Assignment 2: Portfolio

102087.88.89
Secondary Curriculum 1 Languages
1714.1 Master of Teaching (Secondary)

Assignment 2:

Portfolio
including unit of work, resources and extended response

by
Denize R. Amor
17010809

To be submitted by 4 October, 11pm

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 Assignment 2: Portfolio

Unit plan
A unit of work you have developed for a stage 4 or 5 class using relevant outcomes, syllabus content, concepts and skills that is supportive of diverse learners and shows evidence of
differentiation and formative assessment.

Pretend High School: Kogarah High School Unit Name: がっこうせいかつ (School Life)
Language Year: Japanese Year 8 (Stage 4) Weeks: Term 1, Weeks 5 – 10
Unit aim
Students will learn how to talk about aspects of their school lives in Japanese - including what grade they are in, classroom items, the subjects they like and dislike, and their school
timetable.
Intercultural understanding
 Students will learn about and learn to use the school and classroom etiquette used within Japanese schools – eg. Bowing to and greeting the teacher at the beginning of class.
 Students will learn about and identify the differences between Japanese school life and Western school life – eg. In Japan, students are responsible for cleaning their school
 Students will learn to draw connections with Japanese school students.
Script
At this stage, students have been introduced to the 46 characters of ひらがな and all modifications on the script, but are still developing confidence and competency in reading and
writing.
Vocabulary and structures
 Vocabulary for classroom expressions – eg. かいてください(Please write), よんでください(Please read), きいてください(Please listen)
 Vocabulary for classroom items – eg. こくばん(whiteboard), ほん(book), えんぴつ(pencil)
 Structures for talking about school subjects which students like and dislike – eg すきなかもくは SUBJECT です。 (SUBJECT is a subject I like)
 Structures for talking about school timetables – eg. NUMBER じかんめは SUBJECT です。(NUMBER period is SUBJECT)
Importance of this learning
Students will develop their understanding for Japanese school life, and identify key cultural differences between school life in Japan and Australia. This will promote intercultural
understanding, acceptance and tolerance. The skills students will learn in this unit will allow them to effectively communicate with similar-aged Japanese school students through a pen-pal
program designed to allow the students to use Japanese to create meaningful relationships which enables them to learn about other peoples’ lives, cultures and routines.
Targeted Syllabus Outcomes
4.UL.1 Students learn to identify the roles of and relationships between participants in text, eg. べんくん、おはよう。せんせい、おはようございます。
4.UL.2 Students learn about the importance of understanding the intention of the author and the context in interpreting meaning
4.UL.2 Students learn about linguistic features of texts, such as descriptions, narratives and correspondence.
4.UL.3 Students learn to produce original text using information and communication technologies.

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4.UL.4 Students learn to plan, draft and edit when constructing own text.
4.UL.4 Students learn to select and incorporate modelled linguistic structures in own structures.
4.MLC.2 Students learn to identify specific characteristics of the language, eg grammatical structures and features, such as time words at the beginning of sentences
4.MBC.2 Students learn to identify actions, and words and phrases in the language that encapsulate aspects of culture, eg removing shoes, entering someone’s house and saying おじゃまし
ます
Assessment
 Informal assessments throughout each lesson, gauging students’ participation and confidence in the learning content as an indication of progression.
 Informal assessment of students’ ability to read and respond to correspondence from a penpal (similar-aged Japanese student)
 Informal assessment of students’ ability to construct a passage comparing and contrasting Japanese school life to their own school lives
 Formal assessment of students’ ability to use information and communication technologies to create a presentation documenting their school routine, including voiceovers in
Japanese.
Literacy: Numeracy ICT Cross-Curriculum Content
Students will learn to construct a letter to a Students will learn about how to say, read Students will have the opportunity to use Literacy skills (reading, writing, language),
penpal, and practice comparing and and write the date and time in Japanese. information and communication technologies math skills (date, time, schedule), social
contrasting to create a presentation (including voiceovers) studies (culture, religion).

Term,
Week, Integrated teaching, learning and assessment activities Resources Assessment Feedback
Lesson
Greeting and addressing the teacher, classroom expressions, days of the week and date: Projector + Informal Immediate
 Students will be advised that they are to address the teacher as “せんせい” during Japanese class, instead Videos + Flash assessment – feedback –
of “Miss” as they address teachers in other subjects. cards + gauge students’ correct students
 Students will be taught two vocabulary words for responding to the class roll: Whiteboard + participation and who are
はい for yes/present, and いません for absent. Markers + confidence. misusing or
T1, W5-6,  A variety of class games and activities will be used to introduce and familiarise students to classroom Handouts/Game incorrectly
L1-L2 expressions. s/activities pronouncing
 Students will be shown a video of a viral video of an American teacher individually greeting each student phrases and
with a personalized handshake and then a video of Japanese students greeting and bowing to their teacher vocabulary.
at the beginning of their class.
 The role of the ‘class leader’ in Japanese schools will be introduced to the students and students will be
advised that a class leader will be chosen at random at the beginning of lesson to lead the greeting.

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 Students will be taught the process for greeting the teacher at the beginning of each lesson, and given the
opportunity to practice.
 A variety of class games and activities will be used to introduce and familiarise students to vocabulary for
days of the week.
 Review how to count (students will have previously learned how to do this when learning to talk about age
in the self-introduction unit). Components of writing the date in Japanese (Year-Month-Date) will be
introduced and students will be advised that they are expected to write the date of all future lessons in
their notebooks.
Handouts + Informal Immediate
 Introduce students to the Japanese schooling system - しょうがっこう(primary school), ちゅうがっこう(junior
Whiteboard + assessment feedback
Markers +
high school)、こうこう(senior high school). Use a variety of class games and activities to familiarize students
Handouts/Game
with this schooling system focusing on how to ask なんねんせいですか。(What year are you in?) and s/activities
responding わたしは＿ねんせいです。(I am in year _).
 A variety of class games and activities will be used to introduce and familiarize students with vocabulary
T1, W5-6,
for school subjects.
L3-L5
 Introduce students to sentence structures which identify subjects they like and dislike:

o XX が[すき/きらい]です。

o [すきな/きらいな]かもくはなんですか。

o いちばん[すきな/きらいな]かもくはなんですか。

 Check your knowledge: Students use devices to scan QR codes revealing passages (written and spoken) QR Code master Informal Immediate
about subjects the writer/speaker likes and dislikes. Students are to record responses in a question sheet sheets + QR assessment feedback
to be discussed and marked during class. reading devices
T1, W7-8,  A variety of class games and activities will be used to introduce and familiarize students with the concept (app available on
L6-L7 of telling the time in Japanese. Students will then be taught how to discuss time in relation to their school smartphones) +
lives – such as がっこうはなんじからなんじまでですか。(From what time and until what time is school?) Whiteboard +
 Introduce vocabulary for talking about students’ timetable – eg. ＿じかんめはなんですか。(What class Markers +
is period __?) Use a variety of games and activities to familiarize students with this schooling system.

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Handouts/Game
s/activities
 Letters from same-aged school students participating in a language exchange penpal program are Japanese
scheduled to arrive in time for this lesson. Students will be allocated a penpal and letters will be Furigana
distributed accordingly. dictionaries +
T1, W7-8,  As a class discuss letters from penpals, focusing on vocabulary and sentence structures which students Whiteboard +
L8 are familiar with and others which students require assistance with. Markers
 Brainstorm possible response topics, focusing on topics already covered in Japanese class (eg. self-
introduction and talking about family which was covered in a previous class, and talking about school
life).
 Students are to show their draft responses for their penpals to the teacher for proof-reading, and Japanese Informal Time-delayed
suggestions for items to add and remove or edit. Furigana assessment feedback as
 Students will have the opportunity to use the computer labs to complete an exercise focused on dictionaries + student
Whiteboard + contributions
Japanese school culture (eg. うわばき(indoor shoes), responsibility of students to clean their schools, じゅ
Markers + will be made via
Computer Lab Padlet.
く(cram school).
T1, W7-8,
L9-L10
 Students will then be put into groups to research different Japanese club activities (eg. いけばな(flower

arrangement), じゅうどう(judo), けんどう(kendo), さどう(tea ceremony), etc.) for the purpose of making

small presentations to promote their clubs at a pretend ぶんかさい(school festival). Students can prepare

posters, powerpoints, role-plays, skits, or other mediums to promote their club activity.
Whiteboard + Informal Immediate
 Hold ぶんかさい(school festival) and have each group present their promotion. At the end, hold a Markers + assessment feedback
T1, W9-10, Handouts/Game
discussion about which clubs students want to join and why.
L11-13 s/activities +
 A variety of class games and activities will be used to introduce and familiarize students with vocabulary
Projector +
of classroom items.
Examp

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 Introduce students to sentence structures for asking for and granting/denying permission (eg. はいても
いいですか。(May I come in?), ほんをかりてもいいですか。(May I borrow your book?), えんぴつをかし
てください。(Please lend me your pencil.), etc).
 Show students an examples of a multimedia presentation about
Kahoot! or Informal
 Recap vocabulary and sentence structures covered throughout this unit. Use a Kahoot! quiz or Quizlet to
T1, W9-10, Padlet + assessment +
allow students to self-assess their learning.
L14 Whiteboard + self assessment
 Book a computer room to allow students to prepare for their multimedia presentation.
Markers
 Collect students’ presentation submissions. Whiteboard + Formal
T1, W9-10,  Brainstorm differences and similarities of Japanese school life and school life at Kogarah High School. Markers assessment of
L15 Brainstorm vocabulary for comparing and contrasting. Then students are to write and submit a passage multimedia
comparing and contrasting Japanese school life to their own school lives. presentations

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Resources
Resources that you have created for the unit, including a digital learning resource that supports student learning and
develops their ICT skills (such as-google slides, i-movie, website) of a particular aspect of the unit.

1. Tell me about this person – QR Code Exercise

The following slides have been created on Microsoft Powerpoint with the intended purpose of printing each individual
slide for students to able to scan the QR codes using mobile devices to reveal written or audio recorded passages from
each of the below characters about what year they are in at school, and what subjects they like and dislike.

2. Japanese school life – Padlet

This padlet was created to allow students to work through the learning content and contribute responses at their own
pace. This activity was designed to give students the opportunity to have one-on-one consultations with the teacher to ask
questions and develop ideas for their penpal letter responses.

3. Tell me about your school routine – Multimedia Presentation Example

This video will be used as an example of a multimedia presentation to be shown to the students in preparation for their
assessment task of producing a multimedia presentation talking about their school lives. For the assessment, students will
be required to use a variety of media - including text, computer graphics, photographs and sound (in the form of Japanese
voiceovers) – as well as being required to use a variety of vocabulary and sentence structures in Japanese to communicate
their ideas.

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Extended response
A considered and professional response that discusses the pedagogical approach you have taken in planning the unit with
reference to relevant theory and literature (1000 words). It should be presented as a coherent extended response and use
APA 6th Edition referencing.

In designing this unit, I have considered a number of pedagogical approaches, learning strategies and theories, and

teaching frameworks to create a sequence of lessons which aims to allow students to develop and demonstrate their

intercultural understanding and Japanese language learning through a variety of learning activities. These learning activities

have been carefully planned in line with the three-stage backwards planning and design process of the Understanding by

Design (UbD) framework, as well as consultation of relevant research articles supporting the integration of information and

communication technologies within learning environments, and intercultural understanding fueled by letter exchanges with

a penpal.

The Understanding by Design (UbD) framework is a three-stage backwards planning and design process which

encompasses 1) identifying the desired result, 2) determining assessable evidence of learning, and 3) planned learning

experiences and instruction (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011). By using UbD, I was able to identify Japanese vocabulary, sentence

structures and cultural aspects to teach the students which would ultimately result in the students being able to fulfill the

unit aim. In this instance, the unit aim was that students would learn how to talk about aspects of their school lives in

Japanese – including what grade they are in, classroom items, the subjects they like and dislike, and their school timetable.

The unit aim also helped to determine assessable evidence of learning as ‘performance tasks’ and ‘other evidence’. In this

unit, performance tasks (which requires students to apply their learning) includes writing a response to their penpal letters

and creating a multimedia presentation about their school lives. Other evidence (which includes quizzes, tests and

observations) include informal assessments in class used to gauge students’ participation and confidence with the learning

content to identify students who are excelling and students who are struggling. Finally, the third stage of the UbD is defined

by three goals: transfer, meaning making and acquisition. These goals ensure that teachers are presenting information and

modelling skills, then setting tasks to reinforce the content and giving students ample time construct meaning, before being

expected to have acquired the knowledge. For this reason, several of my lessons span across two or three consecutive
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lessons to ensure that students have plenty of time to develop their skills and understanding before moving on to the next

learning objective.

When designing the learning experiences and instructions for this unit, I consulted a study about learning styles by

Wong & Nunan (2011) where four major learning styles were identified in language learning. These were communicative

(which describes students who like to learn language by watching and listening to native speakers, using the language outside

of class and learning through conversational practice), analytical (which identifies students who like to learn by studying the

grammar, reading, and solving problems set by the teacher), authority-oriented (which accounts for students who prefer to

have their own textbooks and materials, and want the teacher explain everything), and concrete learners (who favour games,

film, pictures and other interactive style activities in comparison to worksheets and presentations) With this in mind, I have

designed my scope and sequence to encompass activities which can cater for all four language learning styles. New

vocabulary and sentence structures will be introduced by the teacher and examples will be worked and demonstrated as a

collective class, before students are given worksheets or textbook chapters to practice the vocabulary and sentence

structures. Next, games and activities (karuta, Kahoot!, etc) will be played to reinforce new content, and then students will

be expected to use the vocabulary and structures in written and spoken form.

A study by Barksdale, Watson & Park (2007) found that penpal letter exchanges reinforced language learning skills,

supported the development of intercultural understanding, and assisting learning gains across the curriculum in areas such

as literacy, numeracy, geography, social studies, science and technology. These learning gains included an increased

motivation to learn correct punctuation, grammar, spelling and format of letter-writing, an interest in learning about time

zones, local temperature and geographical locations, and encouraged curiosity for culture and religion. Students also

benefited from the opportunity to learn from their peers as they were found to mimic and manipulate sentence structures

in received correspondence from their penpals to help structure their own ideas. As such, I have included a penpal letter

exchange initiative in my scope and sequence for this unit to give students the opportunity to make practical use of the

vocabulary and language structures they have learned in class through a safe arrangement where they can form relationships

with international peers with the aim of promoting intercultural understanding through language exchange. This initiative
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also gives students a practical and real-life use for the Japanese script (Hiragana) which they have been studying in class as

the exchange is made through letters for authenticity, instead of an email which is less personal and does not give students

a chance to practice their writing skills.

However, students will still have plenty of opportunities to engage with and learn to use information and communication

technologies within this unit of work. For example, students will have the chance to use devices to complete a QR code

exercise, interact with Padlet to complete class activities and discussions, and use Animakr to create a multimedia

presentation which demonstrates their ability to use vocabulary and sentence structures presented in class to construct

voiceovers detailing their school lives.

During the design process of creating this unit I consulted the UbD framework, and research articles supporting the

integration of information and communication technologies within learning environments, and intercultural understanding

fueled by letter exchanges with a penpal to create a scope and sequence which maximises students’ opportunities to develop

and demonstrate their language learning skills to fulfill the unit aim.

References for extended response

Barksdale, M., Watson, C., & Park, E. (2007) Pen Pal Letter Exchanges: Taking First Steps Toward Developing Cultural
Understandings. The Reading Teacher, 61, 58-68. Doi. 10.15.98/RT.61.1.6

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (2011). The Understanding by Design guide to creating high-quality units. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Wong, L., & Nunan, D. (2011) The learning styles and strategies of effective language learners. Science Direct, 39, 144-163.
Doi. 10.1016/j.system.2011.05.004

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