Assignment 2: Differentiated Learning Experience

Name & Student Number: Sarah Shaw 2141733

Curriculum (Learning) Area of Lesson or Learning Task: Essential English
Specific Topic of Lesson or Learning Task: Creating promotional pieces
Year Level/s: 9

Differentiation Choices
Mark the appropriate box/es

1. For this assignment, I have chosen to design a differentiated:

 Learning Menu or Agenda
 Choice Board
 RAFT
 Summative Assessment Task for Unit of Work
 Lesson with Specific Adjustments for Students with Special Needs
 Series of Tasks for Learning Centres or Stations
 Learning Task or Lesson with Innovative Use of Technology to Support Differentiation

2. My lesson or learning task is differentiated to address differences in student:

 Readiness
 Interest
 Learning profile preferences

Context
This year 9 class is made up of 16 students in a rural area school. We are looking at advertisement
throughout this unit of work to further study the use of specific language features and their purpose.
Students who attend this school are not as highly exposed to clear advertisement as those from the city
may be, as they tend to spend a lot more time outdoors, especially by the beach, limiting their television
time and its advertisement. Additionally, they are not confronted by countless billboards and magazine
covers. The importance of analysing advertisement is still high however, as most students have social
media accounts and watch some television – especially during peak advertisement hours in the evening.
The students in this class are respectful towards each other and engage well with interactive and hands-
on tasks and activities.
This unit of work will be implemented in term 2, and this lesson will be a double lesson (80 mins) halfway
through the 4 week unit. Students will have already worked at looking at the language features used in
advertising and their effects on the audience and the creators purpose for such language, and will now
begin creating using their own language with justifications for the effects to demonstrate their
understanding of language features, stylistic features and conventions. Over the course of term 1, effort
was put in by the teacher to get to know the student’s interests through journal entries. Students were
required to write journal entries about their weekends each week to both improve writing skills as well as
inform the teacher of personal interests. This is what was found:
8 of the students in this class really enjoy sport, and enjoy participating in outside of school club sports as
well as in school Physical Education. 2 of the students are environmentalists at heart and love doing what
they can around the school to promote limited use of plastics and have a lot to do voluntarily with the
revegetation projects around the town. 3 of the students are regular skate park enthusiasts, where they
spend majority of their spare time and take part in a lot of skate competitions on the weekends. The 3
remaining students are passionate and talented in Art and are all in the same class for the subject in year
9. Most of their work, even in English always has a little hand drawn picture to accompany it.
These interests will be used to guide this lesson, and the lesson will engage the different interests through
various working stations.

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Learning Objectives
As a result of engaging with the differentiated task, students will:
understand that:

various techniques can be used to appeal to an audience.

Know: Be able to:

The vocabulary associated with persuasive Identify and implement persuasive language
text (ACELA1561). features in a text.

Implement a range of persuasive language

features in their own work and be able to justify
their use of them.

Essential Questions (These should help students engage with the “big ideas” or understandings)

What persuasive techniques work best for a certain audience? Why?

Lesson Sequence

10 mins - Welcome students to the lesson and explain that today’s lesson will be
for students to begin to create their own form of promotional
advertisement for a local cause using their understanding of persuasive
language and visual engagement.

- Explain that there are 5 different working stations around the classroom
with different subjects to influence the advertisement, explain which
station is which and outline what that station encompasses. Students will
choose a station then be given a partner to work with within their station
choice (working in threes is also appropriate). Explain that each working
station has sheets of paper outlining the specific task for that station, and
students are to read the outline closely before embarking on their task.

- Each station is set up with pictures representing what that station is

exhibiting in regards to topic area, which provides a promotion in itself.
Students will also be able to see straight away the pictures and objects
that relate to them and be intrigued as to what the task is.

- The descriptions below are the outlines that will be provided at each
station.

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Station 1
Club promotion station: We need more players!
Create an advertisement for a sports club you know or make your own
sports club to advertise for. Choose an age group to recruit players for.
Then choose your method of advertisement eg. through a poster to be
pinned up around town, through a short video that will be screened at the
local cinema etc. You must include – a slogan, persuasive language that
gives information (250 words) and a visual component (picture of some
sort). Be prepared to justify your advertisement in regards to your age
target, language and visual components and your slogan.

Station 2
Physical Activity promotion station: Is Physical Activity actually fun?!
Advertise physical activity to a particular age group in your district. You
can use outside referencing, remember that this sometimes is an
engaging advertising technique in itself! You can choose the mode you
want to use to advertise Physical Activity eg. through a poster to be pinned
up around town, through a short video that will be screened at the local
cinema etc. You must include – a slogan, persuasive language that gives
information (250 words) and a visual component (picture of some sort).
Be prepared to justify your advertisement in regards to your age target,
language and visual components.

Station 3
Art Exhibition promotion station: There is an Art exhibition coming to town!
You are the creators of an Art exhibition that will be opened to the town
for viewing. Create a promotion to engage the citizens and bring them to
your exhibition. You could use posters to pin up around town, or one large
feature to draw the people, get creative! Remember the important
information that may need to be provided. Think about the cost of entry, if
there is one and think about how to bring the biggest crowd. You must
include – a slogan, persuasive language that gives information (250
words) and a visual component (picture of some sort). Be prepared to
justify your advertisement in regards to your age targets, language and
visual components.

Station 4
Environmental promotion station: Is there a need for more environmental
awareness in your community? Are you holding a native plant sale to
encourage more people to plant natives? Create a reason for the
promotion of the environment within your community, and additionally,
create a way in which to promote it. You may like to use posters to pin up
around town, or a short video that could be screened at the local cinema.
You must include – a slogan, persuasive language that gives information
(250 words) and a visual component (picture of some sort). Get creative
and be ready to justify your advertisement in regards to your age targets,
language and visual components.

Skate Park promotion station: Do you want a skate park upgrade? Let
your local council know why you think it should be on the to do list by

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 promoting it. Do you want more people to know why the skate park is such
a great place and why the activities that are undertaken there are so
good? Let them know using promotional techniques. Or maybe there’s a
competition coming up that you could create a promotion for. You could
create posters, a short video or a plan for a large mural to be erected to
promote the skate park to the town. Use your imagination and come up
with a way to promote the skate park, and a reason to promote it. You
must include – a slogan, persuasive language that gives information (250
words) and a visual component (picture of some sort). Be prepared to
justify your advertisement in regards to your age targets, language and
visual components.

15 mins - Students choose a station that appeals to them most, and individually
read through the explanation given at each station.

- Students are able to ask questions and partnerships are allocated by

the teacher within each station.

- Theoretically, the Art, Environmental and Skate Park stations will

already have small numbers as they are specifically tailored to student
interests and can be groups in themselves. The Sport stations will need
more monitoring and teacher allocation due to the number of students
who will want to participate within those stations.

45 mins - Students to work in their groups defining and creating their task around
the requirements outline above, drafting using dot points

- Teacher to provide guidance and answer questions during this time.

10 mins - Collect each group’s main idea and the form of promotion they will be
creating.

- Dismiss students.

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Explanation:
Every Australian classroom is the educational hub of an array of students and their differences:
social, emotional, physical and intellectual differences (Jarvis, 2015). Individual interest is just
one of the diversities you will find among a class full of students. Interest refers to what an
individual is interested in and can provide a large scope that can be worked with for effective
student engagement purposes.

Research shows that the interestingness of an idea has a huge impact on how information is
processed and recalled my middle-school children (Hidi, 2001). Logic says, if an individual finds
the content interesting and personally appealing, there are going to be much higher levels of
engagement and therefore more effective learning taking place (Tomlinson, 2000a).

This lesson plan and Summative Assessment has taken the above ideas into consideration to
provide student differentiation, as teaching to the middle is no longer an option (Forsten, Grant &
Hollas, 2002). The lesson is segmented and provides various stations that appeal to different
student interests, as a single paced lesson with single instructional cues disregards the different
learning interests and styles that are present in every classroom (Fischer & Rose, 2001; Forsten
et al, 2002).

The differentiated activities embedded within the lesson means that students are using their own
life experiences and preferences to guide and motivate their learning, ensuring the content is
much more meaningful (Bosch, 2001; Tomlinson, 2000a). The group learning to take place
within each station also fosters social interaction around a shared interest, forming stronger
student bonds and peer awareness.

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 Appendix 1.

Needs Improvement Satisfactory Good Very Good Excellent

The use of relevant The use of relevant The use of relevant The use of relevant
This promotional piece language in this language within this language within this language within this
fails to provide persuasive piece promotional piece promotional piece promotional piece
evidence of displays an displays an displays a clear displays an in-depth
understanding of understanding of at understanding of understanding of the understanding of the
persuasive language least one persuasive some persuasive persuasive persuasive techniques
and technique. technique. techniques. techniques. used.
An effective slogan An effective slogan has
This promotional piece A slogan has been An effective slogan has been included, been included, with an
fails to include a included in this piece. has been included in with clear thought in-depth understanding
slogan. this piece. about its of its purpose and
effectiveness used. effectiveness.
The visual This visual component
This piece fails to This piece includes Thought has been put component has a promotes the rest of the
include a visual some form of visual into the visual clear connection to piece and the
component. component. component of this the rest of the justification
piece and has been promotional piece demonstrates an in-
justified. and has been well depth understanding of
justified. its effectiveness.
This piece shows
This piece has not This piece shows some This piece shows high levels of This piece shows high
displayed any creativity creativity and creativity and creativity and levels of creativity and
or engagement with the engagement with the engagement with the engagement with the high engagement with
task. task. task. task. the task.

References:

Bosch, N. (2001). Differentiated Curriculum. [Online] http://www.adifferentplace.org/ differentiated.htm [11

November, 2003].

Fischer, K. W., and Rose, L. T. (2001). Webs of skill: How students learn. Educational Leadership, 59(3), 6-
123.

Forsten, C., Grant, J., and Hollas, B. (2002). Differentiated Instruction. Different Strategies for Different
Learners. Peterborough: Crystal Springs Books.

Hidi, S. (2001). Interest, reading, and learning: Theoretical and practical considerations. Educational
Psychology Review, 13(3), 191-209.

Jarvis, J. (2015). Inclusive classrooms and differentiation, in Wetherby-Fell, Noelene (ed.), Learning to teach in
the secondary school, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 154-172.

Subban, P. (2006). Differentiated instruction: A research basis. International education journal, 7(7), 935-947.

Tomlinson, C. A. (2000a). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners. Alexandria:
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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