ETL 425 TEACHING AND LEARNING 3

Assessment and Reporting

TEACHING AND LEARNING 3

This unit teaches the theory and practice of assessment emphasizing how it informs teaching and learning in classrooms. It makes explicit the forms of formative and summative assessment, and additionally it identifies reporting practices in schools.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 6
As the focus of Teaching and Learning 3 is Assessment and reporting, it requires the preservice teacher to address the criteria in domain 6 of the Northern Territory graduate teachers standards. Domain 6 is; Graduate Teachers plan, program, assess and report for effective learning.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 6.1

Graduate teachers use their developing knowledge of students, content and pedagogy to establish clear and achievable learning goals for their students. The three classes that I have been teaching during the last 4 weeks are each made up of a unique combination of students. I have learnt that I need to alter my teaching strategies depending on the group of students in order to teach effectively.

YEAR 11 BIOLOGY
The Biology class is made up of 9 students, 6 girls and 3 boys. Having such a small group provided lots of opportunities to spend time with each student, offering support and managing their learning. The small class has also made it possible to develop a relationship with each of the students and to get to know their individual needs quickly. Whilst presenting new information to the students it was possible to engage them all in discussion of the topic and ensure they were participating.

I designed a practical task where the year 11 Biology students tested different environments at school for microorganisms. This kinaesthetic activity provided a different approach to learning about the types of microorganisms in our every-day environment. The students really enjoyed this task and were surprised by some the results, providing an effective learning experience.

YEAR 11 CHEMISTRY
The year 11 Chemistry class was a large class made up of 28 students. The size of the class and the class-room set-up created a challenging teaching environment. When planning the lessons for the chemistry class I had to ensure the information was delivered in a manner that would support all of the students learning.

A variety of resources were used to gather information on the required content for the topics taught. These included textbooks, past assessments and the SACE subject teaching resources. The resources were used to develop a topic plan to establish achievable goals for the students.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 6.2

Graduate teachers plan and document the use of a range of activities, resources and materials to provide meaningful learning opportunities for students.

YEAR 11 NUTRITION
The year 11 Nutrition class is made up of 21 students. The class is a diverse mix of learners, some of whom are students in the chemistry class also. I integrated a range of different activities into the lesson plans for the Nutrition class to provide meaningful learning opportunities for the students who learn best by visual and kinaesthetic means.

A range of different food packaging samples were available in the classroom to use during teaching activities.

These samples were used in teaching activities for food additives, food labelling and food packaging.

In this activity, students looked at 3 packaging samples and used the information contained in the ingredient listing to learn about what food additives may be present in processed foods and how to identify what they are called and what their function is. Students also considered the packaging material used and identified advantages and disadvantages of the type of packaging.

YEAR 11 CHEMISTRY

As a part of the organic chemistry topic I planned a practical activity to demonstrate some of the common reactions of primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols. Students were able to conduct a number of experiments in small groups which demonstrated the physical properties of alcohols. Students were asked to describe their observations during the experiment and once everyone had completed the tasks, the reactions for each of the experiments were discussed as a class. This Practical activity gave the students an opportunity to learn through being engaged in an activity.

The solubility of alcohols and oxidation of alcohols practical tasks gave the students an opportunity to visualise the physical properties of alcohol that we had been discussing in class.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 6.3

Graduate teachers know how to monitor student engagement in learning and begin to maintain records and report on student learning.

YEAR 11 CHEMISTRY

The organic chemistry topic requires a lot of information to be learnt by students in a relatively short space of time. I experimented with a number of teaching methods to try to engage the students in the subject matter. I found the most successful method to be giving the students worksheets containing the background information of the topic and step-by-step instructions for solving the required problems. This method ensured students had a copy of the information they required which they could then use for revision. If a student was not present at a lesson, the worksheets were a good way of informing the student what was done during the missed lesson and they could then either work with me during free time to catch up or if possible complete the work during the class time.

Providing worksheets for students also meant that I could have more work ready to extend those students who finished early. Students were able to start reading and working as soon as I had given instructions on what to do, rather than waiting for me to write problems on the white board. I could then show solutions on the white board as we worked through some problems as a class.

BEGINNING TO MAINTAIN RECORDS

During practicum I have been marking student attendance on a role sheet, this task has been an effective way of learning the students names and starting to develop a relationship with them as I get to know them. I have also been involved in the monitoring of student engagement with discussions with a homeclass teacher about a particular student and his absence from lessons.

BEGINNING TO MAINTAIN RECORDS

Following a sequence of lessons in Biology for Diseases and Disease agents the students were set an assessment task where they were required to investigate an infectious disease. To complete this task, students needed to use knowledge gained from the previous lessons to show an understanding of pathogens and the transmission and control of infectious diseases. Students were given 2 lessons to work on their investigation which provided an opportunity to monitor their engagement in the task. I was able to support students with keeping on track during these lessons, providing prompts and guidance to assist their learning. The assessment of this task was done using the performance standards set out by SACE for stage 1 Biology. The assessment of the students disease investigations will be an effective reporting method on the students learning for this topic.

Infectious diseases Investigation assessment task.

Performance Standards for Disease Investigation task

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 6.4

Graduate teachers can select, document and implement the approved curriculum to assess student learning effectively, to provide feedback to students and to inform further planning of teaching and learning.

To plan for each of the Subjects I have taught during my practicum I have used the curriculum set out by the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) board. I have accessed the required subject outlines from www.sace.sa.edu.au and with the help of my mentor teachers have used the information to plan my lessons and how I would assess the students learning. For each of the assessment tasks I have planned, I have included a marking rubric of the performance standards so that students can understand what skills are being assessed and what the requirements are for the highest possible grade.

The marked performance standards provide a form of feedback for students so they can see what areas they can improve on. I have also given feedback prior to work being assessed by reading drafts of students work and making suggestions for improvement. Other resources I have used to plan and assess student learning include past assessment tasks, annotated assessment tasks from SACE, textbooks, the Internet and of course a lot of collaboration with my mentor teachers.

The purpose of the assessment task is clearly stated The performance standard being assessed is shown for each component of the practical report.

The Learning requirements of the assessment task and the design criteria are shown to inform students of what is being assessed.

Marking rubric showing the performance standards being assessed is provided to students and will be returned after marking to provide feedback.

For the year 11 Nutrition subject, I designed an assessment task that will demonstrate how effective my teaching has been of the Food Technology / Food processing topic. The practical task allowed the students to consider everyday foods in a different context, looking at types of spoilage that can occur in foods and how storage conditions, additives and packaging can influence the rates of food spoilage. Students were able to be hands-on with this task and it provided results that were easily discerned by appearance, texture and smell. All of the students were able to discuss the results in class because the observations are personal, one person may say a sample smells like vinegar, whilst another may say it just smells off.

Purpose of assessment task and details of what is expected.

Learning requirements and assessment design criteria given to inform students what is being assessed.

Instructions for how to complete the practical task and suggestions for content of discussion in report.

Suggested format for practical report showing the performance standards being assessed in each component.

Marking rubric for Practical task and report which will be returned to students to provide feedback.

REFLECTION
Putting assessment and reporting into practice during my teaching placement has been an extremely beneficial learning experience for me. I have gained ideas for new resources and observed many new strategies to engage students in learning. I now have a much better understanding of how important it is to use assessment to inform ourselves and our students of their learning, without it there would be no way to know if our teaching has been effective.