Standard 3 - plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

3.1 - Set explicit, challenging and achievable learning goals for all students.
Student Outcome Rubrics

When I began my placement, my mentor teacher suggested constructing rubrics for my lesson plans to assess the outcomes I wanted for my students. 

These are a beneficial way of analysing the structure of your lessons to predict what all, most, or some of the students will gain for the lesson.

They can also be given to the students to self-assess their own learning, and also provide information which may help modify teaching strategies to better achieve these outcomes.
Shortly after starting the Energy unit with one of my Year 10 classes, I gave the students this rubric and asked them to highlight, or circle the areas with which they were comfortable, and leave those of which they were unsure. 

To ensure they felt comfortable with the task, I told the class that they did not have to put their names on the sheets, and that they were just to help me assess the areas I needed to cover more effectively.

As expected, there was a wide spread of what students felt they could achieve. Ranging from some students who were confident with all areas of the rubric, to some who were only confident with one or two areas. 

In following lessons, the weaker areas identified by the class will be consolidated through further explanations and work with the equations. 
Individual Education Programs

At the start of each year students are assessed to identify any special needs for extension or support.

​This particular student was identified as needing significant support. I developed this individual plan in consultation with the heads of faculty, and learning support to work best with the student's skills.

Since working with this plan, the student's assessment outcomes shave significantly improved.
3.2 - Plan and implement well-structured learning and teaching programs or lesson sequences that engage students and promote learning.
Year 8 Science - Chemistry Unit 

The Year 8 students tend to be very hands-on and visual learners, and require concrete examples to effectively illustrate abstract concepts. 

The following lesson sequence was compiled using group work, hands-on tasks, research tasks, class discussions, and theory work to cover the unit work in a multi-modal fashion and to accommodate different learning styles.
Year 10 Science - Energy Unit

Throughout the Energy unit, the theoretical work has been supplemented with experimental work and online simulations to illustrate concepts.

This lesson sequence builds on the students' foundation knowledge of energy to looking at conservation of energy and finally applying this knowledge to global energy systems and climate change.

The strategies in this unit have included experimentation, research, group work, and class discussion.
3.3 - Select and use relevant teaching strategies to develop knowledge, skills, problem solving and critical and creative thinking.
Classification Bags

In Year 8 Science I gave my students a task to investigate the different ways to classify objects. This was to lead into discussion the way elements are classified in the Periodic Table. In pairs, the students were given bas containing a number of different objects, as seen below. 
The students were given 5 minutes to see how many different rules they could think of to classify these objects. We then discussed these rules as a class. The students were all highly engaged in this task and came up with an impressive number of rules. 
Science Experiments and Research Tasks

Part of the Chemistry unit in Year 8 Science covers mixtures, compounds, and pure substances. To familiarise the students with these concepts, I combined a research task with an experiment.

As an introduction, I gave the students an ICT based research task. The task was to choose three different objects from around the classroom and research what elements were present in the object to assess if it was a pure substance, a compound, or a mixture.

Other research tasks in Science have included comparisons between extinct and living animals, international figures on greenhouse gas emissions, and endothermic and exothermic reactions.

All research lessons have been used to complement theory lessons which were presented either before or after the research lesson.
3.4 - Select and/or create and use a range of resources, including ICT, to engage students in their learning.
YouTube Videos in Year 8 Science

YouTube videos can be an effective and entertaining means of proving examples of experiments which cannot be carried out in the classroom. The first video shown here was used to help students predict how non-Newtonian liquids would behave on a large scale following a small scale experiment in the classroom.

The video was stopped at various points, allowing the students to predict what might happen next.
The video below was used as part of the class revision of work equations. There are a number of experiments here with elements familiar to the students. Again, the video was stopped at various points where a reaction could be explained in detail, or the students could write a word equation.
Interactive Simulations in Year 8 Science 

Online simulations can often be used in Year 8 Science to illustrate abstract concepts more accurately than would be allowed in a classroom environment.

This particular simulation (available of the Phet Colorado website) allows students to investigate the relationship between kinetic and gravitational potential energy using a skate park as an example. 

Students are able to manipulate the size and shape of the ramp, the amount of gravity, and the weight of the skater to assess changes to kinetic and gravitational potential energy.

The main outcome of this task is to illustrate the concept of conservation of energy.

The worksheet to accompany the task is shown below. It is take from the student workbook written by my mentor Dr. Paula Mills during my teaching placement at PAC. I still use Phet simulations to compliment my teaching across the middle and senior school. 
3.5 - Use effective verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student understanding, participation, engagement and achievement.
Verbal Communication

Verbal communication is often primary means of communication in classrooms. This can be particularly important in Science during practical experiments. 

In my Year 8 Science class, I learned through my lessons and feedback from my mentor teacher, the best ways of verbally presenting information to the group in practical tasks.

The class responded best when information was presented in small sections and reinforced with non-verbal gestures such as holding up a specific piece of equipment. 

When verbally explaining tasks, the students always responded best when given a reason for conducting the task. Verbal explanations were also effective in terms of behaviour management, such as telling the students "It is important not to talk while others are talking so you don't miss out on important information".

It is also important to ensure that verbal communication in class does not contain colloquial terms, as this sets a more formal tone for the class, and makes communication with ESL students clearer.
Non-Verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication can be effectively used to compliment and enhance verbal communication. This can be incorporated into lessons in a range of ways.

One of the first pieces of advice I was given, was that boys work well with colour. To make the most of this, all the student workbooks, tastiest, and assignments are printed with different coloured covers. When asking students to gather their work, it is effective to hold up the workbook, and say "Get out your red book" etc. 

Diagrammatic representations of concepts of data are another means of non-verbal communication, and can aid students who work better visually than with language.  The Carbon Cycle task (Standard 4.1) reinforced the effectiveness of both these methods as the students reported that the first things they noticed were the colour and the images.

Non-verbal communication is also very useful during practical tasks. With my Year 8 class, I will often talk them through a practical while holding up the equipment they will need, or doing the practical along with them so they are able have a visual reference point during the task.
3.6 - Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.
Meetings With Mentor Teachers

At least once a week I meet with my mentor teachers to discuss how my lessons are progressing. During this time I am able to seek feedback on how they think the students are responding to my lessons, and ask about any improvements I could make in my delivery. We also work out lesson sequences for the coming week. 

These meetings have been very constructive, as my mentors will often suggest activities, or different methods of presenting information which I do my best to incorporate into the lessons.

At the end of each week, my mentor sends me my lesson plans on which she has written comments as I have been teaching. These notes are in addition to our meetings. 
Re-structuring Task Sheets as a Results of Student Assessment Data and Feedback

A Year 9 cohort had particularly low scores on an practical report assignment, and I noticed that the overall trend was they had not completely addressed specific the criteria and had left out critical information or had given very surface-level answers. 

I spent a lesson with the students to assess whet they had found difficult about the assignment and they largely cited the accessibility of the task sheet. Broke the class into small groups and gave each a copy of the task sheet and a copy of a more explicitly structured task sheet I was given by a Westminster teacher on a PD day. The class overwhelmingly preferred the more structured task sheet. 

We also discussed other ways to make it more accessible such as the overall layout and which colours they found positive for the different grade bands on the rubrics. The resulting updated task sheet is below. 

We used the updated task sheet for a subsequent practical which resulted in a 2 - 4 point grade increase for the students. The additional information in the rubric also led them to ask more in-depth questions which also contributed to the grade improvement. 
3.7 - Plan for appropriate and contextually relevant opportunities for parents/ carers to be involved in their children’s learning.
Emails Home 

Emails are an effective means of keeping in regular contact with students and parents, and ensuring they are all involved in the educative process.

At my current school, emails are sent home at the end of every week to both the students and their parents informing them of the work which was covered during the week, and and upcoming due dates. 

This not only ensures that the students are constantly reminded of their work due dates, but that the parents are constantly aware of what is happening at school so that they are able to offer their children support at home.

Below is an example of a weekly email to my Year 8 Science class.

This week we looked a little further into writing word equations to describe chemical reactions. We also looked at endothermic and exothermic reactions and revised some of our work on elements and the Periodic Table ahead of our unit test on Friday next week. 

I gave everyone a revision booklet for this test, and have attached an electronic copy as well.

Have a great weekend,

Miss Martin 
Phone Calls Home and Science Stars

On occasion, when a student has achieved a low mark for an assignment or is late handing in work, we make a call to the student's parents. This is always to keep them informed so that together, we can deal with the situation before it becomes a problem.

In one such instance, a student had been very late handing in a piece of work. I phoned the student's parent to inform them of the situation, and that I was concerned that they may fall behind if this continued. The parent had a word with the student, and the work was handed in the following day. 

Similar phone calls have also been made to involve the parents in dealing with minor behaviour issues to ensure they don't escalate.

In more positive circumstances, communications are also sent home when the students perform well. In Science,  we have a collection of postcards we call Science Stars, to send home to the students to congratulate them on good marks, improvement, good attitude etc.

They are sent to the parents' mail address with a message addressed to the student. This allows the students to keep their achievement private, or share with their classmates if they wish and also allows the parents to share in their children's achievements.