Teaching Mathematics in Primary Contexts 2 (EDUC3720)

Rationale: Lesson planning is at the heart of being an effective teacher. To develop deep conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts, it is often essential to design a series of lessons to provide opportunity for students to develop scope and depth of the content area. 

Task: In this task, you will individually develop a sequence of three lessons for engaging a class in an effective mathematics learning and teaching sequence, using knowledge of effective student learning, content and teaching strategies for the Primary Years (P-6). You will communicate learning goals, plan and evaluate learning experiences, select and use strategies to meet specific learning goals, build awareness of forms of diversity, and plan individual and small group learning tasks to cater for diverse needs. The lesson will demonstrate creativity and initiative.

You will then use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge and research literature to justify your decisions by completing a rationale. The rationale will be assessed according to critical engagement with relevant literature.

In this task, students will develop a sequence of three lessons for engaging students in mathematics. The lesson plans will include a literature-informed rationale that justifies the lesson; highlights the importance of its content and processes for mathematical learning; outlines and justifies the pedagogical approaches, and details the epistemological theoretical framework. Through this task, students will:

• communicate learning goals

• establish learning goals and learning plans

• plan and evaluate learning experiences

• build awareness of policy and procedures

• select and use strategies to meet specific learning goals

• build awareness of the socially, culturally, and historically constructed nature of knowledge

• plan individual and small group learning tasks to cater to diverse needs

• identify a range of teaching strategies for promoting numeracy

• consider the impact of ICT upon numeracy development

• plan small group learning tasks

• build knowledge of evidence-informed theories on mathematics teaching and learning; cater to individual learning needs through development of investigative mathematics lessons

• demonstrate understanding of the characteristics and needs of students in the primary school phase of learning plan and monitor group work; and 

• cater for a range of learning approaches in planning.

This assessment should follow this format:

THE LESSON PLAN

• Introduce the year level and the chosen topic (a few sentences)

• Complete a lesson sequence plan using an agreed format including the following elements.

1. Plan for effective learning and teaching. Ensure your plan:

• Addresses the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics content descriptor/s for an effective mathematics learning and teaching sequence 

• Demonstrates a variety of teaching strategies and activities including some individual and group work

• Notes possible cross-curricular links for numeracy development based on the chosen topic

• Demonstrates knowledge of a range of resources including ICT that engage students in their learning. 

2. Know the content and how to teach it. Ensure your plan:

• Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

• Organises content into an effective learning and teaching sequence

• Uses curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans

• Includes in your teaching strategies ICT applications that expand learning opportunities for students.

3. Know students and how they learn, and how to support inclusive participation. Ensure your plan:

• Demonstrates knowledge of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet three (choose 3) specific learning needs of students 

• Identifies strategies to support inclusive participation and engagement in classroom activities.

4. Assess student learning

• Includes formative assessments with success criteria for feedback that would allow for consistent and comparable judgements of student learning within the class and across year level cohorts.

THE RATIONALE

In your planning, you had to make many professional decisions. In this section, you must demonstrate research informed knowledge and understanding of how your decisions help students learn and the implications for teaching. Take the important aspects of your plan and use them as subheadings as listed in Part 1 above (approx. 1000 words).

Criteria

You will be assessed on your ability to:

• Design teaching and learning sequences using knowledge of student learning, content, and effective teaching strategies

• Implement teaching strategies that incorporate ICT and cross-curricular links to expand student learning opportunities

• Select and use a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of differentiation strategies to meet student learning needs/abilities

• Demonstrate understanding of a range of assessment strategies and purposes (e.g., informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative)

• Select and use literature to justify teaching decisions

• Demonstrate communication including written and visual representations skills consistent with personal, professional and academic conventions in traditional and digital texts.

Submission

You must submit the assessment electronically via the assignment link on the course website. By submitting your assignment, you are certifying that it is your original work and that is has not been previously submitted for assessment in any other course at university (unless resubmission is part of the requirements for the course assessment). You need to ensure you have completed UQ’s academic integrity module before you submit your assignment. The module can be found at: https://www.uq.edu.au/integrity. Always keep a copy of your submitted assignment.

Rationale: As an early career teacher, you will discuss your planning with more experienced teaching partners or coaches. This presentation will be an opportunity to practice engaging in an authentic and valuable aspect of the planning process. It will also serve as an opportunity to receive formal feedback on your final unit plan and rationale. 

Task

This will be a short oral presentation (15 minutes) where your group will: 

• Explain how the analysed data informed the selection of a mathematical focus

• Explain how ideas taken from the literature informed your planning

• Explain the design and sequencing of lessons across the unit

• Explain the alignment of the summative assessment task and marking rubric

A slide template will be provided to you. These presentations will be run in tutorial sessions. While you might have some prepared explanations, the discussion will largely include informal questioning and discussion between you and your tutor.  

Important information about group work

You will receive a single group mark for this task, as all group members should contribute equally to the design and delivery of the assessment task. However, exceptions can be made in the event of one or more group members engaging in ‘social loafing’ (also known as ‘free-riding’):

Free riding is a form of social loafing seen in a group when one or more members slacks off and ‘rides’ on the extra efforts of their co-workers (Walker & Angelo, 1998).

If your small group is experiencing dysfunction, including ‘social loafing’ by one or more members, it is your responsibility to bring this promptly to the attention of your tutor / course coordinator, who will then support the group to resolve the problems in a respectful way. If no resolution can be found, the tutor / course coordinator can take steps including:

• Removal of the non-contributing student/s from the group and require student/s to complete the task either individually or in another small group with other ‘social loafers’

Rationale: As teachers, you will need to use collect, analyse, and interpret data with respect to your students’ understanding of particular mathematics concepts. Once this data has been analysed, you will plan units of work, lessons, and assessments to provide students with the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of the content as well as to demonstrate what they have learnt. This assessment task is designed to provide preservice teachers with practical opportunities to individually and collaboratively demonstrate how creating a unit of work in mathematics can develop student conceptual understanding. 

Task:

For this task, you are to design a unit of work that promotes students' mathematical understanding and supports numeracy development. 

You will work in pairs to select a class set of data from a particular Year level. This is pre-assessment Mathematics data which links each question and the corresponding students’ responses to a content descriptor in mathematics. You are to analyse this data to determine your students’ strengths and identify concepts in mathematics that need to be taught or consolidated in the future. As a pair, you will need to write a short report of the analysed data, and finalise the report indicating the focus area of mathematics for your unit. 

Your final unit plan, including a summative assessment task, will be submitted in Week 12. For this final part of the assessment you will: 

• Use the QCAA unit plan template and the assessment matrix available through Blackboard. 
• Write a unit rationale in which you and your partner will briefly describe and explain the selection of the mathematical area as well as selection of topic and key concepts for the unit. The rationale will also justify the pedagogical approach, goals for students across the full range of abilities and how teaching strategies are differentiated to meet their specific needs. 
• Work collaboratively to revise your unit plan and develop a powerful teaching and learning sequence from the feedback received in Week 9. This teaching and learning sequence will be set out using the QCAA template. It will demonstrate achievable yet challenging student learning goals, suggested teaching and learning episodes (lessons), possible teaching and learning activities, ways to meet the needs of students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds including Indigenous students, and assessment opportunities (e.g., diagnostic, observation, consultation, peer/self, focused analysis, formative and summative assessment). The document should show logical development for student conceptual development based on your chosen mathematical content area. Relevant high-quality classroom resources (including Information Communication Technology) should be detailed (links to documents or online resources should be included) – all need to be suitably referenced in one alphabetical list at the end of the assignment.
• Develop a culminating unit assessment piece that includes a student task sheet as well as an appropriate standards and criteria sheet. Ensure that the assessment task is designed to assess not only what but also how the unit will be taught (i.e., check alignment across content, concepts, skills, mathematical proficiencies, year-level specific curriculum content descriptors – including elaborations and achievement standards, student learning goals, and all teaching and learning activities). Demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the different purposes and instruments of assessment by including different forms such as diagnostic, observation, consultation, peer/self, focused analysis, formative and summative assessment. 
• Include annotations on a set of six or more research articles from among the relevant literature (i.e., book chapters or journal articles) and/or sources of professional learning to explicitly support planning, teaching and assessment of the different concepts, dispositions, skills and inquiry processes in their unit. These annotations need to specifically evidence research-informed knowledge and understanding of ways to promote the teaching and learning of the mathematical concept. 
• Write an individual personal reflection - a short written critical reflection (500 words maximum) to show how your continued research and professional learning throughout the course developed and changed your thinking and understanding to improve your teaching and student learning in the Mathematics.
• Include a complete reference list using correct APA format that includes all academic references as well as any resources used within the unit (one list).

Important information about group work

You will receive a single group mark for this task, as all group members should contribute equally to the design and delivery of the assessment task. However, exceptions can be made in the event of one or more group members engaging in ‘social loafing’ (also known as ‘free-riding’):

Free riding is a form of social loafing seen in a group when one or more members slacks off and ‘rides’ on the extra efforts of their co-workers (Walker & Angelo, 1998).

If your small group is experiencing dysfunction, including ‘social loafing’ by one or more members, it is your responsibility to bring this promptly to the attention of your tutor / course coordinator, who will then support the group to resolve the problems in a respectful way. If no resolution can be found, the tutor / course coordinator can take steps including:

• Removal of the non-contributing student/s from the group and require student/s to complete the task either individually or in another small group with other ‘social loafers’
• Deducting one grade from the overall group score for non-contributing student/s, as evidenced in the task planner or work log (see criteria sheet).