3.6 Evaluate and improve teaching programs
AITSL Standard 3.6 Example 1
I analyse and reflect on lessons and assessment data which informs future planning, demonstrating the teaching and learning cycle. Figure 1 is my assessment of a lesson in which students made collections of 5 objects. Within my anecdotal notes it was evident that some students could not recognise numbers 1-5 and some students had trouble with one to one correspondence.
I implemented counting and one to one correspondence into our morning singing routine. I added number cards to the class singing book and I showed the students the number cards 1-5 for the songs Five Little Duck and Five Monkeys. I also added number cards 1-10 and changed the Five Little Speckled Frogs song to Ten Little Speckled Frogs. During the song I showed the students the number cards 1-10 as we counted down. I demonstrated one to one correspondence as I counted how many fingers I was holding up for each verse and encourage the student to count their own fingers.
Figure 1 - Assessment on making collections of 5 with anecdotal notes about number recognition and 1:1 correspondence
Figure 2 - Snowman lesson on number recognition and 1:1 correspondence
Figure 3 - Echidna lesson on number recognition and 1:1 correspondence
Figure 4 and 5 shows the students progression in number recognition. In Figure 4, 8 student were focusing on learning numbers 1-5 and in the Figure 5 only 5 students were focusing on learning numbers 1-5. In the second assessment in Figure 5, some students had progressed further to focusing on numbers beyond 15.
Figure 4 - Students grouped according to number recognition
Figure 5 - Students grouped according to number recognition showing student progress
EYLF Outcomes: 1, 4 & 5
NQS Quality Area: 1, 3 & 5
Domains: Language, Social, Cognitive & Physical
AITSL Standard 3.6 Example 2
I analyse and reflect on lessons and assessment data which informs future planning, demonstrating the teaching and learning cycle.
Figure 6 - 'satpin' letter sounds post assessment
After a unit of work learning the sounds 'satpin' I conducted a post assessment. I was very surprised to find that most of the students could only identify the sound 's', please see Figure 6, but they knew the actions and could join in with all of the sounds on the carpet during our phonics session. I reflected on my approach to teaching the phonic sounds. I looked at the Jolly Phonic cards, please see Figure 7, and saw that the letter was printed small and the picture cue took up most of the page, which was the visual for the students. The visual for the sound 's' was a snake in the shape of the letter 's', which was the only sound most of the students could identify when I conducted my post assessment.
Figure 7 - Jolly Phonics cards used during phonics lesson
I decided not to use the Jolly Phonics cards any more and focus on using letter cards, however I kept using the actions from the Jolly Phonics as the students were very confident with this. I gave the students each a strip of pictures and the letters 'satpin' in a small container, see Figure 8. I created a Power Point, see Figure 9, with pictures relating to the sound 's' we said the pictures together and I asked them what sound they all start with, I showed them the sound 's' and we said it loudly, quietly, to the ceiling, to the floor then to our partner. We went through the picture strip and found the picture of a snake, which starts with the sound 's'. The students then looked through their letters in their container to find a 's' and place it underneath the snake. I repeated this with each of the letter sounds, see Figure 10.
Figure 9 - 'satpin' Power Point
Figure 8 - Picture strip used in phonics lesson
Figure 10 - Sample of student's work at the end of the phonics lesson
After a few weeks I assessed the students again and were please that most students had improved and were able to identify most of the 'satpin' letter sounds, see Figure 11. In reflection I will introduce the new sounds 'çhemrd' by using the Jolly Phonics cards with actions for the first few weeks. I will keep the Jolly Phonics actions but replace the cards with letters only. The students enjoyed matching the cards with the pictures and this proved to be a good way of the students learning to identify the letters and match them to the letter sound, so I will repeat this for the next set of letters to be introduced to the students.
Figure 11 - Post assessment after using picture strips and letter cards showing student progress
EYLF Outcomes: 1, 2, 4 & 5
NQS Quality Area: 1, 3, 4 & 5
Domains: Language, Personal, Social, Emotional, Cognitive & Physical