Name & Student Number: Samuel Haese ID: 2183346

Curriculum (Learning) Area of Lesson or Learning Task: Stage 2 Physics

Specific Topic of Lesson or Learning Task: Circular Motion and Gravitation
Year Level/s: 12

Differentiation Choices
Mark the appropriate box/es

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

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

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

 Readiness
 Interest
✓ Learning profile preferences

Lesson Context

This lesson comes from the unit of circular motion and gravitation. This unit would run for
approximately 4 weeks. This lesson would be undertaken towards the end of the unit as Kepler’s
three Laws are some of the final content covered for this unit. This means, students should have
a good understanding of circular motion and gravitation and can apply this knowledge to better
understand Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion. This lesson will be after the three Laws
have been introduced, as this is where the students are given the opportunity to demonstrate
their understandings of these Laws. This Lesson will be done over a double lesson and students
will be asked to present their findings to the class, either in person or through daymap
depending on the task they have chosen to undertake. This sharing is so all students get access
to the content, regardless of the activity and topic they chose in the R.A.F.T.

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Learning Objectives
These learning objectives have been adapted from the SACE subject outline for stage 2 physics. The key
understandings explicitly stated in the subject outline were the basis from which the learning objectives were
designed.

As a result of engaging with the learning experience, students will:

understand that (Concepts, principles, “big ideas”. For a single lesson, no more than 1 or 2. Even for a more
extended learning experience, aim for a small number of important conceptual ideas that students will explore in
multiple different ways. Make sure your objectives are statements that work in the form, Students will understand
that…)

 Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion can be used to describe the motion of objects
in orbit.
 Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion can be used to predict the motion of objects
in orbits.

know (e.g. facts, vocabulary, dates, information be able to (do) (Skills or processes that can be
that will be introduced/reinforced/assessed during assessed. Don’t just list specific activities that students will
the lesson or over the course of the learning complete during the lesson or learning experience)
experience, and that will help students to engage
with the bigger conceptual idea/s)
- Predict the motion of planets and satellites.
- Definitions of Kepler’s Three Laws of
Planetary Motion. - Apply Kepler’s Third Law to find the Period of
and objects orbit.
- Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion’s
mathematical equation.

- Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary

Motion’s relation to the motion of particular
planets and moons, including Mars, Earth
and Earth’s Moon.

Essential Questions
How can Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary motion help predict the motion of an objects orbit?
How does Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary motion allow for more understanding of an objects
orbit through knowledge of its period or other variables?
Do these Laws apply to planets and satellites all over the universe? Why?

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 Preassessment of Individual Student Readiness
The pre-assessment for this lesson, that will be differentiated by interest and learner profile
will be a short 3 question quiz that will be given at the end of the previous lesson. While the
students are not being differentiated by readiness, it is still important to know how the students
are going with their understandings of the topic. This pre-assessment will help me gauge the
student understanding of Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion. This understanding will
allow me to make recommendations to students struggling with a particular law as to what
topic they chose. However, they will still be given the opportunity to chose the format that
interests them. This means differentiation by interest and learner profile will still be achieved,
but I will be given the opportunity to drive and help guide the student learning outcomes. The
answers to the pre-assessment must be uploaded to daymap before lesson start, so that I can
look through the responses and see which students must be given extra guidance.

R.A.F.T.
Kepler’s Three Laws of Planetary Motion

Role Audience Format Topic

Describe Kepler’s
First Law, using
Year 12 Students Fellow Year 12 Poster Earth’s orbit around
Students + Teacher the sun as an
(Yourself) example.

Describe Kepler’s
Second Law, using
Head of NASA General Public Video (5 minutes) Mars’ orbit around
the sun as an
example.

Describe Kepler’s
Third Law and
Astronaut in Space Head of NASA Journal/ Diary Entry explain the
Mathematical
Derivation.

Chose any of
Kepler’s Three Laws
Kepler Astronaut Interview of Planetary Motion
and use it to explain
the moon’s orbit
around the Earth.

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Explanation of R.A.F.T:

This R.A.F.T will give the student choice in what Law of Planetary Motion they chose to focus
on, as well as how they present their assignment. This gives the students the opportunity to be
differentiated by interest, as well as, learner profile. This raft is flexible in the way students are
allowed to engage with it. Students can simply chose to select a row and present their findings
of the selected topic specified in that row, or they can chose to mix and match the rows. This
means they can choose any role, audience, format or topic they like. However, if they chose to
use the R.A.F.T like this, their selections must be explained and reviewed by me before work
may commence.

Lesson Closure/ Check for Understanding

The closing activity for this lesson is for students to present their findings. They will be given
the opportunity to present their work in person or via daymap. The students that chose to
present via daymap will not have to present their work to the class, but will have to explain
their choices with the R.A.F.T and briefly describe the work they did. Students that chose to
create the video may present, however, if time does not allow for full presentation, either a
small section of the video will be shown, or they will describe the content of the video to the
class.

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Explanation:
This learning task was designed to address the learner’s interest and learning profiles. This is
why a R.A.F.T was created to successfully differentiate for these aspects of the students’
identities. The R.A.F.T techniques for designing learning tasks allowed for students to choose a
role to address a listed audience in a format that allowed for the exploration of a particular topic
(Doubet & Hockett, 2015). By giving the students this range of choice, interest and learning
profile are easily differentiated for.

Differentiation for student interest can be a great tool as it can cause students to become more
motivated (Doubet & Hockett, 2017). The idea of having choice can be extremely effective in
causing student motivation (Doubet & Hockett, 2017). This is easily seen in the learning task as
it clearly gives the students choice in the task design. The students are able to choose role,
audience, format and topic. Learning profile is addressed in this learning task as students are
given the choice in the presentation of the work, as well as how they source the information
used to support the work done in the task.

To often, it is believed that student interest should not have an impact on the student
experiences in the classroom. It was commonly thought that the only time student interest
should impact the learning experiences was if the student interest was directly related to the
learning outcomes from particular content (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018)). This is now known to not
be true, but rather interest can be a good way for teachers to increase motivation, as well as,
student achievement (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018). In fact, by allowing for student interest to be
addressed in learning activities, it can cause students to continually seek this cognitive
stimulation (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018). This is another reason student interest was addressed
in this stage two physics class, as it could potentially lead to students seeking this further
stimulation. This means students could further their education at a university level.

Learning profiles refer to four key aspects that impact student learning, processing,
remembering and preference of use of knowledge (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018). The four aspects
learning profiles discuss are learning style, intelligence preference, culture and gender (Sousa &
Tomlinson, 2018). Learning style is the understanding that students learning differently,
however, it is important to know that while students have preferences, they can learn in any way
(Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018). This means that while a student prefers to learn kinaesthetically,
they may also learn from visual experiences and in particular circumstances, learn better from
those visual experiences. However, students know themselves best and should be given the
opportunity to choose to learn how they feel will benefit their learning the most. Intelligence
preferences is linked to information processing (Sousa & Tomlinson). The choice in presentation
of the R.A.F.T caters for this aspect as some possible intelligence include verbal-linguistic,
visual-spatial and bodily kinaesthetic (Sousa & Tomlinson). These intelligences are addressed in
the presentation of learning. Culture takes into consideration student’s personal lives and
experiences and can impact heavily on their input into the classroom. Finally, gender refers to
gender based preferences. However, it is important for teachers to understand that not all
students will follow their gender associated learning patterns, but variance will occur and this
must be achievable for the students (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2018). This is one reason why the
learning task does not assign gender to the role or audience selections.

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References

Doubet, K. J., & Hockett, J. A. (2015). Differentiation in middle and high school: Strategies to
engage all learners. ASCD.

Doubet, K. J., & Hockett, J. A. (2017). Differentiation in the elementary grades: Strategies to

engage and equip all learners. ASCD.

Sousa, D. A., & Tomlinson, C. A. (2018). Differentiating in response to student interest. In,
Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience supports the learner-friendly classroom

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 Appendices
Appendix 1:

Briefly explain Keplers’s First Law of Planetary Motion in your own words:

Briefly explain Kepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion in your own words:

Briefly explain Kepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion in your own words and give the
mathematical definition:

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Appendix 2:

Role Audience Format Topic

Describe Kepler’s
First Law, using
Year 12 Students Fellow Year 12 Poster Earth’s orbit around
Students + Teacher the sun as an
(Yourself) example.

Describe Kepler’s
Second Law, using
Head of NASA General Public Video (5 minutes) Mars’ orbit around
the sun as an
example.

Describe Kepler’s
Third Law and
Astronaut in Space Head of NASA Journal/ Diary Entry explain the
Mathematical
Derivation.

Chose any of
Kepler’s Three Laws
Kepler Astronaut Interview of Planetary Motion
and use it to explain
the moon’s orbit
around the Earth.

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Appendix 3:
Criteria Beginner Proficient Expert
Apply chosen Student begins to Student Student links
Kepler’s Law to real link chosen law to successfully links chosen law to real
world example real world example chosen law to real world example
world example. while explaining
mathematical
implications
Sufficient detail in Student is able to Student is able to Student presents
learning task and present some present findings
shows findings and show successfully in successfully in
understanding some chosen format and chosen format and
understanding shows shows deep
understanding understanding
Creativity Student is able to Student completes Student is able to
complete task task and presents complete task and
in correct format shows creativity
within the chosen
presentation format

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