Data & Evidence
AITSL Graduate Standards: 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 2.3, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 4.1, 5.1, 5.4
My final placement is in a year 6 class at John Hartley Primary School which is a Category 1 School where there are numerous behaviour issues and a majority of students are struggling to achieve a satisfactory level of the Australian Curriculum. The three focus students for Component 1: Data and Evidence given to me by my mentor teacher were Shannon, Kasia and Stephen. Shannon is a lower ability student who needs extra support for writing, reading, and maths. Kasia is an African EALD student, who is a satisfactory level student in most subject areas. She does require extra focus with reading, mainly distinguishing who is telling the story or who is speaking e.g. the narrator. Stephen is working at a satisfactory level student; however he shows higher abilities in some aspects of his learning but is often easily distracted and can struggle to complete his work at times.
Over the first three weeks of placement, I have used mostly formative assessment to gauge how my three students, as well as the other students are performing in the class. Observing the students closely in those initial weeks has helped confirm my mentor teacher’s notes on each student. For example, my mentor teacher outlined certain areas in her students mental maths drills (addition, subtraction, division and multiplication), I subsequently observed those student’s in those drills and wrote down some notes in a scrap book to gather the evidence for myself,( see appendix1 fig.1). Stephen is quite fluent in his mental maths drills but still is prone to making a few errors. Kasia is in a similar category to Stephen and can work fluently but she needs to practise more division strategies to become more fluent. Shannon is the student who requires the most work in mental maths as she is still often observed using fingers and other counting strategies. JHPS current mathematics policy is to use the guided and sequenced mathematics program OrigoSlate to run all our lessons. However, the morning mental maths routine provides evidence too that I will need to step back at times from OrigoSlate and target ability level students with math problems more suitable to their ability levels.
Shannon is in a lower group learning about addition strategies and concepts while adding basic single sums involving a decimal numbers such as 3.65 + 4.05. I believe regular individual student observation in an area such as maths, allows for targeted differentiated learning by giving the teacher a better sense of where each student is at and what required learning do they need around certain mathematics disciplines. ‘Without an attempt to vary instruction to meet the individual needs of each student, the curriculum is bound to bore some and baffle others. Differentiating instruction is the key to reaching all students. ’ Caitlin Tucker 2011. Observation and note taking can also lead to establishing smaller ability groups where during independent work during a lesson, the ability group can work with and without the teacher on maths problems more suited to their level (see appendix fig.2 and fig.3 for further mathematics work samples provided by the mentor teacher).
Using observation strategies can also help inform in other subject areas where students have varied abilities. Reading and Writing is an area where there can be a huge variance between abilities. For example Stephens handwriting is borderline illegible and he struggles to create paragraphs and use proper sentence structure at times. However he can write a quality story. Shannon struggles with punctuation, dialogue and vocabulary but her strength is paragraphing and sequencing. Since Stephen and Shannon vary in their writing strengths and weaknesses, verbal feedback from observations can allow teachers to create different goals and learning intentions for students to focus on with their individual learning. It is important not to quash students imagine nor enthusiasm to write, so my mentor teacher helps the students create more interesting sentences in their stories while at the same time editing their work. ‘An example of good practice observed (and which is commonly used) was the use of the news board to target punctuation awareness and skill. In this case the teacher involved the children in editing and revising her sentences, not only to include more interesting detail but also correct punctuation.’ Andrew Watson 2014. Further evidence I have gathered to assist with the future planning of writing and literacy has been the Westwood spelling test (appendix 2, Fig. 2) which helps establish spelling capabilities and what type of words they need to practise before moving to more advanced words. In Fig.5 Stephen achieves 47/70 which is mid-range and shows that more work is required, potentially with a focus on sounding out words to text. Evidence gathered for reading involves; Running records analyst PM 30 benchmark (see appendix 3 fig.6 and fig.7) reading test which focus on comprehension, inferencing and reading accuracy by counting words read accurately. It is a DECD requirement to report reading levels from across South Australia. This helps monitor that students are reading ‘good fit books’ that they can understand the words, and that they can comprehend. ‘Reading comprehension is important because without it the student is not truly reading.’ Sheena Cameron 2009
I have created a goal setting – health and wellbeing unit for the term that requires students to create a weekly goal and each week they review the goal from the previous week. I collect their goal setting journals once a week to be used as written evidence and provide written feedback; this is to be used in conjunction with observation and verbal feedback during class time (appendix 2, Goal Setting Work Sample fig.5). Stephen, Shannon and Kasia are all at different levels in this course but have shown improvement each week due to a combination of verbal feedback based on observations and the written feedback provided weekly. Due to this strategy I have targeted several students across the scope of the class for further group work to support them towards a satisfactory level.
Overall the evidence I have obtained via my Mentor teacher, my own observations and notes provide important information for the future planning of the curriculum.
Over the first three weeks of placement, I have used mostly formative assessment to gauge how my three students, as well as the other students are performing in the class. Observing the students closely in those initial weeks has helped confirm my mentor teacher’s notes on each student. For example, my mentor teacher outlined certain areas in her students mental maths drills (addition, subtraction, division and multiplication), I subsequently observed those student’s in those drills and wrote down some notes in a scrap book to gather the evidence for myself,( see appendix1 fig.1). Stephen is quite fluent in his mental maths drills but still is prone to making a few errors. Kasia is in a similar category to Stephen and can work fluently but she needs to practise more division strategies to become more fluent. Shannon is the student who requires the most work in mental maths as she is still often observed using fingers and other counting strategies. JHPS current mathematics policy is to use the guided and sequenced mathematics program OrigoSlate to run all our lessons. However, the morning mental maths routine provides evidence too that I will need to step back at times from OrigoSlate and target ability level students with math problems more suitable to their ability levels.
Shannon is in a lower group learning about addition strategies and concepts while adding basic single sums involving a decimal numbers such as 3.65 + 4.05. I believe regular individual student observation in an area such as maths, allows for targeted differentiated learning by giving the teacher a better sense of where each student is at and what required learning do they need around certain mathematics disciplines. ‘Without an attempt to vary instruction to meet the individual needs of each student, the curriculum is bound to bore some and baffle others. Differentiating instruction is the key to reaching all students. ’ Caitlin Tucker 2011. Observation and note taking can also lead to establishing smaller ability groups where during independent work during a lesson, the ability group can work with and without the teacher on maths problems more suited to their level (see appendix fig.2 and fig.3 for further mathematics work samples provided by the mentor teacher).
Using observation strategies can also help inform in other subject areas where students have varied abilities. Reading and Writing is an area where there can be a huge variance between abilities. For example Stephens handwriting is borderline illegible and he struggles to create paragraphs and use proper sentence structure at times. However he can write a quality story. Shannon struggles with punctuation, dialogue and vocabulary but her strength is paragraphing and sequencing. Since Stephen and Shannon vary in their writing strengths and weaknesses, verbal feedback from observations can allow teachers to create different goals and learning intentions for students to focus on with their individual learning. It is important not to quash students imagine nor enthusiasm to write, so my mentor teacher helps the students create more interesting sentences in their stories while at the same time editing their work. ‘An example of good practice observed (and which is commonly used) was the use of the news board to target punctuation awareness and skill. In this case the teacher involved the children in editing and revising her sentences, not only to include more interesting detail but also correct punctuation.’ Andrew Watson 2014. Further evidence I have gathered to assist with the future planning of writing and literacy has been the Westwood spelling test (appendix 2, Fig. 2) which helps establish spelling capabilities and what type of words they need to practise before moving to more advanced words. In Fig.5 Stephen achieves 47/70 which is mid-range and shows that more work is required, potentially with a focus on sounding out words to text. Evidence gathered for reading involves; Running records analyst PM 30 benchmark (see appendix 3 fig.6 and fig.7) reading test which focus on comprehension, inferencing and reading accuracy by counting words read accurately. It is a DECD requirement to report reading levels from across South Australia. This helps monitor that students are reading ‘good fit books’ that they can understand the words, and that they can comprehend. ‘Reading comprehension is important because without it the student is not truly reading.’ Sheena Cameron 2009
I have created a goal setting – health and wellbeing unit for the term that requires students to create a weekly goal and each week they review the goal from the previous week. I collect their goal setting journals once a week to be used as written evidence and provide written feedback; this is to be used in conjunction with observation and verbal feedback during class time (appendix 2, Goal Setting Work Sample fig.5). Stephen, Shannon and Kasia are all at different levels in this course but have shown improvement each week due to a combination of verbal feedback based on observations and the written feedback provided weekly. Due to this strategy I have targeted several students across the scope of the class for further group work to support them towards a satisfactory level.
Overall the evidence I have obtained via my Mentor teacher, my own observations and notes provide important information for the future planning of the curriculum.
Appendix 1
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Appendix 2
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