Secondary English: collaboration

Description

These seven learning activities, which focus on 'collaboration' using a variety of tools (software) and devices (hardware), illustrate the ways in which content, pedagogy and technology can be successfully and effectively integrated in order to promote learning. In the activities, teachers provide students with opportunities to collaborate in planning, drafting, producing, reviewing and proof-reading written, oral, multimodal and digital texts. Speaking and listening skills are a particular focus and the teacher explicitly teaches students how to operate effectively in groups. Peer feedback plays an integral role in this process and teachers learn to model for students how to provide effective feedback.

Educational value



  • These are valuable resources for teachers of students in years 7-10 who want teaching and learning activities that are pedagogically sound, that address the Australian Curriculum in English and that use tools (software) and devices (hardware).
  • Each learning activity has been written to explicitly support specific strands and descriptors within the Australian Curriculum in English. In most cases, an activity will cover a number of descriptors. This has value in that the educational content of the activities is current and relevant to the needs of Australian teachers and students.
  • These are useful learning activities in that they cater for a broad range of abilities. A number of the activities are short and focused, using few resources and tools. These tend to be more teacher-centred and allow for greater teacher guidance of student learning. Other activities include more student-centred learning and incorporate a more diverse set of tools. Less experienced teachers undertaking these activities might benefit from a team-teaching approach.
  • The learning and teaching of the English content is supported by a focus on sound pedagogies and descriptions of the effective use of technological devices. The selection of the tools and devices reflects considerations such as accessibility and ease of implementation as well as their relevance to the content knowledge.

Resources


Secondary English: collaboration

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This project is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations through the ICT Innovation Fund. Conditions of use