Pre-requisites

ED621 Ecology and Management of Learning Environments: School Observation (5 days)
A combination of 5 units from the student’s Major and Minor

Co-requisites

ED631 Curriculum, Assessment and Data: School Observation (5 days)
1 Major or minor

Learning Outcomes

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

• Communicate and apply broad and coherent knowledge of the content, substance and structure of English as relevant to primary schooling and the Victorian Curriculum F-10 and Australian Curriculum, as well as relevant numeracy, critical and creative thinking, and intercultural understanding to plan and organise content into effective learning and teaching sequences

• Critically review and demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies including formal and informal diagnostic, formative and summative approaches for assessing students’ needs and learning in English and literacy, the purposes and integration of assessment; and of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning

• Apply judgement to interpret students’ assessment data and evaluate student literacy learning to modify teaching practices and plan differentiated learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities including students with additional needs, EAL/D students and gifted and talented students

• Demonstrate and apply broad and coherent knowledge and understanding of theory to plan and evaluate a range of English and literacy teaching strategies that respond to the strengths and learning needs of diverse learners to improve their levels of communication in English literacy

• Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities, provide clear directions, and apply knowledge of a range of resources, including critically selecting high quality children’s picture books and literature, and ICT, to plan for English teaching to support the engagement, participation and learning of diverse students

• Articulate an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives relating to language and pedagogy

• Demonstrate personal proficiencies in English and articulate a Christian perspective on the discipline

Unit Description

In this unit you will engage with current knowledge and understanding about the structure and substance of English as a discipline, children’s language development, effective pedagogies and teaching strategies, assessment and curriculum design for English relevant to primary schooling. You will analyse contemporary theories of how children develop mastery in English and the teacher’s role in developing students’ use of language to listen thoughtfully, speak effectively, read critically, enjoy imaginatively and write competently and creatively. It introduces you to the Victorian Curriculum F-10 and Australian Curriculum (English), the Language, Literature and Literacy strands (appropriate to primary schooling) and the learning theories that underpin them. This unit explores social, cultural and Christian perspectives on English content and pedagogies, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives.

This unit will provide practical links between contemporary theory, reading, writing, oral language, assessment and teaching in order to develop deep understandings about the effective teaching of literacy across the curriculum in the primary years. The unit covers formal and informal diagnostic, formative and summative assessment strategies for English and how to use assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practices. The unit covers a range of differentiated teaching strategies and resources, including high quality, culturally sensitive relevant instructional materials and children’s literature, for supporting inclusive engagement and literacy development and instruction for all learners across the curriculum in the primary years. You will engage with literature by authors of other cultures, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Asian cultures, and will develop skills in teaching literacy to students with English as a second language or dialect (EAL/D). You will develop your personal competence in utilising ICT for educational purposes to expand students’ learning in English and in ICT. This unit will also include advanced instruction towards developing your personal proficiencies in the areas of English language, literature and literacy.

The professional practice units provide students with the opportunity to link and apply theory to practice.

Topics

• Language acquisition stages and development from birth to adulthood
• Victorian Curriculum F-10 and the Australian Curriculum - Language, Literature and Literacy strands, general capabilities and cross curriculum priorities
• Learning theories and pedagogies as appropriate and applied to teaching and learning English
• Models of reading (including ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches, phonics and whole language). The Four Resources model for reading and viewing (Freebody and Luke: Text decoder, participant, user and analyst), Cueing Systems (Clay: semantic, grammatical, graphophonic and visual/pictorial systems)
• Approaches to teaching concepts of print, phonics and phonemic awareness, graphophonic, semantic, grammatical and visual knowledge; vocabulary and comprehension
• Approaches to the teaching of writing: grammar, punctuation, spelling and handwriting, vocabulary development, audience, purpose and context in writing; the structural features of text-types (genres)
• Assessment and feedback: the role of assessment within the teaching and learning cycle, standardized testing (NAPLAN, PROBE, SA Spelling Test, Miscue Analysis, Running Record), and other assessment strategies (questioning, self-assessment, portfolios, rubrics, concept mapping and portfolio samples)
• Using assessment data to evaluate student learning, plan learning goals that build upon prior understanding, and modify teaching practice
• Using picture books as part of pedagogy to enhance literacy learning (visual literacy, multi-modal, to integrate ICT, introducing a variety of genres, for problem solving and to present EAL/D and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ perspectives)
• HITS-High Impact Teaching Strategies (John Hattie & Robert Marzano’s evidence-based strategies): incorporating these into literacy teaching practices
• Engaging students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds in culturally appropriate ways in English and literacy
• Differentiated and inclusive practices in English for diverse learners
• Teaching and communication strategies and resources, including selecting high quality children’s picture books and literature, and ICT, to support engagement and participation in English learning
• Planning lesson sequences and units of work

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Unit offerings

Face to face: Semester 1, 2025 and Semester 1, 2026 (Every Year, Semester 1)

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.