Standard 2

Know the Content and How to Teach it

Evidence 5. ARTEFACT: Essay “Language Learning”; Creation and Justification of Assessment Task

APST 2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

APST 2.1. Graduate: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.

The goal of this task was to research the Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) and the Intercultural Language Teaching (ILT) focus, to critically analyse and interpret relevant sections of the Australian Curriculum: Languages for a specific target language and Junior Secondary year level and to apply this knowledge by explaining how these focuses interrelate.

To complete this task I researched the intercultural and communicative language teaching approaches and contrasted these in a fully referenced academic essay, pointing out differences and similarities. I then created an assessment task that exemplified these foci, and justified the task in terms of the application of knowledge about CLT and ILT. This task shows the depth of my knowledge and understanding about the big ideas and signature pedagogies in language learning, and how these have changed over the past half-century, relying on key sources and figures such as John Richards (2006), Liddicoat and Scarino (2013) and Kraschen (1983).

This task also satisfies standards 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 5.1, 6.1, 6.2.

REFERENCES

Krashen, S. D. & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The natural approach: Language acquisition in the classroom. Prentice-Hall. Retrieved from

http://www.osea-cite.org/class/SELT_materials/SELT_Reading_Krashen_.pdf

Liddicoat, A. J., & Scarino, A. (2013). Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2013. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usc/detail.action?docID=1124313.

Richards, J. C. (2006). Communicative language teaching today. Cambridge University Press.

Evidence 6. REQUIRED EVIDENCE
APST 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

ARTEFACT: Acknowledgement of Country

APST 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Graduate: Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages.

This piece of evidence is a personal acknowledgement of country that honours all First Nations peoples in the places I have spent significant parts of my life, and reflects places in Australia that have special meaning to me. I use this acknowledgement of country whenever I make presentations and intend to use it in my classes as a teacher. I created this acknowledgement as part of a task for EDU716 (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives). The other part of the task was a test that reviewed Aboriginal histories, examined the ways in which white Australia has disrespected and devalued Aboriginal knowledge of land management (Pascoe, 2018), and required understanding of the compelling reasons for reconciliation (The History, 2020; Rowley, 2017). I scored 90% on this test.

This task built on the volunteer work that I do to help protect sacred Aboriginal sites from exploitation and destruction and to help Aboriginal people be heard in our predominantly European society.

The task also satisfies standards 1.1, 1.4, 6.3, 7.4.

REFERENCES

Pascoe, B. (2018). Dark emu. Broome, Australia: Magabala Books.

The History of Australian Aborigines. (2020). Dreamtime. Retrieved from: http://dreamtime.net.au/indigenous/timeline/

Rowley, S. (2017). Guilty of being Aboriginal. NITV SBS. Retrieved from: https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/feature/guilty-being-aboriginal-0

Evidence 7. ARTEFACT: Creation of a Rich Investigative Task for Year 10 Music

APST 2.5. Literacy and numeracy strategies

APST 2.5 Graduate: Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas. Proficient: Apply knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ literacy and numeracy achievement.

This piece of evidence is an assessment task from the course EDU 715 (Literacy and Numeracy across the Curriculum). The goal of this task was to create a rich investigative task to develop conceptual understanding of a topic in my specialist teaching area and promote students’ numeracy capabilities. The task had to be authentic and linked to the Year 7 to 10 Australian Curriculum. The task was to be designed to engage students in critical and creative thinking and problem-solving as well as collaborative group work. The task was a group task for students. The rich investigative task was accompanied by a reflective essay providing the rationale for the task. It included: a discussion of the definitions of numeracy and the implications for teaching; an explanation of the teacher’s role in developing students’ numeracy capabilities; and an analysis of the task that showed how the task developed conceptual understanding in the key learning area and promoted students’ numeracy capabilities in relation to all dimensions of the 21st Century Numeracy Model.

This task shows that I have understood numeracy strategies and their application in music because the rich investigative task I created is rooted in these strategies. It also shows that I can apply knowledge and understanding of effective teaching strategies to support students’ numeracy achievement.

Creating this literature review required me to engage with the 21st Century Numeracy Model (Goos, Geiger & Dole (2012), which broadens definitions and interpretations of numeracy and makes it easy for teachers to see how numeracy can relate to all areas of the Australian Curriculum.

This task also satisfies standards 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.4

REFERENCES

Goos, M., Geiger, V., Dole, S., Forgasz, H., & Bennison, A. (2019). Numeracy across the curriculum: research-based strategies for enhancing teaching and learning. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.