Standard 3 – Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning

Evidence:

1) ATAR Year 12 Powerpoint screenshot

2) Photo of Year 7s playing language directions game

3) Year 6 Extension Program Unit Outline

4) Mentor Teacher Comments

Reflective Commentary

Effective teaching and learning is at the core of all successful educators. I have had to develop units of work and related resources for a wide range of classes, ranging from Year 6 to Year 12. I have also had to adjust my teaching style to deal with very the different learning cultures in the different classes that I have been responsible for. Being an effective teacher has required me to be well prepared and extremely organised. I have worked hard to ensure that unit content, assessments and lessons are prepared at weeks before a term has commenced. All students are provided with a detailed course and assessment outline at the commencement of each Term. All students need to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. However, term outlines are often quickly forgotten so I make sure that every lesson via a brief Powerpoint presentation I provide explicit learning objectives and go through with students the structure and timing of the lesson. I also explain to students the reasons we do specific learning activities. Every lesson I also find myself reminding the lower school secondary students of the underlying reasons for learning Japanese. It’s not about some distant goal or about future success on exams, it's about practising ‘here and now’ the art of using one’s mind. The skills and self-discipline acquired in learning a second language can be applied to any other area of your life. I believe that all students feel a deep sense of accomplishment when they have been pushed out of their comfort zones to meet high expectations in regards to their daily efforts.

Situation: I have noted that I was able to engage students years 6, 7 and 8 by incorporating more authentic Japanese texts including popular songs, film and television extracts. I have always ensured that the inclusion of such texts has a direct link to a specific language skill or grammar point. I felt that year 12 students which have a tremendous pressure to achieve were missing out on some of the things that motivated them to learn Japanese in the first place.

Action: Hence, I decided to analyse some comedic Japanese commercials and J-pop songs that have used relevant ATAR grammar structures. I then created a range of listening, viewing, writing and speaking activities based on these texts.

Outcome: Students were so happy to be exposed to some authentic Japanese texts. It seemed to give them extra bursts of motivation to engage in the prepared learning activities. It also provided a unique way to explore required grammatical structures that would then become more ‘memorable’ for students. In later lessons, I could simply say ‘hey remember the Japanese Alien Advertisement and Jones says “.....” and all would immediately recall the relevant phrase. These kinds of ‘shared cultural experiences’ formed not only a strong foundation of language learning in context but also assisted me in developing a positive relationship with all my students.

Future Action Plan: Finding authentic texts and integrating them successfully into units of work is a never-ending process. Especially because it is so important to access texts that are new and culturally relevant to students. Texts that might have worked in the past to gain student interest don’t necessarily work in the future. Hence, will I put aside time each term to ask students about their interests and specifically in regards to things from Japan. I will also put aside time during the school holidays to update my own collection of interesting Japanese texts and analyse these in terms of their linguistic and cultural relevance