ES910 Primary English
Unit Description
Pre-requisites
None.Co-requisites
ED920 Developmental Learning and Pedagogies
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, the student will be able to:
Critically apply reflexive practice to their own learning process and ongoing development as a teacher including their understanding of the Christian faith in the context of Christian worldview, Scripture and broader vocation.
Demonstrate understanding of the purposes of assessment in English and of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning in order improve English proficiency.
Demonstrate advanced personal proficiencies in English.
Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, and apply creativity and initiative in incorporating them into the planning and teaching of English appropriate to the learning and teaching context to engage students in their learning.
Critically analyse state and national curriculum and assessment strategies for teaching of English in the primary years.
Critically analyse literacy needs and evaluate strategies to target and improve diverse students’ (i.e. EAL, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) levels of communication in English.
Apply knowledge of state and national curriculum, assessment and reporting, and research to plan lesson sequences and organise classroom activities for teaching English incorporating appropriate content, student developmental level, effective teaching strategies and clear directions in response to student learning needs across the full range of abilities.
Communicate advanced knowledge and understanding of the concepts, structure and substance of English including extended understanding of recent developments in this discipline and include a Christian perspective.
Unit Description
This unit will provide pre-service teachers with the opportunity to engage with current knowledge and understanding about the structure and substance of English as a discipline, children’s language development, and pedagogical approaches for improving their levels of communication in English. The unit will focus on developing and applying the pre-service teachers’ knowledge and understanding about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and Christian perspectives on English content and pedagogies. Pre-service teachers will also engage with and develop their knowledge of the current curriculum for English.
Through this unit pre-service teachers will critically analyse and develop pedagogies for assessing students’ learning needs in relation to reading, comprehension, writing, speaking and listening, and for developing effective learning experiences that will engage and cater for diverse students in order to extend and enhance their language, literature and literacy knowledge, understanding and skills, including multi-literacies. The unit will explore a range of resources for engaging and supporting students in their learning in English.
Pre-service teachers will develop their personal competence in utilising ICT for educational purposes in order to enhance students’ learning in English and in ICTs. This unit will also include advanced instruction towards developing pre-service teachers’ personal proficiencies in the areas of English language, literature and literacy. The unit incorporates Christian faith, worldview and Scripture related to the teaching vocation.
Topics
- Language Acquisition stages and development
- Overview of the Victorian Primary English Curriculum
- Reading - teaching and learning theories
a. Systematic and explicit teaching: Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and oral language. - Reading - assessment of and learning strategies for diffe rentiated needs
- Approaches to learning writing and spelling
Key Reading:
Australian Education Research Organisation (2022) Writing and writing instruction: an overview of the literature. Writing and writing instruction | Australian Education Research Organisation. Retreived from https://www.edresearch.edu.au/research/research-reports/writing-and-writing-instruction - Approaches to learning oral communication
- Effective Teaching Strategies – High quality explicit instruction, recall practice, modelling, scaffolding and resourcing (ICT etc.)
- How to integrate great books and poems in your program
- Examining various case studies of best practice of programming across the week, term, year
Learning Experiences
Topic 3 Micro-Lesson (cc 3.2.3)
Part 1 Design a 10-minute English micro-lesson In groups of 3 select a topic and design a micro-lesson incorporating:
- structured lesson
- clear instruction
- effective questioning
- reduced cognitive load
- specific feedback
Part 2 Teach Micro-lesson
Each group delivers their 10-minute micro-lesson to peers, who act as Foundation students. Peers provide specific, positive feedback (e.g., “Your question about the /s/ sound really engaged us!”) and one suggestion for improvement.
The 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 (cc2.4.2) PSTs will write a 200-word discussion response regarding how explicit writing comprehension instruction tailored to discipline-specific content can improve students’ academic understanding, engagement with material, and their overall academic performance.
Key Reading:
Archer AL and Hughes CA (2011) Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching, Guilford Press.
Chap 1 Exploring the Foundations of Explicit Instruction pp1-22
This chapter focuses on the key components of Explicit instruction and explains how they work based on the research about how the brain learns.
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.