Case study - Vignette

Sean is a proficient classroom teacher and currently has a grade 3 class. He is based at a low socioeconomic school with a high population of ESL and Indigenous students.

He has prepared a science enquiry unit for the term that links to the school-based curriculum plan and the Australian Curriculum expectations. The topic is chemical science - A change of state between solid and liquid can be caused by adding or removing heat (ACSSU046).

During the implementation of the first session on this topic, he sets a pre-test and finds that the students have very little prior knowledge in this area. He is unsure of how to progress and is aware that some of the students' literacy levels are below the state benchmark. The topic being covered is technical and requires students to understand terms, complex ideas about their environment and also have knowledge of specific genres for writing. The writing genres for this term's assessment are 1. Procedural (impersonal) and 2. Information report (descriptive - clarifying) text types.

The unit plan that Sean has developed will not support his students as it stands - he is aware that he needs to go back and reassess his teaching strategies and unit content. His school is also in the process of implementing the Teaching and learning cycle (Links to an external site.) to support the student learning process.

Sean is concerned that he won't be able to cover the required content in the detail that would be expected. There is also the need for Sean to ensure that his students are engaged and that the learning is differentiated across the class of 25 students.

Sean also works collaboratively with his team of 3 other grade 3 teachers of which he is the most senior. He takes this discussion to his unit meeting and they are all feeling the same way.

How can Sean ensure that the students will receive the literacy support they need in order to be successful and achieve the outcomes required for assessment within this science unit?

After reading the case study please respond to this in 350 words

• An explanation of formal and informal literacy learning, along with a discussion of how informal and formal literacy learning and thinking might be applied to the scenario which clearly differentiates between the two.

Some points from the tutor

When you developing this task - think about how you can extend your suggested practice into the next assignment, as this is where you will design and implementation strategy to assist Sean and the team.

Consider how this fits into context in schools today for instance

• Links to the standards
• Know students and how they learn
• Know the content and how to teach it
• Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning