Standard+2.3.1

=Exhibit and share theoretical and practical knowledge of the effects of social, ethnic, cultural and religious background factors to meet the learning needs of all students. =

My school has a substantial minority of international students as boarders. I sought advice from [|ESL] teachers to help me structure lessons and activities so these students can learn the language and the subject matter. I am also trying to help them make the transition from an Asian, essentially ‘passive recipient’ learner, to a more critical thinking approach to learning.

Taking some points from my interpretation of [|Wong (2004)], (in particular “the quickest way to change students’ learning is to change the assessment system”) I prepared a task where individuals would research an aspect of [|Biotechnology]. Within each class there were 4-5 students researching the same topic and they could collaborate on their research. The written portion of the task was well scaffolded with instructions on bibliography presentation. The task has an oral component which was designed so that students needed to clearly understand their topic but was not meant to be an intricate ICT presentation. The students often prepare their presentation using PowerPoint and then virtually read it. I wanted students to actually show their understanding of the topic they had researched. Thus they were to present a 2 minute speech describing the main ideas gained in their research but they would be given a scenario describing who they were speaking to 5 minutes before their speech. Thus it was the essential understanding that we were looking for in the marking criteria.

I asked the ESL teacher for advice concerning the requirements of our ESL students so that the oral component of the task could be adapted for them.

The oral component of the task was then modified on the basis of their advice. The ESL students were given their scenario the day before the task was due so that they could prepare their presentation taking their audience into account.

In order to cater to the differing interests and ability of a diverse group of students I developed a self paced unit on astronomy called “A Space Odyssey”. It uses differences in ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds to explore ideas behind modern astronomy. I have employed these ideas in order to appeal to the wide variety of students’ abilities and cultural backgrounds.

This unit of work has been used by my colleagues in their teaching of this topic. They have used the entire document as a self paced unit and some have also modified the unit by just using some of the activities as deemed useful.

One aspect of this unit explores the [|Myths & Legends] around the constellations. My research led me to a [|webquest] which explores the legends formed by different cultures. The students are able to explore the astronomy of any chosen ethnic, national or cultural group. Another activity asks the students to make up their own myth about any of the southern [|constellations], using the information they have gathered.