Catering for My Students.
How do I cater for the diverse learners in my class?
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My role as a teacher is to support my students learning. This means I endeavour to assist them to learn through adapting and varying lesson delivery, content and assessment to help them achieve success.
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“ Flexibility and catering to the individual needs of students has been one of the hallmark traits of Megan’s teaching at Viewbank College”
- Greg Lee |
Principle of Learning and Teaching.
 Some students require further support to achieve learning outcomes.
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"Most curriculum permits teachers to accept a wide range of responses from students that will meet the outcome statement". - Dempsey & Arthur-Kelly, 2007 |
As a teacher, I support my students to achieve success through their learning process. To be effective in my teaching, I recognise the range of student abilities in my class and value each student's effort to improve their learning.
The following are examples of my teaching practice in catering for my students;
The following are examples of my teaching practice in catering for my students;
- Acknowledged student progress in lengthy Studio Art folio Units and scaffold learning by breaking up the folio work into smaller tasks that are more achievable.
- Assess student work against prior achievements.
- Structuring tasks that are challenging for all levels of ability and are achievable in terms of learning outcomes.
- Most importantly, determine my students' differing abilities and provide support as required.
VIT STANDARDS – PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE 5.3 Be aware of and can use a range of strategies to establish a positive and inclusive learning environment where all students can learn and are challenged.
Learning Styles.
Key term posters used in 'Ship to Shore' game.
Effective teaching takes account of and adapts to students' learning needs. An efficient way that I have achieved this is to get to know my students and understand their learning strengths and preferences as well as areas needing improvement.
I have demonstrated my competency in catering for different learning styles through varied teaching strategies, lesson delivery and lesson activities.
The following are some examples of my varied activities and content delivery;
I have demonstrated my competency in catering for different learning styles through varied teaching strategies, lesson delivery and lesson activities.
The following are some examples of my varied activities and content delivery;
- Developed a group role play activity for Unit 2 Psychology where students were required to demonstrate their understanding of Freud's structure of personality (Id, Ego and Superego) within a scenario that they constructed.
- Use of visual resources such as images of artworks and gallery website visual tours in the Art classroom.
- Verbal learners have been an asset to group discussions in my lessons when gauging students prior knowledge before beginning a new topic.
- Developed revision activities in Unit 3 Psychology based on the game 'ship to shore' where key term posters were placed on the four walls of the classroom. Students answered questions by moving to the correct term. This activity has been successful in breaking up long revision lessons that are text dominated and can cause students to get restless.
- The use of group work activities and discussions such as 'think, pair, share' have been beneficial for the interpersonal learners in the class who understand and empathise with others' opinions.
VIT STANDARDS - PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE- 1.1 Have a sound knowledge of current learning theories and of pedagogical models from which they draw their practice.
Special Educational Needs.
Assisting a student in using the sewing machine.
Teaching students with special educational needs has extended my competencies in the classroom in working with support staff such as teacher's aides and being diligent in providing these students with structured support, ensure class participation, adapt content delivery and assessment differentiation as per the Disability Standards for Education, 2005.
I have catered for students with SEN in the following ways;
I have catered for students with SEN in the following ways;
- Provided discussion notes to a student prior to running a class discussion on assessment feedback.
- Regularly giving support to these students when circulating the classroom.
- Providing written instructions on the board as a second mode of instruction.
- Writing highly detailed feedback and having a meeting with student and their aide to discuss assessment feedback for future learning.
- Providing clear boundaries for misbehaviour and leave passes when student is overloaded.
- Creating and maintaining environment where students enter classroom quietly and maintain moderate to low levels of noise for the benefit of a student with anxiety disorder.
- Seating students with attention difficulties at the front of the class and away from distractions such as windows.
VIT STANDARDS - PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE- 3.5 Be aware of teaching classroom management challenges and develop appropriate professional responses to them.
Higher Order Thinking Processes.
On placement at Viewbank College, I undertook professional development in furthering my questioning techniques and applied Bloom's Taxonomy of higher order thinking to my Psychology lessons.
This involved constructing questions that used high order thinking processes as opposed to recall of information and the use of analysis and evaluation activity questions for students to compare Psychologists' theories rather than identify characteristics of theories.
Throughout a sequence of lessons I would move up the ladder towards higher order thinking processes and use a variety of questioning methods and activities to achieve this;
This involved constructing questions that used high order thinking processes as opposed to recall of information and the use of analysis and evaluation activity questions for students to compare Psychologists' theories rather than identify characteristics of theories.
Throughout a sequence of lessons I would move up the ladder towards higher order thinking processes and use a variety of questioning methods and activities to achieve this;
Diagram I constructed to inform my students what I was trying to achieve with their high order thinking skills.
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VIT STANDARDS - PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE- 1.2 Have knowledge of theory and contemporary research in child and adolescent development and other fields of study which contribute to an understanding of student learning.
Different Levels of Ability.I have been successful in adapting my teaching practice in terms of content, lesson delivery and assessment when catering for the different ability levels in my class.
How I cater for high achievers;
How I cater for low achievers;
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"Megan worked well with both high achieving and less able students and manage to produce very good results for both learning needs". - Matthew Crichton "The purpose of differentiation in teaching practices and curriculum design is to ensure that all children maximise their potential...and experience success". - Westwood, 1997 |
VIT STANDARDS - PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE- 3.2 Regard all students as capable of learning and demonstrate an understanding of, and commitment to, equality in their practice.
Reflection on Practice.Catering for the student diversity in my class is an integral part of my teaching practice. I am student focused with regards to my teaching and am conscientious of adapting my teaching practices to ensure all students understand and can experience success with their learning.
Due to the wide range of diversity in students I am committed to extending my professional knowledge in catering for diversity as a practicing teacher. |
"Megan's reflection & evaluation of her practice always came back to students needs & their learning". - Alex Jack |
