Jose Sicurella

S4526414

Case Writing.
Practice Described
The mathematics classes at The Lakes P-9 South Morgan school are distributed
according to students results on a pre-test on a specific maths topic, with the
view that specific targeted teaching can be applied to improve students results.
I have been teaching the year 8 class that has been described by other
mathematic teachers as below standard. This class is not the lowest standard
class and the abilities of the students varies within this class.
I have undertaken ice breaker activities to get to know students and their
interests in order to build a rapport with them. I have identified that a majority of
the class have an interest in either dancing or sport and as such questions have
been modified to incorporate these activities.
There is one student in this class (well call Bob) who refuses to do any work and
claims that all work given to him is too hard. When in class he will just sit at his
desk without engaging in any activities until instructed by the teacher. He is not
usually disruptive.
In this particular class, we were working on the topic of algebra. I presented the
class with the following question how can we use algebra to work out the
positions on the ladder of a soccer team if they had certain number of wins,
draws and losses? I gave the students time to formulate ideas on how they
could approach the problem. After assisting a couple of groups, I approached
Bob who had his head on his folded arms on the table as if sleeping. When I
asked if he felt unwell he said that he was fine. When I further enquired as to
why he wasnt participating in the class activity he responded that this was too
hard for him. I took time to explain the scenario to him again and explained
that his knowledge of soccer would help him, he responded that he didnt
understand any information and if he could be moved to the lower class. I
informed him that I didnt have the authority for him to move classes and that he
should participate in the class discussion as his knowledge would be helpful. I
returned back to the front of the class to continue the class discussion with
students. Bob did not participate in any class discussions.

Questions that arose from this incident:

Why the student is not engaged in the class activities?
Is it just the mathematics class that he is disengaged with?
Is it my teaching style that hes not responding to?
How much time do I spend trying to engage the student to the detriment of
others?

Practice Explained

Jose Sicurella
S4526414
The lesson plan was developed to address the following standards from the Australian curriculum:

Introduce the concept of variables as a way of representing numbers using

letters (ACMNA175)

Create algebraic expressions and evaluate them by substituting a given value for
each variable(ACMNA176)

The Question was specifically designed with Bob in mind as he has an in depth
knowledge of the soccer teams and leagues from around the world.
I feel that Bob is disengaged from my class activities and wishes to be moved
into another class to be with his friends. He claims that all the work is too hard
and tried to do as little work as is possible.

Questions that arose from this incident:

Why the student is not engaged in the class activities?
Is it just the mathematics class that he is disengaged with?
Is it my teaching style that hes not responding to?
How much time do I spend trying to engage the student to the detriment of
others?

Practice Theorise
As described by Kember et al (2008), one contributing factor for motivating
student is to provide relevance to the theory which is being taught. For this
reason I choose a real life scenario that students could relate to or at least see
the connection between the theory and real world examples. Questions that I
have designed specifically for Bob have all been met by his usual lack of
enthusiasm and low effort, regardless if they coincide with his interests.
The Victorian government has identified some guidelines for identifying students
at risk and one of those risk is student disengagement. Bob doesnt seem to fall
in this category as he only seems disengaged with academic activities. He is
quite happy when Ive seen him with his friends around the play grounds and on
the soccer pitch.
Dr. Edward H. Haertel stated that Teachers appear to be the most critical withinschool influence on student learning and through his analysis he believes that
teacher influence on students score is about 10% with the biggest contributing
factor being out of school factors which account for about 60%. With this in
mind its hard for teachers to influence students when they just dont want to
learn which appears to be the case with Bob.

Jose Sicurella
S4526414

Practice Change
I have discussed the topic of Bobs behaviour with my mentor and other teachers
to get their opinion and advice and it seems that Bobs behaviour in my class is
his standard behaviour in all classes. My mentor believes that that he is lazy and
has a huge chip on his shoulder as his brother was a model student. She get
very little support from Bobs parents in getting him to commit his academic
work.
Reflecting on the communications protocol , my mentor Kim suggested that I
move around to all groups more often in class. I will action this suggestion and
also use it in Bobs case by targeting him during my movements through the
classroom and giving him specific questions that I know he can complete easily
in class.

Reflections
I have tried to build a rapport with Bob during my time at The Lakes P-9 South
Morang by trying to engage him in conversations about his interests in and out
of class, but I feel that his he doesnt want to interact with me. I have not found a
teacher yet that has established a good relationship with Bob and most teachers
seem to be of the opinion that he is lazy. I can understand how some students
might dislike a subject or two, but I havent met many like Bob who are so
disengaged in all classes. I will keep trying to engage Bob and hope that I can
get him to see that the teachers have his best interests at heart.

Jose Sicurella
S4526414
References
Churchill, R. (2011). Teaching: making a difference. Milton, Qld.: John Wiley and
Sons.
Education.vic.gov.au, (2015). Identifying Students at Risk. [online] Available at:
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/participation/pages/disengaged
risk.aspx [Accessed 29 Jul. 2015].
Goos, M., Stillman, G. and Vale, C. (2007). Teaching secondary school
mathematics. Crows Nest NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Haertel, E. (2013). Reliability and Validity of inferences about teachers based on
student test scores, The 14th William H. Angoff Memorial Lecture was presented
at The National Press Club, Washington, D.C.,
Kember, D., Ho, A. and Hong, C. (2008). The importance of establishing
relevance in motivating student learning. Active Learning in Higher Education,
vol. 9(3), pp.249-263.