Pre-assessment of Individual Student Readiness

At the beginning of our first lesson on this unit of work (last lesson), I provided my students with a poetry pre-
assessment task (see appendix 2) to gauge students levels of readiness on the topic and to allocate their new
seats accordingly for the week (see appendix 3). This task asked students to define the word poetry, provide any
information they already know, provide a list of poetic literary devices and examples of a poem or literary
devices. From there, the students were group together in three groups signified by traffic light colours.

Group Green Low level of readiness. Students struggled to complete the pre-assessment with little or no
responses.
Group Yellow Medium level of readiness. Students had a good understanding and were able to answer most
of the questions with at least one answer from the pre-assessment.
Group Red High level of readiness. Students demonstrated a strong understanding of the pre-assessment and
responded with numerous answers/examples.

Please take note that another pre-assessment was taken at the beginning of the year to identify individual
students interests (see appendix 1). This provided me with an understanding of how poetry was viewed by my
students and take the approach of having a lesson based on appreciating poetry if needed as students interest is
very crucial to student engagement and motivation (Jarvis, 2016, pg 161)

Lesson Plan
Time Lesson Sequence Explanatory notes
11:00am Allow time for students to Students to find new seats according to the seating plan on the
start come into class & take whiteboard (see appendix 3).
3 mins their allocated seats.

Quickwrite task. This Quickwrite task aims to enable students to reflect upon our last
3 mins Prompt students with: lesson and provide a recap on what was discussed, also preparing
What did we go through them for todays lesson.
last lesson? List at least 3
objectives.
(Teacher will take role
during this time.)
A short class discussion based on students answers enlighten those
2-3 mins
Short class discussion on who were away or may have forgotten something and ensures all
students answers. students are on the same page of where the class is it (Hattie, 2012,
pg 123)
 Introduce new unit The concept of common poetic literary devices will be introduced
component of literary and the process of the tiered formative task will be explained. Each
4 mins devices in poetry and group will be allocated a task sheet based on their groups (levels of
provide groups with readiness) where each task sheet gets a little bit more advanced than
tiered tasks (see the last.
appendix 5,6,7).
25 mins
Allow students to work By encouraging students to work in groups, students are provided
in their groups to with the opportunity to work interact with peers and new people
communicate ideas and face-to-face which is valued in the year 8 Australian Curriculum
complete their tasks. (2017). Each group/task is structured slightly differently. However,
(Teacher is to float the red group is the only group to have the option to work
around classroom and individually if they wish as their task requires individual responses
participate in each group) (see below for more information regarding the tiered task as a
whole).
10 mins
Bring task back into a The teacher than draws the task into a structured class discussion
structured class where each group take turns in presenting what they found. As each
discussion. Students to task is a little more advance, each group should have new
present in their findings information to expand on. This activity opens students up to new
in a groups and then ideas and perspectives and can reaffirm their original thoughts
have a whole class (Hattie, 2012, pg 123). After each group has presented, the teacher
discussion on: why will stimulate a class discussion and engage students to think
might a poet use these critically about why a poet might use these literary devices (which
literary devices? What do is also preparing them for their next lesson & their upcoming
they do to the reader? formative assessment see appendix 9).

5 mins Exit Card task. To close the lesson, students are to complete an exit card. This can

(see appendix 8) also be seen as their ticket out the door which is very encouraging
for student to complete. This exit card is adapted from Edward
DeBonos work PMI (1983), where students need to state what they
thought was a positive, negative and interesting point of todays
lesson.

Allow time for class pack

2 mins up.
 11:55am *If this class runs ahead of time, there is a backup task available
finish (see appendix 7). This task allows students to practice identifying
literary devices in poems.
Lesson Closure/ Check for Understanding
In closure of my lesson, students are required to have completed the tiered worksheet, demonstrate their
findings/understandings to the rest of the class in their groups and participate in a class discussion. As each group
gets more and more advanced, the first group to present their findings to the class will be the green group. The
green group should begin by explaining the dictionary definitions of poetic literary devices and how they came
to this conclusion in their tier of the task (how they had to match up the cut out pieces). The yellow group should
then expand on this by contributing their own definitions of these literary devices and their researched examples;
and lastly, the red group should then further expand on this with new/different literary devices, their own
definitions of these and their very own examples of them.

To further encourage student critical thinking, the teacher will then ask students as a class why they think a poet
may use each literary device. Although this discussion is heading in a slightly different direction, it still enables
the teacher to gauge students understanding based on what they learnt today and the depth of their responses.

In addition to this, it is possible for the teacher to check for students understanding through the lessons exit card
(see appendix 8) where the students are encouraged to write a plus, minus and interesting point from todays
lesson (adapted from Edward DeBonos work). Through this students can potentially write what they
learnt/didnt learn/like/didnt like/etc.

Appendix 2
Beginning of the poetry unit pre-assessment Entry Card - identifying students level of readiness

Appendix 3
Seating Plan (example)
Appendix 4
Lesson Task Green Group (low level of readiness)
Part A:
Part B (cut out pieces):

Appendix 5
Lesson Task Yellow Group (medium level of readiness)
Appendix 6
Lesson Task - Red Group (high level of readiness)