Effective Teaching involves effective planning in the classroom.

Teachers plan lessons in order to deliver their material. As a result

teachers who plan their lessons are able to decide what to teach and
how to teach it. Lesson planning however, is not just something that
can be done freely. There are conventions and standards that are in
place when teachers plan their lessons. Its important to note that
without these conventions and standards, teachers would be left to
teach their material however they wanted. However, just like
students teachers need guidelines when conducting their lessons.
The following response will analyse the effectiveness of teaching
through highlighting the conventions and standards necessary when
writing a lesson plan. These conventions and standards that will be
explored are the syllabus, diverse student learning needs,
assessment data, and national professional standards for teachers.
The response will then use an example of a lesson plan and see if it
correlates with the convention and standards mentioned. If some of
the conventions and standards are not used in the lesson plan the
response will argue how these conventions can be used and be
made effective and improve the product.
As mentioned in order to be an effective teacher it involves effective
planning. The syllabus is an effective factor when making decisions

in regards to teachers planning their lesson. The NSW syllabus is

designed in order to identify knowledge, understanding, skills,
values and attitudes that students need to be expected to have
developed within each stage of their schooling (BOSTES, 2015).
Bush & Zuidema (2013) state that A good syllabus not only
provides answers, it also identifies some very important questions
what grant Wiggins and Jay Mctighe have referred to as the
essential questions that drive a course (Bush & Zuidema, p. 94).
An example of how the NSW syllabus supports this statement made
by Bush is evident within the KLA of English and how teachers
should be considerate of particular students learning abilities, and
also assess the community surrounding the school when selecting
texts to use in the classroom (BOSTES, 2015). By having these
suggestions and considerations the NSW syllabus aims to assist
teachers when constructing their lesson plans and also teaching
their curriculum to students.
A factor that is influential when understanding effective teaching are
diverse student learning needs. As a teacher it is their responsibility
to cater to students of all levels of knowledge. Teachers must also
take into consideration students with learning disabilities. According
to the NSW syllabus students may require additional support; this

includes teachers adjusting their teaching methods which would in

turn influence students learning and assessment activities (BOSTES,
2015). An example of how a teacher adjusts their teaching
pedagogy to the needs of students with learning needs and
disabilities is through technology. Technology can be used to engage
students in the classroom. An example of this is through the 5-E
lesson planning model (Schad, 2011). According to Schad (2011)
The 5-E lesson plan model Helps teachers build deeper, richer,
rigorous lessons that use web 2.0 tools or an interactive lesson that
truly involves students in learning (Schad, p. 42). Through the use
of technology it supports the NSW syllabus statement of teachers
adjusting their teaching methods to suit the needs of those with
learning needs and disabilities. Effectively it can be seen that
technology can be used in the classroom as tool to engage students
to the material.
Another example of effective teaching is the use of previous
assessment data. Through assessing students teachers are able to
get an understanding of where their students are good at, and also
where some students are struggling. In order to determine the
effectiveness of assessment data, this response has to evaluate the
two different types of assessment issued by teachers. These two

types of assessment data are formative and summative. Formative

assessment data is often informal and used to monitor student
learning and provides students with ongoing feedback, whereas
summative assessment is more evaluative based used to deciding
grades and also evaluating programs and teachers (Klingner et al,
2015 p. 16). Ideally formative assessment determines the needs of
the student and also assists teachers in determining how to help the
student in understanding the material. Summative assessment is
used to evaluate students and teachers progression, and is seen as
an overall evaluation determining teacher and student success.
Overall a teacher must be proficient in collecting assessment data in
order to identify what to teach and how to teach this material to
their students (Klingner, 2015, p. 16). Evidently in order to be an
effective teacher; a teacher must incorporate both methods of
assessment.
Another factor that is essential to effective teaching is the Australian
professional standards for teachers. Like students, teachers are
required to meet a certain standard. The Australian institute for
teaching and school leadership created the national Australian
standards for teachers and was produced in July 2010 (Clarke &
Pittaway p. 412).

The Australian professional standards for teachers are divided into

three categories professional knowledge, professional practice, and
professional engagement (Clarke & Pittaway, p. 412). These three
categories of teaching are used to assess the effectiveness of
different career staged teachers. These four different career stages
are graduate teachers, proficient teachers, highly accomplished
teachers and lead teachers (Clarke & Pittaway p. 413). Looking
specifically at the graduate stage it is stated that a graduate teacher
Possess the requisite knowledge and skills to plan for and manage
learning programs for students. They demonstrate knowledge and
understanding of the implications for learning of students' physical,
cultural, social, linguistic and intellectual characteristics . (AITSL,
2014). Evidently the national standards for teachers is a factor that
considers intellectual growth of students, however the standards
also consider the physical and social growth of students as this
could affect their learning capabilities.
Evidently the following essay has explored four factors that are
influential when designing lesson plans, in order to become an
effective teacher. The following response will now introduce a year 8
lesson plan that incorporates these factors. The lesson plan chosen
is based on understanding the techniques of persuasion and how

students can be better at persuasive writing. Students act out

persuasion techniques in small groups and sort from powerful to
least powerful. The lesson plan aims to outline and explore five
outcomes from the Australian curriculum. An outcome that will be
focused in this paragraph is the use of different texts. The lesson
plan states that the students aims are that they Select, navigate
and read texts for a range of purposes, applying appropriate text
processing strategies and interpreting structural features
(Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). This specific curricular
outcome focuses on the use of texts and evaluates the effectiveness
of such texts being used in the program. By aiming to achieve this
particular outcome in the lesson plan, the teacher is demonstrating
effective understanding of the syllabus by engaging students in
variety of different persuasive texts. As outlined earlier in the
response, one of the aims of the syllabus is to provide suitable texts
for students. These texts that are provided are in contrast to
students contexts.
The diverse student learning needs in the lesson plan is
demonstrated within the methodology of role playing. Stated in the
body of the lesson plan the teacher is to Handout persuasive
language techniques and ask children to get into groups and look at

creating 4 examples for 1 of the techniques (e.g. group 1 has

ATTACKS so they have to come up with 4 different examples) to be
modelled back to the class (role play) (Australian curriculum
lessons, 2012). This methodology of role playing engages students
far beyond than just reading the texts itself. Through role playing
particular examples of persuasive techniques, this could enhance
the students learning experience, and as a result students could get
much better understanding of the material being taught to them.
However, it is also important to take into consideration specific
students learning disabilities and also literacy levels, as not all
students are on the same level as others. With this lesson plan
though it outlines a fun and engaging method of learning persuasive
writing, it does not, consider that some students may not have the
same understanding of the topic as others, by role playing it could
put other students at a disadvantage and defect their interest in the
topic. In order for the role play to be effective the teacher should
design a much simpler exercise in order to suit other students
needs.
The lesson plan uses formative assessment data. These forms of
assessment data are success criteria, anecdotal notes, and photos
of sticky notes with the names of persuasive techniques that are

stronger than others (Australian curriculum lessons, 2012). The

success criterion, anecdotal notes, and sticky notes are a goal
oriented exercise of students knowledge of the given topic. This
form of formative assessment challenges students to reach their
goals in this subject area. Clarke and Pittaway (2014) highlight
formative assessments aim is to develop student growth and that
findings have shown that formative assessment strategies have
raised standards of student achievement, particularly students of
lesser ability (Clarke and Pittaway, 2014, p. 313). Evidently this
method of formative assessment aims to not just challenge
students, but also raise students achievement by engaging their
minds in a fun but suitable activity.
Through the use of formative assessment in this lesson plan this
would ultimately lead to the formal assessment task that will be
given to these students. The Summative assessment can be seen as
the final goal of an activity (Clarke and Pittaway, 2014, p. 313). This
lesson plan serves the purpose of preparing the students for the
final assessment task. By incorporating an interactive activity it
prepares students to know what could and may be in the final
assessment task.
The lesson plan demonstrates an outcome in the Australian teaching

standard within the professional practice module. The teaching

standards highlight that graduate teachers Set learning goals that
provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and
characteristics (AITSL, 2014). Evidently the lesson plan has a
stimulus of role play that is used to intellectually challenge students
and engage them in a fun activity that entices their learning
experience. Another teaching standard outcome that this lesson
plan covers is the proficient use of resources. This teaching standard
falls under the professional practice module highlighting that a
graduate teacher exhibits knowledge of a variety of resources which
include ICT, to engage students in their learning (AITSL, 2014). The
lesson plan asks students to watch videos of politicians and evaluate
the effectiveness of the politicians persuasion (Australian
curriculum lessons, 2012).
Though this is an effective way of using resources and attributes to
the teaching standard, however by showing political videos it can
alienate some students who could be of other races and cultures.
This is evident within how the teaching standards evidently state
that teachers use strategies to accommodate Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students (AITSL, 2014). By showing videos of
politicians such as different prime ministers of Australia it could

present complications as they are predominantly demonstrating a

white Anglo Saxon perspective. To counter this objective the teacher
should also show a video of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
perspective to demonstrate diversity in the classroom.
In conclusion this response has explored and evaluated the notion of
effective planning attributing to effective teaching. The response
has demonstrated the importance of the syllabus, diverse student
learning needs, assessment data, and teaching standards when
teachers plan their lessons. Furthermore, this response has applied
these factors to a specific learning plan, to justify each individual
factors importance. On the contrary, the response has also criticised
the lesson plan through how some factors were not effectively used.
Evidently the response has explored the effectiveness and
importance of the following factors in teaching. These foundational
factors are important to teachers as this influences what a teacher
teaches and how to teach it.