Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

1. Definitions of differentiation and inclusion

As a teacher, you will encounter students with extremely diverse characteristics,

background knowledge, beliefs, skillsets, interests and motivations, ambitions and goals in
your classrooms. You will also encounter students that are identified with learning
disabilities or ‘learning difficulties’, which may also include mental health issues and other
psychosocial factors that affect learning. Teachers also need to consider the needs of
students that identify as ‘gifted and talented’, as it is a right for all students to have access
to education in Australia. This group of students need an equal focus as in many cases these
are the students that render most challenging to provide effective differentiation and
inclusive practice for (Jarvis, 2015).

Important for all teachers to understand: The Australian Curriculum functions on the notion
that “All students can learn and that every student matters” (ACARA, 2018).
Also, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 – Students with disabilities are entitled to
educational opportunities equal to all other students.
Although all school in Australia must adhere to this, it is up to the individual school to
ensure and maintain ongoing effective differentiation and inclusive teaching practices.

Differentiation and inclusion go hand in hand, you cannot have on without the other.
Effective differentiation is tailored and conditioned instruction that meets the zone of
proximal development of each individual learner, that has been informed by ongoing
assessment and analysis of readiness (Tomlinson, 2008). In addition, as Sousa & Tomlinson
(2008) point out that a key component to effective differentiation practice in student
interest. Personal interest in students vary, however, remains an important factor to
student engagement and motivations, particularly in the middle years, therefore it is
important for teachers to capitalise on this and get to know your students have how they
learn (Standard 1 AITSL, 2019).

2. School Diversity and Inclusion Profile

The following information has been derived from my placement school’s

website; for integrity reasons, the name of the school will be omitted and
referenced as (placement school website, 2019).

What philosophy and approach to student diversity and inclusion is reflected in the
school’s mission or vision statement, policies, or other published information:

My placement school is a R-12 public school located in the south of Adelaide in a middle-
lower socio-economic area, being one of the highest school populations in South Australia.
The philosophy at my placement school is to offer diverse and innovative curriculum
presented in an inclusive learning environment that supports all students to help them
reach their optimal learning potential. The aim at my placement school is to inspire student
success not only in the curriculum, however also in all areas of students lives. This is to
 Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

prepare students to be well-informed active citizens who are ready and prepared for life in
present day society.
The focus at my placement school is to see the students as an important member of the
local, national and global community by committing to and actively motivating students to
create their individual place in the real world (placement school website, 2019).

The philosophy, aim and focus at my placement school are achieved by the incorporation of
special facilities and programs that the school offers to students and families.

My placement school offers special facilities and programs and student support that adhere
to the different student interests, motivations and learning requirements such as:

 Special learning needs for students with identified learning difficulties

 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education support
 Careers counsellor
 Christian Pastoral Support Workers (Chaplains)
 Flexible Learning Options (behaviour management)
 Arts academy (performing arts)
 Sports academy (for students with high sporting capabilities and interests)
 Extra-curricular activities such as outdoor Ed. Camps, snow trips and sporting
carnivals
 International students’ programs
(placement school website, 2019).

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 Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

Image 2: These are the 3 main priorities of my placement school moving into 2019 – Annual Report

Reflections from experience looking at 3 priorities, priority 1: At my placement school,

student voice (priority 1) was readily seen throughout the school. At this school there was a
student council that would frequently be in communications with other students and peers
to express any thoughts and ideas they have about the school at the time. The student voice
leaders could then relay this information to teachers and line coordinator managers (LCM’s).
Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

(priority 2) My placement school was extremely impressive with the ability to track and
monitor student and whole school learning progress. The ICT tool SEQTA is an efficient and
effective means to support student learning. Every Tuesday night all staff would meet after
school, generally splitting up into subject lines to go through SEQTA and focus on student
progress, lesson planning, sharing of lessons and cohesiveness. What also caught my
attention was the amount of SSO works at my placement school, most of the time I would
have at least 1 SSO in my classroom, but it was not uncommon to have 2-3 SSO’s working
around my classroom.

(priority 3) This was a valuable experience for me taking part in cross school curricular
moderation. In week 6 my placement school took part in moderation day where many
teachers from schools south of Adelaide congregated and exchanged student work,
teaching ideas, lesson plans and communications. It was interesting to see different
teaching perspectives and approaches to the Australian curriculum. This experience was
also valuable in the way of visualising how other teachers mark student work and the rubric
they work from, as a pre-service teacher I was trying to soak into my brain as many ideas as
possible!

Student differences in the classroom, how teachers address these differences and how
these differences might impact on the classroom environment.

The majority of students in my classes were students that were English as a first language,
however as I got to know the students in my classes the disparities and differences in
readiness, characteristics, personalities and every other human emotion were staggering.
Through this, I learnt the power of preassessment and ongoing formative assessment to
inform the teacher to help develop effective and differentiated learning activities. SEQTA
was again a valuable ICT tool for dealing with student differences. Each student had some
form of documentation accessible to all teachers to inform them of their readiness,
behaviour and characteristics and any changes over time. For me, I focused on building
respectful relationships with my students and attempting to understand their interests and
motivations, this became successful through conversations, flexible groupings according to
interests and preassessments. Therefore, one form of differentiation I incorporated in my
placement was the use of a RAFT learning activity. Before implementing this into a lesson, I
worked on it with my mentor teacher to refine and select the appropriate timing for its
implementation into my lesson. This lesson was year 11 history, students were able to select
from an historical event that we had learnt ‘one that interested them’ for the RAFT task.
See below images 3 & 4.
 Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)
Image 3: RAFT lesson outline

Image 4: RAFT Activity

Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

Your observations and impressions of (a) how the philosophy embodied in the mission
and vision statement is specifically enacted in practice at this school, and (b) the extent to
which the classroom and other school practices you observed throughout your
professional experience align with the philosophy, principles and practices of
differentiation and inclusion we have studied this semester.

From my observations and impressions at my placement school I can quickly identify that
the philosophy, aims and focus of the school is embedded in the functionality of the school.
Furthermore, there was a real focus to maintain teacher to teacher cohesion in regard to
student’s development, participation and accomplishments in academia. The majority of
this collective collaboration was done through SEQTA; however, this was also achieved by all
teachers buying into their responsibilities to include all students in the learning processes.
An example of this is in my year 9 HASS class where I had a Japanese exchange student. This
student had different learning plans and various notes and strategies for differentiating the
curriculum to meet the readiness of this particular student. I was able to make progress
with this student when I scaffolded my questioning into more short, explicit instruction so
that she was able to understand the language and exactly what was needed from her for the
task. Furthermore, If any of her subject teachers found a learning strategy that was working
well with this students, then it was uploaded and documented on SEQTA so that all teachers
had access to this important information. I think my placement school could consider having
SSO’s in the classroom that are specifically trained in EALD as my placement school had
many international exchange students, this would have cut down one on one time with
teacher and student.

Professional Reflections

I was proactive at the beginning of my placement and notified my year 11 history mentor
teacher that I am required to practice and implement differentiation strategies in my
lessons when necessary. I was lucky enough to have a mentor teacher that was open to this
idea and guided me through the correct process.
To put this in context, my year 11 history class were all competent in their English skills and
most were sitting on at least a ‘B grade’ overall, therefore, the differentiation method I
choose to implement was ‘differentiation by interest and motivation’. Furthermore, the
summative assessment (see image 5) was a Photo Story in the study of ‘Genocide’. Students
studied closely 3 different genocides in different stages in history. For the final assessment,
students choose a genocide to complete their Photo Story on in which they we most
interested in which motivated them to complete their work at a higher standard. This
assessment was also differentiated by interest by providing the students with multiple
assessment conditions: how the Photo Story could be presented, as some students were
extremely artistic and creative while others were not so (see image 5).
Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

Before introducing the Photo Story task, student engaged with the RAFT activity above,
which gave me a good idea as the teacher as to what direction most students were going to
take in the summative assessment piece. The Raft activity also gave me an insight into any
missing gaps in knowledge and understanding that I could address before moving on to the
final assessment piece.
Image 4: Assessment Task Sheet
Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

This assessment worked well and was evident in the results of the class, all my students
passed this assignment, however some better than others. I realised that some students
although seemed extremely competent, struggled with grasping some of the main ideas.
This is where in I could have conducted further formative assessments such as group
conversations or mini plays etc. to make sure I know the readiness of each student before
moving forward. This was something that I have learnt over my placement experience.

I believe some factors that may have challenged me to differentiate properly is the limited
time I had with the group of students, I did my best to get to know the students and how
they learn through teacher – teacher and student – teacher conversations, looking through
the SEQTA database, pre-assessments and formative assessments however, I have also
learned that producing effective differentiated learning for your students becomes more
efficient and effective once the teacher has spent more time with the students and has
developed more of a repertoire in regard to understanding individual student readiness.

My goals for my next teaching experience in regard to differentiation is to conduct more

ways of collecting formative assessments to inform me effectively and appropriately in my
differentiation planning.
This idea ties in well with Mctighe and Tomlinson (2006) as they discuss the importance of
Understanding by Design (UBD) and Differentiated Instruction (DI). Furthermore, the use
and application of formative and ongoing assessment is key to inform effective
differentiation.
Assignment 3: Portfolio Jack Langdon (2118770)

References:

 Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards

 Australian Curriculum Website:

https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

 Jarvis, J. M. (2015). Inclusive classrooms and differentiation. In N.

WeatherbyFell (Ed.), Learning to teach in the secondary school (pp. 154-
172). Port Melbourne, Victoria: Cambridge University Press.

 Sousa, D. A. & Tomlinson, C. A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain:

How neuroscience supports the learner-friendly classroom.
Bloomington, IND: Solution Tree Press.

 Tomlinson, C. (2008) The Goals of Differentiation Educational leadership

66(3).

 Tomlinson, et al. (2006) Integrating Differentiated Instruction and

Understanding by Design : Connecting Content and Kids, Association for
Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.ezproxy.flinders.edu.au/lib/flinders/detail.action?docID=3002130.

 Placement School Website (2019)