Curriculum#

Australian Curriculum#

Melbourne Declaration - support 21^st C learning. Importance of knowledge, skills, and understanding of learning areas, general capabilities, and cross-curriculum priorities

Covers some of the same ground as australian-curriculum though with version 8.4 of the oz curriculum (not v9)

Literacy resources#

VCE literacy in mathematics

QCE#

Recent new version of QCE - key features

New QCAA senior syllabuses
external assessment in most senior subjects
introduction of ATAR
new QA process for quality/comparability of school-based assessment
Changes to QCE eligibility requirements

Assessment & Reporting#

Mentions (at some length) formative and summative assessment. Some points on both summarised

Reliabilty - extent to which an assessment can be trusted to give consistent information about students' progress

Validity - does it measure all that might be important to measure

Formative#

be part of effective planning,
focus on how pupils learn
be central to classroom practice
be a key professional skill
be sensitive and constructive
foster motivation
promote understanding of goals and criteria
help learners know how to improve
develop the capacity for self-assessment
recognise all educational achievement

summative#

pupils to be actively engaged in monitoring their own progress;
teachers to understand and be able to articulate the nature of the progress being aimed at;
teachers to be skilled at using a range of methods to assess pupil learning;
teachers to adopt manageable recording procedures that enable them to keep track of each pupil's learning, without feeling obliged to record everything;
teachers to be able to communicate effectively with each pupil.

Assessment encouraging self-regulation#

Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006) describe 7 principles for assessment the encourages self-regulation

Clarify what good performance is
Facilitate self-assessment
Deliver high quality feedback information
Encourage teacher and peer dialogue
Encourage positive motivation and self-esteem
Provide opportunities to close the gap
Use feedback to improve teaching

5 might be reframed with growth-mindset ideas - is self-esteem the intent, or encourage effort?#

Designing assessment tasks#

Entire page is incomplete. Missing links or incorrect links

Moderation#

Broken and missing links

Standardised tests#

Attempts at year 7 NAPLAN test#

10 x 3 + 6
/ 76 =
25.78
6 x 6
station 3
decrease by 0.25
E
10
2
2cm represents 1mm
19
31
6.40pm
25%
128 degrees

Using data to inform teaching and learning#

Assessment tasks#

Reflection#

Supporting literacy as a general capability#

In the Australian Curriculum, students become literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use language confidently for learning and communicating in and out of school and for participating effectively in society.

Literacy involves students in listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts (multiliteracies).

While much of the explicit teaching of literacy occurs in the English learning area, it is strengthened, made specific and extended in other learning areas as students engage in a range of learning activities with significant literacy demands.

These literacy-rich situations are a part of learning in all curriculum areas. Paying attention to the literacy demands of each learning area ensures that students’ literacy development is strengthened so that it supports subject-based learning.

Share a literacy success story - or share your experience of an approach that did not work out so well!

Given limited experience in my own classroom, I'll reflect back on experiences from my first professional experience during my time as a pre-service teacher. Experience from the same Year 8 mathematics/english class as mentioned in a previous reflection. A class where the mathematics teacher had an established routine of using an interactive white board to structure and complement the lesson. A routine that included use of Lolcats for humourous interludes. A practice that I adopted for my lessons both to maintain a level of consistency but also to explore different pedagogical approaches, including elements of literacy.

For example, using Lolcats to make an explicit analogical connections to mathematical concepts.

Or, using visual illusions such as Shepard tables to question assumptions we make and the ability of senses to accurately perceive the world. For example, the Shepard tables in the image below are identical, except for being rotated 90 degrees (YouTube video proof).

The Shepard tables illusion linked with a lesson on perimeter was particularly successful, if not a little challenging in convincing the students that they were the same.

engage more with oz curriculum on literacy

Literacy

ability to read and use written information and to write appropriate in a range of contexts…integration of speaking, listening, viewing and critical thinking with reading and writing and includes cultural knowledge

First, rejeced Plan

again reflection on observations and a plan, rather than reflection on success
not a lot of discplinary literacy practices in either mathematics or digital technologies - at least not explicit
literacy after all is the something like learning to manage texts within a context
what context should occur in the classroom - what is specific
Would need to
Connect with what students know and can do
familiarise them with the literacies of the discipline - engage them in the specifics
- Link to the content descriptors from the next chapter
- scaffold their engagement with those literacies
- hark back to the "challenge" book chapter about "external reading"
- Mention Downes model and ?? approach
- But also develop the ability to critique these given approaches
- But also sharing more contemporary approaches - Viv ??? math doodles

Using data to inform your teaching#

Missing, has duplicate starter text to the above

Assignment#

Part 1: Suggested length: 100-150 words#

Briefly list and explain some of the recent changes to the curriculum that have taken place in your area of teaching.

Since 2011 - when I was last in a Queensland school - curriculum changes have included is the adoption of the Australian Curriculum and more recently the adoption of

two major changes
Australian Curriculum - introduction and on-going evolution with v9 being adopted at my school in 2023
changes QCE - in particular with the senior curriculum
specific, most immediate changes for me moving into 2024 are
Changes to v9

Overall - content reduction, better achievement standards/content descriptions alignment, improved links between learning areas/general capabiliteis and cross-curriculum
- mathematics
- focus on students mastering essential mathematical facts, skills, concepts and processes
- when no use of calculators made clear
- content descriptors refined, combined and some new
- digital technologies
- addition of privacy and security
- year ⅞
  - more explicit focus on programming, computational thinking
  - explicit mention of digital footprint, cyber-security etc
  - explicit focus on understanding use of binary
  - more explicit use of terms like: user stories;
- year 9/10
  - changing in wording around management digital systems
  - migration from iterative to agile development; removing modular; from functional/non-functional requirements to user stories
  - increased emphasis on creating interactive content
  - reducing level of investigation into data compression
  - addition of cyber security, privacy etc
- digital literacy
- Changes to QCE/new senior syllabus - essential mathematics

But given my lack of familiarity with the previous ones and my length of time away. It's basically learning a new curriuclum

Part 2: Suggested length: 200-300 words#

Literacy and numeracy are key components of the Australian Curriculum at all levels. As a way to draw together your thinking on literacy and numeracy, record your perspectives in response to the following:

What is literacy? What does it mean to be literate?

The ability to read and produce various texts in contextually appropriate and purposeful ways

What is numeracy? What does it mean to be numerate?

What does literacy and numeracy look like in your teaching context: (i.e, the early years, primary school years, or secondary school)?

Describe some strategies that you can use to develop the literacy and numeracy capabilities of your students in curriculum areas other than Mathematics and English.

Digital technologies involves the design and use of various forms of interactive content/media.
Identify the specific content descriptor - key part of L&T
Also focus on "program or be programmed" - engage students in what it means to be a professional
numeracy - will be key to generating some of those representations/components - use of generative art/creative coding
but also some specific content descriptors
- AC9TDI8K04 - binary representqation
- AC9TDI804 - notion of user stories, design criteria - purpose of texts/genres
- AC9TDI8P02 - visualise data - different forms of visualisations, benefits

Part 3: Suggested length: 100 words#

Choose one of the cross-curriculum priorities or general capabilities (other than literacy and numeracy) from the Australian Curriculum. Describe some strategies that you could use to incorporate your chosen area into your teaching (Hint: be specific).

Critical and creative thinking - there are some explicit links to mathematics content descriptors in the v9 curriculum.

Personal and social capability
linkage with growth/mathematical mindsets and the broader culture I wish to build in the classroom including assessment for learning (know and do tables)
personal awareness as a focus on strategies for achieving growth

In all classes I'm pushing this awareness of mindsets (qualities) their likes and the importance/methods for achieving growth
emotional awareness

Esp. in terms of frustration with mathematics - but also other perhaps not math induced emotions - and impact. Encourage recognition - the learning pit approach
reflective practice

A core of the growth mindset (not how bad you start). Link to assessment for learning and school's introduction of 'Know and Do' tables.

References#

Nicol, D. J., & Macfarlane‐Dick, D. (2006). Formative assessment and self‐regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback practice. Studies in Higher Education, 31(2), 199--218. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070600572090