Professional Portfolio: 3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

Graduate: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies (AITSL Standards).

As a teacher it is important to begin with a positive foundation of student learning, content and effective teaching before entering the classroom. These are three of the most important attributes that I believe that a teacher must possess before becoming an adequate teacher. Firstly, without a grasp on how students learn, teachers would be developing lessons to the wrong level, than that of their student's. Without a clear understanding of the content that is to be taught, student motivation and engagement would be absent. The worst thing would be for a teacher to enter every lesson not knowing the content that is to be taught. How can one formally track progress, assign learning tasks, or provide summative assignments, if a teacher does not have a genuine understanding of the content that is to be taught? As much as students tend to work better under a routine, by constantly using the same strategies in teaching, students will begin to tune out and become 'mentally lazy', as the students would know what to expect, when to expect it and how to expect it. It is because of this that it is necessary to use a range of different teaching strategies to provide appropriate learning tasks.

The evidence that I will be drawing upon to prove that I have met the graduate standard of 3.2, is as follows:

Mentor reports
Lesson plans
Unit plans

Evidence 1: Mentor Reports:

From both my third and fourth year professional experience mentors, I have received positive feedback in regards to my content understanding, which I have provided below. It is important for me to walk into a classroom confident with the knowledge that I understand my teaching content, and I will always put in as much time as it needs to make sure that I not only know what I am teaching, but I know how I am going to teach it. I never plan to walk into a classroom blind, which can be reinforced by my attribute on giving 110% in any situation. I am a firm believer in wanting to walk away from situations with my head held high knowing that I have at least given something my all. This has enabled me to proceed through School and University, without ever submitting a piece of assessment late, or returning a grade of failure. This is something that I plan on bringing to my profession of teaching to provide my students the best possible outcome for their education.

3rd Year Mentor Teacher Feedback:

4th Year Mentor Teacher Feedback:

Evidence 2: Unit plans
I was commended on the detail that I put into my unit plans during my final year placement, and even had a teacher tell me that mine was ' the most in depth unit plan that they have ever seen from a student teacher'. A lot of initial planning can save time in the long run through clearly planned out units and tasks. The more planned a teacher is upon entering a classroom, the better their ability to engage and differentiate for the needs of all students. Detailed unit and lesson plans help form the foundation for classroom success. One thing to note here however, is that a teacher should never set a unit plan in stone and should make continuous adjustments, so as to continue to meet the needs of the students. Different students will take different lengths of time to understand different concepts, and lessons may be suddenly cancelled or cut short due to unforeseen circumstances, for instance a fire alarm, or assembly. The more organised a teacher is, the more capable they are to make necessary adjustments around these unforeseen circumstances.

I have included my initial unit plan for teaching my year 8 students the topic of percentages in my final placement, however, as stated in my annotation above, this, like all unit plans, was edited as time progressed to meet both student needs and school commitments.

Unit Title	Percentages
Year Level	Year 8
Strands and Sub-Strands	Fractions, decimals and percentages
Resources	Pearson Mathematics, year 8
Description	By the end of Year 8, students solve everyday problems involving rates, ratios and percentages. During this unit students have already learnt about such topics as ‘working with fractions and decimals’, and ‘types of decimals’. At the beginning of the 2^nd term we will briefly recap these two topics in the initial lesson, before continuing on to the following, ‘estimating percentages’, ‘writing fractions and decimals as percentages’, ‘writing percentages as fractions and decimals’, ‘writing one amount as a percentage of another’, ‘finding a percentage of an amount’, ‘increasing or decreasing by a given percentage’, and ‘financial applications of percentages’. During this unit we will spend time working on an assignment called ‘Supermarket Specials’, and students will be required to submit an investigation report for summative marking. This unit will be concluded with a summative test covering ‘Fractions, decimals and percentages’.
Context/Setting	This unit is being taught to the lower scale maths class at a high-socioeconomic scaled school. 2014 edition Pearson textbooks are used by both teachers’ and students’ and units are often planned around the structure of these books, to allow students a familiar basis for their learning.
Duration	6 weeks
Lessons per Week	Five 45-minute lessons per week
Key Idea (Content Descriptors)	- A percentage is a way to expressing something out of 100 - Fractions, decimals and percentages are related and can be used to express the same number, or proportion in different ways. - As percentage, decimals and percentages are all related, conversions can be made between all three - An understanding of percent relationships helps us to compare and represent increasing and decreasing proportions. - Percentages can apply to money scenarios
Capabilities used throughout unit	- Literacy - Numeracy - Information and communication technology capability - Critical and creative thinking - Personal and social capability
Standard(s)	- ACMNA187 – Solve problems involving the use of percentages, including percentage increases and decreases, with and without digital technologies - ACMNA188 - Solve a range of problems involving rates and ratios, with and without digital technologies
Assessment (Summative)	- Assignment: Supermarket Specials - Summative test: Percentages

Time-line	Lesson Title	Key Concepts and Skills	Teaching and Learning Activities	Assessment Activities	Resources and Equipment
Week 1 Lesson 1	Professional Development	-		- nil	- nil
Lesson 2 and 3	Recap & 2.4	- What is a fraction? - What is a decimal? - How can we convert a decimal to a fraction? - What are the three types of fractions that we can use? - What is percentage? - Where can we see percentages in our lives? - How can we estimate percentages?	- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxh0tsCva8E to play while students are walking in and getting settled. - Recap: what is a fraction, what is a decimal, converting decimals to fractions examples, the three types of fractions/ decimals – terminating, reoccurring, irrational - What is a percentage? - Where have we seen percentage in our lives? - How can we calculate a percentage? - Estimating percentages - Explain what is meant by ‘estimating percentages’ and advise that calculators will not be needed for this lesson. run through worked example 10, and exercise question number 6 - PowerPoint – estimating fractions – as a class. - Could create an activity that has various items of different percentages on one side, and estimations on the right hand side, they must draw a line between the picture and the correct estimation. - Get students to attempt yellow questions 2.4: 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 only. - Get students to complete for homework, if these questions are finished, think of 5 different examples of estimating percentages in everyday life.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday) - Formative assessment: Percentage estimation worksheet	- Projector - Computer - YouTube - PowerPoint - Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook - Worksheet – percentage estimation
Lesson 4	Writing fractions and decimals as percentages	- How can we write fractions and decimals as percentages?	- Check whether anyone managed to come up with examples of percentage estimation from the homework extension - Introduce fractions and decimals as percentages. Explain how to convert between the 3. 100%/denominator, multiplied by the numerator. /100 to get the decimal. Go through a few examples - Go through worked example 11 and 12 - Activity match cards – get students to complete a match card activity to place each fraction, decimal and percentage next to each other. Students will rule up a page having 3 heading’s along the top ‘fraction, decimal, and percentage’, students will glue these match cards into their books. Calculators may be used, but the textbook may only be used to check answers upon completion. - Attempt 2.5, question 1 for homework, ask your parents/older siblings where they might use percentages in their jobs/life	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday) - Formative assessment: Match-card activity	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook - Match-Cards
Lesson 5	Fractions and decimals as percent	- How can we convert decimals to percentages?	- Check how students found their homework and where percentages have been used? - Recap how we convert fractions and decimals to percentages - Go over worked example 13 - Get students to complete 2.5: (1), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 13	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Week 2, Lesson 1	Recap.	- Recap: how can we estimate fractions? - How can we represent fractions and decimals using percentage?	- Recap how we estimate percentages, and writing fractions/decimals as percent’s. - Get students to complete exercises 2.5: 5, 6, 7, and 13 - Get students to complete 2.5 for homework, reminding them that a book check will be conducted Tuesday, to make sure that they are up to date. 2.2, 2.4, 2.5, match-cards, and line activity.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 2 and 3	Writing percentages as fractions.	- To write a percentage as a fraction or a decimal: - Divide the value of the percentage by 100 Write the division by 100 in fraction form, then simplify if possible.	Go over purple notes in book – writing percentage as a fraction or decimal. Go over worked example 14, 15, and 16 Get students to complete 2.6: q. 1, 2, 3, 9, 12, 15 Students to complete these questions for homework	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 4	Writing percentages as decimals.	- Divide the value of the percentage by 100. - Divide by 100. Show this by moving the decimal point two places to the left.	Go over worked example 17 and 18 Get students to complete q. 2.6: 4, 5, 14 Get students to complete these for homework, reminding them that a book check will again be completed on Tuesday.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 5	Writing one amount as a percentage of another	- To write one amount as a percentage of another: 1. Make sure both amounts are the same type, or measured in the same units; convert units if necessary 2. Write a fraction with the ‘part amount’ as the numerator and the ‘whole amount’ as the denominator 3. Convert this fraction into a percentage.	Go over purple notes on page 99 Worked example 19 and worked example 20 Get students to complete questions 2.7: 1, 2, 3	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Week 3: Lesson 1	Continued	Continued	Get students to complete questions 2.7: 4, 8, 9, 11 If students finish these during class, then allow them remaining time for getting book work up to scratch for tomorrow’s book check, otherwise this is their homework for tonight.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 2 and 3	Finding a percentage of an amount	- To find a percentage of an amount: 1. Replace the ‘of’ in the expression with ‘X’ 2. Convert the percentage to a fraction or a decimal 3. Perform the multiplication and simplify your answer	- Go over purple notes, giving examples of what this means and incorporate a shopping analogy to do so. - Go over worked example 21 - Get students to complete questions 2.8: 1, 2, 3, 5, 11(a) - Introduce the assignment if time - Get students to complete exercise 2.8 for homework.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 4	Assignment: Supermarket Specials	- Applying the knowledge learnt so far to efficiently calculate better deals in real life situations.	Page 112. Get students to write up a clear investigation report, with clear labelling, setting out, and answers to each of the 11 questions.	- Summative assessment: Investigation – Supermarket Specials	- Assignment: Supermarket Specials
Lesson 5	Assignment	- Applying the knowledge learnt so far to efficiently calculate better deals in real life situations.	Page 112. Get students to write up a clear investigation report, with clear labelling, setting out, and answers to each of the 11 questions.	- Summative assessment: Investigation – Supermarket Specials	- Assignment: Supermarket Specials
Week 4, Lesson 1	Assignment	- Applying the knowledge learnt so far to efficiently calculate better deals in real life situations.	Page 112. Get students to write up a clear investigation report, with clear labelling, setting out, and answers to each of the 11 questions.	- Summative assessment: Investigation – Supermarket Specials	- Assignment: Supermarket Specials
Lesson 2	Assignment: pick up at end of lesson 1	- Applying the knowledge learnt so far to efficiently calculate better deals in real life situations.	Make sure that book work is yet again checked. Up to 2.9.	- Summative assessment: Investigation – Supermarket Specials	- Assignment: Supermarket Specials
Lesson 3	Increasing or Decreasing by a given percentage	- To increase or decrease an amount by a given percentage: 1. Add the percentage to, or subtract it from, 100%, then write it as a decimal scale factor 2. Multiply this decimal by the amount to be increased or decreased.	Important notes in purple. Explain what this means and how it is used in life – shops, cars, mark-ups, mark-downs. Go over worked example 22. Get students to complete questions 2.9: 1, 3, 4	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 4		- To increase or decrease an amount by a given percentage: 3. Add the percentage to, or subtract it from, 100%, then write it as a decimal scale factor - Multiply this decimal by the amount to be increased or decreased.	Go over worked example 23 Get students to complete 2.9: 2, 5 Go through ‘break the code’ as a class – fun wind-down activity	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday) - Formative assessment – Break the code activity	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 5	Financial applications of percentages	- Cost price (CP): the total cost of making or buying the goods - Selling rice (SP): cost price + mark up - Mark up: amount added to cost price in order to make a profit - Discount: decrease in the selling price to attract more buyers - Sale price = selling price – discount amount - GST: goods and services tax of 10% added to selling price - Profit: difference between SP and CP, where SP > CP - Loss: difference between SP and CP where SP < CP	Go over the purple notes Go through worked examples 24 and 25, and get students to attempt 2.10: q. 1, 2	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Week 5 Lesson 1	Calculating original prices 2.10	- To calculate mark-ups: Cost Price x (100% + mark up %) equals Selling price; and selling price / (100% + mark up%) equals Cost price. - For discounts: Marked price x (100% - discount %) equals sale price; and sale price / (100% - discount %) equals Marked price.	Go over worked example 26, Get students to complete 2.10: 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 Get students to complete for homework, and make sure books are up to scratch for tomorrow’s marking.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 2	Profit and loss 2.10	- % Profit = (profit in $)/CP x 100%, or (profit in $)/SPx100%; where CP = cost price and SP = selling price. - Replace ‘profit’ with ‘loss’ in these formulas to calculate the percentage loss.	Go over purple notes page 121 and worked example 27 Get students to complete 2.10: Questions 4, 5, 11, 12 Get students to start making up their help-sheet for next weeks’ test Get students to complete ‘outside the square – the plummeting price’ as a mini assignment and work on this for homework	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Paper for help-sheets - Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 4	Chapter review	- Recapping what we have learnt during this unit	Give students the first half of this lesson to complete their mini assignments to hand up. Complete d.i.y. summary as a class. Homework: get students to complete Chapter review questions 1, 2, 3, 4	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 5	Chapter review	- Recapping what we have learnt during this unit	Get students to complete chapter review 5 - 9	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Week 6, Lesson 1	Chapter Review	- Recapping what we have learnt during this unit	Get students to complete chapter review 10 – 19 during lesson and for homework	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday)	- Whiteboard - Pearson Textbook
Lesson 2	Addressing issues, revision, help-sheets	- Addressing any issues students may have.	This lesson will be spent addressing any issues that students may have before their summative test tomorrow. Help-sheets are also to be finalised during this time, if they have not already.	- Formative assessment: Question and answer based discussion - Formative assessment: Pearson Textbook questions (to be checked every Tuesday) - Formative assessment: Checking students’ help-sheets	- Paper for help-sheets
Lesson 3	Summative test – fractions, decimals and percentages	- Summative test – fractions, decimals and percentages	Summative test – fractions, decimals and percentages	- Summative Test: Fractions, Decimals & Percentages	- Summative test – Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
Lesson 4	Crazy Blazey gameshow – fractions decimals and percentages	- Recapping all that we have learnt throughout this unit.	A ‘Crazy Blazey’ gameshow is an activity that I previously developed whilst on my last practicum. I create an interactive gameshow like quiz, providing students with a mini whiteboard each. The first person to answer the question, by writing their answer on the mini whiteboard and raising it in the air gets 2 points, any remaining correct answers get 1 point. The winner will receive a prize, (choice of eraser, pen, etc).	- Formative assessment – testing students through a fun, interactive game-show activity.	- Computer - Projector - PowerPoint - Mini whiteboards and markers - Prizes