Investigating the context for learning

Simone Brock 2181707

School Context

Located close to the city centre, Adelaide High School is situated in an established socio-economic
area, and has a school ICSEA value of 1083 (ACARA, 2019). The school has a population of 1475
students from year eight to twelve (ACARA, 2019). The school is fortunate to be in close proximity to
valuable resources including SA Museum, TAFE and University campuses, the Art Gallery,
parliament house, the West End cultural precinct, and the parklands. The school is culturally diverse,
with 49% of students in Adelaide High School having a language background other than English, and
3% of students are from Indigenous backgrounds (ACARA, 2019). Cultural diversity is celebrated in
Adelaide High School and viewed as a strength, and there is an emphasis on intercultural
understandings being taught and encouraged, as I have been especially positioned to observe in
various language classes. These intercultural understandings are also promoted through interaction
with sister schools in a variety of locations, and through overseas study tours. This respect for cultural
diversity and high regard of being multilingual is reflected in the fact that offering seven languages,
Adelaide High School is South Australia’s only special interest language school.

Resources:

All students have a laptop, access to the internet and a bilingual dictionary to support their learning. In
addition, the Spanish Viva Text Book is used as a valuable resource to support student learning in
years eight and nine. The classrooms are well equipped with a smart board which can be connected to
laptops for presentations. There is also a large study area in the language learning centre for students
to use during lunch time or their free periods, or for use when doing small group work or helping
individual students.

There is a wealth of resources available for online teaching. Some that I have identified to include in
my online lessons are:

 Padlet

 Kahoot

 Microsoft Teams

 Youtube

Students’ characteristics and development

Through observation and discussion with my mentor teacher, I have identified that students in my
class have a range of physical, social, cultural and intellectual characteristics that may affect their
learning. There are one to two students with Indigenous backgrounds in all of my year eight and nine
classes. As outlined on daymap, one of these students has access to additional support from other
specified teachers to assist with literacy, as well as external support structures which are in place.
There are several students in my classes who have English as a second language as well as two
international students which will need extra support with their literacy learning. An intercultural
approach to teaching Spanish also provides ample opportunity to engage a variety of cultures in the
learning process through making comparisons and positioning students to recognise own cultural
practices and those of others. There is also a student in one of my year eight classes who has been
identified as being behind regarding his social development, particularly in regards to communicating
and interacting with others. Flexible grouping may assist with this as well as providing him with

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differentiated tasks when needed. The activities in the Spanish class have involved a range of
independent, partnered and group work. The classroom has a welcoming environment and I have
observed students interacting in a positive manner through discussion and group work with minimal
conflict. Students are generally on task. In the year nine class there is a group of extroverted students
which often become noisier and may distract others. I have also noticed that students with English as
a second language often do not approach the teacher to ask questions if they are stuck.

Year nines have been learning Spanish for one year prior to this term. They are learning how to
conjugate verbs preterite and present tense, however this will need to be implemented in my units as
they are complex grammar structures that students are still learning to use. I will also introduce
students to the near future tense using the verb ‘ir’. All students have been exposed to vocabulary
around greetings, times, days, weeks months etc which will be useful for the unit I am teaching on
Sobremesa (At the table). Year eights have begun their Spanish studies this term, learning the basic
structures of the Spanish language. This involves how to introduce themselves, and vocabulary
surrounding numbers, colours and days of the week. Students have also been introduced to the parts
of speech including nouns, verbs, articles and genre. This will all be revised in my unit of work as
language learning involves repetition and memorisation. In addition, students undertook an
investigation this term on one aspect of Spanish culture of choice, such as festivals, food or fashion. I
will use students prior grammatical knowledge to begin teaching verb conjugation in the present tense
of regular and irregular verbs in my unit plan.

To identify prior knowledge and learning strengths and weaknesses I will implement preassessment
tasks at the beginning of my teaching block such as a Kahoot quiz or informal test which will be used
to inform differentiation and to modify my lesson plans if needed. Guided class discussions will also
be used when introducing new content to determine prior knowledge. Due to the very low attendance
during the lead in days which meant I was unable to observe classes as much as I would have liked,
discussions with my mentor teacher have also been useful in identifying the individual strengths and
weaknesses of students.

Student data is available officially on the site daymap. I do not have access to daymap however my
mentor teacher has shared this data with me through discussion to aid me with how I will differentiate
for the students in my classes. There is a student in one of my year nine classes with a disability who
has an access plan which I have discussed with my mentor teacher.

Lesson Planning

Throughout my six week teaching block I will be teaching the subject of Spanish to two year nine and
two year eight classes.

I have discussed plans with my mentor teacher to teach a unit on free time to year eights. The teaching
sequence will begin with conjugating regular ER , IR and AR Verbs in the present tense and
conjugating verbs ser and estar to talk about self. Students will then learn how to use the irregular
verb gustar to express information about personal worlds, particularly likes and dislikes. Next,
communicating and interacting using interrogatives and commonly used irregular verbs to express
information about personal hobbies and leisure activities will be explored .

There will be two summative assessment tasks for the year eight classes including:

1. Todo Sobre Mi (all about me)

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Students create a magazine in the present tense surrounding their hobbies, leisure activities and time
spent with family/friends. Students will include regular and irregular verbs in their magazine, as well
as verbs like gustar (to like).

This summative task will be introduced in week three of the six week teaching block, and will be
assessed and reported at the beginning of week four.

2. Weather presentation
Students create a video on presenting the weather in a Spanish city of their choice using the present
tense, vocabulary surrounding numbers, times and weather.

This summative task will be introduced at the end of week four, and assessed and reported at the
beginning of week six.

In the year nine classes, I will begin by teaching a 3 week unit called ‘todo sobre mi’ (all about me)
followed by a 3 week unit on food and being at the table.

There will be two summative tasks for the year nine class including:

1. Students will create a powerpoint with a voice over about themselves using the present and
preterite tense, and do a voice over recording.

Students will include:

 Their hobbies/pass times in the present tense
 What music, sports, tv shows, games they like/love and provide reasons why
 Describe a significant past event/holiday they went on, who they went with and what they did

2. Students make a bilingual brochure for a Spanish speaking audience

 Inform the audience on South Australia’s bush tucker food (50 words)
 Include experiences local to south Australia on bush tucker food such as restaurants or
walking trails in urban or rural areas. Inform the audience on what bush tucker is (50 words)
 Use the present tense and appropriate register/tone using usted. Students use connectives:
donde, pero, Tambien, ademas
 Section comparing food in traditional food in Mexico to Indigenous food in Australia.
Students select a food, describe the food and what it is used for, recipes that can involve the
food, compare its origins/influences, where it is found (100 words)

Codes of Conduct

All students receive a student code of conduct which they must agree to at the beginning of the year in
their diaries which surrounds rights, responsibilities and expectations surrounding the areas of
wellbeing, learning and culture.

Ethical considerations

As discussed with my mentor teacher, as Adelaide High School is a highly multicultural school, in the
context of the Spanish classroom it is important to be aware of the variety of religious backgrounds
students may have. For example, when teaching units of work which involve Spain’s especially

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catholic culture, foods eaten and the various festivals surrounding Christmas time it is important to
allow students to also share their own cultural experiences and religious festivities with the class to
acknowledge and respect the diversity of perspectives and interests in the classroom. In the context of
online learning, an ethically challenging situation may also be video conferencing a student one on
one. To overcome this, one on one video conferencing should be purposeful, undertaken in normal
working hours and in a public/visible area, and achieved in a concise manner with parent consent.

Student Wellbeing

Adelaide high school strongly values the wellbeing of students and promotes the school values of
respect, resilience and optimism. To promote wellbeing, the school is divided into four houses
including Adey (red house), Macghey (blue house), West (yellow house) and Morriss (green house),
which have a student leadership team to serve as role models. Each year there is a competition for the
SJ Dowdy House Cup which includes events that involve all students striving to achieve their best for
their houses, giving them a sense of belonging and responsibility. I was able to observe this during the
swimming carnival assembly, and the extensive participation and excitement from all students was
evident in almost everyone putting up their hands to compete in the various events. Counselling is
also offered to students by wellbeing leaders, the principle leadership team and house managers. In
term one, pastoral care regularly involved activities centred on student wellbeing which I observed in
my mentor teacher’s year twelve homegroup. Adelaide high school offers a range of co-curricular
activities to support student wellbeing, by encouraging social, intellectual and physical development.

Classroom Context

What is the ratio of boys/girls in your class?

Year eight class one: 17 students 6 boys, 11 girls

Year eight class two: 20 students, 9 boys, 11 girls

Year nine class one: 20 students, 9 boys, 11 girls

Year nine class two: 24 students, 16 boys, 8 girls

What is the cultural diversity of students in your class?

Year eight class one:

 Diverse range of cultural backgrounds in the classroom, including students who are French,
Polish, Arabic, Mexican, Serbian and Vietnamese.
 One student with an Indigenous background.
 One student has English as a second language.

Year eight class two:

 one student is Greek, one student is Brazilian.

Year nine classes:

 One student from a French background.

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 Students from Indigenous backgrounds

Languages:

According to the My School website, 49% of the students enrolled at the school have a language
background other than English (ACARA, 2019). Moreover, due to being a specialist language school
this means that all students are committed to studying either one or two languages at the school for a
period of time.

In my classes especially, I have identified the variety of languages which my students speak or are
currently learning at the school:

Year eight class one: French, Serbian, Vietnamese, Arabic

Year eight class two: Greek, Hebrew, Portugese, German

Year nine class: French and Arabic

Teaching Strategies

As I have identified several international students and students with English as a second language in
my classes I will implement a range of strategies to cater for these. To meet these needs I can use
glossaries, explanations of terms/words, simpler vocabulary, conjugation charts and scaffolded
questions/tasks. ICT can also be used in the form of online dictionaries and translators. Students have
varying levels of readiness and interests in the classes I will be teaching. I will use the differentiation
strategy of tiering tasks by readiness and also providing choice in assignments to cater for student
interests. I will also use flexible grouping, by pairing or grouping students intentionally according to
their readiness levels, interests, strengths or learning preferences. For the student with severe language
developmental disorder, tasks will need to be scaffolded and differentiated, and vocabulary will need
to be introduced slowly. I will also need to set aside time in lessons to explicitly teach him one on one
and check in with his progress. Teaching strategies will also be used to meet the needs of the
Indigenous students in my classes. For example, these may include evidence based teaching strategies
such as modelling, allowing students opportunities to learn by doing, implementing collaborative
learning/group work to encourage risk taking and mistake making, directing questions to the entire
class rather than an individual or using think/pair/share (Harrison, 2012). I will discuss this further
with the Aboriginal education officer in the school.

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References:

Harrison, N. (2012). Teaching and learning in aboriginal education. Retrieved from

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.flinders.edu.au