Thinking back to week 5 and placement reflection

I almost forgot to include the behaviour management session I had to take for 5 students at the end of week 5. These boys had constantly disrupted my class and I put my foot down and had a meeting with them. They created and agreed upon a behaviour contract which they all signed.
It was good help students help themselves. I am hoping they reflect on this to better themselves.

Placement reflection:

I went into this placement feeling nervous and worried about how I was going to tackle a 3/4/5 class with multiple students with different learning needs as well as disabilities.  Original I thought that my classroom teacher would differentiate the class by year level so students would meet their year level content but after being in class, I have learnt that this is too hard manage. With the help of anchor activities, grouping charts, grouping folders, pre-assessment and formative assessment, I have been able to create a flowing, flexible classroom environment that helps all children reach their personal best.
I am proud of my history unit where I incorporated differentiation constantly. Once a week I had a exit card that helped with concreting my students learning as well help me see how their learning was going. I also allowed for pre-assessment at the beginning of a new topic to help with my grouping. I found that over the 6 weeks, my groups changed depending on the students ever changing readiness. While I had readiness level groups for history I also made sure each student was exposed to the curriculum content. I had to be inclusive in class through assessment as students had different assessment needs. This was important with the dyslexic children who needed to have separate assessment needs such as being able to type, not getting marked on spelling and making sure they were understanding the content.

I am also proud of how I handled the spelling unit each week. With so many students with different readiness in spelling, I was feeling a little over my head. Once I found a routine and exercises to help with each group, I found these lessons flowed much better and helped with my work load.

I found myself grouping to students need each lesson after the first week. Differentiation and inclusion because something natural in my teaching practice and I can see how I will included these ideas into my future teaching practices.
I have goals to attend as many PD days as possible and to reflect on my time on this placement to better my teaching practice. Tomlinson has been a huge influence on my teaching pedagogy and I feel I could not have done this placement with out reflecting on her practices.

Placement almost over

I have 4 days left of placement. I am more comfortable in the class now and sad to be leaving. I have incorporated differentiation into the class each day/class as best I can. I have made connections between the ideas I have learnt at University and how to actually present these ideas in class. I feel I have made sense of what I have learnt about differentiation and how it has now influenced my teaching pedagogy. While I have had some negative experiences trying to come to terms with this placement, I feel that this had made me understand the type of teacher I am going to be.

 There will be this lingering question in my mind when planning for my students which is "How can I create an effective learning environment for my students and allow them to reach their learning needs?"

I have included some images of the learning this week and the lesson plans.

This oral language lesson has been grouped by having students with lower oral language levels with those with higher oral language levels. Students who have been formatively assessed to determined who has been put into which group. 

This is so lower readiness students can experience a higher level of discussion to aid them in their learning.

Math student reflection: 

 The student that was being sent to the 6/7 maths class is continuing with this program. He has expressed that he is enjoying spending time in this class and feels challenged but rewarded and also proud that he is in this class. He said he is feeling more confident in the middle primary class now, even in literacy classes even though he is still struggling with his spelling and organization. One other thing that has improved with this student is his ability to proof read his work better. The 6/7 teacher has enforced him to re-read his math working out more which has effected his ability to proof-read his writing. He is now much better at taking time and organizing his written work that his spelling errors have reduced in drafts. This child has been able to transfer learning from one area of the curriculum to another, this was not one of my intentions when I initially had this idea but it is working out fantastically for him. The adjustments and adaptations (Pagliano, Pagliano, Robyn, 2008) for this child, in differentiated his grouping and access to curriculum as well as his learning environment, has allowed this student to extend his learning above what I could provide him in my 4/5 math class.



Pagliano, Paul & Gillies, Robyn M 2008, 'Curriculum, adjustments, and adaptations', in Ashman, Adrian F & Elkins, John (eds.), Education for inclusion and diversity, 3rd edn, Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest, NSW, pp. 201-234.