Student Health and Wellbeing:

AT3:

Level: 1/2
Topic: Describe their own strengths and achievements and those of others, and identify
how these contribute to personal identities

According to the Victorian curriculum under the health and physical education content for
level 1/2, and under the strand of personal, social and community health, describes an
elaboration that coincides with this topic which states; Describing personal achievements
such as doing something on their own for the first time and sharing how they felt and how it
influenced their personal identities (Victorian Curriculum, 2017). I chose to focus mainly on
this elaboration as it allows for the students to share with their peers about personal
achievements that they have, and creates social cohesion in the classroom. I have designed
two resources that can be used to achieve this learning focus.

Weekly Teacher Challenges:

This resource focuses mainly on the aspect of the students describing something that they
have done on their own for the first time, and therefore become a personal achievement.
To relieve the pressure of the students thinking of something on their own about what they
have done, I decided to create a weekly challenge task that would be set by the teacher.
These challenges will be performed by the students over several weeks within a given term.
Each week the students will be given a task to complete at home by themselves, and then
share their experiences at school within a group. Each task will be distributed to the
students on a Monday, and the students will have one week to complete this task. The tasks
that I have created are achievable yet relatable to the age group. The common age of grade
1/2 students ranges between 6 8, so therefore the weekly challenge tasks were carefully
created that were safe for the students to perform, but however may be a task that they
have never done by themselves. The students will be asked to keep a journal and document
each week their feelings they had before attempting the task, how they felt during the task,
and then write down how completing this task has made them feel about themselves and
their confidence. Further, a chart will be displayed in the classroom alongside the weekly
challenges, so that when the students complete the challenge tasks they are to write their
initials next to their name. This then allows for the teacher to identify that the students
have actually completed the set task.

By completing these challenge tasks at home and outside of the school environment it
allows for each student to have a different experience, and then when sharing their
thoughts and opinions to their peers at school based on their personal journal entries, each
student will have a different story to tell or feeling to share. The sharing of experiences
within a small group adopts the social constructivist theory of learning. This theory is best
described as socialization, and is the process of the acquisition of skills and knowledge
that enables an individual to participate in a group or society. This theory consists of
interactions and joint construction of meaning by the individual and others within a social
setting (Sivan, 1986). By sharing each of their experiences from completing a certain
challenge task, the students will find they share similarities and differences in their
personalities and identifies. Further, this will allow for stronger relationships to be formed
within the classroom and personal identities to be showcased.

The challenge tasks that I have created include simple household and personal duties. Tasks
include tying shoe laces, cooking a meal, making your bed, be in charge of house pets, make
your own breakfast, pack your own school bag and dress yourself in the morning. Although
these tasks seem quite easy, most younger students do not know how to complete these
tasks without the help of their parents. According to the Family Education (2017) website
most students aged between 6 8 begin learning basic life skills as part of their
development. These skills include cooking a basic meal, washing the dishes, making their
own bed, and taking care of personal hygiene by themselves. Based on these facts I believe
that the challenge tasks that I have created support this age group of students and their
personal development.

I believe that this resource is effective as it allows for the students to challenge themselves
and learn more about their potential to achieve tasks individually. As they learn to do things
on their own at home they become more independent and less reliant on their parents,
which is a factor of growing up. The students will gain confidence by completing a
challenge on their own, which in turn can then be brought into the classroom by
encouraging students to attempt their school work that they may find to be a little difficult,
and remind them to challenge themselves as they might complete the task on their own if
they give it a try. This resource can be adapted to suit particular learning goals for the class,
can be used as a good behaviour chart and also used as a reward system. This resource also
creates some enjoyment amongst students in the classroom.

Classroom Jobs:
The second resource I have created is not unique as many primary school teachers apply
this to their classrooms. It is a classroom jobs list. I created this to further enhance the
students development in responsibility and highlighting their achievements. These jobs will
change weekly to give the students a variety in their classroom responsibilities, and and
opportunity to be paired with different students in the class.

Classroom jobs will encourage the students to work together in order to achieve a goal, this
will benefit their development in showcasing their achievements and strengthening their
identities. Classroom jobs help teach the students about responsibility and build a sense of
excitement and community within the classroom. The students will learn that completing
their jobs will help their classmates and teacher, and they will gain a sense of
accomplishment and pride (Responsive Classroom, 2017). As the teacher it is important to
pair the students with peers that they dont normally associate with, and this will further
enhance social cohesion within the classroom and the students will form stronger
relationships. This approach does not exclude any students as each individual will be
assigned one job each week. This allows for the quieter students to feel more involved in
the class and for the class as a whole to form a united team.
I believe that this resource is effective as I have personally seen this being used in a primary
classroom. The students embrace their roles and responsibilities and are committed to
fulfilling their duties. This resource is effective in shaping the development of students in
grade 1/2.
 References:

Family Education, (2017). I Did it all by Myself! An Age by Age Guide to Teaching Your
Child Life Skills, Family Education. Copyright Sandbox Networks, Inc. Viewed 3rd May
2017. (Website) https://www.familyeducation.com/life/individuality/i-did-it-all-myself-age-
age-guide-teaching-your-child-life-skills-0?slide=3

Responsive Classroom, (2017). Information Library: Classroom Jobs, Responsive Classroom.

Copyright Responsive Classroom. Viewed 4th May 2017. (Website)
https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/classroom-jobs/

Sivan. E., (1986). Motivation in Social Constructivist Theory, Educational Psychologists, Vol.
21(3). pp. 209 233. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep2103_4

Victorian Curriculum, (2017). Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority Victoria State
Government. Copyright Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. Viewed 1st May
2017. (Website) http://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/health-and-physical-
education/curriculum/f-10#level=1-2