EDN584 – Instructional Strategy Plan

Learning Context

The students I am teaching attend a co-educational secondary school in Perth’s western

suburbs in September, 2019. There are 24 Year-8 students in this Health class and students
come from a wide variety of backgrounds and upbringings. Due to the broad diversity in the
classroom, all students learn, interpret and process information differently. Therefore, to
ensure that all student’s learning needs are met, a teacher must incorporate varying
instructional and assessment strategies to fully accommodate for the differentiation in the
classroom. In our classroom, there are large tables that fit 4-5 students per table, ideal for
group work and activities. We also have a projector screen and have access to laptops for
research purposes.

The subject that I intend to teach is Health Education. For our two lessons, we are focussing
on food and nutrition. While linking to the Australian Curriculum, these lessons will focus on
investigating and selecting strategies to promote health, safety and wellbeing (Australian
Curriculum, 2019). More specifically, students will be analysing their canteen’s food and
drinks menu and subsequently researching the nutritional information of the products. In the
following lesson, students will research and create their ideal weekly menu plan which
considers cost effectiveness as well as nutritional benefits. These activities aim to increase the
student’s awareness of nutrition and increase knowledge on the cost, convenience and health
benefits/implications of healthy and unhealthy foods. The Year 8 curriculum aims for students
to be able to investigate practices and strategies to enhance the health and wellbeing of
themselves, as well as others in the community (Australian Curriculum, 2019). At the end of
these sequence of lessons, students should also have developed, or be in the process of
developing, the skills to make informed and knowledgeable nutritional decisions regarding
health and wellbeing. As a Physical Education and Health teacher, Health is my minor
teaching area.

Both instructional strategies I intend to use over the course of these two lessons are learner-
centered and aim to incorporate group activities to benefit student learning. During the first
lesson, I will use a group presentation as the main instructional activity. In groups of four,
students will analyse their school canteen’s menu and create a short 3-4 minute group
PowerPoint presentation, discussing the nutritional benefits and health implications of the
canteen items. They can also discuss what foods/drinks can be replaced or improved to
further improve health benefits of the students at the school. I chose to complete this activity
in groups, as a wider range of skills can be brought to the activity to improve the final
product. Discussing and sharing ideas in small groups can also be very beneficial in
improving student comprehension and understanding of the topic/activity. Students get to
research in groups and design a short PowerPoint presentation to present to the class. This
enables both auditory and visual learners to benefit when viewing other groups present. The
second instructional strategy I intend on using is the Jigsaw strategy. In the second lesson, in
groups of four, students are going to create and design an ideal weekly menu plan. This plan
will need to incorporate foods with a nutritional balance, such as; carbohydrates, fats, protein
and vitamins/minerals. Each group member will be separated individually to learn about the
nutritional components mentioned previously. After researching, each student will return and
present to their group the information they collected about their given topic. After each
student has discussed, the groups can create a weekly menu plan incorporating a balance of
these nutritional components. The Jigsaw strategy helps to improve critical thinking and co-
operation skills in students. Students also further develop their problem-solving and speaking
and listening skills during this Jigsaw activity.

The two assessment strategies I intend to use in the two lessons allow me to assess how
students work together and manage during group activities, as well as what students have
learnt individually from the two lessons. During the first lesson, I will analyse and assess the
student’s group presentations on the nutritional benefits/implications of the school canteen’s
menu. I will be analysing how students work together during the lesson, as well as the
presentation at the end of the class. This gives me, as a teacher, a better understanding of how
certain students work in groups and gives me a good indication of what the class understands
about the topic collectively. In the second class, I will utilise my assessment strategy at the
end of the lesson. Before the end of the lesson, I will hand out ‘Exit Tickets’ to each student
individually. Students are encouraged to think independently and then write two things they
learnt from their own research, as well as two things they learn from another group member’s
research. After writing their name on the top of the sheet they will hand in their Exit Tickets
and I will be able to assess what students have learnt during this lesson. This assessment
strategy is beneficial as it is simple, yet effective, for me to review the student responses. I
can then gain a more in-depth idea of whether students grasped the main concepts of the
lesson or not. As this task is individually completed, I am able to view which students are
excelling, and which students may need a greater amount of assistance in future.

Rationale

There are many reasons why these specific instructional and assessment strategies were
chosen for these two lessons. As mentioned above, the two instructional strategies both
integrate group work and activities to improve student learning. Group learning activities are
quite commonly used by teachers when delivering curriculum content (De Hei, Admiraal,
Sjoer & Strijbos, 2017). Incorporating collaborative group-work while delivering curriculum
content can increase the student’s knowledge and understanding of the subject material.
Collaborative learning can also promote the acquisition of metacognitive and higher ordering
thinking skills (Johnson & Johnson, 2009). These cooperative instructional strategies are also
beneficial for the development of our student’s prosocial behaviours such as empathy and
assisting and helping others (Gillies, Ashman & Terwel, 2008).

In the first lesson’s instructional strategy, each group of four will work collaboratively to
create the short PowerPoint presentation on the health benefits/implications of the food and
drink options at the school canteen. This activity is designed to improve student learning
through peer discussions and collaborative research. This activity is also beneficial in
improving confidence when student’s share ideas to the class during their presentation.
During this lesson, students get the opportunity to improve their language and literacy skills,
such as, speaking, listening and writing, as well as practice expressing and sharing their ideas
clearly and concisely. I believe a short 3-4-minute presentation per group is a fairly short
amount of time to present per group, however this is still valuable experience for each student
when incrementally increasing their confidence and competence, especially as public
speaking is an essential skill to develop for everyday life. In the second lesson, the
instructional strategy I chose for the class is the Jigsaw. As previously mentioned, utilising
the Jigsaw activity helps to develop problem solving, co-operation and critical thinking skills,
as well as communication skills between students. During the Jigsaw activity, students have
their original groups, where they create their ideal weekly menu plan, and they also cooperate
with students from other groups to research a component of nutrition. They then must return
as the ‘expert’ of their given nutritional topic and communicate ideas back to their original
group. This activity was primarily chosen to effectively develop student knowledge on the
curriculum content, as well as to improve the student’s social and cooperative skills through
group activities. By supporting social interaction and group activities in the classroom,
students often feel more accountable and responsible in the specific activities (Bennett &
Smilanich, 1994).

I chose to analyse the student’s group presentations in the first lesson to assess how
effectively each individual worked together and collaborated in their group. I also chose this
assessment strategy to view the ideas that each group was able to collectively produce. In the
second lesson, I chose to assess each student individually using the ‘Exit Ticket’ strategy.
Since the instructional and assessment strategies for the majority of the lessons had been
group-based, I chose to add an individual assessment in the second class. This strategy gives
me a greater understanding of which individual students grasped the curriculum content
effectively and which students may need further assistance. This simple informal assessment
strategy gives me a quick understanding of whether or not the lesson and activities were
effective in delivering the curriculum content.

These strategies aid in effectively delivering the curriculum content to the students. Providing
this creative approach helps to further improve the learning and understanding of the subject
for each student. These strategies align to the curriculum, as students research and evaluate a
variety of canteen food and drink options. Students also evaluate cost effectiveness and
sustainability when designing their ideal weekly menu plan. In this way, student activities are
aligning with the curriculum as they are investigating strategies to promote their health and
overall wellbeing (Australian Curriculum, 2019). All students have their own individual
characteristics and process of learning and these learning activities aim to accommodate for
all learning styles. Incorporating a number of individual and group activities, as well as
incorporating reading, writing, viewing and listening aspects to the class, students have the
opportunity to learn the content in their own preferred and unique way. During group
activities, if there are any students that need any assistance, as a teacher I am able to help and
guide them individually.

In the first lesson, since the instructional strategy is to create a group Presentation, I aimed to
align the assessment strategy accordingly. During each groups PowerPoint presentation, I will
be assessing the groups on a number of criteria. First and foremost, I will be assessing the
content in the PowerPoint presentation to observe how well the students grasped the concept
and the learning activity. Ensuring that the student’s covered the main points and main
learning objectives during this presentation is essential. I will also be assessing on the
coherence of the presentation and evaluating if the ideas presented flow naturally and
methodically. During this presentation I will also assess the overall speaking skills of the
students as well as the balance between speakers, ensuring that all group members
contributed equally to the presentation. At the end of the presentation I may ask some
questions to further improve the depth of discussion and analysis of the topic.

In the second lesson, the Jigsaw activity is the instructional strategy I chose to utilise. I
believe the Exit Ticket method of assessment is appropriate for this strategy for a number of
reasons. Firstly, the Jigsaw activity requires students to both work individually and in a group
environment. Students must research their given topic and later share the information they
gathered with the group. This requires the student to be responsible and accountable for their
topic. They must utilise their skills in research, as well as verbal communication to explain
their topic to the other group members. This activity then requires each student to listen
effectively to their group members when they are discussing their nutrition topic. This means
students are not only learning about their own topic, but also the other student’s topics, too.
As seen in Lesson Plan 2 below, The Exit Ticket assessment strategy allows me to ask two
separate questions, regarding what the student learnt about their own topic, as well as the
topics of other students. This allows me to assess and evaluate which students have
completed the activity effectively and to view which students were fully involved in the
learning activity.
 Lesson Plan
Day: Thursday Date: 05/09/2019 Time: 9am Year: 8
Lesson number 1 of 2

Learning Area: Health Education

Topic: Food and Nutrition (FN)

Australian Curriculum Content Description:

Investigate and select strategies to promote health, safety and wellbeing (ACPPS073)
Evaluate health information and communicate their own and others’ health concerns (ACPPS076)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Asia and Australia’s engagement
Cross-curriculum priorities: histories and cultures with Asia
Sustainability

Critical and Ethical Personal and Intercultural

General capabilities: Literacy Numeracy ICT
creative thinking behaviour social capability understanding

Students’ prior knowledge and experience:

Students will have a basic understanding of healthy/unhealthy foods, however students may not understand
what makes particular foods are healthy/unhealthy.

Teaching purpose:
The broad purpose of the lesson is to increase awareness and knowledge of the nutritional value of food
and drinks that students are exposed to. Teaching students what makes foods healthy/unhealthy can then
lead to students making more informed decisions regarding nutrition in the future.

Learning objectives: Assessment:

On completion of this lesson, students will be able
to:
 Analyse and assess PowerPoint presentation
 Understand the main reasons that make foods using criteria below.
healthy/unhealthy.
 Present a PowerPoint presentation regarding
healthy/unhealthy food/drinks.
Preparation and Resources:
Before the class begins, I will ensure that the computers are working, as well as the projector screen.

Catering for diversity

During the group activities, I am able to rotate around groups to ensure that all students are on task and understanding the topic.
If any individual student needs help I am able to guide them through the activity.
I understand there are many different styles of learners so I will ensure to cater for these diverse students.
E.g. Explaining the task (benefitting students who process auditory information most effectively) as well as writing the task up on
the board for visual learners.

Timing Learning experiences

Introduction:
5
minutes I will begin the lesson with a quick Think-Pair-Share. This gets students thinking about the subject and discussing with
other students. The topic will be “What makes foods or drinks healthy/unhealthy?”
This gives students time to think, discuss with a partner and share to the class and begin the type of thinking I’m
looking for in our main activity.
45-50
minutes Sequence of learning experiences:

I will hand out a list of the food and drink items that their school canteen offers. I will give each
student time individually to read through the list and write some notes on the canteen items.

After 5 minutes, students will be placed into group of 4 to research each item and decide why it is
healthy/unhealthy.

The instructional strategy that will be used is a short PowerPoint presentation. Each group will
then present their findings as a group to the class

5 Lesson conclusion:
minutes After the presentations are complete, I will reiterate the main points of the lesson, and discuss the
main findings between the groups. This gives students time to further develop their learning on
nutrition and therefore improve their ability to make informed nutritional decisions.
 Lesson Plan
Day: Thursday Date: 12/09/2019 Time: 9am Year: 8
Learning Area:
Lesson Health Education
number 2 of 2
Topic: Food and Nutrition (FN)

Australian Curriculum Content Description:

Investigate and select strategies to promote health, safety and wellbeing (ACPPS073)
Evaluate health information and communicate their own and others’ health concerns (ACPPS076)
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Asia and Australia’s engagement
Cross-curriculum priorities: histories and cultures with Asia
Sustainability

Critical and Ethical Personal and Intercultural

General capabilities: Literacy Numeracy ICT
creative thinking behaviour social capability understanding

Students’ prior knowledge and experience:

Students will have a fairly basic understanding of healthy/unhealthy foods, however students may not
understand exactly what makes particular foods are healthy/unhealthy.
Students will now have a better understanding of what makes foods healthy/unhealthy after last lesson,
however students will now be furthering their knowledge on nutrition.

Teaching purpose:
To further develop student’s knowledge on the essential components of nutrition. Teaching students and allowing time for
students to research this nutritional information will benefit students when making decisions regarding nutrition in the future.

Learning objectives: Assessment:

On completion of this lesson, students will be able

to:
 Evaluate the ‘Exit Tickets’ from the end of the
 Students will be able to list 2 things they learnt class that ask for students to list 2 things they
from their own individual research learnt from their own research, as well as 2
 Students will be able to list 2 things they learnt things they learnt from another student.
from another student’s research. (Through  Analyse and assess each group’s ideal weekly
discussion) menu plan
 Students will be able to cooperatively create an
ideal weekly menu plan
Preparation and Resources:
Before the class begins, I will ensure that the computers are working and connected to the internet. I will ensure that the tables in
the class are organised in a way that promotes and encourages collaborative group activity.

Catering for diversity

During the group activities, I am able to rotate around groups to ensure that all students are on task and understanding the topic.
If any individual student needs help I am able to guide them through the activity.
I understand there are many different styles of learners so I will ensure to cater for these diverse students.
E.g. Explaining the task (benefitting students who process auditory information most effectively) as well as writing the task up on
the board for visual learners.

Timing Learning experiences

Introduction:

5 Have students individually think and write a list of three things they learnt from the previous
minutes Health lesson. Since these lessons are related, rejogging their memory from last lesson will assist
in getting students thinking about nutrition and healthy/unhealthy foods.

45-50
minutes
Sequence of learning experiences:

The instructional strategy that will be used will be the Jigsaw activity.

After I explain the task, students will be placed in groups of four to create an ideal weekly menu
plan. Each group member will be given a topic.
The topics will be
1. Carbohydrates
2. Fats
3. Proteins
 4. Vitamins/Minerals.

Students will then be instructed to join members from others groups who have the same research
topic. Each of these groups will then collaborate and research their given topic and discuss with
each other.
After 20 minutes, each student will return to their original group. Each student will then
individually have 2-3 minutes to discuss the findings from their research.
After each group member has discussed with the group and notes have been made, the group
collectively can begin to create an ideal weekly menu plan that incorporates all four nutritional
components researched.

At the end of the lesson, students will give a quick 1-2-minute presentation of their menu plan
and discuss how they included healthy foods that incorporates all four of the nutritional
components researched. They will also discuss why this is important to their health.

5 Lesson conclusion:
minutes
At the end of the lesson, the weekly menu plans will be pinned up in the classroom for visual
learners to view and process the information and allow for other students using the classroom to
view and gain knowledge on this subject.

I will hand out a small rectangular piece of paper to each student before the end of the lesson.
Each student will individually think and answer the two questions on the sheet.
The questions are:

What are 2 things you learnt today from your own research?

What are 2 things you learnt today when listening to another group member’s research?

When the siren goes, students will put their name on these sheets and hands these Exit Tickets in
to me for me to evaluate.

Assessment Instruments
In the first lesson the assessment instrument is as follows:
Section Marks Possible Comments

Content /10
 PowerPoint
presentation is well
designed and
information is well
researched and
informative

Flow of presentation /5
 Ideas well-
articulated and
presentation exhibits
natural flow of main
points

Speech /5
 Spoke clearly and
engaged the
audience

Total /20

After each group has presented, each individual student will receive their marks back. This
helps for students to understand what areas they performed well in, and what areas they still
need to improve in. They will receive a copy of the marking rubric with the marks and
comments for each section for them to review.

The second lessons assessment instrument is as follows:

 Exit Ticket
Name:
What are 2 things you learnt today from your own research?

1.

2.

What are 2 things you learnt today from another group member’s research?

1.

2.

This Exit Ticket assessment method gives me an opportunity to evaluate what students have
learnt individually from this lesson. This gives me a good idea of how effective the lesson
was in facilitating my student’s learning, and what areas I can improve in. I also get to assess
which students are comprehending the subject material successfully and which students may
need some extra assistance. I can discuss to my students in the subsequent lessons to provide
informal verbal feedback.

Moderation Strategies

Since I am the only person assessing and evaluating the presentations and the Exit Tickets,
it’s important for me to utilise a moderation strategy to ensure fair marks are given to each
student. Assessments items, such as a presentation can be largely subjective, based on factors
such as bias and my own personal opinion on a topic. Ensuring that the marking key/marking
criteria is explicit and very clear is essential to ensure that moderation of these assessments
are successful. I believe that making sure that the assessment criteria is succinctly written and
details exactly what key characteristics of a presentation determines which particular grade is
imperative in ensuring fair marks are given to each student.

While assessing the Exit Tickets, I will use Anonymous assessment as my moderation
strategy. This strategy aims to remove bias that may be placed on an assessment item by the
marker. Bias can result from previous dealings with a particular student or even from any
other conscious or unconscious factor. Ensuring that the name of the student is unknown
when assessing the Exit Tickets will improve the likelihood that this item is moderated
effectively. While viewing the Exit Tickets, I will cover the top of the card where the
student’s name is written to achieve this.

Sample Learning Materials

Lesson 1: I will give out the following canteen menu:

Canteen Menu
Food Drinks
Garlic Bread Water
Chicken Nuggets Apple and Orange Juice
Fruit salad Chocolate, Strawberry or Vanilla Milkshake
Sausage Roll
Pizza rounders

Lesson 2: I will provide the instructions for the main learning activity both verbally and in
written form. I will explain this lesson’s activity to the class, while also having the task
written behind me on whiteboard. This allows learners who process information both verbally
and visually to process the learning objectives for the activity effectively.

References

1. Australian Curriculum, F-10 Curriculum. (2019). Health and Physical Education.

Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/health-
and-physical-education/?year=12997&strand=Personal
%2C+Social+and+Community+Health&strand=Movement+and+Physical+Activity&ca
 pability=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+a
nd+Communication+Technology+%28ICT
%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking&capability=Personal+and
+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capability=Intercultural+Unde
rstanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Histories
+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia
%E2%80%99s+Engagement+with+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&el
aborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false

2. Bennett, B., & Smilanich, P. (1994). Classroom Management: A Thinking and Caring
Approach. Bookation Inc.

3. De Hei, M., Admiraal, W., Sjoer, E., & Strijbos, J. (2017). Group Learning Activities
and Perceived Learning Outcomes. Studies in Higher Education, 43, (12), 2354-2370.

4. Gillies R.M., Ashman A.F., & Terwel J. (2008). The Teacher’s Role in Implementing
Cooperative Learning in the Classroom. Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning,
8.

5. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson R. T. (2009). An Educational Psychology Success Story:

Social Interdependence Theory and Cooperative Learning. Educational Researcher,
38, (5), 365-79.