Year 6 Maths, Reading & Spelling Class
2.2 Organise content into coherent, well-sequenced learning and teaching programs.
2.3 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.
3.6 Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.
My first year of teaching in 2014 was on reflection my greatest year of growth. So much was expected of me at this placement, and by and large I managed to deliver a positive year for my students. I had three separate classes in this year, and in my morning year 6 class, I taught maths, reading and spelling.
For all three of these subject areas, I was required to fully develop and implement my own programs, while considering team planning, year 6 curriculum, individual student requirements and assessment outcomes. This included full consideration of a student with autism. I was then required to analyse this data, both individually and within my year 6 team, to develop reporting to parents information, to identify areas for teaching improvement, and to modify my practice and programs.
With regard to maths I was challenged to provide for a massive range of student ability, from highly advanced (band 9 NAPLAN) to students that could barely understand fractions. One girl with this level of understanding I experienced significant success with, and she ended up receiving my class academic achievement award. I did this by focusing on building her confidence with maths, and by dedicating more of my class time to her and similar students. I fully delivered a morning Mental Maths program, presented the class with a range of maths investigation challenges, and assessed students with whole grade testing.
In reading time we read and analysed a range of novel studies, including Holes, Someone Like Me, and Hitler’s Daughter, and we worked through a diverse collection of activities related to these novels. In small groups, students explored a collection of fiction and non-fiction activity books, and other materials including brochures, ICT documents and images for viewing comprehension. Through all of these activities I taught a large range of reading comprehension strategies. Assessment of student understanding and proficiency was developed through one on one reading observations, reading out loud to class, activities developed into assessment products, and through whole grade common assessment task (CAT) reading tests. This material identified which strategies of comprehension students most needed support with and allowed me to tailor my teaching to suit these needs. Many other sources gave me insight into how my teaching would need to be amended, including feedback from my students. With this class I decided that as I was developing reports on them, they should be able to also let me know how they thought I was going as a teacher! In a rather amusing but highly valuable exercise, I asked my students to fill in a "Teacher Achievement Report Card" for Mr Harries, anonymously if they wanted to, which turned out to be both encouraging and enlightening.
Spelling with this class included the use of three separate Sound Waves spelling books, which required juggling three different spelling lists during testing, and three levels of content during class activities. This work required me to be very well organised as particularly the year 7 book held highly advanced spelling and grammar concepts, and contained word lists with at times highly unusual word list choices. My spelling teaching included full diagnostic testing with two standardised spelling tests, phonics tests, and weekly word list testing.
2.3 Design and implement learning and teaching programs using knowledge of curriculum, assessment and reporting requirements.
3.6 Evaluate personal teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning.
My first year of teaching in 2014 was on reflection my greatest year of growth. So much was expected of me at this placement, and by and large I managed to deliver a positive year for my students. I had three separate classes in this year, and in my morning year 6 class, I taught maths, reading and spelling.
For all three of these subject areas, I was required to fully develop and implement my own programs, while considering team planning, year 6 curriculum, individual student requirements and assessment outcomes. This included full consideration of a student with autism. I was then required to analyse this data, both individually and within my year 6 team, to develop reporting to parents information, to identify areas for teaching improvement, and to modify my practice and programs.
With regard to maths I was challenged to provide for a massive range of student ability, from highly advanced (band 9 NAPLAN) to students that could barely understand fractions. One girl with this level of understanding I experienced significant success with, and she ended up receiving my class academic achievement award. I did this by focusing on building her confidence with maths, and by dedicating more of my class time to her and similar students. I fully delivered a morning Mental Maths program, presented the class with a range of maths investigation challenges, and assessed students with whole grade testing.
In reading time we read and analysed a range of novel studies, including Holes, Someone Like Me, and Hitler’s Daughter, and we worked through a diverse collection of activities related to these novels. In small groups, students explored a collection of fiction and non-fiction activity books, and other materials including brochures, ICT documents and images for viewing comprehension. Through all of these activities I taught a large range of reading comprehension strategies. Assessment of student understanding and proficiency was developed through one on one reading observations, reading out loud to class, activities developed into assessment products, and through whole grade common assessment task (CAT) reading tests. This material identified which strategies of comprehension students most needed support with and allowed me to tailor my teaching to suit these needs. Many other sources gave me insight into how my teaching would need to be amended, including feedback from my students. With this class I decided that as I was developing reports on them, they should be able to also let me know how they thought I was going as a teacher! In a rather amusing but highly valuable exercise, I asked my students to fill in a "Teacher Achievement Report Card" for Mr Harries, anonymously if they wanted to, which turned out to be both encouraging and enlightening.
Spelling with this class included the use of three separate Sound Waves spelling books, which required juggling three different spelling lists during testing, and three levels of content during class activities. This work required me to be very well organised as particularly the year 7 book held highly advanced spelling and grammar concepts, and contained word lists with at times highly unusual word list choices. My spelling teaching included full diagnostic testing with two standardised spelling tests, phonics tests, and weekly word list testing.