Collegial+teaching+activity+3

Collegial Teaching Activity 3


 * Discussion prior to activity **


 * Teachers involved: **

Rachel Caras Narelle Bean


 * Date: ** Wednesday 31 August


 * Professional learning focus for practice: **

// What do I want to learn from working with another colleague? The answer becomes the learning focus of this teaching activity. Refer to Standards 5 and 6 as a guide and consider focusing on engaging students in meaningful learning, assessing student learning and providing feedback to students, or managing a safe and challenging learning environment. //

> > - Management of student behavior: engaging students who have previously shown a lack of focus in class. > - Management of clear and consistent expectations, resources and space to create and maintain a safe and challenging learning environment for all students. > > > - Effective communication: clear explanations, instructions and feedback.
 * Teachers create and maintain safe and challenging learning environments
 * Teachers use a range of teaching practices and resources to engage students in effective learning

I want to adopt the strategies learnt by observing another teacher taking the same maths session in order to ensure that I engage all students, challenge them and enable them to achieve success. I will have students undertake a hands on warm up activity, I will randomly select students to participate in the modeling activity and I will strategically and subtly place students in a seating plan based on their abilities in order to promote peer tutoring/assistance.


 * Outline of the planned learning activity **

// What are the learning outcomes in relation to the content? What do I want students to learn? //

The learning focus for this session was ‘To be able to identify and calculate complementary and supplementary angles.’ The success criteria was as follows: The warm up activity involved students having to draw as many 90** ° ** and 180** ° ** as they could think of in 1 minute. It was suggested to students that they be as creative as possible and perhaps add two angles together.
 * 1) I know the two rules of identifying complementary and supplementary angles
 * 2) I can identify complementary and supplementary angles
 * 3) I can calculate complementary and supplementary angles

Other contextual information


 * This class is a year 8 class consisting of 24 students.
 * There are a number of students who do not particularly like maths sessions and have started to become disruptive and distracting during these sessions, unless they are working in a focus group with the teacher.
 * Students did not have any prior exposure to complementary and supplementary angles.


 * Discussion following the activity **

// A summary of teaching and learning //


 * Warm up game had students instantly thinking mathematically this meant they were ready for the following activity
 * The students were engaged as a result of the warm up activity being a hands on activity. Students began drawing simple 90** ° ** and 180** ° ** angles until they were prompted to think about adding two angles together. Some students began asking each other questions about what was meant by the instruction and others were confident in drawing these angles by adding two angles together.
 * Communication of all explanations and instructions were clear and concise, there was not too much for the students to take in. The instructions were also written on the board because some students need to read the instructions as well as listen to them.
 * As per the previous lesson students were randomly selected to draw some of their angles on the board. Students were willing to participate in this activity and were keen to share their answers.
 * Students were strategically and subtly placed in their table clusters, which enabled them to comfortably and confidently ask questions and share answers.
 * The two key rules surrounding complementary and supplementary angles was written on a large poster display at the front of the classroom so that students could use it as a quick reference if they became confused.
 * The individual activity differentiated in a way so that all students felt they were able to access the learning and so that all students achieved success. It was differentiated according to their table cluster, which minimised students feeling as though they were doing different work from the rest of the class.
 * Teacher roamed the classroom ensuring that all students were on task and that they had grasped the concept of identifying and calculating complementary and supplementary angles.


 * Reflection on the activity **

// What did you observe the students doing? How did this link to the teaching focus? //

Students were engaged in the activity as the warm up activity allowed them to practice drawing angles they were familiar with from the previous lessons. They felt success in being able to complete what was asked and to share their answers correctly. Students were also willing to have a go at creating 90** ° ** and 180** ° ** angles by adding two angles as they saw this as a natural progression. The extending students completed this task quite efficiently as they were better able to apply the skills needed to determine the missing angle. This then allowed for them to consolidate their learning by assisting other students. The promotion of peer-to-peer learning minimised the opportunity for students to become distracted/disruptive as those students had someone working with them to keep them focused and to assist when they found a question slightly difficult.

// What did you observe happening in the class that supported the learning of students? //

I noticed that students were engaged in their independent tasks, particularly when they were completing the first section of questions because they felt that they could access it and achieve success. The arranged seating clusters allowed for students to comfortably ask questions and allowed for them to help one another before having to ask the teacher for help. As a result of students being encouraged to assist one another with their work there was minimal disruption/distraction within the classroom. // What have you learnt about your own teaching practice? How can this learning be applied? //

Again, I learnt that having a hands on, relevant and slightly challenging warm up activity assisted students to start thinking mathematically and in a way that would set them up for success during the lesson. I will continue to apply this strategy throughout maths lessons. I also learnt that there are a number of benefits to peer to peer learning. Not only do those students assisting get to consolidate their learning but the students that are being assisted also feel better about themselves because they have been able to complete a task without the teacher assisting them. This strategy also minimised the opportunity for distractions/disruptions. Finally the use of large poster displays enabled students to have a quick reference to the information they needed to complete the task.

// What professional learning does this prompt you to pursue as a result of this reflection? //

I will continue to observe other teachers and adapt their strategies in order to develop the most effective maths sessions. I will also endeavor to attend professional learning seminars based around effective numeracy and differentiation within the classroom.