Two Year 5 teachers at this school collaborate and team teach as a strategy to meet the needs of all students in their classes. In this lesson students were organised in mixed-ability groups, with one of the groups consisting of high-ability students. The students re-examined the ‘Port Adelaide looking north along Commercial Road’ watercolour by S.T. Gill, 1847, to recognise perspectives and different understandings, assumptions and situations, feelings and motivations of people in the past. Students chose a character from within the painting and independently undertook a Step Inside Thinking Routine (What might the character perceive, know or care about?). Students were given questions to ask their group members from the perspective of the character they chose in the painting. The high-ability group had to pose their own questions, focusing on the complex issues of the past empathising with a particular viewpoint.
A teacher of Year 8 science, who is also the sustainability co-ordinator, ensures all students...
When planning this unit of work, the Year 2 teachers used the Australian Curriculum, history,...
Learning area
HistoryYear level
Year 5Content description
General capability
General capability
Teacher intention
To develop students’ ability to: • examine sources to recognise points of view by identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas • describe, through interacting and empathising with others, the different experiences of people in the past.Personalised learning
Plan from age equivalent learning content:
The teacher plans from the Year 5 Humanities and Social Sciences (history) content to develop a teaching and learning program about establishing new colonies and understanding how historians use primary and secondary sources to learn about the past.
Use the general capabilities and/or cross-curriculum priorities to adjust the learning focus and to personalise the learning
The teacher focuses on the general capabilities of critical and creative thinking and intercultural understanding to challenge the students to think about the issues of the day in Adelaide and probe a deeper understanding of the perspectives of the people in Gill’s painting.
1. How might you use the General Capabilities to differentiate the teaching and learning to meet the diverse needs of students?
2. How might you involve students in the planning so as to engage them to personalise their own learning and become self-directed?
3. What are some differentiated learning strategies that are suitable for all students and also enable gifted students to demonstrate higher order thinking?
Standard 1
Know students and how they learnFocus area 1.5
Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilitiesStandard 2
Know the content and how to teach itFocus area 2.1
Content and teaching strategies of the teaching areaStandard 3
Plan for and implement effective teaching and learningFocus area 3.1
Establish challenging learning goalsStandard 4
Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environmentsFocus area 4.1
Support student participation
Wilderness School
SA Australia
School type
Non-governmentSchool sector
K-12School location
MetropolitanSchool description
A non-denominational school for girls from Early Learning to Year 12 and boarding for students from Year 7 – 12.