Pre-requisites

ED733 Assessment, Data and Curriculum: Professional Experience 1A
ES610 Primary English
ES611 Primary Mathematics
A combination of 6 units from the student’s Major and Minor

Co-requisites

ED623 Integrating ICT Across the Curriculum
ED732 Professional Identity and Engagement: Ethics and the Law

Learning Outcomes

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

• Analyse and evaluate current understanding on factors affecting teaching and learning in literacy, and school programs in order to promote literacy development, applying a Christian perspective relating to language and pedagogy

• Identify the literacy features of genres which can be used to teach English and literacy across disciplines (reading, writing, speaking, listening, viewing and creating), and critically review and select conventional, multi-modal and culturally diverse texts suitable for primary students, applying Christian worldview thinking and knowledge and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ histories, culture and languages

• Analyse and synthesise literacy requirements across the whole primary curriculum, teaching and learning

• Analyse and understand how socio-cultural circumstances, school policies and procedures, educational theory and other educational contexts can facilitate and impede students’ literacy learning and explore ways for advancing literacy learning and teaching in the classroom to ensure all students are able to maximise their learning

• Apply sound judgement and knowledge to analyse assessment data from a range of assessments (such as formal and informal diagnostic, formative and summative assessment) to determine students’ proficiencies and learning needs in English and literacy, and plan differentiated learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students across the full range of abilities, including students with additional needs and gifted students

• Demonstrate knowledge, understanding and application of research into how students learn literacy, appropriate pedagogical practices to support literacy learning, and a range of literacy teaching strategies and resources, including exposure to a rich variety of children’s literature and appropriate ICT, to expand literacy learning of diverse students, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and EAL/D students

• In the context of a placement apply expert knowledge of content, current theory and pedagogical content knowledge, to plan and implement effective English lesson sequences applying a range of differentiated teaching, assessment, recording and feedback strategies, and appropriate resources, including ICT, in response to the learning strengths and needs of diverse students; and organise classroom activities, providing clear directions and using a range of communication and classroom management strategies that support the engagement, safety and well-being of diverse students

• In the context of a placement critically reflect on your own and others’ teaching practices, seek, evaluate, and apply advice and feedback from experienced teachers in order to evaluate and improve your teaching practice, and demonstrate an increasing knowledge and understanding of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers and The Victorian Teaching Profession Code of Conduct, and their application to professional practice and identity

Unit Description

The unit will build on the unit ES610 Primary English and focus on developing expert content knowledge in English language, literature and literacy, as well as pedagogical content knowledge and the integration of these for developing highly effective teaching strategies relevant to teaching English. You will engage deeply with the learning theories which underpin the Victorian Curriculum F-10 and the Australian Curriculum for English, and language continuums used to plan and assess the teaching of English across the curriculum. You will also appreciate and develop ways to integrate the state and national curriculum’s general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. The unit will examine a number of factors impacting the development of literacy in schools through the English discipline and across curriculum areas, including the development and efficacy of school-wide scope and sequence, literacy programs, issues in the field of Children’s Literature, and how teachers and students use technology to improve literacy proficiencies.

Through analysis of contemporary learning theories and pedagogies, you will develop the necessary skills to design inclusive classroom programs where all learners, including gifted students and especially those labelled ‘at-risk,’ can acquire literacy skills and practices needed for success in learning and for participating effectively in society. You will learn about how dyslexia and the autistic spectrum can impact the literacy learning needs of students. The unit will explore how these understandings along with engagement with educational theory can be used in the development of strategies for effective classroom teaching to improve literacy proficiencies through the English discipline as well as across all curriculum areas. The unit will also cover assessment and data-analysis for identifying and planning for the learning needs of students, including those with additional needs and gifted students, and current developments for advancing their learning in English. This will include exploring the integration of ICT for enhancing and extending learning in English as well as the use of digital technologies for a range of purposes such as word processing and publishing.

The professional experience component of this unit entails attending a placement school (primary or secondary respective of the course being completed) for a block of 10 consecutive days in the same school attended for ED733. Under the supervision of an experienced teacher you will apply and develop your teaching practices, teaching whole classes for whole lessons up to a half-day load as negotiated with your supervising teacher based on your progress and performance. You will continue to focus on learning through regularly observing and reflecting on experienced teachers’ practices.

You will attend a preparation class prior to the professional experience placement and a debrief class after its completion. During the placement, your supervising teacher will provide you with advice, support and feedback to support your progress and improve your practices, and will assess your teaching against the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers at the graduate level. You are required to incorporate digital technologies into your teaching, learning, preparation and assessment practices displaying improving personal proficiency. As you progress through the Professional Experience, you are expected to demonstrate increasing competence and professional growth and become well immersed in school life.

Topics

• Learning theories and how these have shaped the Victorian Curriculum F-10 and the Australian Curriculum (English - Language, Literature and Literacy strands) and the teaching of literacy.
• General capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities as relevant to content and teaching in English
• Research on highly effective teaching strategies in the English discipline including The Teaching and Learning Cycle and HITS-High Impact Teaching Strategies (John Hattie & Robert Marzano’s evidence-based strategies), and incorporating these into literacy teaching practices
• Analysis of school-wide literacy programs and initiatives: analysis of the models of reading adopted within popular school programs including ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ approaches, Freebody and Luke’s: The Four Resources model for reading and viewing: text decoder, participant, user and analyst, Clay’s Cueing Systems: semantic, grammatical, graphophonic and visual/pictorial systems, the integration of reading and writing and genre-based approaches
• Data Analysis - exploring and analysing student data to identify proficiencies and learning needs in order to plan for teaching and learning: standardized testing (NAPLAN, PROBE, SA Spelling Test, Miscue Analysis, Running Record), formal and informal diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assessing student needs, (questioning, self-assessment, portfolios, rubrics, concept mapping and portfolio samples)
• Contemporary Communication and Multimodal Literacy: conveying meaning through a combination of two or more modes (written, spoken, visual, audio, spatial and gestural meaning)
• Differentiated learning and scaffolding approaches for teaching literacy: supporting students with additional needs (gifted students, dyslexia, autistic spectrum, visual-spatial students, EAL/D) incorporating a Christian world view on inclusive practices.
• Children’s literature: issues, resource selection, using picture books as part of pedagogy to enhance literacy learning (visual literacy, multimodal, to integrate ICTs, introducing a variety of genres, for problem solving and to present EAL/D and Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people perspectives)
• Critical Literacy and a Christian world view perspective.

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Unit offerings

Face to face: Semester 2, 2025 and Semester 2, 2026 (Every Year, Semester 2)

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.