Final-Compressed Teacher Performance Assessment Tpa

WSU Teaching Performance Assessment (WSU_TPA)
School of Education: Master of Teaching (Secondary)
Student Name: Tayla Nicholls
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WSU_Teaching Performance Assessment Case Study Report Autumn 2021
Case Study Report
Student Name: Student ID: Content

Tayla Nicholls 18606762
Name of School: Cranebrook High School  Situational Analysis
 Professional Goals
School Address: Hosking St Cranebrook NSW  Case Study Report
 Overview of Participants
Professional Phone Number: (02) 4729 0777  Key Classroom Event 1
Experience  Lesson Plan 1
Placement School Principal: Craig Dunne  Pre-lesson Discussion Form 1
 Evaluated Lesson Plan 1
Mentor Teacher: Jeannie Baker  Lesson 1 Observation Feedback
 Post Lesson Discussion Form 1
Learning Portfolio
 Key Classroom Event 2
URL & Password  Lesson Plan 2
http://tnicholls.weebly.com/
(if required)  Pre-lesson Discussion Form 2
I agree that this case study is an accurate  Evaluated Lesson Plan 2
Signature representation of work completed by the Pre-service  Lesson 2 Observation Feedback
 Post Lesson Discussion Form 2
Teacher.  Key Classroom Event 3
 Lesson Plan 3
 Pre-lesson Discussion Form 3
 Evaluated Lesson Plan 3
Mentor Teacher Name:
 Lesson 3 Observation Feedback
Jeannie Baker  Post Lesson Discussion Form 3
 Summary of Impact
 Supporting Appendices
Mentor Teacher Signature:  Caregivers’ consent forms
 Appendix 2: Student 1- Written Work Sample (Technology
Response)
Response)
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Response)
 Appendix 5: Student 2- Work Sample (Mix and Match Film
Techniques Activity)
 Appendix 6: PETAL Paragraph Structure Prezi
 Appendix 7: PETAL Paragraph Exemplar Mix and Match
 Appendix 8: PETAL Paragraph Checklist
 Appendix 9: PETAL Paragraph Planning Scaffold
 Appendix 10: PETAL Paragraph Sentence Starters
 Appendix 11: PETAL Paragraph Scaffold
 Appendix 12: Peer Feedback Sheet
 Appendix 13: Student 1- PETAL Paragraph Sample
 Appendix 14: Student 2- PETAL Paragraph Sample
 Appendix 15: Student 3- PETAL Paragraph Sample and Peer
Feedback
 Appendix 16: General Feedback Sheet- Year 11 Written
Responses
 Appendix 17: Searching (2018) Film Analysis Questions
 Appendix 18: Student 1- Written Work Sample (Searching Film
Analysis Questions)
Analysis Questions)
Analysis Questions)
 Appendix 21: Creative Writing- Alternate Ending Instructions
 Appendix 22: Storyboard Exemplar
 Appendix 23: Storyboard Template
 Appendix 24: Student 1- Written Work Sample (Searching-
Alternate Ending)
Alternate Ending)
Alternate Ending)
 Appendix 27: Daily Attendance Sheet
 Appendix 28: Final Report
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Situational Analysis
Classroom/School/Community Information - Sociocultural Analysis/What does this information mean?
background
Classroom
11ENS3 is a mixed ability Year 11 English Standard class. There are 22 I selected this class as it is a mixed ability class and junior classes at the
students with slightly more boys than girls. Most students have over 70% school are not mixed ability. As it is mixed ability, I was able to select three
attendance, however there are two students with 0% attendance and others focus students that are emergent, standard, and advanced learners. Due to
with less than 50% attendance due to various reasons, including one student the low attendance rates of some students, I will have to ensure that I follow
with serious health issues. There are several Aboriginal students in the class up regularly with students who are absent and assist them in catching up
as well as students from other diverse backgrounds. There are no EALD any missed work. As there are several Aboriginal students in my class, I
students. This class has an established seating plan implemented already by will be required to be aware of these students and any inclusion measures
their teacher. Of the focus students, Student 1 and 2 both have Individual specific to these students. For the focus students, I will be required to use
Learning Plans. Student 1 has Mild Intellectual Disability and Student 2 has their Individual Learning Plan in order to differentiate learning for these
a social/emotional diagnosis; however, the specific diagnosis has not been students. As this class is a Year 11 English Standard class, I need to select
shared. Student 3 does not have an Individual Learning Plan or any appropriate learning opportunities to assist these students to prepare for the
identified diagnosis. Most students in the class plan to undertake the HSC, HSC course.
however there are some that will be leaving school without completing the
HSC.
School
Cranebrook High School is a coeducational 7-12 public secondary school As the school is a public school, I should ensure that I reflect the values of
located in Cranebrook in Sydney, New South Wales. Cranebrook is located the Department of Education and abide by the Department’s Code of
in Western Sydney, near Penrith. Cranebrook High School has Conduct, child protection, and wellbeing and safety protocols during my
approximately 815 students currently enrolled with increasing enrolments. placement. Additionally, as the school caters for students in years 7-12, I
There are approximately 50% females and 50% males in the student should ensure that my teaching practice is appropriate for these year groups
population. The school also has 59 teaching staff. and that the content I am teaching is relevant to the stage of each class.
The school’s vision involves quality teaching and learning, high As per the school’s vision, my own teaching practice should reflect this. I
expectations, nurturing student wellbeing and sense of belonging, success can demonstrate the school’s vision by reflecting the graduate teacher
through continual improvement, and creativity and innovation in teaching standards in my teaching practice, as well as using frameworks such as the
and learning. Quality Teaching Framework, the Zone of Proximal Development, the
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Gradual Release of Responsibility model, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and
Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences. I can also demonstrate the
school’s vision by knowing and teaching the curriculum effectively,
including general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities.
The socio-economic status (SES) of the school is low in comparison to other Given the low SES of most of the students, technology is not always readily
Australian schools, with an Index of Community Socio-Educational available to students. There are Chromebooks that can be booked and
Advantage (ICSEA) value of 915 compared to the average ICSEA value of borrowed but this means that the use of technology cannot occur every
1000. Most students (58%) are in the bottom quarter of Distribution of lesson as they are often booked earlier by other teachers. Many students are
Socio-Educational Advantage (DSEA), with 39% in the middle quarters, also frequently absent and therefore miss out on the learning that occurs. In
and 3% in the top quarter. The school has quite a large population of addition, not all students have internet access and/or a computer at home.
Indigenous students with 21% making up the student population. In Therefore, if work does not get completed during the lesson by students,
addition, 12% of students have a language background other than English. they cannot complete it at home. Due to the high population of Indigenous
students, I will have to ensure that I am aware of the Indigenous students in
my class and use effective teaching and learning strategies for these
students such as the Aboriginal 8 Ways of Learning framework. As 12% of
students have a language background other than English, I will also have to
be aware of these students in my class and implement any EALD strategies
for these students if required.
As the use of technology is expanding within the school, I should have

The use of technology in the school is developing, with the number of sufficient opportunities for students to engage with this technology in their
devices for student use increasing and a focus on professional learning learning. I should also develop and implement engaging activities with ICT
around the effective use of technology. to ensure that it is not just substituting book work but that I am using
technology effectively in my teaching practice.
The school has also recently developed a new Strategic Improvement Plan The new Strategic Improvement Plan means that there is a whole-school
for 2021-2024 which focuses on maximising student outcomes in reading focus on improving reading/literacy and numeracy, which should be
and numeracy across the school. As such, the school is soon to be incorporated into my lessons throughout my placement, particularly as they
implementing a whole-school approach to reading by having a reading are both general capabilities. Although the reading program is not being
program for all classes every Tuesday morning. implemented until after my placement, I could include more opportunities
for student reading in order to prepare students for this.
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The Strategic Improvement Plan has a number of improvement measures for Even though it may be difficult for me to assist with the school’s overall
the duration of the plan. By next year (2022), one of the improvement improvement measures during my short time on placement, I should
measures for NAPLAN is to increase the percentage of students achieving develop high expectations within my classroom in order to assist student
the top 2 bands (or above) in reading by 12.6% and numeracy by 12.1%. achievement. Providing students with regular feedback and giving them
The other improvement measure for NAPLAN is to increase the percentage opportunities to implement this feedback can also assist with this. I can
of Aboriginal students achieving the Top 3 bands in reading and numeracy. assist with student attendance in the classes that I will be teaching on
In addition, the improvement measures for the HSC by next year (2022) is placement by making my teaching practice more engaging so that students
to increase the number of students in the top 3 HSC bands by 37.7%. The in my classes are more inclined to attend school.
Strategic Improvement Plan also has improvement measures for student
attendance and by next year (2022), the school plans to decrease the
percentage of students attending less than 80% of the time as well as
increase the percentage of students attending more than 90% of the time by
at least 3.7%.
Community
Cranebrook is a suburb located in the local government area of the City of As most of the population’s first language is English, I will likely not be
Penrith about 50km from the Sydney City CBD. Surrounding suburbs required to implement strategies for EALD learners. However, due to the
include Jordan Springs, Llandilo, Castlereagh and Penrith. Cranebrook has a high Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander population, I will be aware
range of government and non-government schools. The population of that I could possibly have several students in this population. I will
Cranebrook is approximately 15,759 as per the 2016 census, with therefore have to consider and implement effective teaching and learning
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people making up 5.2% of this strategies for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, such as the
population. Aboriginal 8 Ways of Learning framework.
As there is a low percentage of the community born overseas and with a
Most of the community were born in Australia (79.5), as are both parents language background other than English, I could perhaps expose students in
(58.5%), and English is typically the only language spoken at home my classes to more cultural perspectives, particularly when studying short
(86.1%). texts.
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Professional Goals (3-4)
Goal 1: Classroom and behaviour management Ongoing evaluation and reflection
Date: 30/4/21- In all lessons (Year 10, Year 7, Year 11), I began the lesson
Strategies: with discussing my classroom rules and expectations as it was my first or
In terms of the classroom management aspect of this goal, I will ensure that second lesson with these classes. These expectations were: no talking when
each lesson is supported by a lesson plan, which I will bring into the class I am talking or when someone is asking/answering a question, phones and
with me and refer to. I will also establish a routine with the classes by earphones away at all times, and showing respect for everyone at all times. I
informing students what the learning activities will be for the lesson and also reminded students about the school’s mobile phone policy and told
providing learning intentions and success criteria each lesson. In the Year 7 them that I will be following this policy in the classroom. I ensured students
class, I will continue with the classes’ routine of a do now activity every were also sitting in their existing seating plan and moved students who were
lesson. To support meeting my goal of behaviour management, I will begin not.
classes by stating my expectations or reminding students of already
established rules and policies, such as the school’s mobile phone policy. My Date: 10/5/21- In a Year 7 class, I applied feedback from my mentor teacher
main expectations that I will communicate to the students at the beginning and improved on my classroom/behaviour management and consistency in
of lessons are mobile phones and earphones away, no talking over others, following school policies. In particular, I referred to the school’s mobile
and showing respect for everyone at all times. Another strategy I will phone policy which states that students are not allowed to have their phones
implement is a seating plan (if the class does not already have one in place) out and if they do, they are confiscated for the remainder of the lesson. In
to ensure students are not distracted by their friends. However, this goal is this lesson, a saw a student using their phone and when I approached them, I
mostly about improving my behaviour management as it is something that I restated the school’s policy and told them that they are not allowed to be
have struggled with throughout my teaching. In my classroom and using their phone and I asked the student to hand it to me. The student then
behaviour management, I will also ensure that I abide by legal got their phone back at the end of the lesson.
responsibilities and NSW Department of Education codes and
responsibilities at all times.
Link to Graduate Teaching Standard/s: Date: 27/5/21- In a Year 11 class, I applied feedback from my mentor
Standard 2.2- Content selection and organisation teacher and improved on my classroom management by ensuring that I
Standard 3.1- Establish challenging learning goals didn’t give students too much time to answer questions as half of the class
Standard 3.2- Plan, structure and sequence learning programs became unsettled in the previous lesson when I allowed too much time. In
Standard 3.3- Use teaching strategies today’s lesson, I continued moving on with the film and questions once I
Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication saw at least half of the class was finished writing. My behaviour
Standard 4.2- Manage Classroom Activities management was also improved as I followed the school’s mobile phone
Standard 4.3- Manage Challenging Behaviour policy and confiscated a student’s phone when I saw them using it without
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Standard 4.4- Maintain student safety permission.
Standard 7.1- Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
Standard 7.2- Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational
requirements
Goal 2: Explicit instruction Ongoing evaluation and reflection
Date: 7/5/21- In a lesson with Year 10, explicit instruction was given when I
Strategies: instructed students to cut and paste the boxes into their workbooks and to
In order to ensure that my teaching is effective and to assist students with keep the matched plot cards and quotes in order in the table so that they
meeting syllabus outcomes, I will use explicit instruction in my teaching could use it when gluing in their individual copies.
practice. In my first placement, I did struggle at times with ensuring that my
instructions were clear and students could understand requirements and
expectations for learning activities. Therefore, it is one of my goals to Date: 11/5/21- In a lesson with Year 7, I gave explicit instruction in the
improve on my instruction by being more explicit. I will begin each lesson lesson when I instructed students to put their workbooks away and then turn
by providing explicit quality criteria (learning intentions and success to a specific page of their novels. I then clearly instructed them to follow
criteria) so that students know exactly how to achieve the learning along with the words as I read aloud. I also instructed them when to turn
outcomes. To ensure my instruction is explicit, I should talk students pages and every time the page was turned, I reminded them what page they
through every step of an activity, including instructions to get their learning should be on.
materials out (book, pen etc.). In particular, the Year 7 class that I am
teaching are a low-literacy class and often get confused with instructions
when they are not clear and step-by-step. I will provide explicit instruction Date: 26/05/21
to this class by providing them with a learning sequence on the board each In a lesson with Year 7, I gave explicit instruction when I explained how to
lesson. For all classes, I will verbally explain all instructions slowly and write a full sentence answer. I showed students an example where I
allow time for students to ask any questions they may have. I will also explained what made the sentence a full sentence answer. I then asked
provide written instructions in addition to verbal instructions for longer students a series of questions unrelated to the content, such as “how many
tasks such as creative writing to allow students to go back to instructions people are in your family?” and asked students to answer the question in a
after they have been explained. Explicit instruction can also be supported by full sentence answer in order to practice.
providing scaffolds and checklists. When writing in structures such as the
PETAL structure, I will provide explicit instruction by breaking down each
part of the structure and explaining it with examples.
Link to Graduate Teaching Standard/s:

Standard 1.2- Understand how students learn
Standard 1.5- Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of
students across the full range of abilities
Standard 1.6- Strategies to support full participation of students with
disability
Standard 2.1- Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
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Standard 3.1- Establish challenging learning goals
Standard 3.2- Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
Standard 3.3- Use teaching strategies
Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication
Standard 4.2- Manage classroom activities
Goal 3: High student interest and engagement Ongoing evaluation and reflection
Strategies: Date: 30/4/21- In my first lesson with Year 7, I observed high student
To achieve high student interest and engagement in the classroom, I will engagement and interest when I used ICT to introduce the novel Dracula
firstly ensure that I am organised. Being organised and knowing what I am using a Prezi slideshow. I observed the highest student engagement and
going to be teaching as soon as the students enter the room will ensure I interest when I did a 3D Google Earth tour of Dracula’s castle. When I was
have their attention and will minimise student distraction that would occur if leading the tour, I had students telling me where to move to
I am not prepared when they enter. I will therefore have my lessons
prepared well in advance so that I can apply feedback and also so I can Date: 29/4/21- In my first lesson with Year 11, I observed high student
inform students on what they will be learning next lesson so there is a clear engagement from the beginning of the lesson when I did an agree/disagree
link between lessons. To inform my lesson plans, I will refer to debate where students were out of their seats and had to move to each side
contemporary teaching practices and theories such as Bloom’s Taxonomy, of their classroom based on statements being read. I received comments
Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, The NSW Quality Teaching from students that the activity was fun and that they really liked activities
Framework. I will also incorporate ICT frequently in my lessons as research like this. When I introduced the film that they would be studying for the
has shown that ICT increases student engagement. module, I also observed high student interest as students were discussing
what the film could be about and several students commented that the film
Link to Graduate Teaching Standard/s: looks interesting, and they may watch the film at home before we watch it
Standard 1.2- Understand how students learn in class because they didn’t want to wait to watch it. In the next lesson, I
Standard 1.5- Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of also had a student ask if they were doing something fun again.
students across the full range of abilities
Standard 1.6- Strategies to support full participation of students with Date: 7/5/21- In a lesson with Year 10, students did a hands-on activity
disability where they mix and matched important plot points and their corresponding
Standard 2.6- Information and Communication Technology (ICT) quote in groups using laminated cards. There was high student engagement
Standard 3.3- Use teaching strategies in this activity as all students were actively participating and asking
Standard 3.4- Select and use resources questions about the task. When I asked students at the end of the lesson
Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication about the activity, students said that they enjoyed the hands-on activity and
Standard 4.1- Support student participation when asked, they agreed that they would like to do similar activities in
subsequent lessons.
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Case Study Report
Overview of Case Study Participants
Student 1- Emergent
Student 1 is a 16-year-old female Year 11 student in the English Standard course. This student’s first language is English and they have an Individual
Learning Plan (IPL) which has identified areas of improvement. This student has Mild Intellectual Disability and as a result, struggles with literacy and
numeracy. The student has participated in literacy interventions including a literacy support class and QuickSmart. This student has demonstrated to me a
willingness to participate in class work, class discussions, and asks questions. This student responds very well to positive reinforcement and leadership
roles in the classroom. This student has the potential to be a middle-range student when they are focused on the task and when they receive the relevant
supplementary adjustments. This student has 100% attendance. Sometimes this student can be off-task when seated next to others as they often have
conversations. However, the student often sits alone due to other students being absent, so this is not usually a concern.
Teaching strategies to support this student would be personalised explicit instruction (checking understanding one on one), scaffolds for written tasks,
extra time to complete tasks, sentence starters, teaching text types before getting student to write their own, providing a lesson schedule, provide checklists
for tasks, group/pair work, opportunities to repeat the task, hands-on activities, and providing written instructions.
Student 2- Standard
Student 2 is a 16-year-old female Year 11 student in the English Standard course. This student’s first language is English and they have an Individual
Learning Plan (IPL). There are four goals outlined in this student’s Individual Learning Plan. These are: instructional strategies, incorporate social skills
into curriculum, assessment support, organisation/behaviour. This student has a social/emotional diagnosis (note: this is the only information available
regarding the diagnosis) as well as complex family issues. This student also has issues with social interactions, with difficulty identifying social clues, and
is sometimes targeted by other students. Due to this, this student sits by herself in class and prefers to work individually, even when she is given the option
to work in groups/pairs. This student has potential to do well in tasks when she receives support through quality differentiated teaching practice. The
student has demonstrated a willingness to complete class work to the best of her ability and is often willing to engage in class discussions, as well as often
seeking verbal feedback. She is quite talkative and often tries to talk about unrelated topics to the teacher when they are teaching. The student often gets
distracted and off task by objects in the classroom as well as when we use real life examples in learning activities. This student has 92% attendance.
Teaching strategies to support this student would be verbal and written instructions, sentence starters, hands-on activities, checklists, group/pair work with
allocated group members and roles to avoid exclusion, providing clear expectations (particularly around social behaviour), explicit instruction, scaffolds
for written tasks, and extra time to complete tasks.
Student 3- Advanced
Student 3 is a 16-year-old female Year 11 student in the English Standard course. This student’s first language is English and they do not have an
Individual Learning Plan (IPL) or any current learning goals. This student has high academic potential and is currently coming first in the Year 11 English
Standard course. She has demonstrated a willingness to complete classwork to a high quality and regularly seeks feedback and assistance to check she is
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doing the activities right. This student has 86% attendance. This student often completes most work early and to a high standard, however there is
improvement needed on spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Teaching strategies to support this student would be group/pair work, options, verbal feedback, more challenging questions, and extension activities.
Factors Influencing Learning:

 Individual Learning Plans (IPL)
 Intellectual and social/emotional disabilities and diagnoses
 Attendance
 Relationships with peers and social interactions
 Family issues
Links to Teaching Standards
Standard 1.1- Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
Standard 1.2- Understand how students learn
Standard 1.5- Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
Standard 1.6- Strategies to support full participation of students with disability
Standard 4.1- Support student participation
Standard 5.4- Interpret student data
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Focus Lesson 1- Lesson Plan
Learning Area: English Class /Stage: Mentor Teacher Signature:
Year 11 / Stage 6
Topic: Writing a PETAL Paragraph Date and Time: 17/05/21 10:54am- 11:54am
Curriculum Outcomes:
Outcome 1- responds to and composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation, analysis, imaginative
expression and pleasure
Outcome 9- reflects on, assesses and monitors own learning and develops individual and collaborative processes to
become an independent learner
Content: N/A- English syllabus
Learning Intention To learn the PETAL paragraph structure.
Success Criteria Students can:

 Apply knowledge of the PETAL structure to an exemplar and my own writing
 Peer-assess using knowledge of the PETAL structure
Differentiation  Mixed ability group work (mix and match activity)
 Checklists
 Planning scaffold
 Writing scaffold
 Sentence starters
 Exemplars
 Levelled question options
 Extension activity
Classroom  Seating plan
organisation  Desks in usual arrangement (rows)
 Class work (PETAL structure Prezi)
 Mixed ability group work (mix and match activity)
 Individual work (planning and writing a PETAL paragraph)
 Pair work (peer assessment activity)
Procedure Engagement/ Introduction:
 Students respond to the roll being marked. Teacher to hand out glossary of film techniques
for any students who were absent last lesson. Explain to students that they will be using
these techniques to write a structured paragraph.
 Open Prezi on computer. Take students through the learning intentions and success criteria
for this lesson.
Learning experiences:
PETAL Paragraph Structure Prezi
 Go through Prezi and instruct students to write down the description for each PETAL
element. Explain to students each element and read through each example section.
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PETAL paragraph exemplar mix-and-match
 Hand out laminated PETAL paragraph mix-and-match cards to table groups (7 sets)
 Students work in groups/pairs to put PETAL exemplar cards in order- teacher to walk
around the room and check the progress of groups
 Read through complete exemplar at the end so students can check
Writing a PETAL paragraph

 Hand out PETAL paragraph scaffolds, sentence starters, and checklists to students and
explain each
 Display the PETAL paragraph levelled questions on the Prezi on projector- instruct students
to select ONE of the three questions on the Prezi
 Students to write their own PETAL paragraph using the scaffold sheet- explain to students
that they must include 1-3 techniques and can plan these using the checklist
 Encourage students to refer to their feedback sheets to assist their writing
Peer marking PETAL paragraphs
o Once students have finished writing, they swap with another student and mark
each others.
o Students to give a mark out of 10 and write a comment with a strength and
something to improve on
Closure:
o Read through some student responses (select a top, middle and bottom mark to
read out)
o Instruct students to pack up, ensure tables and chairs are neat, and rubbish is
put in the bin. Dismiss students once quietly waiting behind chairs.
Resources  Computer roll
 Projector
 Computer
 Student exercise books/pens
 Petal Structure Prezi: https://prezi.com/view/PimitqDz4vmfol1x0ZgP/
 PETAL paragraph exemplar mix and match cards (7 sets)
 PETAL paragraph scaffolds
 PETAL sentence starters
 PETAL paragraph checklists
Questions  Students to ask themselves during writing: have I answered the question?
 How do we write a PETAL paragraph?
 How do we incorporate techniques into a PETAL paragraph?
 Why do we use a PETAL paragraph in English?
Reflection Students will peer assess each other’s PETAL paragraphs. They will be required to give the student
a mark out of 10 as well as write at least one strength and one weakness
Assessment Assessment for learning
 Teacher observation of students completing activities
Assessment as learning
 Students will peer assess each other’s work
Evaluation  Good resources- they were appropriate to the level of the students
 Set too much work to get through- needed to split this over 2 lessons
 Students seemed confused with picking their own question- maybe allocate questions or only
offer one question option
 A few students were away- need to follow up with these students by providing them with the
scaffolds next lesson
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Pre-lesson Discussion 1
Completed by Pre-service Teacher Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls
and discussed with Mentor Mentor Teacher Signature:
Teacher Date: 17/05/21
Discussion Standard
Describe the class (ability levels, engagement, interests, etc.) Know your students and how
they learn
11ENS3 is a mixed ability Year 11 English Standard class. During class discussions,
most students are willing to volunteer answers, however there are some that do not like
participating, even with prompting. I have observed that most students in the class enjoy
getting out of their seat to participate in activities, and I received particularly positive
feedback when students got out of their seats to do an agree/disagree debate where they
had to walk to each side of the room to reflect their opinions. As our current unit is the
Contemporary Possibilities module, students are really enjoying watching the film. I also
have observed students enjoying hands-on kinaesthetic activities and activities involving
group work. Overall, the students have expressed that they do not enjoy writing and as a
result, I do try to avoid consecutive lessons involving extensive writing but still
incorporate it into my lessons regularly. Many students struggle with their writing,
particularly spelling and punctuation. When marking student written responses from
prior lessons, I noticed that many students did not have effective time management as
many were not able to finish the written response in the allocated time. Additionally, I
noticed many students could not communicate their ideas clearly and were missing
capital letters, full stops and commas.
What is the content or curriculum area you intend to cover? Know the content and how to
teach it
The content I intend to cover in this lesson is development of student literacy through
the PETAL paragraph structure. As an extension of the PEEL format, the PETAL
structure works better for English, particularly for students in senior years as they are
required to incorporate techniques and textual evidence and references. This lesson will
focus predominately on Outcome 1 (responds to and composes increasingly complex
texts for understanding, interpretation, analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure) as
students are required to analytically respond to their set text. The lesson will also require
students to peer-assess each other’s’ responses so the lesson will also focus on Outcome
9 (reflects on, assesses and monitors own learning and develops individual and
collaborative processes to become an independent learner).
What is the lesson outcome or learning intention for this lesson? Plan for an implement
effective teaching and
The learning intention for this lesson is for students to learn the PETAL paragraph learning
structure. They will demonstrate this through the application of their knowledge to a
provided example, their own writing, and the writing of a peer through peer-assessment.
What classroom routines will you use to encourage engagement and manage behaviour? Create and maintain a
supportive and safe learning
Before the class enters the room, I will instruct students to line up in two lines outside environment
where I will also ask them to put their phones away and to remove any earphones. Once
students have entered the classroom, I will instruct them to sit quietly and get their
English books out as the roll is marked. I will then put up and briefly explain the lesson
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schedule on the board that will show students what they will be doing in the lesson. I
will then go through the learning intentions and success criteria on the Prezi slideshow.
I will manage behaviour through following the school’s behaviour management and
mobile device policies and remind students of my expectations before beginning the
lesson, which also involves the expectation that students do not talk over me or their
peers when contributing to class discussions. I will also ensure that students sit in their
seating plan and will address student using their names to call out negative behaviour. In
addition, as focus student 2 is often targeted by other students in this class, I will ensure
that these students are not seated near or have the opportunity to interact with this
student. I will also allow the option of working individually instead of in a group to
ensure Student 2 feels safe and comfortable. If a situation does arise where Student 2 is
targeted by other students in the class, I will call out this behaviour and refer the
situation immediately to the Head Teacher. To encourage engagement, I will walk
around the room to support students with any questions or assistance they may need. I
will also maintain a supportive and safe learning environment by practising positive
reinforcement and modelling positive attitudes in the classroom so that students feel
comfortable to contribute to class discussions and activities.
How will you differentiate the learning to meet the needs of the three focus students Know your students and how
(case study participants)? How will you connect the learning for students? they learn
Student 1 is an emergent learner and has a cognitive diagnosis of Mild Intellectual

Disability. To meet the needs of this student, I will differentiate the learning by using
strategies on their Individual Learning Plan such as checking the student’s understanding
one on one and clarifying any instructions that they are unsure about. I will also provide
planning scaffolds for the PETAL structure, as well as a checklist so that they can
complete their work in steps. I will provide verbal feedback to this student as well as
encourage them to use the general feedback sheet give for their last written task.
Student 2 is a standard learner and has a social/emotional diagnosis. To meet the needs
of this student, I will use strategies from their Individual Learning Plan such as
providing scaffolds for the PETAL structure as well as a checklist so that they can
complete their work in steps. I will also provide a sentence starter worksheet as well as
two scaffolds for the PETAL structure. I will give this student verbal feedback and
encourage them to use the general feedback sheet give for their last written task.
Additionally, I will take into account this student’s goal of incorporating social skills in
the classroom by doing the peer assessment but also offering the student the option for
me to mark it so that they feel comfortable.
Student 3 is an advanced learner and does not have an Individual Learning Plan. To
meet the needs of this student, I will differentiate learning by providing opportunities for
the student to be challenged and engaged. This will be done by providing three question
options that are levelled to the ability of the students, including a more challenging
question aimed to this student. In addition, there is an opportunity for group work where
students mix and match an exemplar PETAL paragraph. This will also allow the student
to assist and be assisted by other students in their group, working within the zone of
proximal development. As my goal for this student is to improve spelling and
punctuation, I will provide verbal feedback about this during the lesson as the student
writes their response and I will also encourage the student to use the general feedback
sheet given for their last written task, where I explained rules for capitalisation and
punctuation. By having another student peer assess and providing an opportunity for the
student to apply this feedback, this will also assist the student in improving their spelling
and punctuation as the other students may be able to pick up on spelling and punctuation
errors missed by the student. As this student usually finishes their work early, I will have
an extension task in place where they will have to get two people to peer assess and after
this, they can apply their feedback to their work.
I will connect the learning for students by providing them with an example based on
their set text as well as another text they are not studying so that they can see how the
PETAL paragraph structure is applied to different context. I will also get them to write
their PETAL paragraph based on their set text.
18
Describe the teaching strategies you intend to use to share new information and give Plan for an implement
students the opportunity to demonstrate understanding (e.g. ALARM, group work, effective teaching and
project-based learning, etc.) learning
For this lesson, I intend to use ICT to share new information by using a Prezi to assist in
my teaching of the PETAL paragraph structure. I will also use mixed ability group work
as one of my teaching strategies when students complete the mix and match activity to
encourage peer interaction and to enable students to work within the zone of proximal
development. Students will also work in pairs when they peer assess each other’s
PETAL paragraphs, and individually when they plan and write their own PETAL
paragraphs.
How will you ensure review of learning occurs? Assess, provide feedback and
report on student learning
To ensure review of learning occurs, I will observe each group during the PETAL
exemplar mix and match activity. In addition, students will complete a peer assessment
of each others’ PETAL paragraphs using a peer assessment worksheet, which I will then
collect. I will also provide verbal individual feedback. I will also encourage students to
use their earlier general feedback from their last written response task. After students
have peer assessed, I will then select some student paragraphs to read to the class and I
will ask the class to provide verbal feedback after I have given my own verbal feedback
and told students what mark I would give the response.
Adapted from Cambridge Park HS
19
Lesson 1 Observation Feedback
Agreed focus area(s) Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls
Completed by  Students learn PETAL paragraph structure Mentor Teacher / Observer Name: Jeannie Baker
Mentor Teacher  Behaviour management Mentor Teacher / Observer Signature:
 Catering for different learning types
Date: 17/05/21
What did the Teacher Education Student say/do? Evidence What did the students say/do? Evidence
 Great resource on PETAL paragraph structure  Students did get confused when they had to choose a
 Discussed learning intentions and success criteria question- offer one only
 Went through each part of the PETAL structure and gave examples  Students were chatty and needed to be settled more
 Provided scaffolds (draft scaffold, sentence starters, checklist)  Most students were willing to participate in the mix and
 Went around the room to help individual students match group activity
 Great resources- appropriate to the lesson and level of students  Students showed their engagement through asking questions
 Went through the answers to the mix and match as a class and asking for feedback
 Gave verbal feedback to students  Most students did not get up to writing their own PETAL
paragraph- many were still using the planning scaffold
20
Post Lesson Discussion 1
Pre-service Teacher: Tayla Nicholls
Completed by Pre-service Teacher Mentor Teacher Signature:

Date: 17/05/21
Piece of Evidence Reflection & Connections Next Steps and Suggested
(Graduate Teaching Standards; Best Practice; Research Based Methodologies) Strategies
Lesson plan 1 At the beginning of the lesson, I instructed students to ensure phones and earphones were As students did not get up to
away and then instructed them to be seated in their usual seating plan and to get out their writing their own PETAL
Appendix 6: PETAL exercise books as the roll was marked. I was unable to line students up outside of the paragraphs, the next lesson will
Paragraph Structure classroom as students had already been let inside the room when I arrived. After setting up involve students writing their
Prezi the projector, I then wrote the lesson sequence on the board and also verbally explained to PETAL paragraph as well as peer
students what they will be doing in the lesson. This links to Standard 3.5- Use effective assessing. They will use all of the
Appendix 7: PETAL classroom communication. scaffolds provided to them in this
Paragraph Exemplar focus lesson. I also intend to do a
Mix and Match After this, I began presenting the Prezi slideshow which had a slide for each part of the recap of the PETAL structure at
PETAL paragraph structure. This links to Standard 2.6- Information and the beginning of the lesson.
Appendix 8: PETAL Communication Technology (ICT). Firstly, I went through the learning intention and
Paragraph Checklist success criteria on the slides. This links to Standard 3.1- Establish challenging learning The next focus lesson is going to
goals as well as the explicit quality criteria element under the quality learning involve students working on their
Appendix 9: PETAL environment dimension of the NSW Quality Teaching Framework. I then instructed the literacy and informal writing as
Paragraph Planning students to copy down the information in bold and verbally explained each slide. This they answer analytical questions
Scaffold links to Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication. I also had my own based on their set text Searching
written example of each part of the PETAL structure on the slides and explained how my (2018) by Aneesh Chaganty.
Appendix 10: PETAL example demonstrated the PETAL structure and how it consistently linked to the question.
Paragraph Sentence This links to Standard 2.1- Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area. As
Starters discussed with my mentor, I could have asked students questions after each part of
PETAL to check their understanding as some students were not paying attention. This
Appendix 11: PETAL links to Standard 6.3- Engage with colleagues and improve practice. I also forgot to
Paragraph Scaffold explain to students how the technique and analysis parts of PETAL are repeated
depending on how many techniques there are, and because of this, students were confused
Appendix 12: Peer when they did the mix and match activity after, which had four techniques repeated.
Feedback Sheet However, I did explain this to the class during the activity and most students understood.
Appendix 13: Student If I did this activity again, I would only have one or two techniques in my PETAL
21
1- PETAL Paragraph exemplar to avoid students being confused.
Sample
When students did the mix and match activity, I explained how to do the activity before I
Appendix 14: Student handed out the laminated mix and match cards. The mix and match activity links to
2- PETAL Paragraph Standard 3.4- Select and use resources. Working within Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal
Sample Development, students were given the option to work in pairs or their table groups to
complete the activity and when students were doing the activity, I walked around the room
Appendix 15: Student to check how students were going. This links to Standard 4.2- Manage classroom
3- PETAL Paragraph activities. I also gave verbal feedback and positive reinforcement. This links to Standard
Sample and Peer 5.2- Provide feedback to students on their learning. Students appeared to enjoy the
Feedback activity, which gave them the ability to learn kinaesthetically.
Appendix 16: General Towards the end of this activity, I noticed that we would not have time to move on to the
Feedback Sheet- Year PETAL paragraph writing activity. To wrap up the lesson, I handed out all of the PETAL
11 Written Responses scaffolds and explained how students would need to use them next lesson to assist with
writing their own PETAL paragraphs. This links to Standard 1.5- Differentiate teaching
to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities. When
packing up at the end of the lesson, I instructed students to tuck their chairs in and pick up
any rubbish around them. I then dismissed students shortly after the bell rang.
At the end of the lesson when the students left the classroom, I had a discussion with my
mentor teacher where I was given feedback and we discussed what I needed to improve
on. During this conversation, my mentor teacher recommended that I didn’t offer question
options and instead provide one question only. I didn’t realise that offering multiple
question options was not best practice, however, I will still have to continue with these
options as students have already selected their questions and began writing their
responses. This links to Standard 6.3- Engage with colleagues and improve practice.
After the lesson, I filled out and sent a student achievement postcard (a whole-school
approach where postcards are used in place of merit awards) to the parents of my focus
Student 2, acknowledging this student’s hard work in completing the mix and match
activity individually. This links to Standard 3.7- Engage parents / carers in the
educative process, Standard 5.5- Report on student achievement, and Standard 7.3-
Engage with the parents/carers.
22
23
Year 11 / Stage 6
Topic: Analysis of Searching (2018) by Aneesh Date and Time: 26/05/21 9:37am- 10:37am
Chaganty
Outcome 2- uses and evaluates processes, skills and knowledge required to effectively respond to and compose texts in
different modes, media and technologies.
Learning To analyse the film Searching (2018)

Intention
Success Students can:
Criteria  Answer analytical questions about the film in full sentence answers
 Use their knowledge of film techniques to analyse the film
Differentiation  Question worksheet
 Class discussion about questions

 Class work (class discussion about questions)
 Individual work (answering questions in books)
 Pair work (assist each other with questions)
 Students respond to the roll being marked. Teacher to hand out Searching (2018) interactive
questions worksheets for students who were absent.
 Instruct students to get out their question sheets and workbooks.
 Open film on computer (Clickview). Allow students time to catch up with their questions while
they are waiting for the film to be loaded.
 Remind students of the expectation to write in full sentence answers and give a verbal example.
 Take students through the learning intention and success criteria (have this written on
whiteboard)
Searching (2018) film viewing and analysis questions

 Students continue watching the interactive version of Searching (2018) and complete the
corresponding worksheet questions
 Give verbal sentence starters to assist students in answering the question in full sentence
answers
 Discuss each answer as a class after students have had time to answer the question
individually/in pairs.
Closure
 Homework setting: instruct students to note that their homework is to ensure that they are up to
24
date with the questions that have been covered in class so far. If they were absent, students
are to watch the film at home on Clickview.
 Instruct students to pack up, ensure tables and chairs are neat, and rubbish is put in the bin.
Dismiss students once quietly waiting behind chairs.
Resources  Computer roll
 Projector
 Computer
 Student exercise books/pens
 Searching (2018)- Interactive version- Clickview-
https://online.clickview.com.au/exchange/categories/29646/films/videos/18908541/searching
 Searching (2018) interactive questions worksheets
Questions  How does the director of Searching (2018), Aneesh Chaganty, use film techniques to tell the
story?
 What film techniques are used in the film?
 What is the purpose of the film techniques in the film?
 How does the film create suspense?
Reflection Students will check and add to their answers when each question is discussed as a class.

 Searching (2018) analysis questions
Evaluation  Classroom management was very good

 Need to be quicker with going through the questions
 Need to follow up with students who were away- they will need to complete questions at home
 The question sheet worked well as many students used it to continue with their answers after we had
moved on
 Need to remind students next lesson what a full sentence answer involves- many did not write in full
sentence answers, even after prompting.
25
Completed by Pre-service Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls
Teacher and Discussed with Mentor Teacher Signature:
Mentor Teacher Date: 26/05/21
Discussion Standard
Describe the class (ability levels, engagement, interests, etc.) in respect to the Know your students and how
implementation of Lesson One. they learn
11ENS3 is a mixed ability Year 11 English Standard class. Based on the implementation
of Lesson One, I have noticed that students in this class need more time than I expected
to complete written responses. I have also noticed that students struggle to proofread
their work. During class discussions, most students are willing to volunteer answers,
however there are some that do not like participating, even with prompting. I have
observed that most students in the class enjoy getting out of their seat to participate in
activities, and I received particularly positive feedback when students got out of their
seats to do an agree/disagree debate where they had to walk to each side of the room to
reflect their opinions. As our current unit is the Contemporary Possibilities module,
students are really enjoying watching the film. I also have observed students enjoying
hands-on kinaesthetic activities and activities involving group work. Overall, the
students have expressed that they do not enjoy writing and as a result, I do try to avoid
consecutive lessons involving extensive writing but still incorporate it into my lessons
regularly. Many students struggle with their writing, particularly spelling and
punctuation. When marking student written responses from prior lessons, I noticed that
many students did not have effective time management as many were not able to finish
the written response in the allocated time. Additionally, I noticed many students could
not communicate their ideas clearly and were missing capital letters, full stops and
commas.
teach it
The content I intend to cover in this lesson is development of student literacy through
the completion of analysis questions. This lesson will therefore focus on Outcome 1
(responds to and composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation,
analysis, imaginative expression and pleasure) as students are required to analytically
respond to their set text as well as Outcome 3- analyses and uses language forms,
features and structures of texts, considers appropriateness for purpose, audience and
context and explains effects on meaning as students will also be required to answer
questions in full sentence answers.
The learning intention for this lesson is for students to analyse the film Searching effective teaching and
(2018). They will demonstrate this by completing analysis questions while watching the learning
film.
English books out as the roll is marked. I will then wait for students to be settled before
moving onto watching the film. I will remind students of the expectations to be quiet
while watching the film. I will also establish a routine of answering questions as I will
26
allow several minutes for students to answer the question individually and then share
their answers to the class. We will continue this routine for every question.
I will manage behaviour by following the school’s mobile phone policy and remind
students of my expectations before beginning the lesson, which also involves the
expectation that students do not talk over me or their peers when contributing to class
discussions. I will also ensure that students sit in their seating plan and will address
student using their names to call out negative behaviour. In addition, as focus student 2
is often targeted by other students in this class, I will ensure that these students are not
seated near or have the opportunity to interact with this student. I will also allow the
option of working individually instead of in a group to ensure Student 2 feels safe and
comfortable. If a situation does arise where Student 2 is targeted by other students in the
class, I will call out this behaviour and refer the situation immediately to the Head
Teacher. To encourage engagement, I will walk around the room to support students
with any questions or assistance they may need. I will also maintain a supportive and
safe learning environment by practising positive reinforcement and modelling positive
attitudes in the classroom so that students feel comfortable to contribute to class
discussions and activities.
For this lesson, I will differentiate learning to meet the needs of Student 1 by providing a
question sheet as well as displaying the question on projector using the interactive
version of the film. As this student often requires more time to complete tasks due to her
Mild Intellectual Disability, this will allow her to have more time to answer the
questions after we have moved on. This, as well as sharing the link to the interactive
video will also enable the student to catch up on any missed questions for homework and
be up to date by the next lesson. However, I will pause the film and allow several
minutes during class for each question to be answered to avoid the student needing to
catch up. During the answering of each question, I will also provide sentence starters as
well as answering some questions as a class and getting students to share answers after
each question. As per the student’s Individual Learning Plan, I will also provide verbal
feedback to the student as they are completing the questions.
As Student 2 has similar recommendations on their IPL as Student 1, all of the above-
mentioned differentiation strategies will also support this student.
As Student 3 is an advanced student, I will differentiate the learning to meet their needs
by providing them a question sheet with access to all questions so that they can go ahead
if they would like. This question sheet will also enable the student to work on the
questions longer if they want to write more detailed answers. I will also provide a link to
the film in case the student wants to continue the work at home or go back and check
their answers. As my goal for this student is to improve her literacy, particularly spelling
and punctuation, I will remind her to capitalise proper nouns such as character names, as
well as proofread.
I will connect the learning for students by getting them to write in full sentence answers
and reminding them that they will be able to use these analysis answers in a PETAL
paragraph response. I will also remind students of what we discussed when we did a
brainstorm on what is in a good answer and remind them to use the feedback sheet they
received from their first written task.
In this lesson, I will incorporate class discussion regularly after each question as students
share answers as well as answering some questions as a class. I will also incorporate
individual work where students write their own answers before we discuss it. Students
will also have the opportunity to work in pairs for some questions where they will be
asked to discuss the question with the student next to them.
27
I will ensure a review of learning occurs as I will give students verbal feedback during
the lesson as well as feedback at the end of the lesson to the class on how they worked. I
will also remind students to apply the feedback from the feedback sheet given to them
for their first written response.
28
Completed by  Student literacy Mentor Teacher / Observer Name: Jeannie Baker

Mentor Teacher  Behaviour management Mentor Teacher / Observer Signature:
 Analyse the film Date: 26/05/21
What did the Pre-service Teacher say/do? Evidence What did the students say/do? Evidence
 Allowed time for students to answer each question  All students were engaged most of the time, with all students
 Explained that questions needed to be in full sentence answers writing in the allocated time
 Reminded students about capitalisation of names of characters  Students volunteered their answers
 Confiscated a student’s phone when used without permission  Most students behaved well. Only a few talking at times
 Provided a question sheet  Some students were sharing answers with the student next to
 Selected students to answer them
 Walked around room and checked student answers  Most were writing in full sentence answers- some did not, even
 Gave positive reinforcement and verbal feedback after prompting.
 Went through the answers as a class  Some students finished early and started chatting to others-
 Classroom management was very good others took longer
 Be more mindful of the pacing of the lesson. With seniors (Stage 6),  Some students were using the question sheet to continue
you can be quicker than with a younger class. answering the questions as we moved on with the film

29
Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls
Mentor Teacher Signature:
Completed by Pre-Service Teacher
Date: 26/05/21

Lesson plan 2 At the beginning of the lesson, I greeted students when they entered the classroom. I did Next lesson, students will
not line students up outside as I was already in the room from the previous lesson. As continue their analysis questions.
students entered, I reminded them to ensure that they were sitting in their usual seating This will take several lessons as
Appendix 17: plan and to make sure that their phones and earphones were away. I reiterated this to two there are many questions
Searching (2018) Film other students who still had their phones out and reminded them that they know the rule. throughout the film.
Analysis Questions This links to Standard 4.3- Manage challenging behaviour. I then explained that we
would be continuing with the film analysis questions from the previous lesson and
Appendix 18: Student instructed students to get out their English books and question sheets. As the roll was In the next focus lesson, students
1- Written Work marked, I instructed students to catch up on the questions we were up to if they had not will creatively write an alternate
Sample (Searching completed them yet. This links to Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom ending to the film. This will be
Film Analysis communication and Standard 4.2- Manage classroom activities. Several students followed by students writing a
Questions) arrived late and when they entered, I asked them why they were late and reminded them justification about their choices as
that they needed to ensure they were on time to class as they missed the instructions. I well as creating a storyboard for
Appendix 19: Student then explained instructions again for these students. Once the roll was marked, I then went their alternate ending where they
2- Written Work through the learning intentions and success criteria for the lesson, which links to will demonstrate their knowledge
Sample (Searching Standard 3.1- Establish challenging learning goals as well as the explicit quality of film techniques as they apply it
Film Analysis criteria element under the quality learning environment dimension of the NSW Quality to their own work.
Questions) Teaching Framework. As students were waiting for the film to load, I reminded students
that they needed to answer the questions in their English books in full sentence answers. I
Appendix 20: Student explained that full sentence answers require part of the question in the answer and gave a
3- Written Work verbal example. I also reminded students to capitalise the names of the characters in their
Sample (Searching answers as they are proper nouns, as I had noticed that this was an area of improvement
Film Analysis across the class. This links to Standard 5.1- Assess student learning, Standard 5.2-
Questions) Provide feedback to students on their learning, Standard 4.2- Manage classroom
activities, and Standard 2.5- Literacy and numeracy strategies
Before I played the film, I reminded students to ensure they were being quiet and
watching the film as they needed to answer questions based on what they watch. When the
questions came up on the screen at each time stamp, I read the questions out verbally to
the students and instructed them to answer the question in their books. I told students that
we will then share answers as a class. I practiced the Gradual Release of Responsibility
30
model here as the previous lesson involved me answering several questions for them and
answering the rest of the questions as a class. In this lesson, I focused on giving the
students more responsibility by allowing them to work in pairs for the first couple of
questions, followed by working individually for the rest of the questions. This links to
Standard 3.3- Use teaching strategies. During the questions, I walked around the room
and checked on all students and provided verbal feedback, particularly for those students
not writing in full sentence answers, including one of my focus students. I also provided
positive reinforcement and thanked students for contributing their answers. This links to
Standard 4.1- Support student participation, Standard 5.2- Provide feedback to
students on their learning. When sharing answers as a class, I asked students to
volunteer answers and many students did this for every answer, however, I did have to
select some students or answer the question myself if there were no volunteers. I also
ensured all students were quiet and listening to each student contributing an answer. When
a student was talking over another student, I reminded them to stop talking and listen to
the student answering. I then apologised to the student answering and asked them to
restate their answer. I gave positive reinforcement when students contributed answers.
This links to Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication, Standard 4.1-
Support student participation, and Standard 4.2- Manage classroom activities.
I followed the school’s mobile phone policy when I confiscated a phone from a student
who was using it without permission. This links to Standard 7.2- Comply with
legislative, administrative and organisational requirements and Standard 4.3-
Manage challenging behaviour. At the end of the lesson, I instructed students to ensure
that their questions were up to date for homework, particularly reminding the focus
students as they often require more time to complete tasks. When packing up at the end of
the lesson, I instructed students to tuck their chairs in and pick up any rubbish around
them. I then dismissed students shortly after the bell rang.
At the end of the lesson when students left, I had a conversation with my Mentor Teacher
where we discussed how the lesson went and I was given some feedback on my teaching
where we agreed that I needed to work on the pacing of my lesson and that I was giving
students too much time to answer questions. Therefore, next lesson I am going to
implement this feedback and work through the questions quicker, moving on when at least
half of the class has finished writing. This links to Standard 6.3- Engage with colleagues
and improve practice.
31
Year 11 / Stage 6
Topic: Alternate Ending to Searching (2018) by Date and Time: 02/06/21 8:37am- 9:37am
Aneesh Chaganty
Outcome 2- uses and evaluates processes, skills and knowledge required to effectively respond to and compose texts in
different modes, media and technologies.
Outcome 9- reflects on, assesses and monitors own learning and develops individual and collaborative processes to
become an independent learner.
Learning To write an alternate ending to Searching (2018)

Intention
Success Students can:
Criteria  Use correct sentence structure, punctuation and grammar to compose their own creative writing
 Compose a visual storyboard with film techniques to support their ideas
 Reflect on their own processes in writing
Differentiation  Verbal and written instructions
 Sentence starters
 Students can select a scene to begin from of their choice
 Storyboard template and exemplar
 Class work (class discussion about questions)
 Individual work (answering questions in books)
 Pair work (assist each other with questions)
 Students respond to the roll being marked. Teacher to instruct students to get out their
workbooks and remind students that they are writing an alternate ending to the film (students
were informed of this in the previous lesson).
 Take students through the learning intention and success criteria (have this written on
whiteboard)
Creative writing- alternate ending

 Teacher to hand out instruction sheet to each student and display instruction document on the
projector and verbally read through instructions with students, allowing any questions.
 Students write an alternate ending for the film- teacher to walk around to students to check
student progress and answer any questions
32
 When students have finished writing, teacher to select volunteers to read their ending
Alternate ending storyboard

 Teacher to show and explain storyboard exemplar on projector
 Students to create a storyboard for their alternate ending. They must show the type of camera
shot and describe the type of sound/lighting/mise en scene in each scene.
Extension: Individual written reflection

 Students to write a minimum ½ page reflection about their creative processes in their writing
and storyboard. Students should include discussion about why they decided to include the
details they did, why they chose to show scenes through certain modes of media, and why they
selected certain film techniques to tell their story.
 Students may not get up to this- continue next lesson
Closure
 Homework setting: students to ensure that they have finished the alternate ending creative
writing piece before next lesson.
 Instruct students to pack up, ensure tables and chairs are neat, and rubbish is put in the bin.
Dismiss students once quietly waiting behind chairs.
Resources  Computer roll
 Projector
 Computer
 Whiteboard
 Whiteboard marker
 Student exercise books/pens
 Alternate ending instruction sheet
 Storyboard template worksheet
 Storyboard exemplar
Questions  How should the film end?
 Should the ending include closure or be an open ending?
 What film techniques should I use in my alternate ending?
 How will I show what happens after Margot is found?
 Does Margot make a full recovery?
 Does Margot get accepted into university?
 How will I show Margot and David’s character growth by the end of the film?
 What is a storyboard?
 How do I do a storyboard?
Reflection Students will reflect on their learning by writing an individual written reflection discussing their choices for
the creative writing task and storyboard. They are required to highlight their strengths and areas of
improvement.
 Creative writing task- alternate ending
 Storyboard
Assessment as learning
 Individual written reflection
Evaluation  Classroom/behaviour management has improved very much
 Need to allocate more time for activities- over planned
 Most students were engaged with the work and many wanted me to read their endings as they were
33
writing
Completed by Pre-service Teacher Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls
and discussed with Mentor Mentor Teacher Signature:
Teacher Date: 02/06/21
Discussion Standard
Describe the class (ability levels, engagement, interests, etc.) in relation to Know your students and how
implementation of Lesson One and Lesson Two. they learn
11ENS3 is a mixed ability Year 11 English Standard class. Based on the implementation
of Lesson One, I have noticed that students in this class need more time than I expected
to complete written responses. Additionally, based on the implementation of Lesson
Two, I have noticed that students do not need as much time as I was allocating to answer
questions. As students were finishing earlier, I noticed that many students would start to
talk and distract others still answering the questions. During Lesson Two, I have also
observed that many students did not follow the instructions about writing in full sentence
answers, even though I did explicitly remind students several times and explained how
to write full sentence answers. In particular, I noticed focus Student 2 didn’t know how
to write full sentence answers and when I reminded her to write in full sentence answers,
she told me that they were full sentence answers, however, I could see that they were
not. During class discussions, most students are willing to volunteer answers, however
there are some that do not like participating, even with prompting. I have observed that
most students in the class enjoy getting out of their seat to participate in activities, and I
received particularly positive feedback when students got out of their seats to do an
agree/disagree debate where they had to walk to each side of the room to reflect their
opinions. As our current unit is the Contemporary Possibilities module, students are
really enjoying watching the film. I also have observed students enjoying hands-on
kinaesthetic activities and activities involving group work. Overall, the students have
expressed that they do not enjoy writing and as a result, I do try to avoid consecutive
lessons involving extensive writing but still incorporate it into my lessons regularly.
Many students struggle with their writing, particularly spelling and punctuation. When
marking student written responses from prior lessons, I noticed that many students did
not have effective time management as many were not able to finish the written response
in the allocated time. Additionally, I noticed many students could not communicate their
ideas clearly and were missing capital letters, full stops and commas.
teach it
The curriculum area I intend to cover in this lesson is Outcome 1- responds to and
composes increasingly complex texts for understanding, interpretation, analysis,
imaginative expression and pleasure. This lesson will cover Outcome 1 because students
use their knowledge of the text to develop their own creative texts. They are also
required to discuss how they would implement different modes of media to portray their
story.
effective teaching and
The learning intention for this lesson is for students to creatively write an alternate learning
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ending to the film. Students will demonstrate this by using their knowledge of the film
as well as film techniques and contemporary possibilities to write their alternate ending.
English books out as the roll is marked and will remind them of my expectations,
particularly the expectation that students are quiet when I am talking. I will then wait for
students to be settled before moving onto watching the film. I will remind students of the
expectations to be quiet while watching the film. I will also continue the routine of
answering questions as I will allow several minutes for students to answer the question
individually and then share their answers to the class. Once we have finished the film, I
will instruct students to close their books and listen quietly to the instructions of the next
activity.
I will manage behaviour by following the school’s mobile phone policy and remind
students of my expectations before beginning the lesson, which also involves the
expectation that students do not talk over me or their peers when contributing to class
discussions. I will also ensure that students sit in their seating plan and will address
student using their names to call out negative behaviour. In addition, as focus student 2
is often targeted by other students in this class, I will ensure that these students are not
seated near or have the opportunity to interact with this student. I will also allow the
option of working individually instead of in a group to ensure Student 2 feels safe and
comfortable. If a situation does arise where Student 2 is targeted by other students in the
class, I will call out this behaviour and refer the situation immediately to the Head
Teacher. To encourage engagement, I will walk around the room to support students
with any questions or assistance they may need. I will also maintain a supportive and
safe learning environment by practising positive reinforcement and modelling positive
attitudes in the classroom so that students feel comfortable to contribute to class
discussions and activities.
For this lesson, I will differentiate learning to meet the needs of Student 1 by providing a
question sheet as well as displaying the question on projector using the interactive
version of the film. As this student often requires more time to complete tasks due to her
Mild Intellectual Disability, this will allow her to have more time to answer the
questions after we have moved on. This, as well as sharing the link to the interactive
video will also enable the student to catch up on any missed questions for homework and
be up to date by the next lesson. However, I will pause the film and allow several
minutes during class for each question to be answered to avoid the student needing to
catch up. During the answering of each question, I will also provide sentence starters as
well as answering some questions as a class and getting students to share answers after
each question. As per the student’s Individual Learning Plan, I will also provide verbal
feedback to the student as they are completing the questions. For the creative writing
task, I will differentiate learning to meet the needs of this student by providing both
written and verbal instruction. I will leave the written instructions on the projector
during this activity so the student can refer back to it. I will also provide several sentence
starters to assist this student as well as
As Student 2 has similar recommendations on their IPL as Student 1, all of the above-
mentioned differentiation strategies will also support this student. In particular, the
sentence starters will assist this student as they often have trouble thinking creatively
and often express their uncertainty about what to write. I will also provide verbal
feedback to this student and check their work at various stages to ensure
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As Student 3 is an advanced student, I will differentiate the learning to meet their needs
by providing them a question sheet with access to all questions so that they can go ahead
if they would like. This question sheet will also enable the student to work on the
questions longer if they want to write more detailed answers. I will also provide a link to
the film in case the student wants to continue the work at home or go back and check
their answers. As my goal for this student is to improve her literacy, particularly spelling
and punctuation, I will remind her to capitalise proper nouns such as character names, as
well as proofread.
I will connect the learning for students by getting them to write in full sentence answers
and reminding them that they will be able to use these analysis answers in a PETAL
paragraph response. I will also remind students of what we discussed when we did a
brainstorm on what is in a good answer and remind them to use the feedback sheet they
received from their first written task.
In this lesson, I will predominately have students working individually to demonstrate

their understanding of the film through writing their own responses.
I will ensure review of learning occurs by providing individual verbal feedback to
students when they are writing. I will also remind students to use the feedback from the
feedback sheet that was given to them for their first writing task.
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Completed by  Creative writing skills Mentor Teacher / Observer Name: Jeannie Baker
Mentor Teacher  Behaviour management
Mentor Teacher / Observer Signature:
 Explicit instruction
Date: 02/06/2021
What did the Pre-service Teacher say/do? Evidence What did the students say/do? Evidence
 Reiterated expectations at the beginning of the lesson- told  Many students were willing to volunteer and share their answers for
students to remove earphones, put phones away etc. the film questions
 Had written instructions on the projector  Some students used the sentence starters
 Read out instructions verbally  Most students behaved well- some students needed to be given some
 After explaining instructions, asked if there were any questions reminders to stop talking
 Gave sentence starters  Students were a bit chatty when doing the writing task although many
 Gave students ideas of what they could write (verbal and written of them were talking about the work
on the board)
 Provided individual verbal feedback
 Checked on each student during the creative writing activity
 Classroom management was very good this lesson
37
Mentor Teacher Signature:
Completed by Pre-service Teacher
Date: 02/06/2021

Lesson plan 3 At the beginning of the lesson, I greeted students as they entered the classroom and As this is my second last lesson
instructed them to ensure that their phones and earphones were away. I did not line with this class, the final lesson
Appendix 21: Creative students up outside the class as I was already in there from the previous lesson. I then will involve students finishing off
Writing- Alternate instructed students to get their English books out as the roll was being marked. I reminded their storyboards and individual
Ending Instructions students that they would be writing an alternate ending, as discussed last lesson. This links written reflection. I will again
to Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication. Many students were not show students the example of my
Appendix 22: present in class as some students were taken out of class for the minimum standards test own storyboard. This will then be
Storyboard Exemplar and focus Student 3 was absent. I then went through the learning intentions and success followed by an individual
criteria for the lesson, which links to Standard 3.1- Establish challenging learning goals reflection which will be continued
Appendix 23: as well as the explicit quality criteria element under the quality learning environment by my mentor teacher.
Storyboard Template dimension of the NSW Quality Teaching Framework.
In terms of my own teaching
Appendix 24: Student After taking students through the learning intentions and success criteria, I handed out the practice, my next steps are to use
1- Written Work creative writing instruction sheets. I had these instructions also displayed on the projector strategies like ones I have used on
Sample (Searching- and verbally explained them as students read on. Once I had explained the instructions, I this placement to enhance my
Alternate Ending) asked students if there were any questions. I then instructed students that they had half an teaching.
hour to write their alternate ending to the story. This links to Standard 2.1- Content and
Appendix 25: Student teaching strategies of the teaching area, Standard 3.3- Use teaching strategies, and
2- Written Work Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication. This creative writing task
Sample (Searching- incorporates the create category of Bloom’s Taxonomy, the highest level of the hierarchy.
Alternate Ending)
As students were completing the writing activity, I walked around the room and checked
Appendix 26: Student that each student understood the instructions of the task, particularly focus Student 1 and
3- Written Work focus Student 2. I answered any questions that students had about the work and provided
Sample (Searching- verbal feedback and positive reinforcement. This links to Standard 4.1- Support student
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Alternate Ending) participation and Standard 5.2- Provide feedback to students on their learning. I also
supported students with their writing by providing them with ideas and reminded them to
use the sentence starters/selected scenarios on the instructions sheet if they were stuck on
what to write. This links to Standard 1.5- Differentiate teaching to meet the specific
learning needs of students across the full range of abilities, Standard 1.6- Strategies
to support full participation of students with disability, Standard 2.5- Literacy and
numeracy strategies, and Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication. After
most students finished their writing, I asked some students to volunteer to read their
alternate endings. Not many students wanted to volunteer and were more comfortable if I
read their work instead, which I did. This links to Standard 4.1- Support student
participation and Standard 4.2- Manage classroom activities.
At the end of the lesson, I noticed that most students would not get up to completing the
storyboard and written justification this lesson. To wrap up the lesson, I explained to
students that they would be completing the storyboard and written justification over the
next two lessons. I then showed students my storyboard exemplar on the projector in order
to give them an idea of what they would be expected to do next lesson. I explained each
part of the storyboard and the usual requirements of a typical storyboard. This links to
Standard 2.1- Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area, Standard 2.6-
Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Standard 3.4- Select and use
resources, and Standard 3.5- Use effective classroom communication. When packing
up at the end of the lesson, I instructed students to tuck their chairs in and pick up any
rubbish around them. When students were waiting quietly, I gave positive reinforcement
and feedback on their work and behaviour this lesson, which links to This links to
Standard 4.1- Support student participation and Standard 5.2- Provide feedback to
students on their learning. I then dismissed students shortly after the bell rang.
After students left the classroom, I discussed the lesson with my Mentor Teacher and
asked for some feedback on my teaching practice. We both agreed that the activities
during the lesson were engaging and that my classroom management had improved once
again. We also both discussed the need to allocate more time to activities when lesson
planning as I had over-planned and did not get up to the other activities. Although, by
overplanning, I was able to prepare the students for the following lesson as I was able to
tell them what activities they will be doing and how they will do them. This links to
Standard 6.3- Engage with colleagues and improve practice.
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Summary of Impact
Completed by Pre-service Teacher Mentor Teacher Signature:
Date: 04/06/2021
Case Study Participants (Focus students)
Student 1: Emergent (Mild Intellectual Disability)
Student 2: Standard (Social/emotional diagnosis)
Student 3: Advanced
Discussion Link to Graduate Teacher

Standards
Provide a summary of impact on the learning of the three Case Study Participants Standard 1: Know students
and how they learn – (1.1,
In the three focus lessons with 11ENS3, I focused on improving student literacy. For 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 1.6)
Student 1 and 2, I had Individual Learning Plans that I could refer to and implement
already identified strategies to support the learning of these students. For Student 3, I did Standard 2: Know the
not have an Individual Learning Plan to refer to so I had to identify areas of content and how to teach it –
improvement myself and come up with my own strategies to support this student. (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5)
Student 1: Emergent (Mild Intellectual Disability) Standard 3: Plan for and
implement effective teaching
For Student 1 who is an emergent learner and has Mild Intellectual Disability, my main
and learning – (3.1, 3.2, 3.3,
focus was to differentiate learning for this student by using strategies from the student’s
Individual Learning Plan to improve their literacy. This includes strategies such as more 3.4, 3.5. 3.7)
time to complete tasks, providing scaffolds and sentence starters, checklists,
personalised instruction, and teaching text types before getting the student to write a Standard 4: Create and
response. I am aware that Mild Intellectual Disability affects learning, causing students maintain supportive and safe
with the disability to learn at a slower rate than their peers. As such, strategies learning environments – (4.1,
implemented for the differentiation of this student considered this slower learning rate 4.2, 4.3, 4.4)
and involved specific strategies from the students ILP as mentioned above such as
allowing more time to complete tasks, providing written instructions, checklists, and
opportunities for the student to check their understanding. Standard 5: Assess, provide
feedback and report on
Before I started teaching 11ENS3, my mentor told me that this student is often student learning – (5.1, 5.2,
disengaged and does not often put effort into her work. I also noticed during my 5.4, 5.5)
observations that the student was often distracted and not participating in the activities.
From the first lesson I taught this student, I noticed higher engagement and a willingness Standard 7: Engage
to participate in class activities and discussions. I think this may have been due to my professionally with
different teaching style from my mentor teacher as I tend to do more hands-on activities colleagues, parents/carers
and class discussion, which I noticed was one of this student’s strengths. When I gave
and the community – (7.3)
positive reinforcement to this student, I noticed she was more willing to participate and
put more effort into her work.
In focus Lesson 1 with this student, I observed greater engagement from this student
throughout the lesson as she was asking questions about the work and was actively
working on drafting her PETAL paragraph when we started that activity. I also observed
this student making use of the scaffolds and checklist provided. This student also
regularly wanted me to check her work and ensure she was correctly drafting her
paragraph. I believe that the scaffold provided for the PETAL structure greatly assisted
this student in her literacy as it assisted with her paragraph writing as it was structured. It
also solidified the knowledge that this student already had about the PEEL structure and
therefore I believe it made her more confident with writing a structured paragraph. I did
have to confiscate this student’s phone during this lesson but after this, the student did
not have her phone out during class.
A strategy suggested in this student’s Individual Learning Plan was to allow more time
to complete tasks. I implemented this strategy regularly and did allow this student more
40
time to finish a task, such as setting it for homework and asking her to give it to me next
lesson. However, I found that this student did not use this time to complete the work and
would often forget about it and I would have to collect it incomplete, which is what
happened for the PETAL paragraph after focus Lesson 1. Because of this, the student
was unable to complete the peer assessment as she did not finish her own work and I
was unable to see her understanding of the PETAL paragraph structure as she did not
produce a complete work sample.
In focus Lesson 2, I observed high engagement and interest by this student throughout
the lesson. As mentioned previously, this student is often willing to participate in class
discussions and during Lesson 2, she was regularly volunteering her answers willingly.
When observing this student during the lesson, I noticed that she followed instructions
of writing most answers in full sentence answers and appeared to do this with ease. The
student appeared to be giving her work a serious attempt and was often still writing her
answers as we moved on to the next part of the film. At times this student did get
distracted by talking to other students but when I prompted her, she did get back on-task.
In focus Lesson 3, I once again observed high engagement and interest by this student.
At the beginning of the lesson, this student did seem quite unsure about what to do for
the writing activity and when I checked on her, she said that she wasn’t sure what to
write or where to start it from. I then gave this student some verbal ideas and instructed
her to use the sentence starters on the instruction sheet to assist her. This student was
asking many questions about her work and asking for feedback on what she had written
at various points of the lesson. I also noticed this student regularly referring back to the
instructions sheet and I believe this really helped her in completing the task. This student
was also the first person to volunteer to read out their alternate ending and I gave her
positive reinforcement and verbal feedback after this.
Overall, I think my impact on the learning of Student 1 was mostly to do with increasing
her engagement and interest in the lessons. I believe that this student enjoyed my
teaching style and it enabled her to be interested and engaged in the lessons because she
was exposed to different learning activities suited to her, such as hands-on activities. My
impact could have been larger if I taught her for a longer amount of time as I could have
established more routines and expectations around homework and finishing the work
when extra time is allocated. However, I do believe I assisted this student in solidifying
knowledge they already had about writing and literacy and enabled her to develop new
skills in paragraph writing using the PETAL paragraph structure. My impact on this
student also would have been larger if I had been provided with a more up to date
Individual Learning Plan, as the one that was on the school’s system had not been
modified in several years, therefore the strategies to support this student may have
needed adjusting, particularly to suit the needs of this student as they undertake Year 11
Preliminary courses. However, I believe I did use the information available to
differentiate the learning for this student as best as I could considering the short length
of the placement, although I believe that my impact on the student’s learning is largely
affected by the student’s own application of feedback and resources such as sentence
starters and scaffolds.
Student 2: Standard (Social/emotional diagnosis)
For Student 2, who is a standard learner and has a social/emotional diagnosis, my main
focus was also to differentiate learning for this student by using strategies from the
student’s Individual Learning Plan to improve their literacy. Due to her social/emotional
diagnosis, I was aware that any group work could either be very beneficial for this
student or detrimental, depending on who this student would be working with. As this
student is often bullied, I was conscious from the beginning of my placement that I
needed to avoid learning activities where this student would have to interact with other
students in her class who target her.
In focus Lesson 1, I gave this student the option to work individually for the mix-and-
match activity. This student responded particularly well to this and showed high interest
and engagement in the activity. I do not feel as though this student was disadvantaged as
she finished before most groups and appears to work better independently as she is not
distracted by others. However, I did notice when this student was finished that she did
41
get off-task and began drawing and reading a book before I had the chance to check her
work. When discussing the mix-and-match activity with this student, she told me that
she liked these types of activities over writing and I believe that she works better with
these hands-on activities as she is able to demonstrate her strengths, which she struggles
with during writing activities. When selecting a question for her PETAL paragraph, this
student selected the most difficult option and although I tried to encourage her to do the
one I had intended for her (she did not know the questions were levelled), she still
wanted to do the question she had selected.
One of the strategies suggested by the Individual Learning Plan for this student was
giving the student more time to complete tasks. I implemented this but found it did not
work as well as I thought. When I gave this student more time to complete their PETAL
paragraph by setting it for homework and allowing an extra week for it to be handed in, I
found the student did not use this time and forgot about completing the work, even with
several reminders. I did end up having to collect the incomplete paragraph from the
student after a week. Perhaps I could have set more time during class time for the
student to complete this instead of setting it for homework as it would have held the
student more accountable if I was monitoring their progress during the lesson.
In focus Lesson 2, this student was very engaged and interested when we were watching
the film. During some questions, this student volunteered to share her answer. I then
gave her positive reinforcement and verbal feedback. In her answers, this student
demonstrated her ability to make inferences and hypotheses about the film. However,
during the lesson I did observe that the student would often be off-task when she was
supposed to be writing her answer and would often draw in her book. I did notice that
this was mostly due to her not knowing what to write and I would therefore assist her by
rephrasing the question and getting the class to share their answers so that she had
something to write.
In focus Lesson 3, this student appeared to be very engaged with having the opportunity
to re-write the ending of the film. Initially, the student was quite unsure and confused
about the activity, asking me many questions about the instructions after I had explained
them. I found providing the instruction sheet to her really assisted so that she did not
have to wait for me to come around to her and allowed her to be in charge of her own
learning. During this activity, the student did not appear to be engaged in the actual
writing part of the task at times. However, with my prompting she did get back on-task.
The student also expressed during these times that she was unsure of what to write and I
found once I gave her ideas, she continued to write her response.
Overall, I think my impact on the learning of this student was unfortunately quite low.
Particularly with written responses, the student would often not follow my instructions
or apply my verbal and written feedback to their work. In particular, with the film
analysis questions, even though I explained how to write a full sentence answer and
reminded students regularly to ensure that they were writing in full sentence answers,
when I observed this student’s work, I noticed that she was not writing in full sentence
answers. However, when I asked her about it, she said that she was. Even after I then re-
explained how to write a full sentence answer, the student still did not write correct
sentences. However, whenever I provided scaffolds, sentence starters, and written
instruction sheets, they were generally used by the student and appeared to assist with
her written responses greatly. This student also seemed to enjoy my teaching style,
particularly when it involved hands-on activities and she expressed to me several times
that she enjoyed having me as a teacher. When I sent her parents a postcard about her
learning, she was quite happy about this and I believe that I introduced learning
activities that the student was unfamiliar with and this allowed her to demonstrate her
strengths, particularly with hands-on activities. The student also seemed to be very
interested by the film and even though her writing needed improvement, this interest and
engagement came through in her contributions to class discussions. I feel as though if I
had had more time to build a rapport with this student, she would have been able to trust
my feedback more and implement it into her work to improve her learning.
Student 3: Advanced
As Student 3 was my advanced learner, I didn’t have any particular goals to focus on
42
that were set by an Individual Learning Plan. Instead, I used formative assessment with
this student in the first lesson to identify possible areas of improvement that I could
focus on as a goal. Through this formative assessment, I was able to determine that this
student needed to improve on her literacy. Although this student is the top Year 11
English Standard student in the school, her grammar and punctuation were an area of
improvement I identified. In order to assist this student in maintaining her rank as she
approaches the HSC, I highlighted improving her literacy as a key goal. I also noticed
during this formative assessment that the student may not be proof reading as there were
some errors in the syntax. Throughout my lessons with this student, there were no issues
of engagement as she was constantly participating and completing all activities to the
best of her ability.
In focus Lesson 1, I observed that this student has a willingness to seek feedback and ask
questions about the work regularly. Particularly when we were going through the Prezi
on PETAL paragraph structure, this student asked several questions to solidify her
knowledge. When completing the mix-and-match activity, I noticed that this student was
highly engaged with the problem-solving aspect of the activity and asked myself and her
peers several questions about the correct sections of the structure. When drafting her
own PETAL paragraph, I found that this student used the scaffolds and checklist as a
starting point, although she didn’t write on all of them. This student also asked me
several questions during her drafting and also sought feedback during the process.
In the lesson following focus Lesson 1, I had this student apply the feedback she had
received by myself and the peer marking activity. This student was the only one of my
focus students to complete the peer marking activity and I believe this is linked to my
impact on them as this student had the opportunity to apply this feedback.
In focus Lesson 2, I observed this student highly engaged with the film and the analysis
questions. I did find that having her own copy of the analysis questions assisted this
student as she was able to write more detailed responses as she often continued writing
her answers when the class was moving on to the next question. This student also
volunteered her answers for most questions and they were usually highly detailed and
insightful. I also observed this student writing in correct full sentence answers most of
the time. This student also showed improvement with her capitalisation as proper nouns
were capitalised at times, however this was not always done. I believe that this student
knows now that she has to capitalise proper nouns, however, perhaps she does not
always do so because she is completing her answers quickly without proof-reading.
This student was absent in focus Lesson 3, and therefore did not complete the work in
this lesson. She did complete this the next lesson when she returned.
Overall, I do believe I had an impact on this student’s literacy. In particular, I noticed the
improvement in her capitalisation, especially after I provided the general feedback sheet
from the PETAL paragraph activity, which allowed her to constantly refer back to the
feedback given. I also noticed an improvement in this student’s written expression, as I
had encouraged her to proof-read her work before handing it in for submission or
reading it aloud. I believe that if I had taught this student for longer, I would have seen a
greater improvement in her literacy and therefore I would have had a greater impact on
her learning. However, I am quite satisfied on the impact that I did have and believe that
this was mostly because she sought and applied feedback and was willing to put effort
into all of her classwork.
Write a critical reflection on your own classroom teaching practice in terms of the Standard 3: Plan for and
teaching cycle of planning, teaching and assessing, reflecting on feedback / implement effective
observation/ student data. teaching and learning –
(3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5)
As this is my second placement, I already had an idea of what to expect and what would
be required from me as a student teacher. However, I was very nervous for this
placement as my last one was in a Catholic school and I did not have much experience in
Standard 4: Create and
public schools. I was nervous to teach in a public school, particularly this school as I did maintain supportive and
think that the area of Cranebrook was a difficult area to work in. However, this eased as safe learning environments
I began my placement and I got comfortable in the school early on during the placement. – (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4)
In the first week when I was observing the classes, I was concerned about how the
students would adapt to my teaching style, as it is quite different from my mentor Standard 5: Assess, provide
43
teacher’s. The students were used to completing individual written tasks in most lessons feedback and report on
I observed. In my teaching practice, I often have class discussions and hands on student learning – (5.1, 5.2,
activities. Although I didn’t want to change the routine of the classes too drastically, I 5.3, 5.4, 5.5)
did adapt my teaching to suit what the students were used to, although did include Standard 7: Engage
different activities regularly to ease students into my teaching style.
professionally with
colleagues, parents/carers
I was very happy with the way I planned my teaching during this placement as I always and the community – (7.3)
had my lessons planned one week in advance. This was not the case during the first
week on the Thursday and Friday when I started to teach as it was not possible to plan
the week before, but from the second week of placement I was very organised and
would send the lesson plans to my mentor teacher a week in advance. Even though I
would sometimes have to change the lesson plans due to them being planned so far in
advance, I found that doing this would actually assist me in being organised for the
following lessons as the activities that I had planned often had to get pushed back. By
the third week, I began creating weekly outlines where I could draft all of my ideas and
activities for my lesson plans during each week in the same document. I found this really
helped me as it gave me a simplified version of my lesson plans, which are often really
difficult to use when I am teaching because they are so detailed. I will definitely be
creating weekly outlines in my own teaching practice in the future as I feel they assisted
in making my placement more organised and run smoother.
I believe that my teaching practice really improved since my first placement. In this
placement, I was more confident and knew the syllabus content better. As I have had
some experience between the last placement casually teaching, I have really been able to
develop my teaching skills using the feedback from my first placement. I was
particularly confident with my Year 11 English Standard class as the content was
something that I felt passionate about and enjoyed. My mentor teacher commented on
this as well and agreed that the students can tell when you enjoy what you are teaching
as you are more confident. Even though I had not taught Year 11 before (only casually),
knowing the content well really assisted me in overcoming my nervousness to teach a
senior class. I was also very confident teaching my Year 7 class as I also enjoyed the
content and because of this, we had very engaging learning activities and the students
appeared to be very interested in the content as well. During this placement, I also
engaged with parents by sending home a postcard about focus Student 2’s achievement.
This really assisted in my rapport with the student and I could tell that the student felt
more comfortable with having me as a teacher after this.
There are still areas I would like to improve on in my teaching practice. In particular, my
three goals; classroom and behaviour management, explicit instruction, and high student
interest and engagement. Even though I did greatly improve on these goals throughout
my placement, I would still like to work on these more, particularly classroom and
behaviour management. Throughout both placements, the recurring feedback I would
receive would be about improving on classroom and behaviour management. I feel as
though this would be improved on over time as I am only new to teaching. It also does
take time to build a rapport with your students and when I have been on placement, I
have not been able to get to know students as well as I would have wanted to due to the
short duration of the placement. Therefore, when I become a full-time teacher with my
own classes, I feel as though student rapport will play a large part in improving my
classroom and behaviour management. Another goal I would like to improve on is
explicit instruction as I feel as though this could have been better. At times I do seem to
forget that students require more explicit instruction, particularly junior year groups. I
would like to improve on this by being more mindful of activities that may require more
explicit instruction. One goal I feel I have succeeded at the most is the goal of high
student interest and engagement. Throughout many of my lessons during this placement,
I have observed high student interest and engagement, particularly when I included
kinaesthetic/hands-on and creative activities. Students also displayed very high interest
and engagement when engaging with ICT, which is something I will be sure to
implement more in my future teaching practice. In addition to this, students also
responded very well to activities where they had to create something, which is the
highest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
When assessing students, I feel as though I had a range of opportunities throughout my

44
placement for students to demonstrate their understanding. In each class, I included
regular formative assessment such as Kahoots, spelling tests, questions, worksheets,
written responses, group activities, student reading, and class brainstorms and
discussion. I found these assessment opportunities very helpful for me as a student
teacher as I was able to get an idea of where students’ learning was at as I hadn’t known
them for long. This assisted me in identifying gaps in their knowledge and use these
gaps to prepare learning activities and summative assessment tasks. With using
formative assessment, I was able to identify gaps of knowledge in my Year 11 English
Standard class such as punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure, which I would
have otherwise overlooked. I did not often do summative assessment as I was teaching
in the middle of the term. However, there were several times where I had students
complete a written summative assessment response based on what they had learnt so far
in their unit. This was also able to be used as formative assessment as I could identify
any gaps in their knowledge and revise content if I needed to. I also had opportunities
for assessment as learning, where students had the opportunity to peer and self-assess
and apply this feedback to their work. I also gave students regular verbal feedback and
occasional written feedback on writing tasks. In particular, with my Year 11 English
Standard class, I used student data gathered from a PETAL paragraph writing task in
order to formulate a general feedback sheet. I used data such as the mean/average in
order to inform students on their achievement and how they were performing in
comparison to their peers. I also provided other feedback on this sheet such as common
errors and things that the better responses had in common.
From your critical reflection, what future professional learning would you
undertake to improve your teaching practice.
In order to establish what professional learning I need to undertake to improve my

teaching practice, I need to refer to the reports and daily feedback sheets from each
placement in order to determine what common areas of improvement are. In both
placements, I have noticed that the main area of improvement that my mentor teachers
point out is classroom and behaviour management. Although I have discussed above that
I believe this will greatly improve due to rapport I establish with students when I am a
full-time teacher, I would still like to undertake professional learning in the area of
classroom and behaviour management so that I can develop more strategies to deal with
challenging behaviours and to run a classroom effectively. In saying this, behaviour
management is linked to understanding why students may be misbehaving and I would
like to also undertake professional learning in this area to firstly understand why
students behave in certain ways and strategies that I can use to support them. In
particular, more professional learning in the area of student disability may assist with
this, as learning behaviours can sometimes be linked with particular diagnoses such as
Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Intellectual
Disability. However, I am not limited in what professional learning I would like to
undertake to improve my teaching practice. As there are always new theories and
research, I would like to undertake in regular professional learning in order to be up to
date with best practice. I would also like to undertake professional learning in the area of
Indigenous education, as I did not really get to develop in this area during this placement
as I was not given access to a list of students in my classes who were Aboriginal/Torres
Strait Islander. In addition to this, professional learning about project-based learning and
effective ICT integration is a particular interest of mine as I am not very strong in this
area and these practices are becoming a large part of teaching.
45
Supporting
Appendices
Not included in this version due to size of file*
46
WSU_Teaching Performance Assessment Case Study Report 1H 2019

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WSU Teaching Performance Assessment (WSU_TPA)

School of Education: Master of Teaching (Secondary)

Student Name: Tayla Nicholls

Student Name: Student ID: Content

As the use of technology is expanding within the school, I should have

Link to Graduate Teaching Standard/s:

Factors Influencing Learning:

Content: N/A- English syllabus

Learning Intention To learn the PETAL paragraph structure.

Success Criteria Students can:

PETAL Paragraph Structure Prezi

Writing a PETAL paragraph

Student 1 is an emergent learner and has a cognitive diagnosis of Mild Intellectual

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Agreed focus area(s) Pre-service Teacher Name: Tayla Nicholls

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Completed by Pre-service Teacher Mentor Teacher Signature:

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Content: N/A- English syllabus

Learning To analyse the film Searching (2018)

Classroom  Seating plan

Searching (2018) film viewing and analysis questions

Assessment Assessment for learning

Evaluation  Classroom management was very good

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Completed by  Student literacy Mentor Teacher / Observer Name: Jeannie Baker

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Post Lesson Discussion 2

Piece of Evidence Reflection & Connections Next Steps and Suggested

Content: N/A- English syllabus

Learning To write an alternate ending to Searching (2018)

Creative writing- alternate ending

Alternate ending storyboard

Extension: Individual written reflection

In this lesson, I will predominately have students working individually to demonstrate

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Adapted from Cambridge Park HS

Piece of Evidence Reflection & Connections Next Steps and Suggested

Discussion Link to Graduate Teacher

Student 2: Standard (Social/emotional diagnosis)

When assessing students, I feel as though I had a range of opportunities throughout my

In order to establish what professional learning I need to undertake to improve my

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