Pre-requisites

ED5010 Developmental Learning Pedagogies

Co-requisites

None.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:

Unit Description

A strong foundation in literacy and numeracy is vital for every child and young person, and underpins their ability to engage in education, reach their potential, and to participate fully in the community. This leads to the ability to reason critically, to experiment, and to be resilient and persistent also support the development of literacy and numeracy. (Literacy and numeracy strategy, Victoria State Education and Training, 2017)

In this unit, you will examine the general and subject-specific literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills that need to be explicitly taught or implicitly present and modelled in the teaching of each curriculum area. The unit covers strategies for planning and embedding literacy and numeracy learning within all curriculum areas, with a specific focus on effective literacy and numeracy teaching relevant to your major and minor subject specialisations.

The unit covers strategies for assessing and identifying the diverse literacy and numeracy learning needs of young people and current research on best practice in interventions to improve their literacy and numeracy knowledge and skills. The unit also addresses your own literacy and numeracy learning and explores the ways to extend your proficiency in these areas.

Topics

  1. The changing role and responsibility of teachers for literacy and numeracy: the Victorian Curriculum F-10 and Australian Curriculum General capabilities
  2. Getting to know and improve your own numeracy and literacy standards and how to apply them to teaching practice.
    a) A Conceptual understanding of the 6 strands of mathematics: number, algebra, geometry (Space), measurement, statistics and probability.     
    b) A conceptual understanding of the 4 proficiencies of mathematics: understanding, fluency, problem solving and reasoning. 
    c) Elements of Literacy
  3. Key issues in literacy; including how the brain learns to read through explicit teaching practices for the following elements: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and oral language.
  4. Strategies for explicitly teaching literacy (reading and writing) across the curriculum
  5. Strategies for teaching numeracy across the curriculum including progressive removal of scaffolding as students become more proficient, and problem solving and reasoning.
  6. Problem-solving: The importance of independent problem-solving once a student approaches proficiency (i.e. after ample opportunities to practice progressively challenging tasks)
  7. Identifying and developing literacy skills in content areas
  8. The role of ICT in promoting literacy and numeracy
  9. Considerations for working with EAL/D students
  10. Assessing literacy and numeracy and using data of assessments for planning
  11. The senior years teaching literacy and numeracy in VCE VM

Learning Experiences

Topic 1: Understanding Research Australian Education Research Organisation (2022), Use of evidence-based practices in schools: a national snapshot, edresearch.edu.au

de Bruin K, Kestel E, Francis M, Forgasz H and Fries R (2023), Supporting students significantly behind in literacy and numeracy: a review of evidence-based approaches, edresearch.edu.au

Choose one of the above research reports or another one provided by the lecturer. Read the research and create a summary. As a class discuss the significance of explicit literacy and numeracy instruction to improve academic performance and engagement. Discussion Board: In what ways does this research and your discussion suggest that the role and responsibilities of the teacher is changing?

Topics 3 and 4 cc 2.4.1
PSTs will write discussion board responses to the following questions. Responses will be supported by research.
1) Why do secondary teachers need to understand phonics and word-level reading?
2) How is disciplinary literacy different from general literacy support?
3) Describe 4 strategies for explicitly teaching reading comprehension and writing within your subject area. Justify your choices of these strategies.

Topic 4 cc 3.2.3 Micro-Lesson Part 1 Design a 10-minute literacy (reading) micro-lesson in a subject area of your choice.
In groups of 3 select a topic and design a micro-lesson incorporating:
- structured lesson
- clear instruction
- effective questioning
- reducing cognitive load
- specific feedback

Part 2 Teach Micro-lesson Each group delivers their 10-minute micro-lesson to peers, who act as age-appropriate students. Peers provide specific, positive feedback and one suggestion for improvement.

Lecturer observes and provides feedback, focusing on the pedagogical practices and alignment with AITSL standards.

Students reflect individually (5 minutes) on how their delivery fostered engagement and prevented undesired behavior, using a provided reflection prompt (below).

Topic 5: Research Readings:
Goos, M, and O’Sullivan K (2022), Numeracy Across the Curriculum, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1530

Forgasz, Helen J., Gilah Leder, and Jennifer Hall. “Numeracy Across the Curriculum in Australian Schools: Teacher Education Students’ and Practicing Teachers’ Views and Understandings of Numeracy.” Numeracy 10, Iss. 2 (2017): Article 2. DOI:http://doi.org/10.5038/1936-4660.10.2.2

Using the readings above, write a 400-word blog post on Numeracy as a fundamental component of learning across the curriculum and improves student understanding of and engagement with material within and beyond the mathematics curriculum. These posts will be read and discussed in class.

Topic 5 From modelling to Independence.
In Groups, PSTs are given a scenario card that specifies:
- Year level
- Curriculum content descriptor
- Numeracy skill in context

PSTs identify:
- The underlying mathematical concepts
- The discipline-specific application

PSTs use the “I do - we do - you do” model to plan explicit instruction of the identified mathematical concepts within the context of the subject discipline.
Including:
- mathematical thinking prompts
- General thinking skills
- link to the Australian Curriculum numeracy progression.

Micro-teaching opportunity. PSTs choose one group member to be the teacher who teachers the lesson sequence:
- 2 - 3 minutes per stage of scaffolding
- include intentional fading of supports

Reflect as a group on the process.
Consider:
- Clarity
- Appropriateness of scaffolding and pace of removal.
- Integration of mathematical thinking prompts.

Write an individual reflection:
- how they balance concept and skill teaching.
- what they learnt about scaffold removal timing.

Topic 6: Tiered Problem-solving tasks.
Objective: Students experience and practice problem solving at different levels of expertise.

Task: Divide the class into groups and assign each group a label (novice, intermediate, expert)
Provide each group with a complex task. The novice group’s task includes detailed instructions and significant scaffolding. The intermediate group’s task has less scaffolding, encouraging more independent problem solving. The expert group’s task is open-ended, and no guidance is given.

The groups are given time to complete their task. Once the time is finished, the class discusses the following:

How did the level of scaffolding impact learning and the completion of the task?
What were some of the learning strategies employed?
How do we support students to develop their problem-solving skills?

Assessment and Indicative Load

Assessment types include Curriculum Preparation, Major Essay, and Project. Indicative study load is 140 hours.

Unit offerings

Please note

The Unit Offerings listed above are a guide only and the timetable for any year is the final authority. The College may vary offerings based on demand, regulatory requirements, continual improvement processes or other conditions.

This unit may be available in different modes of delivery i.e. online and face-to-face as listed above. The unit content will not differ between these modes of delivery. There will possibly be a difference in the schedule and/or the prescribed assessment tasks, however both will cover and assess the same content.