Teaching Evaluation- Critical

Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

YEAR 10 ENGLISH

WEEK 2

MAY 8 TH , MONDAY COURTING VIA TEXT MESSAGE: ROMEO AND JULIET

(LESSON 1)
Today was my first experience of teaching a secondary English class. I was particularly
nervous, and I believe this was evident through the way that I approached the lesson and
delivered quick instruction (3.5, 3.6, 4.2, and 6.1). At the beginning of the class, there
were a few students distracted by their electronic devices (2.6, 4.2, and 4.5). Although it
was clear that they were not paying attention, I decided to progress on and introduce
myself formally to the students, however, my mentor teacher suggested that in the
future, it is essential to wait for all of the students full attention and set my expectations
immediately (3.1, 3.3, 3.5, 4.2). Additionally, due to my shallow voice (3.5, 6.1), I found it
quite difficult to grasp the attention the entire student body. My mentor teacher
suggested that I could have employed strategies (other than raising my voice) such as
turning the lights out when using the smartboard, to draw students attention (3.3, 3.6,
6.2, and 6.3). My mentor noted that my movement throughout the classroom as the
students worked on their activities was effective, as some stunts were able to seek
guidance in a more approachable manner (3.3,4,4), however, I could have improved my
students engagement by asking clearly defined questions (3.5, 4.1, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6.3,
6.4). Furthermore, reading the entire prologue of Romeo and Juliet would have deepened
students understandings and provided a contextual framework for the exercise (2.1, 2.2,
2.3, 3.2, 3.6, and 4.2).

Due to my rushed instruction at the beginning of the class, I found that some students
were quite unsure about what was required of them. Although I gained students
attention again through raising my voice above the classroom chatter (3.3, 4.2, 4.3), I
should have slowed my instruction from the beginning (3.6, 6.1, 6.2) in order to engage
the class immediately and remove the potential for challenging and off-task behaviour to
arise (3.3, 3.5, 4.3). Gaining students immediate attention could have also been
improved through the use of an inciting hook activity rather than monotonous instruction
(1.2, 3.3, 3.6, 6.3, and 6.4) which could have improved students immediate
engagement. I am pleased, however, with the level of engagement that students
achieved throughout the lesson, and the activity itself appealed to the interests of the
whole class as text message language is a more welcoming approach to interpreting
Elizabethan English (1.2, 1.5, 1.6, 2.2, 2.5, 2.6, and 3.1). This experience demonstrated
the importance of effectively timing the lesson sequence and setting learning goals for
each session that are engaging, attainable and motivating (2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.6,
Standard 6). As I increase my professional knowledge through practice, I hope to gain a
better understanding of how much content students will progress through in one session
(2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, 4.2, and 6.4). When debriefing with my mentor, he discussed the
importance of linking the content of the lesson to the goals of the unit as he
recommended that students frequently require the context for the purpose of a learning
activity (2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.5, and 4.1). Doing so establishes strategies for creating a
safe learning environment which prevents students from feeling threatened by
invariables and delivers the guidelines for assessing whether students have attained
Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

what is required of them (3.3, 4.1, 4.2, 4.4, Standard 5). This could have been achieved if
I stated:

This activity will help you better understand the plot of Shakespeares Romeo
and Juliet as well as grasp some of the difficult language for when you come to
complete your summative essay in the next few weeks and for your end of term
exam.

Reassuring students of the relevance would have encouraged their engagement

throughout the lesson and potentially prevented some distraction (2.1, 2.2, 2.5, 3.2, 3.6,
4.1, 4.2, and 4.3).

MAY 9TH, TUESDAY- MODERN SCRIPT: ROMEO AND JULIET (LESSON 3)

The year 10 English is the largest class that I have had across my professional
experience so far with a total of 28 students. Whilst I have used various strategies such
as visuals and printed instructions, I have realised that students still require explicit
instruction, repetition and the opportunity to seek further clarification (1.5, 3.5, and 5.1).
I have additionally noticed the importance of slowing my speech and repeating
instruction with differentiated vocabulary to ensure the learning needs of all students are
met (1.5, 3.5, 4.1, and 4.2). Furthermore, I must also make accommodations for student
contribution to my delivery of instruction as the whole student body significantly benefits
from hearing the responses to questions posed by other class-mates (1.2, 1.3, 1.5, 3.3,
3.5). Whilst today I projected my voice above the students at the beginning of the
session, as the students dispersed into their small groups presented a significant
challenge for ensuring all students were on task (4.2, 4.3). I again allowed my
nervousness to impact the speed at which delivered the instruction (3.1, 3.5) and thus,
found some students were confused and not completely motivated (3.5, 3.6, 4.2,
Standard 6).

As I have observed and began teaching in a range of classroom environments, I have

noticed the different dynamic present within each classroom. Through my observations
and discussions with the students, this age group are particularly conscious of the
expectations of their peers; this results in some encouraged to speak during instruction
and others are rather reluctant to contribute their thoughts in front of them (1.1, 3.5, and
4.4). This may also be influenced by the size of the class. I am learning the importance of
considering these factors when planning learning and teaching activities (1.1, 1.2, 3.2,
4.1, and 4.4)

MAY 11TH, THURSDAY- MODERN SCRIPT: ROMEO AND JULIET (LESSONS

1&2)

EVALUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

I planned to set aside this double lesson for students to work collaboratively in their small
groups to practice and perform their scripts as to provide an overview of the plot of
Romeo and Juliet by employing kinaesthetic, collaborative and linguistic strategies (1.1,
1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.5, and 3.2). Although students worked collaboratively and were on task,
they were spread across three zones, making observations quite difficult (4.2, 4.3).
However, having a performance time set at the beginning of the lesson gave students an
attainable goal and time limit to work towards (3.1). As the students performed their
modern scripts, it became apparent that whilst I had outlined the assessment
requirements and developed a task sheet for the students, I should have developed an
assessment rubric to determine students level of achievement and make consistent and
comparable judgments between the differing level of achievements between the groups
(2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 5.2, 5.2, 5.3). Despite this, however, my mentor teacher still provided
me with the opportunity to make comparisons between the groups by having us both
assess each group and score them out of a total of 5 in three areas of overview and
presentation (3.1). Students were assessed by their level of achievement in organisation
and understanding of the text as well as their expression of Shakespeares original
meaning and characters through a contemporary adaptation (2.1, 2.2, and 2.3) (see
below).
Group Overview Presentation
Act 1, Scene 5 3 4
Act 2, Scene 1 2 2
Act 2, Scene 5 2 2
Act 3, Scene 1 1 1
Act 4, Scene 1 5 4
Act 4, Scene 5 5 4
Act 5, Scene 1 3 5

I was therefore, still able to gain experience of assessing student learning by comparing
the performances with their peers and adjusting grades as well as comparing these
assessments with those awarded by my mentor teacher (5.1, 5.3, 6.2, 6.3). I was also
able to provide verbal feedback on their achievements (5.1, 5.2). Despite a few minor
differences, when comparing my grades to those provided by the mentor teacher, were
found quite similar responses (5.3). However, assessment is areas that I aim to
significantly improve in order to structure learning goals and achievement standards both
appropriately challenging and applicable for my students (2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 3.6, Standard 5,
6.1).

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
Throughout the performances, I noticed two groups of students talking and disrupting
others (4.2, 4.3). Despite my attempt at speaking over top of their talking, I moved over
to the group which was successful at quietening the majority of the group (3.3, 3.6, and
6.1). When a few of the students began to talk, I was more comfortable with leaning over
and whispering to them to pay attention rather than raising my voice and disrupting the
performances (3.3., 3.5, 4.3).

PLANNING FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES

Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

Although I was pleased with the level of engagement most students gave to the task,
following concerns at their lacking enthusiasm at the start, the students completed their
scene performances and summaries earlier than I had anticipated (3.2, 3.6, and 4.2).
Whilst this is significantly due to my limited instruction, I believe that students
achievement could have been improved if I set clearer instructions (3.1) and standards
(3.5, 3.6, Standard 6). As the lesson ended earlier than anticipated, my mentor taught
me the importance of having back-up strategies as the time left was not long enough to
begin the next task, so the teacher used a spelling game to engage the students.
Although this worked well, I thought they could have completed a task relevant to Romeo
and Juliet (3.6, 6.3).

MAY 15TH, MONDAY- ROMEO AND JULIET FILM (LESSON 1)

Today, my mentor teacher was absent from school to attend a SACE forum in the city
(Standard 7), therefore, the year 10 class had a relief teacher. Due to the students
assessment schedule, the teacher had structured this week dedicated to watching the
modern adaptation if Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann (1996) (2.2, 2.6, 3.2, 3.4) in
order to write their summative essays (2.1, 2.3). At the beginning of the lesson, I
encouraged the students to take notes throughout the watching of the film in order to
help guide their essays and paused the DVD to focus on specific aspects of the film to
discuss (3.5). However, I could have improved this by providing them with a larger A3-
sized sheet with certain aspects of the film such as costume, characterisation, plot, key
quotes and mise-en-scene for them to record specific examples to include in their essays,
rather than direct questions as the film progressed (2.2, 3.3, 3.6, 6.4).

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
The teacher encouraged me to wait for silence when calling the roll as well as pausing
the film to wait for students full attention (3.3, 3.5, and 4.3). This strategy both asserts
my expectation as well as makes the students accountable for their own actions
interrupting their own time to watch the film rather than straining my voice over top of
them (3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 6.3).

MAY 16TH, TUESDAY- FILM: ROMEO AND JULIET (LESSON 3)

Today, the class continued to watch the film Romeo and Juliet in preparation for their
summative assessments (2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.2, Standard 5).

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
At the beginning of the class, I employed a behaviour management strategy that
included waiting for silence and holding students accountable for their discussion before
allowing to film to start (3.3, 4.3). Doing so encouraged students to quieten quicker as
their peers reinforced the consequence of missing out on watching the film. Furthermore,
this strategy had a far greater impact on the students attention throughout the duration
of the lesson as students were much more engaged with the film, and thus, were less
persuaded to engage in disruptive behaviours (3.3, 4.3).

PLANNING FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

Today I spent some time conferencing with my mentor teacher to plan for the explicit
instruction I will provide to students on Thursday (2.1, 2.2, and 3.2). As I have structured
many group exercises, I am looking forward to being able to engage in more teacher-led
exercises, as highlighted during the first round table meeting (3.6, Standard 6). Doing so,
however, requires the improvement of my own content knowledge of the text through
reading and research (2.1, 2.2, and 2.3). In order to deliver the content clearly and
effectively, I must conduct some research into the key quotes of the play, their
elaborations as well as familiarise myself with the learning outcomes and achievement
standards of the task (Standard 2 and 5). In order to clarify this to students through
smartboard visuals, I am planning on using the PEAR strategy for constructing
paragraphs as well as write some examples of work at standard and below standard to
compare and discuss with students. The teacher also discussed incorporating a Kahoot
Quiz due to the success this strategy has had in the Year 10 History class (3.3, 3.6, and
6.3).

MAY 18TH, THURSDAY- ROMEO AND JULIET (LESSONS 1&2)

EVALUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES AND PERSONAL

ENGAGEMENT
In the first half of the double lesson, students completed watching the film. Following
this, the students engaged with the Kahoot Quiz (Available at:
https://create.kahoot.it/#quiz/18930e21-89fc-4857-9175-c3f211f468a6), which they
enjoyed and responded well to (2.6, 3.3, and 3.4). There was one student who put up an
inappropriate name which I asked them to remove immediately (4.3, 4.4, and 4.5).
Altering the tone of my voice for this instruction successfully communicated the
importance that students follow instruction and respect their class members, of which

they did immediately (3.3, 3.5, 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4).

Next, I
got two
student volunteers to hand out the essay task sheets and key quotes sheets and led
students through a class discussion about their essay structure (2.2, 3.2, 3.3). As the
essay question asks To what extent is Romeo fortunes fool or largely to blame for his
own tragic outcome? I began the discussion by asking what fortunes fool of which a
Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

student offered a response (3.5, 4.1, 5.2). I was pleased with the elaboration that I had
on his answer and the class responded well. I could have improved this and assessed
students understanding (5.1, 5.2) by quizzing them on the meaning a short time after
(3.3, 3.5, 3.6). To elaborate the essay thesis, I used a PowerPoint Presentation (see
resources) to visually demonstrate how students argue to which extent they agree with
the essay question (1.1, 1.2, 1.5, and 3.3). From here I drew the continuum chart on the
whiteboard labelled 1-10 and asked students where they would put their marker on the
continuum and provide explicit examples from the text. This strategy was a useful visual
representation, however, could have been improved by asking students who argued for
one extreme to place their marker on the board and repeating this for other students who
argued for another extreme, rather than asking two students who agreed on the same
opinion (3.6, 6.3, 6.4). Doing so would have improved the cross-discussion (3.5) and
provided a foundation to encourage class debate, ultimately, enriching the depth of
content covered and practice developing the thesis for their essays (3.5, 3.6, and 6.4).

PLANNING FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

In preparation for the learning sequence, I re-read sections of the play and found
important quotations that related to the essay question (2.1, 2.2, and 2.3). I prepared
these quotations and wrote an elaboration for each regarding how it ties in to the plot
and references the essay question. I also wrote myself some teaching notes to guide the
class discussion as pointers for students to elaborate upon (3.3, 3.5, 3.6, 4.1 and
Standard 6). I structured these chronologically on my notes (find attached with lesson
plan and resources- see notes below), however, once the class discussion began and
students were contributing points, these were not in chronological order. Fearing that
students would stop contributing, I followed their discussion, however, this resulted in
myself providing limited elaboration on their points as I was focussed on trying to catch
up with the counter argument on my notes (3.2, 3.6). My mentor teacher noticed this and
reminded me that it is crucial to structure the discussion and elaborate on students
points to serve as a spring-board into further discussion (3.6, 6.3). In future, I will
structure the conversation using more clear guidelines and then be open and more
prepared to discuss this with students without focussing on the notes (4.2). This will also
be improved as I develop and practice delivering the content knowledge more effectively
and confidently (Standard 2, 3.5, 6.1, 6.2, 6.4).This experience identified the importance
of developing my communication to facilitate discussion whilst not controlling it (1.2, 3.5,
3.6, Standard 6).
Teaching Evaluation- Critical
Reflection TCA168389
Hannah Mellier

Furthermore, there were aspects that the stduents discussed where I could have
challenged them to analyse the text deeper (5.2) and extend their application (1.1, 1.2,
1.5, 4.2, 3.5, and 5.2) as well as encourage students to counter their peers arguments
(3.2, 3.5, 3.6. 4.1). This would have further enriched the learning sequence and
strengthened the arguments for the essays and comes through greater understanding of
an individuals needs and abilities (Standard 1, 5.1. 6.1, 6.4). However, my mentor
teacher was impressed by my use of clues in the discussion (3.3, 4.1) and visuals on the
PowerPoint (1.2, 2.6, 3.3, and 3.4). The students asked if they could have the PowerPoint
on their class community files for later reference (2.6, 3.3, and 3.4). Additionally, my
mentor noticed the improved clarity of my slides, providing concise material, listing
expectations and suggesting a brief essay structure for students to apply (1.2, 1.5, 3.2,
3.3, 3.6, and 6.3). He also encouraged the usefulness of the essay planning sheet and
explanation which specifically referred to the visuals on the PowerPoint (1.5, 3.3, 3.4, and
6.4).

BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT
Following the minor incident with the students on the Kahoot screen, the electronic
devices proved to be a source of disruption to students (4.1, 4.2, and 4.5). I progressed
on with the instruction, hoping that they boys would quieten down, however, I learned
through my mentor teacher that it is essential to pause and ensure students full
attention before progressing on to the elaborations. This not only sets the standard and
communicates my expectations of students (3.1), it enables all class members to learn in
an environment without distraction (3.5, 3.6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, Standard 6).