Reference no: EM134018870 , Length: Word Count:2000

Teaching and Learning Literacy and Numeracy in Context

Assessment - Numeracy in Practice.

Explanation, Analysis, and Teaching Plan

Learning Outcome 1: explain a theory-based understanding and knowledge of the role of literacy and numeracy in education.
Learning Outcome 2: analyse the literacy and numeracy demands upon students together with other available data to identify areas of individual need.
Learning Outcome 3: develop teaching plans that embody literacy and numeracy focuses, incorporating the effective use of literacy and numeracy strategies and assessment tasks to inform teaching, as well as developing specific strategies for students who require additional support.
Learning Outcome 4: evaluate the role of digital technologies for effective teaching with literacy and numeracy for all students including students with disability or additional learning needs.

Task Rationale

This section describes the purpose of the assessment task (the ‘why').

The purpose of the task is to develop both your understanding of the role of numeracy in Australian education, and application of the analysis and teaching practices you will use to facilitate your students' achievement of it. Scaffolded numeracy development is an essential part of all learning across the curriculum, so this task is directly relevant to all areas of your future professional practice. Students may also benefit from concepts related to Mathematics Help when strengthening foundational numeracy skills.

Task Description

This section provides a brief description of the assessment task (the ‘what').

You will present a theory-based explanation of the role of numeracy engagement within education, highlighting the importance of ensuring all students are supported broadly across the curriculum and specifically within Key Learning Area Content to achieve the highest levels of numeracy progression possible. Embodying this essential practice, you will analyse a geography textbook excerpt and draw upon the Australian Curriculum (V9) General Capability: Numeracy, to determine the mathematical and numerical skills required to meaningfully engage with, explore, and learn about its content. Next, you will develop a teaching plan to enhance specific skills required for enhancing numeracy capabilities in geography learning.

Task Instructions

This section provides step-by-step task instructions (the ‘how').

You will complete three components: an explanation, an analysis, and a teaching plan. These will be completed using the template provided and uploaded to TurnItIn as a single document. The word counts for each section are provided as a guide only - you are able to distribute the total allowed word count as you choose, so long as you remain within the ±10% limit.

Part A: Explanation of the Role of Numeracy Learning within Education

Why do we enhance numeracy in our classrooms? Explain the role of numeracy within contemporary Australian education. This part of the assessment requires you to address three points:

Provide a broad description of the role of numeracy in Australian education, focusing on either the Primary or Secondary context.
State your future teaching context (Primary / Secondary). If Primary, identify a specific curriculum Learning Area that you will discuss in Point 3 (below). If Secondary, identify your curriculum Learning Area specialisation(s), and select one that you will discuss in Point 3 (below).
Consistent with your broad description of the role of numeracy in Australian education, specifically describe how numeracy as a General Capability is relevant in your selected Learning Area. Narrow your discussion by providing some examples related to specific topics or content. For Learning Area topics or content, you should use your state curriculum (e.g., NSW Curriculum, Victorian Curriculum, Western Australian Curriculum, or Australian Curriculum). Relevant mathematical concepts may be supported through Applied Mathematics resources.

Your explanation must:

Be in written (paragraph) form.
Be specific to your future teaching context (Primary / Secondary).
Include discussion about the relevance of numeracy to curriculum-wide learning (Point 1).
Include discussion about the relevance of numeracy to a specific Learning Area, and specifically key topics / content within that Learning Area (Point 3).
Be clear and present specific statements (avoid generalisations).
Consistently integrate high-quality and relevant academic literature to support your explanation, including the unit's key readings.

Part B: Analysis of Numeracy Requirements within KLA Learning

How do we know what numeracy capabilities our students will need to effectively engage with Learning Area content? Analyse the provided Primary or Secondary excerpt from a textbook for teaching and learning the Australian Curriculum Geography, to determine the skills required in the context of the Australian Curriculum capability numeracy, to meaningfully engage with, understand, and make use of the information presented. The Primary excerpt is targeted to students in Years 5 or 6 (specifically focus on pp. 14-15). The Secondary excerpt is targeted to students in Years 7 or 8 (use the whole excerpt). This part of the assessment requires you to address three points:

Identify a Year level: 5-6 or 7-8. Carefully analyse either the Primary or Secondary Geography textbook excerpt intended for that Year level. Analyse both the text and graphics. Use the Australian Curriculum (V9) General Capability: Numeracy and your own professional judgement to determine the key skills students will need to understand, effectively consider, and meaningfully learn from the presented information. Provide examples from the excerpt for each. Skills involving interpretation of graphs and numerical information can be related to Statistics concepts.

Part C: Teaching Plan for the Enhancement of Numeracy

How do we enable the students to engage with numeracy? Students will often need specific teaching (of the underpinning mathematics knowledge and skills) to successfully engage with the numeracy demands of the lesson within the Australian Curriculum (V9) numeracy capability. Consider the following scenario: You are a casual teacher filling in for either a Primary (Year 5 or 6) or Secondary (Year 7 or 8) teacher who is on leave. Among your duties, you are required to teach two Geography lessons (select the same Year level as used for Part B).

Year 5 / 6 students need to:

Lesson 1: Explore the difference between discrete and continuous data. Draw a monthly rainfall chart (bar graph) for Apia from the information provided in the Geography textbook excerpt (p. 15) and include line graphs of the maximum and minimum temperatures (guided by the example for Port Moresby presented beside this data). Explain the markings on the axes and clarify whether they represent discrete or continuous measurements.

Lesson 2: Calculate and present population density for each country listed in the Pacific Island Socioeconomic Data table in the textbook excerpt (pp. 10-11). To calculate the population density, students must first understand the mathematical operation based upon smaller numbers in a context they are familiar with, before using a digital tool to apply this knowledge to the numbers in the textbook. Once population densities are known, students must list countries in order of population density (highest to lowest) and determine the best way to present this information. Finally, students discuss what other data might be added to this representation to present a complete picture, and how it might be done. Activities involving the Collection Of Data can support these tasks.

Year 7 / 8 students need to:

Lesson 1: Work out what percentage of the population of NSW live in Sydney (you will need to collect this data). Repeat this process to calculate the percentage of the population of every other state and territory that live in their corresponding capital city. Consider and rationalise the best way to represent this information graphically.

Lesson 2: Calculate average monthly temperatures for Sydney. Determine the mode, mean, and median of the highest 24hr temperature for each month based upon the data available on the Bureau of Meteorology website. Represent these averages graphically, considering the usefulness of different ways in which the information could be presented. Discuss the spread of the raw data and identify how this has impacted the calculated mode, mean, and median.

Relevant to both contexts, some of the students think they are "not good at maths" and will need help understanding and remembering these numeracy procedures. You will need to work with them in a small group and take them through these procedures step-by-step.

This part of the assessment requires you to describe how you - the teacher - will effectively teach each of the mathematical and numerical concepts required for enhancing numeracy. This will require clear, explicit teaching of the required skills, followed by a gradual release of responsibility enacted through group and individual learning activities. You will need to consider the mathematical procedures, key words and technical terms, and any effective usages of digital tools to enhance the value of this learning for your students. Overall, the purpose of this part of the assessment is for you to demonstrate that you understand and will be able to able to provide the opportunities for the students to engage with the key demands of the Australian Curriculum (V9) numeracy capability. Digital learning approaches may also draw upon concepts from Information Technology And System.