Purpose of the assessment task
Description of the assessment task
Your assessment response needs to include the following:
Section 1 – The micro teaching lesson plan
Using the template below, develop a lesson plan for your 20-minute micro teaching lesson. Each section of the lesson plan is explained in detail following the template. Time will be provided during tutorials in the course to complete the micro teaching lesson plan.
- Context
Provide a brief description of your ‘students’. Your peers will act as your ‘students’ for the purpose of the micro teaching session.
Provide a brief description of the prior knowledge and skills (if any) that the students might have about the topic that you will teach and the classroom setting that is required for your micro teach session (i.e. facilities, space, seating arrangements for the lesson).
- Curriculum Links
You will focus on one area of knowledge and understanding drawn from Year 7, 8, 9 or 10
of the Civics and Citizenship or Economics and Business learning areas in the Victorian
Curriculum. As an example, it might be ‘Explain why and describe how people manage financial risks and rewards in the current Australian and global financial landscape’, which is one area of knowledge and understanding in Year 9 and 10 in the ‘Consumer and Financial Literacy’ strand of the Economics and Business curriculum.
The areas of focus for your lesson will be related to one of the following strands from the Civics and Citizenship or Economics and Business areas of the Victorian Curriculum:
- Government and Democracy
- Laws and Citizens
- Resource allocation and making choices
- The business environment
- Consumer and financial literacy
- Work and work futures
- Enterprising behaviours and capabilities
- Reasoning and interpretation
Be sure to reference the Victorian Curriculum in the Appendix.
In your Curriculum Links section, note which aspect of key knowledge in VCE Accounting, VCE Business Management, VCE Economics or VCE Legal Studies relates to the curriculum area that you have chosen in Year 7 to 10. This will help to demonstrate students’ developmental progression as they move from the middle years of schooling into their senior years of schooling.
- Student Learning Outcome(s)
The outcomes should state what you want your learners to achieve in terms of their knowledge, understanding or skill during the micro teaching session. Refer to the Victorian Curriculum Achievement Standard for the year levels that you have chosen as your focus (e.g. Year 9 and 10 Achievement Standard for Economics and Business) to support you to identify appropriate student learning outcomes.
Limit the number of outcomes to no more than two learning outcomes.
Student Success Criteria
It is important to consider how you will know whether your learners have achieved the learning outcome(s) that you want them to achieve. The student success criteria is a description of what the students will say, make, do or write to demonstrate to you as the teacher that they have met the learning outcomes that you have set. For example, if a student learning outcome is to be able to define key subject terms used in a topic, your success criteria might be that a student accurately recalls and writes down the definitions of certain subject specific terms in their own words.
- Teacher Learning Outcome(s)
The outcomes should state what you want to achieve as a teacher in terms of your knowledge, understanding or skills during the micro teaching session.
Some examples of learning outcomes might be to:
- check if my explanation of the topic/concept has been understood by the students
- engage the learners’ interest in the topic at the beginning of the lesson
- manage the timing of the lesson effectively
- summarise the key idea taught in the lesson conclusion
Limit the number of outcomes to no more than two learning outcomes.
Teacher Success Criteria
It is important to consider how you will know whether you have achieved the learning outcome(s) that you want to achieve. The teacher success criteria is a description of what you as the teacher will say, make, do or write to demonstrate that you have met the learning outcomes that you have set for yourself. For example, if a teacher learning outcome is to manage the timing of your lesson delivery, your success criteria might be completing the teaching of your lesson introduction, body of your lesson and lesson conclusion within a minute of the times that you have estimated in your lesson plan.
- Teaching Resources
List the resources (e.g. texts, audiovisual sources, websites, handouts, etc.) that you will use in the micro teaching session. Be sure to reference any published resources that you are using in the Appendix.
- Teaching Methodology
Describe the activity (or activities) that you will implement during the micro teaching session to help both the learners, and you, to achieve the stated learning outcomes. It is important to keep in mind that twenty minutes is a relatively short period of time, so it might be best to focus on short activities and limit the number you include in your teaching methodology. Make sure that you concentrate on describing what the teacher and students will do, say, make or write rather than describing what content you will be teaching.
The stages of the activity or activities that you choose should follow a logical sequence. For instance, before you ask students to complete questions on a case study, you might introduce the context of the case study (who it involves, how it relates to the topic, etc.) and define key vocabulary that the case study will refer to that students might not be familiar with.
- Assessment for Teaching
It is important to check whether learning outcomes are being met so that instruction can be modified to cater for the diverse needs and capabilities of your learners. We will consider assessment in more depth later in the course. At this stage, you only need to list the evidence that you will collect to check if students (and you) have met the stated learning outcomes. This will act as a prompt to remind you to collect this evidence when you complete the evaluation section of this assessment task.
Examples of assessment evidence that teacher use might include:
- Written responses by individual, or groups of, students (e.g. completed handout)
- Spoken responses by individual students (e.g. to questions posed by the teacher)
- Diagrams drawn by students in response to what you’ve taught (e.g. mind map; flowchart)
- An item created by students (e.g. a product)
- Observation of student behaviour (e.g. asking questions about the topic; participating in group discussion; listening actively to others; completing set tasks).
Section 2 – Rationale
Justify the choices that you have made in your lesson plan with respect to:
- The teaching resources that you have chosen. Questions that might help prompt your thinking include:
- Why did you decide to use the particular resource(s) that you did for the learners that you are teaching, i.e. the year level that you are teaching or the topic/concept that you are teaching?
- Is the resource that you’ve chosen more suitable for a certain stage of learner development (e.g. more appropriate for lower secondary than upper secondary)? Why?
- Is the resource that you’ve chosen better able to support students with certain literacy needs? In what way?
- The teaching methodology that you have chosen. Questions that might help prompt your thinking include:
- Why did you sequence the stages of a particular learning activity in the way that you did?
- Does the methodology that you’ve chosen cater for specific learner requirements or needs? If so, how?
- Does the approach that you’ve chosen suit this particular classroom environment more than another approach that you might have taken?
- The assessment that you have chosen. Questions that might help prompt your thinking include:
- How does the assessment chosen help you to evaluate what students have learned?
- Why did you choose a particular type of assessment (e.g. quiz, handout, oral responses, etc.) as evidence of what students have learned rather than another type of assessment? You might consider available time, resources required, what topic you are teaching, the students that you are teaching, etc.
Make reference to appropriate literature and/or course materials in your rationale.
Section 3 – The micro teaching lesson
During the micro teaching lesson, you will teach the class using the lesson plan that you have developed as your guide. Your peers will act as students for your micro teaching session.
You will need to send a copy of your micro teaching lesson plan to me two days prior to the micro teaching session for distribution to your peers. This will allow your peers to understand the key elements of your micro teaching lesson plan before it is taught.
Your peers will complete an evaluation of your micro teaching lesson plan and your teaching. This evaluation will consider:
- the effectiveness of your teaching resources and teaching methodology in achieving the learning outcomes set for the students and the teacher.
- the effectiveness with which the lesson was taught.
Peer Evaluation
You will have an opportunity to discuss feedback on your micro teaching lesson plan and how you taught the lesson with your peers and tutor.
| Level | Criteria | Score |
| Level 1 (1, 2 or 3) | Evidence of the teaching practice of the PST from feedback, assessment evidence and reflection demonstrate limited organisation and management of learning activities, resources and assessment approaches. Expectations and instructions to learners might be mentioned. Learning activities on the chosen Business Studies content, and their associated resources, are outlined to learners. The resources used are related to the learning activities. The lesson might include time for reflection and evaluation. Pacing, timing and sequencing of the micro teaching is very inconsistent with lesson plan. | |
| Level 2 (4, 5 or 6) | Evidence of the teaching practice of the PST from feedback, assessment evidence and reflection demonstrate some organisation and management of learning activities, resources and assessment approaches. Expectations and instructions to learners are outlined at points in the lesson. Learning activities on the chosen Business Studies content, and their associated resources, are described to learners and elicit some level of engagement and participation from a small number of observers of the lesson. Use of the resources enable learners to show their developing knowledge and/or skills that are the focus of the learning activity. The lesson includes time for reflection and evaluation about what has been learned from the lesson broadly. Pacing, timing and sequencing of the micro teaching shows some connection to the lesson plan. | |
| Level 3 (7 or 8) | Evidence of the teaching practice of the PST from feedback, assessment evidence and reflection demonstrate strong organisation and management of learning activities, resources and assessment approaches. Expectations and instructions are clearly expressed to middle school learners throughout appropriate points in the lesson. Targeted middle school focused learning activities on the chosen Business Studies content, and their associated resources, are explained to learners and elicit a strong level of engagement and participation from some observers of the lesson. Use of the targeted middle school focused resources enable diverse learners to show their developing knowledge and/or skills that are the explicitly outlined focus of the learning activity. The lesson includes time for learner reflection and evaluation about the knowledge, understanding or skills that they have learned in the lesson. Pacing, timing and sequencing of the micro teaching shows strong connection to the lesson plan. | |
| Level 4 (9 or 10) | Evidence of the teaching practice of the PST from feedback, assessment evidence and reflection demonstrate highly proficient organisation and management of learning activities, resources and assessment approaches. Expectations and instructions are clearly and explicitly articulated to the profiled middle school learners throughout the lesson. Strategically targeted middle school focused learning activities on the chosen Business Studies content, and their associated resources, are explained and modelled appropriately to learners and elicit a consistently high level of engagement and participation from most/all observers of the lesson. Use of the targeted middle school focused resources enable the diverse profiled learners to access, and show, their developing knowledge and/or skills that are explicitly explained focus of the learning activity. The lesson includes time for learner critical reflection and evaluation about the knowledge, understanding and/or skills that they have developed as a result of the learning activities, resources or teaching employed in the lesson. Pacing, timing and sequencing of the micro teaching is closely aligned with the lesson plan. | |
| Comments: |
Section 4 – Evaluation
Using the assessment evidence that you have identified and collected; peer feedback; tutor feedback and your own self- reflection, evaluate the:
- Cohesiveness of your micro teaching lesson plan – Discuss whether your chosen teaching resources and methodology enabled you to achieve the student and teacher learning outcomes in your micro teaching lesson plan. If so, why? If not, how could your micro teaching lesson plan have been improved?
AND
- Effectiveness of your teaching – Discuss how effectively you engaged, communicated and interacted with the ‘students’. You might wish to consider aspects such as your use of verbal (e.g. written instructions; spoken explanations); use of non-verbal communication (e.g. body language) and use of resources (e.g. reference to written materials). Based on the evidence and feedback, discuss how you would improve your teaching practice to better address the learning outcomes that you set for your students and yourself in this micro teaching session.
AND
- Teaching in general – What are you learning about lesson planning? What did you learn from the process of receiving feedback from others? What are you learning about assessment and data analysis? What impact will this experience have on your future teaching and lesson planning?
Provide specific examples of evidence from the micro teaching session (i.e. direct quotes from comments made by peers or your tutor in relation to your teaching or something that a student might have written on a handout for your lesson, for instance) and appropriate literature and/or course materials to support your evaluation.
Section 5 – Appendix
APA referencing should be used for all sources used in your assessment response. Peer evaluations and tutor feedback need to be included in the Appendix.