Evaluation of Practice

APST - 3.6, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Professional Practice

The core objective of the inquiry project was to improve student ability to identify elements of a media text and be able to write about them. One of the key challenges involved in responding and interpreting, especially with a media text is that unless students are provided a clear framework, they can very easily become overwhelmed or lack the subject specific language to communicate their understanding. My aim was to use worked examples with explicit teaching, building up step-by-step student ability to firstly identify elements within a text and relate that to a model. I have found improvement in student writing and in both the quantity and quality of elements identified from the text. Student writing became more sophisticated throughout the learning sequence.

The greatest benefit of accompanying explicit instruction with that of a model like ‘CAMELS’ is that it reduces the cognitive load for students while also informing them of what to look out for within a text. Throughout the instruction of this unit, I have learned a great deal about student engagement and the importance of coordinating unit planning with a clear focus of drawing upon students’ own funds of knowledge. Students have a plethora of knowledge about Hollywood films, film production and they have been educated in story throughout their lives. Early activities that provided students an opportunity to predict what might happen, rank was important based on their own experiences and discuss their likes and dislikes of genre, filmmaking, special-effects and media products provided a strong foundation to engage students in the sometimes-difficult task of analyzing and breaking apart texts.

Scaffolding student ability to progress from identifying, analyzing and writing about a single technical code to combining technical, symbolic and their interpretation of story was a significant achievement of this unit. Students can adapt these analytical skills throughout the English and Arts curricula.

Future iterations of this sequence would allow for more explicit modeling with each individual student. There were significant gains made from implementing the Fisher Frey, ‘I do, You do, We do’ model, however I envisage much richer learning experiences that allowed for more one-on-one feedback with students. If I had my time again, I would have focused more intently on story structure with the aim to connect what was happening on the screen with student understanding of why it was important within the story. This could’ve provided further access points for AITSL students within the classroom and a deeper exploration of Yunkaporta’s Eight Way Pedagogy.

In future, I hope to further explore these strategies within the curriculum and provide as many access points for students to engage with the cognitive taxing task of breaking apart complex texts and essentially delineating them on the page.

Providing students with explicit, timely and rich feedback is definitely an area that I can improve upon within future teaching sequences. It was particularly challenging throughout the sequence to find opportunities to engage in one-on-one feedback sessions with students due to spending significant time attempting to keep students on task, manage behaviour and the constraints of the planned lessons. Finally I am very grateful for the mentorship and assistance of Mr. Howard Clark and staff at St. Patrick’s College who provided valuable insights and directions that ultimately ensured the success of the inquiry.

Student Assessment

The Technical and Symbolic Codes unit was completed over five weeks towards the end of term three. Students spent the majority of the time engaged in viewing and analyzing video clips of Hollywood movies and deconstructing sequences from the movie 'War Horse'.

Items of assessment for focus students:

'The Most Important Parts of a Good Movie' - formative assessment that gauged students understanding of the elements of media texts. Students received verbal feedback from the teacher and their peers during a think/ pair/share activity.

My Movie Experience - formative assessment that involves students explaining their understanding of what makes media artworks engaging and hooks an audience. Students wrote a 350 word response and created an engaging webpage with images and text. Students received written feedback.

Technical Codes of Media Narratives Pre-test - students viewed scenes from Rabbit Proof Fence, The Dark Knight Rises and The Shawshank Redemption before describing the technical codes evident in each clip. Students received written and verbal feedback.

Warhorse Film Review - summative assessment that involves students creating a slide deck including multimedia and an analysis of a sequence from the film Warhorse. Students were assessed on ability to combine technical and symbolic codes to analyze a sequence and sophisticated film review structure to industry standard.

Throughout the unit verbal and written feedback was provided to students. Included below are annotations and notes of student achievement in terms of what they learnt, improvement and lessons for my future teaching practice.


STUDENT A

Prior to the inquiry - Pre-test

My Movie Experience

The inquiry commenced with students completing a range of formative assessments. In an effort to engage students and gauge their current understanding of the technical and symbolic elements of cinema, students were asked to rank a series of critical reviews and create a webpage that described a recent movie or TV series they enjoyed and describe the reasons why it was so engaging. Student A received the mark of 11/15 (73%). Student A performed very well explaining how and why audiences were engaged and expressed a good understanding of the technical and symbolic elements in their chosen field.

During the Inquiry - Technical and Symbolic Analytical Tasks

Analysing Film Texts

Students engaged with a number of analytical tasks during the inquiry including analyzing short film clips and sequences from the main film text, Warhorse.

Student A demonstrated ability to identify more technical codes and express his interpretation of them in the text. It was impressive to see how they related the technical code to the course of the narrative and explain why it was significant. Student A received a mark of 63% with the majority of marks awarded for identification of technical and symbolic codes.

Summative Assessment - Result - 97% - Excellent

Film Review

Student A created a thorough film review that adhered to industry standard exceptionally well. The student provided insightful analysis to combine technical and symbolic elements of Steven Spielberg's film Warhorse. Student A has progressed from the basic level where they expressed some knowledge of film elements to a point where they can critically analyze the text and express their understanding within a set structure.


STUDENT B

Prior to the inquiry - Pre-test

My Movie Experience

Analysing Technical Media Codes Pre-test

Student B showed the ability to express their extensive understanding of the elements of film. The student performed particularly well on the 'My Movie Experience' task with a creative, in-depth expression of what they enjoyed most about the TV series. Student B received a mark of 63% with a thoughtful piece of writing that explained the hooks that kept the audience tuned into the series with some evidence of knowledge of technical and symbolic elements. While the student was able to identify moments within the three short clips for the pre-test, they provided a simplistic description of the technical codes without much analysis of why the director may have chosen to use codes to create an effect for the audience.

Summative Assessment - Film Review, Result: Very Good, 91%

Film Review

Student B again demonstrated their ability to express their ideas on paper with an extensive summary of the action, narrative points and events that occurred throughout the film. It was impressive to see that the student has come a long way to identify more technical elements and use the CAMELS acronym to assist them in their analysis. The student may have received higher marks if they applied a more critical approach to their analysis. While the student showed an ability to stick to the film review structure, the student seemed to worry too much about adhering to the word count and the presentation rather than paying extra attention to spelling and grammar.


STUDENT C

Prior to the inquiry - Pre-test

My Movie Experience - Result: Needs Attention: 43%

Student C provided a basic web page that demonstrated a minimal ability to express their understanding of codes and conventions of film narratives. While the student did provide insightful responses during class discussion, their effort towards the formative assessment was minimal and missed out achieving a satisfactory mark due to missing elements of the assessment. The student was provided with positive feedback about their ability to identify some of the codes that we'd initially discussed in class and was provided positive encouragement for their effort sharing some of their own experiences within the assessment.

Pre-test Technical Codes & Symbolic Codes - Result: Needs Attention: 38%

Student C provided minimal responses of a maximum of 1-2 lines in response to the analysis questions for the three clips. While there was some effort at applying CAMELS to their responses, the responses were basic without much evidence of critical analysis of the texts.

Summative Assessment - Film Review (Modified) - Good

Film Review

Student C demonstrated the ability to identify a number of technical codes within their chosen sequence and explained their significance quite well. Student C showed the ability to reflect upon why these elements were important in terms of the overall narrative which reflects a student who has the ability to combine both technical and symbolic elements to an analysis. This is an impressive effort for Student C who initially struggled to complete the early tasks during the sequence. While the student has shown engagement within the classroom, responding to direct questioning with insightful and informed answers, their contribution to the modified assessment highlights an ability to critically analyze texts.

STUDENT D

Prior to the inquiry - Pre-test

My Movie Experience - Result: Acceptable

Student D demonstrated early in the sequence an interest and engagement in discussing the elements of filmmaking with reference to prominent Hollywood films. While the student shows some awareness of media language and willingly participates in classroom discussion to clarify their understanding, Student D struggled to provide much written evidence of their own movie experience. The student was provided a modified version of the formative assessment and encouraged to describe their favourite movie and explain the elements that appealed to them. Student C provided minimal writing in response to the prompt.

Pre-test Movie Experience - Result: Acceptable

Student D has shown some basic knowledge of film narratives and demonstrated an ability to identify elements using the CAMELS acronym. The student has shown an ability to identify the major emotional draws that the elements are associated with in terms of narrative. Student D so far has expressed an improved understanding of film narratives.

Summative Assessment (Modified) - Result: Acceptable

Student D has performed well at identifing an appropriate technical code related to a selected set of scenes from Warhorse (2011). The student has applied their understanding of emotion and provided some evidence of interpretation of the director's intention and impact upon an audience. However, Student D has not demonstrated ability to combine technical codes and responses are limited in scope to 1-2 line responses.


AUSTRALIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS FOR TEACHERS


Evidence of all 37 descriptors of the APST at Proficient Teacher level.


STANDARDS: EXAMPLES/EVIDENCE OF HOW I MET THE STANDARDS

  1. Professional Knowledge – Know the learners and how they learn
    1. Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of learners
    2. Understand how learners learn
    3. Learner with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
    4. Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners
    5. Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of learners across the full range of abilities
    6. Strategies to support full participation of learners with disability

  2. Professional Knowledge – Know the content and how to teach it
    1. Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area(s)
    2. Content selection and organisation
    3. Curriculum assessment and reporting
    4. Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians
    5. Literacy and Numeracy Strategies
    6. Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

  3. Professional Practice – Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
    1. Establish challenging learning goals
    2. Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
    3. Use teaching strategies
    4. Select and use resources
    5. Use effective communication with leaners
    6. Evaluate and improve teaching programs
    7. Engage parents/carers in educative process

  4. Professional Practice – Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments
    1. Support participation of learners
    2. Manage learning and teaching activities
    3. Managing challenging behaviour
    4. Maintain safety of the learners
    5. Use of ICT safely, responsibly and ethically

  5. Practice – Assess, provide feedback and report on learning
    1. Assess learning
    2. Provide feedback to leaners about their learning
    3. Make consistent and comparable judgements
    4. Interpret data from learners
    5. Report on achievement of learners

  6. Professional Engagement – Engage in professional learning
    1. Identify and plan professional learning needs
    2. Engage in professional learning and improve practice
    3. Engage with colleagues and improve practice
    4. Apply professional learning and improve the learning (of learners)

  7. Professional Engagement – Engage professionally with colleagues, parents/carers, and community
    1. Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
    2. Comply with legislative, administrative and organisational requirements
    3. Engage with parents/carers
    4. Engage with professional teaching networks and broader communities

About Me

I am a professional educator who brings a range of skills and life experiences to enrich and contextualise student learning.

My personal values of integrity, accountability and determination shine through my interpretation of the Victorian curriculum, assessment and classroom management.

Building a rapport with students, encouraging them to strive to perform at their best and identifying the next steps for improvement are just some of the skills that I’ve demonstrated so far in the classroom.

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