Course Outline
EDU737 Teaching Junior Secondary English
Course Coordinator:Joanne Casey (jcasey1@usc.edu.au) School:School of Education and Tertiary Access
2024Semester 1
UniSC Sunshine CoastUniSC Moreton Bay |
Blended learning | Most of your course is on campus but you may be able to do some components of this course online. |
Please go to usc.edu.au for up to date information on the
teaching sessions and campuses where this course is usually offered.
What is this course about?
Description
This course builds capacity to design and discern effective pedagogy within English for Years 7 -10. You organise and plan lessons using the Australian Curriculum English, apply your knowledge, understanding and skills to interpret, evaluate and adapt learning, in order to engage Junior Secondary students. You will develop deep knowledge of how to integrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into learning activities and critically reflect on your developing teaching practice.
How will this course be delivered?
| Activity | Hours | Beginning Week | Frequency |
| Blended learning | |||
| Learning materials – You are required to engage with 2 hour weekly learning materials, associated activities and required/recommended course reading materials accessed through Canvas modules. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 9 times |
| Tutorial/Workshop 1 – Tutorials are face-to-face and, weekly tutorial materials can be accessed through Canvas modules. | 2hrs | Week 1 | 10 times |
Course Topics
- Year 7-10 curriculum and policy frameworks relating to subject English.
- Data that informs teaching, specifically NAPLAN (Years 7 and 9) and Australian Curriculum student achievement standards.
- Literacy and numeracy in all learning areas.
- Current language learning and critical literacy theory that informs English curriculum and the study of literature.
- Strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of a broad range of students from different social, cultural and language contexts.
- Concepts, principles and structure of learner-centred English pedagogy, including teaching strategies.
- Curriculum design (content, assessment and pedagogy) in subject English.
- ICT applications to enhance teaching, learning and communication.
What level is this course?
700 Level (Specialised)
What is the unit value of this course?
12 units
How does this course contribute to my learning?
| Course Learning Outcomes On successful completion of this course, you should be able to... | Graduate Qualities Mapping Completing these tasks successfully will contribute to you becoming... | Professional Standard Mapping * Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1 | Apply deep knowledge of language learning theory and the Australian Curriculum English to critically evaluate and justify decisions related to teaching Junior Secondary English |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker |
2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 |
| 2 | Plan, organise and integrate English content into authentic learning sequences demonstrating thorough understanding of concepts, principles and structure of English pedagogy. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker |
1.5, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 |
| 3 | Use effective communication in different modes to an informed academic audience. |
Knowledgeable Creative and critical thinker |
3.5
|
| 4 | Research and synthesise achievable, challenging learning goals to match student abilities, cater for diverse learning needs, and apply authentic assessment and moderation processes. | Knowledgeable |
5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 |
| 5 | Provide evidence of ability to use appropriate teaching strategies and resources such as ICT to support safe, responsible and ethical learning and teaching decisions. |
Knowledgeable Ethical |
2.1, 2.6, 3.4, 3.5, 4.5 |
* Competencies by Professional Body
| CODE | COMPETENCY |
| Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership | |
| 1.5 | Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities. |
| 2.1 | Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area |
| 2.2 | Content selection and organisation: Organise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence. |
| 2.3 | Curriculum, assessment and reporting: Use curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans. |
| 2.5 | Literacy and numeracy strategies: Know and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas. |
| 2.6 | Information and Communication Technology (ICT): Implement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students. |
| 3.1 | Establish challenging learning goals: Set learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics. |
| 3.2 | Plan, structure and sequence learning programs: Plan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies. |
| 3.3 | Use teaching strategies: Include a range of teaching strategies. |
| 3.4 | Select and use resources: Demonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning. |
| 3.5 | Use effective classroom communication: Demonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement |
| 4.5 | Use ICT safely, responsibly and ethically: Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching. |
| 5.1 | Assess student learning: Demonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning. |
| 5.2 | Provide feedback to students on their learning: Demonstrate an understanding of the purpose of providing timely and appropriate feedback to students about their learning |
| 5.3 | Make consistent and comparable judgements: Demonstrate understanding of assessment moderation and its application to support consistent and comparable judgements of student learning. |
| 5.4 | Interpret student data: Demonstrate the capacity to interpret student assessment data to evaluate student learning and modify teaching practice. |
| 5.5 | Report on student achievement: Demonstrate understanding of a range of strategies for reporting to students and parents/ carers and the purpose of keeping accurate and reliable records of student achievement |
Am I eligible to enrol in this course?
Refer to the UniSC Glossary of terms for definitions of “pre-requisites, co-requisites and anti-requisites”.
Pre-requisites
Enrolled in Program ED706 and an English Teaching area
Co-requisites
Not applicable
Anti-requisites
Not applicable
Specific assumed prior knowledge and skills (where applicable)
Not applicable
How am I going to be assessed?
Grading Scale
Standard Grading (GRD)
| High Distinction (HD), Distinction (DN), Credit (CR), Pass (PS), Fail (FL). |
Details of early feedback on progress
Early feedback on language skills will be provided in Week 3, following a formative in-class quiz.
Assessment tasks
| Delivery mode | Task No. | Assessment Product | Individual or Group | Weighting % | What is the duration / length? | When should I submit? | Where should I submit it? |
| All | 1 | Examination - not Centrally Scheduled | Individual | 20% | 1500 words, 90 minute exam |
Week 4 | In Class |
| All | 2 | Oral and Written Piece | Individual | 40% | 2000 words and 7 min video presentation |
Week 7 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All | 3 | Report | Individual | 40% | 2500 words |
Week 10 | Online Assignment Submission with plagiarism check |
| All - Assessment Task 1:Examination | |
| Goal: | The goal of this task is to demonstrate your knowledge of the Australian and Queensland English curriculum and policy and the underpinning language theory. |
| Product: | Examination - not Centrally Scheduled |
| Format: | The purpose of this task is to provide you opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge of the Australian Curriculum: English and current policy in preparation for the next two tasks. If the test reveals that you have some knowledge gaps or misunderstandings you will be offered additional support. This process of diagnosing and then providing follow up support mirrors how you can support students as a practising teacher. The test comprises multiple choice and short answer questions. One of these will include making and justifying an ethical judgment. You are encouraged to bring one single-sided page of notes to the test. |
| Criteria: |
|
| All - Assessment Task 2:Teaching resources and lesson plans | |
| Goal: | The goal of this task is for you to demonstrate how you will teach an aspect of writing to a class. You will use an adolescent text as a resource, and you will apply specific teaching strategies to achieve the intended curriculum Learning Outcomes. |
| Product: | Oral and Written Piece |
| Format: | There are five aspects to this task. 1. Choose a literary text that is suitable for use in Junior Secondary English. 2. In an audio embedded Powerpoint, evaluate and justify the text selection alongside the range of teaching strategies you will use to teach the text to a range of students in a particular year level. This is presented to a hypothetical relief teacher as an introduction to the audio presentation (Suggested time 1 minute). 3. Create two (2) sequential lesson plans which are based on the chosen literary text and that develop writing knowledge and skills in a particular genre. Reference must be made to the chosen literary text and to specific ACARA requirements for teaching writing. 4. Discuss, in the audio presentation how, in one of the lessons, you plan to teach one aspect of writing to a class of students (suggested 5-6 minutes). In the discussion you will reference the intended ACARA learning outcomes and the teaching strategies you will employ. 5. Finally, provide a reflection on the decisions made as you designed your lesson sequence. |
| Criteria: |
|
| All - Assessment Task 3:Evaluation and plan to renew a Unit of Work | |
| Goal: | Evaluate a learning sequence provided in a Unit of Work and use student assessment data to support recommendations. |
| Product: | Report |
| Format: | During tutorials in Weeks 8 and 9, you will learn how to interpret school students' assessment data. You will also learn how to evaluate the content and structure of a Unit of Work that has been supplied to you. The content will include ACARA Content Descriptors, the learning sequence, the strategies and resources used, what was assessed, and how it was assessed. Following the evaluation, you will write a report that reviews the current learning sequence and makes recommendations for improvement for all students. Possible report headings will be provided on CANVAS. |
| Criteria: |
|
Directed study hours
A 12-unit course will have total of 150 learning hours which will include directed study hours (including online if required), self-directed learning and completion of assessable tasks. Student workload is calculated at 12.5 learning hours per one unit.
Schedule
| Period and Topic | Activities |
Module 1, Weeks 1-3 Australian Curriculum English: F-12 Queensland Curriculum English: Years 7-10. Language acquisition theories and models – including the Four Resources Model The role of adolescent literature in language learning |
Exploring education policy documents. Navigating the Australian and Queensland Curriculum English websites. Engaging with the genres of adolescent literature. Learning how to interpret documents, make and justify ethical decisions and provide written responses. Investigating relevant English policy documents found in English journals. Engaging in library work. Reading young adult literature. Readings and tutorial/online activities are updated weekly in CANVAS Learning Materials. |
Module 2, Weeks 4-7 English teaching strategies for diverse learners in a range of contexts. |
Introduction to teaching strategies that include those that are non-verbal and ICT based (with emphasis on the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICTs). Apply teaching strategies during tutorials to cater for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and other groups’ histories, cultures and languages. Link teaching strategies to relevant stages and strands of English learning and teaching in curriculum documents. Organise and integrate lesson content, with teaching strategies including ICT for diverse learners, resources and timing in a Lesson Plan. Read a variety of journal articles based on explicit English teaching strategies for adolescents. Practise the use of strategies. View English lessons provided in CANVAS materials. Weekly readings and tutorial/online activities are provided in Learning Materials on CANVAS. |
Module 3, Weeks 8-10 Understanding how to plan, organise and integrate English content into a Unit of Work. |
Researching the contents of an English Unit of Work. Interpreting student assessment data and evaluating teaching programs. Learning about assessment in English, feedback, moderation and reporting practices. Additional readings and tutorial/online activities are provided in Learning Materials on CANVAS. |
What resources do I need to undertake this course?
Please note: Course information, including specific information of recommended readings, learning activities, resources, weekly readings, etc. are available on the course Canvas site– Please log in as soon as possible.
Prescribed text(s) or course reader
Specific requirements
Nil
How are risks managed in this course?
What administrative information is relevant to this course?
Assessment: Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is the ethical standard of university participation. It ensures that students graduate as a result of proving they are competent in their discipline. This is integral in maintaining the value of academic qualifications. Each industry has expectations and standards of the skills and knowledge within that discipline and these are reflected in assessment.
Academic integrity means that you do not engage in any activity that is considered to be academic fraud; including plagiarism, collusion or outsourcing any part of any assessment item to any other person. You are expected to be honest and ethical by completing all work yourself and indicating in your work which ideas and information were developed by you and which were taken from others. You cannot provide your assessment work to others. You are also expected to provide evidence of wide and critical reading, usually by using appropriate academic references.
In order to minimise incidents of academic fraud, this course may require that some of its assessment tasks, when submitted to Canvas, are electronically checked through Turnitin. This software allows for text comparisons to be made between your submitted assessment item and all other work to which Turnitin has access.
Assessment: Additional Requirements
Eligibility for Supplementary Assessment Your eligibility for supplementary assessment in a course is dependent of the following conditions applying: The final mark is in the percentage range 47% to 49.4%. The course is graded using the Standard Grading scale. You have not failed an assessment task in the course due to academic misconduct.
Assessment: Submission penalties
Late submission of assessment tasks may be penalised at the following maximum rate: - 5% (of the assessment task's identified value) per day for the first two days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. - 10% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the third day - 20% (of the assessment task's identified value) for the fourth day and subsequent days up to and including seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. - A result of zero is awarded for an assessment task submitted after seven days from the date identified as the due date for the assessment task. Weekdays and weekends are included in the calculation of days late. To request an extension you must contact your course coordinator to negotiate an outcome.
SafeUniSC
UniSC is committed to a culture of respect and providing a safe and supportive environment for all members of our community. For immediate assistance on campus contact SafeUniSC by phone: 07 5430 1168 or using the SafeZone app. For general enquires contact the SafeUniSC team by phone 07 5456 3864 or email safe@usc.edu.au.
The SafeUniSC Specialist Service is a Student Wellbeing service that provides free and confidential support to students who may have experienced or observed behaviour that could cause fear, offence or trauma. To contact the service call 07 5430 1226 or email studentwellbeing@usc.edu.au.
Study help
For help with course-specific advice, for example what information to include in your assessment, you should first contact your tutor, then your course coordinator, if needed.
If you require additional assistance, the Learning Advisers are trained professionals who are ready to help you develop a wide range of academic skills. Visit the Learning Advisers web page for more information, or contact Student Central for further assistance: +61 7 5430 2890 or studentcentral@usc.edu.au.
Wellbeing Services
Student Wellbeing provide free and confidential counselling on a wide range of personal, academic, social and psychological matters, to foster positive mental health and wellbeing for your academic success.
To book a confidential appointment go to Student Hub, email studentwellbeing@usc.edu.au or call 07 5430 1226.
AccessAbility Services
Ability Advisers ensure equal access to all aspects of university life. If your studies are affected by a disability, learning disorder mental health issue, injury or illness, or you are a primary carer for someone with a disability or who is considered frail and aged, AccessAbility Services can provide access to appropriate reasonable adjustments and practical advice about the support and facilities available to you throughout the University.
To book a confidential appointment go to Student Hub, email AccessAbility@usc.edu.au or call 07 5430 2890.
Links to relevant University policy and procedures
For more information on Academic Learning & Teaching categories including:
- Assessment: Courses and Coursework Programs
- Review of Assessment and Final Grades
- Supplementary Assessment
- Central Examinations
- Deferred Examinations
- Student Conduct
- Students with a Disability
For more information, visit https://www.usc.edu.au/explore/policies-and-procedures#academic-learning-and-teaching
Student Charter
UniSC is committed to excellence in teaching, research and engagement in an environment that is inclusive, inspiring, safe and respectful. The Student Charter sets out what students can expect from the University, and what in turn is expected of students, to achieve these outcomes.
General Enquiries
-
In person:
- UniSC Sunshine Coast - Student Central, Ground Floor, Building C, 90 Sippy Downs Drive, Sippy Downs
- UniSC Moreton Bay - Service Centre, Ground Floor, Foundation Building, Gympie Road, Petrie
- UniSC SouthBank - Student Central, Building A4 (SW1), 52 Merivale Street, South Brisbane
- UniSC Gympie - Student Central, 71 Cartwright Road, Gympie
- UniSC Fraser Coast - Student Central, Student Central, Building A, 161 Old Maryborough Rd, Hervey Bay
- UniSC Caboolture - Student Central, Level 1 Building J, Cnr Manley and Tallon Street, Caboolture
- Tel:+61 7 5430 2890
- Email:studentcentral@usc.edu.au