficulties. But all students need to be assessed and deserve the opportunity to learn reading and writing.
I was exposed to a diverse group of students during my second year placement. I was placed at Campbellfield Heights Primary School. The school was located in a low socio-economical area and many of the students were from non-English speaking families. I was in a grade 3\4 class and saw first hand the differences in abilities with reading and writing. The students were assessed and placed into groups according to abilities. There was one boy in particular who really struggled. He had only been in Australia for a number months and really needed assistance with his literacy skills. Teachers had to take into account although he couldn’t speak English very well, that didn’t mean he was at a low level of education. So treating him like he was uneducated was something that you couldn’t do. I was asked to teach him and develop his literacy skills. Understanding that his English was not at a grade 3\4 standard I started by developing his visual understanding first. Using pictures as a way to help him identify what books were about and what words meant as well as introducing him to the 100 most commonly used words. I used eBooks such as Dr. Suess “The Lorax” and other eBooks. Throughout the year he showed signs of improvement and from beginning on grade prep standard books to reading at a grade 2 standard by the time I had completed my placement.
According to PoLT teachers must learn to understand and know the students they are teaching. This is one of the things that must be taken into account when developing a broad of assessment strategies. Understanding the students in your class and their preferred learning style has two benefits. It assists teachers understand students areas of weakness, gives them the opportunity to work on becoming more proficient and it helps students utilize their strengths, which might be useful in different situations. According to Kolb he state “In an ESL institution, use of the inventory has two benefits for learners. It helps them understand their learning styles, and thus "make transitions to higher levels of personal and cognitive functioning. It also allows teachers to cover materials in a way that best fits the diversity of the classroom. (Kolb, 1993).” As teachers we need understand the abilities and characters of the students we are teaching in order to develop the best possible lessons develop and improve students learning.
Effective teachers use different teaching strategies because there is not only one, general approach that suits all circumstances. Different strategies are used and are combined with other strategies to improve learning outcomes. There are strategies that are better suited to teach a particular skill and other are more suited to a particular student learning styles and ability. An effective pedagogy approach that includes different teaching strategies will support intellectual engagement, connectedness to the wider world, supportive classroom environments, and recognition of difference. Once this is recognized it should be implemented across all key-learning areas, which will show improvement to students' and teachers' confidence and provides a purpose for being at school. This also provides a confidence in the quality of learning and teaching in the school. During year 4 placement at St. Francis of Assisi I used a few pedagogical approach for all different types of situations. While planning for a maths unit about number lines I focused on the learning by doing and learning through discussion pedagogical approaches. I combined these two approaches with the use of an interactive whiteboard and in a class students and I engaged in a discussion about number lines. This proved to be very successful as further assessment showed that students in the class an improved knowledge about number lines.
While in second year placement school broad range of teaching strategies where used to teach students with very low literacy skills. The use of technology (laptops, interactive whiteboards) was one of the most effective ways, which engaged students and brought out the best in all students. The use of technology would be one assessment strategy I would use in a diverse classroom. As it proved to been very successful in my year 2 classes it would be something I would use with my diverse students. With more schools heading towards becoming more technologically based, the use of computers would be a great way to assess student’s literacy skills. Applications on apple IPads, such as the Dr. Suess books, read along with you and tell you the meanings of words to other reading applications. But we must not entirely rely on technology. Students need to learn to read and write the tradition ways by writing different styles of writing (Influential pieces, story, editorials) then typing them out and reading hard cover books.
I was exposed to a diverse group of students during my second year placement. I was placed at Campbellfield Heights Primary School. The school was located in a low socio-economical area and many of the students were from non-English speaking families. I was in a grade 3\4 class and saw first hand the differences in abilities with reading and writing. The students were assessed and placed into groups according to abilities. There was one boy in particular who really struggled. He had only been in Australia for a number months and really needed assistance with his literacy skills. Teachers had to take into account although he couldn’t speak English very well, that didn’t mean he was at a low level of education. So treating him like he was uneducated was something that you couldn’t do. I was asked to teach him and develop his literacy skills. Understanding that his English was not at a grade 3\4 standard I started by developing his visual understanding first. Using pictures as a way to help him identify what books were about and what words meant as well as introducing him to the 100 most commonly used words. I used eBooks such as Dr. Suess “The Lorax” and other eBooks. Throughout the year he showed signs of improvement and from beginning on grade prep standard books to reading at a grade 2 standard by the time I had completed my placement.
According to PoLT teachers must learn to understand and know the students they are teaching. This is one of the things that must be taken into account when developing a broad of assessment strategies. Understanding the students in your class and their preferred learning style has two benefits. It assists teachers understand students areas of weakness, gives them the opportunity to work on becoming more proficient and it helps students utilize their strengths, which might be useful in different situations. According to Kolb he state “In an ESL institution, use of the inventory has two benefits for learners. It helps them understand their learning styles, and thus "make transitions to higher levels of personal and cognitive functioning. It also allows teachers to cover materials in a way that best fits the diversity of the classroom. (Kolb, 1993).” As teachers we need understand the abilities and characters of the students we are teaching in order to develop the best possible lessons develop and improve students learning.
Effective teachers use different teaching strategies because there is not only one, general approach that suits all circumstances. Different strategies are used and are combined with other strategies to improve learning outcomes. There are strategies that are better suited to teach a particular skill and other are more suited to a particular student learning styles and ability. An effective pedagogy approach that includes different teaching strategies will support intellectual engagement, connectedness to the wider world, supportive classroom environments, and recognition of difference. Once this is recognized it should be implemented across all key-learning areas, which will show improvement to students' and teachers' confidence and provides a purpose for being at school. This also provides a confidence in the quality of learning and teaching in the school. During year 4 placement at St. Francis of Assisi I used a few pedagogical approach for all different types of situations. While planning for a maths unit about number lines I focused on the learning by doing and learning through discussion pedagogical approaches. I combined these two approaches with the use of an interactive whiteboard and in a class students and I engaged in a discussion about number lines. This proved to be very successful as further assessment showed that students in the class an improved knowledge about number lines.
While in second year placement school broad range of teaching strategies where used to teach students with very low literacy skills. The use of technology (laptops, interactive whiteboards) was one of the most effective ways, which engaged students and brought out the best in all students. The use of technology would be one assessment strategy I would use in a diverse classroom. As it proved to been very successful in my year 2 classes it would be something I would use with my diverse students. With more schools heading towards becoming more technologically based, the use of computers would be a great way to assess student’s literacy skills. Applications on apple IPads, such as the Dr. Suess books, read along with you and tell you the meanings of words to other reading applications. But we must not entirely rely on technology. Students need to learn to read and write the tradition ways by writing different styles of writing (Influential pieces, story, editorials) then typing them out and reading hard cover books.