http://www.vate.org.au

 

https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/english/index.aspx

 

https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/english/EnglishEAL-SD-2016.pdf

 

http://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/VC/Teacher?english

 

Adams, P. (2009). Imaginative Re-Creation of Literature. In: S. Gannon, M. Howie and W. Sawyer, ed., Charged with Meaning: Re-viewing English, 3rd ed. Putney NSW: Phoenix Education, pp.53-68.

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (2018). Literacy. [online] Australian Curriculum. Available at: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/literacy/ [Accessed 4 Aug. 2018].

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2017). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. [online] Australian
Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. Available at:
https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards [Accessed 15 Jul. 2018].

Boynton, M. and Boynton, C. (2005). Educator's Guide to Preventing And Solving Discipline Problems. Minnesota: The Association for Curriculum and Supervision Development, pp.103-113.

Department of Education and Training (2017). High Impact Teaching Strategies: Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Melbourne: Victoria State Government, pp.1-29.

Gonzalez, J. (2015). 7 Easy Ways to Support Student Writing in Any Content Area. [image] Available at: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/content-area-literacy-writing/ [Accessed 3 Aug. 2018].

Kell, M. (2009). Learning Difficulties in Literacy: Overcoming A Construct of the Literate Student. In: S. Gannon, M. Howie and W. Sawyer, ed., Charged with Meaning: Re-viewing English, 3rd ed. Putney NSW: Phoenix Education, pp.151-160.

Locke, T. (2015). Developing Writing Teachers: Practical Ways for Teacher-Writers to Transform their Classroom Practice. Oxon: Routledge, pp.1-204.

Macken-Horarik, M. (2014). Making Productive Use of Four Models of School English: A Case Study Revisted. English in Australia, [online] 49(3), pp.7-19. Available at: https://d2l.deakin.edu.au/d2l/le/content/642085/viewContent/3814035/View [Accessed 26 July. 2018].

Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (2008). Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. Melbourne: Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs, pp.1-19.

Thomson, J. (2009). Post-Dartmouth Developments in English Teaching in Australia. In: S. Gannon, M. Howie and W. Sawyer, ed., Charged with Meaning: Re-viewing English, 3rd ed. Putney NSW: Phoenix Education, pp.5-18.

Sawyer, W. (2009). The Growth Model of English. In: S. Gannon, M. Howie and W. Sawyer, ed., Charged with Meaning: Re-viewing English, 3rd ed. Putney NSW: Phoenix Education, pp.19-30.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2014). Victorian Certificate of Education English and English as an Additional Language Study Design. Melbourne: Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, pp.4-27.

Wright, T. (2005). Classroom Management in Language Education. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.290-333.

 

My second teaching method is Drama which has had an impact on the way in which I view all of my students. I liken my English classroom to a school theatre production. Everyone involved in a production has a role to play. Their different backgrounds and experiences contribute to what they bring to that role, how they interpret the script or the music, how they collectively deal with the pressures of the forthcoming opening night, how they take direction or feedback and whether they use rehearsal time wisely or their free time to learn their lines. Ultimately, it’s about a diverse group of people coming together to collaborate and create something wonderful and memorable. 

 

·     You can easily see all students

·     Students can easily see all
presentations and demonstrations

·     Frequently used materials are easily accessible

·     Pathways facilitate traffic flow

·     It is easy to organise students into pairs, triads, and small groups 

 

Therefore, my preferred seating arrangement is the ‘U Shape’ or ‘Horseshoe’ (see below) as I believe it accomplishes all of the above, and it has been successful with my Year 11 English class. This particular seating arrangement may not suit your own class, so it is important to experiment and find what works with your own students. 

(The image below was created using the website 'Classroom Architecht')

Locke states that we must ‘think carefully about the way in which technologies feature in your classroom environment as you work on building up a community of writers’ (2015, p.199). He argues that ‘technologies also have affordances that relate to aspects of human interaction’ and notes the importance of seeking ‘your students’ views on ways different technologies support collaborative relationships around writing’ (Locke 2015, p.199). In addition to this, Thomson stresses the idea that ‘we learn by using language’ and thus we should encourage students to ‘use informal, comfortable language in talk and writing as a way of coming to sort out and understand new ideas and to share different interpretations of texts' (Thomson 2009, p.7).

 As teachers of English, we must engage with a range of practical, evidence-based approaches to ensure that we are supporting the different types of learners in our classroom, as well as learning and growing with our students. This also means that we can use the advances of digital technology to our advantage. Some websites I utilise to encourage my writing community and collaboration include:

 

·     Google Docs

·     One Note

·     Padlet (this website) 

·     Let’s Recap (Twitter for the classroom)

 

 

·      To teach writing, you need to be able to write

·      The teacher should act as writer alongside the students, and be prepared to undertake the same assignments as the students

 

The best outcomes of student writing have occurred when I have modelled essay responses in my classroom. Collaboratively we ‘unpack’ an example of an essay prompt in order to communicate the process of responding to the writing task. We brainstorm the key ideas that the prompt is asking us to explore and find evidence within the text to support statements or arguments. Following that, I show my students a paragraph or series of paragraphs that I have written in response to the prompt, explicitly pointing out my topic sentence, explanation, evidence or examples and my linking sentence. My students writing has dramatically improved since implementing this form of modelling in my classroom and it has also proved to be an eye-opening experience for me. Locke explains that too often, teachers are institutionalised into a ‘hierarchical arrangement, we are teachers and our students are learners’, however when we as teachers assume the identity of a writer, we can modify the traditional teacher-student hierarchy which results in establishing a community of writing practice (Locke 2015, p.141). 

 

In Charged with Meaning: Re-viewing English, Wayne Sawyer details what is known as The Growth Model in English. The Growth Model acknowledges the importance of building relationships with students, and in order to cater for diverse learners ‘know the individual and work from there’ (Dixon in Sawyer 2009, p.21). The Growth Model is characterised by three main components – skills, cultural heritage and personal growth. The ‘Skills” component works on the belief that ‘learning activities are acquired through a pedagogy of participation rather than through implicit induction into literary understandings’ (Macken-Horarik 2014, p.10). It works to strengthen writing communities by an explicit and ‘hands on’ approach. I implement aspects of the Skills Model in my own classroom by promoting a collaborative and supportive environment, modelling writing, brainstorming ideas, unpacking texts and responses, formative assessment and class discussion. I also suggest you familiarize yourselves with the State Government of Victoria’s High Impact Teaching Strategies’ (HITS) which are ten evidence-based ‘instructional practices that reliably increase student learning’. 

Sawyer explains that the Growth Model focuses on ‘re-examining learning process and the meaning for the individual student’ (2009, p.20). It highlights ‘the importance of personal experience in the classroom’ (Sawyer 2009, p.20). To encourage reflective and creative writing in my classroom, with a dual purpose of getting to know my students, I set tasks such as personal narrative writing, poetry, sharing childhood memories or journal entries. 

 

Students with learning difficulties exist in almost all classrooms. In addition to that, students may have additional needs or a language background other than English. Marilyn Kell explains that even with nation-wide high stakes testing such as NAPLAN and other standardised tests, ‘a number of children appear to slip through the net’. 

 

In my classroom, I have two students with Autism Spectrum Disorder and four students with language backgrounds other than English. Below, I will list some of the strategies that I implement in my classroom to ensure I am catering to the individual needs of all of my students:

 

·     Using visualssuch as a visual schedule of the lesson, visual timer for activities, using visual aids such as PowerPoint, Prezi and writing on the board, if watching a YouTube video or movie I have subtitles switched on

·     Limited teacher talk

·     Small group work

·     Group rotations (enables me to work with groups of students without singling out particular students in front of the class

·     Differentiation of tasks

·     ‘Learning about my students’ backgrounds, their cultural, religious beliefs and their home lives where possible

 

In terms of extended tasks, Marilyn Kell (2009, p.155) provides some helpful strategies to assist students with breaking writing tasks down into smaller chunks:

 

·     Given the topic, write a list of every word that comes into your mind

·     For each word on the list, write three associated thoughts

·     Write a sentence for each initial word and its associated word. This makes paragraphs

·     Read your work aloud

·     Decide if you need to add or delete anything

·     Decide if you need to rearrange any of your paragraphs

·     In three sentences explain what this writing is about (the introduction)

·     In three sentences review what you have written, highlighting new ideas (the conclusion)

 

This process gives students a starting point to extended writing and also assists in building writing confidence. I use this as part of differentiated learning and would use it during group rotations so I can work with the group of students as well as writing down my own responses for each section to model the process.