Student diversity Illustrations of practice

Science: Energy transfer/Mathematics: Statistics and probability

Introduction

Malibu School is an education support school for students from Foundation to Year 12 with intellectual disability, physical disability, sensory impairment (vision and hearing), challenging behaviour and/or autistic spectrum disorder.

Classes at Malibu School are organised into learning clusters, based on phases of learning, to create a balance between developmental and chronological age groups. Malibu School specialises in augmentative and alternative communication.

The following illustration of practice demonstrates how Malibu School used the dimensions of the Australian Curriculum to deliver learning area content in Science and Mathematics.

Dimensions of the Australian Curriculum accessed in this illustration of practice

Learning area content

Sub-strand

Element from Achievement Standard

Content Descriptions

Elaborations

 

Science

Year 9

… They describe models of energy transfer and apply these to explain phenomena.

Energy transfer through different mediums can be explained using wave and partial models ACSSU 182

With guidance, identify questions in familiar contexts that can be investigated scientifically and make predictions based on prior knowledge (ACSIS053)

With guidance, plan and conduct scientific investigations to find answers to questions, considering the safe use of appropriate materials and equipment (ACSIS054)

exploring the properties of waves, and situations where energy is transferred in the form of waves, such as sound and light

working in groups to discuss things that might happen during an investigation

working with teacher guidance to plan investigations to test simple cause-and-effect relationships

discussing safety rules for equipment and procedures

 

General capabilities

General Capability

Sub-element

Level 1

 Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Literacy

Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literacy

Deliver presentations

 

 

 

 

 

 

Literacy

Express opinion and point of view

 

 

 

 

 

 

Planned adjustments

In this illustration of practice, the following adjustments were in place:

  • practical hands-on activities
  • practical demonstrations throughout the lesson
  • communication using augmentative and alternative communication modes
  • multiple modes to promote student understanding, including:
    • graphic representation
    • model making
    • feeling sound waves.

Part 2 Foundation/ Year 1 Mathematics

Dimensions of the Australian Curriculum accessed in this illustration of practice

Learning area content

Sub-strand

 

Content Descriptions

 

Example 2

Mathematics

Foundation/ Year 1

Foundation

Students answer simple questions to collect information and make simple inferences.

Year 1

Students classify outcomes of simple familiar events.

Identify outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language Will happen won’t happen or might happen (ACMSP024)

Answer yes/no questions to collect information and make simple inferences (ACMSP011)

Targeted general capabilities

General Capability

Sub-element

Level 1a

 Level 1b

Level 1c

Level 1d

Level 1e

Numeracy

Compose spoken, written, visual and multimodal learning area texts

 

 

 

 

 

Literacy

Comprehending text through listening, reading and viewing

 

 

 

 

 

  1. How would you develop an age-appropriate unit of work for a class of mixed age students?
  2. What indicators of student learning would you look for when aligning individual goals (e.g. communication or social) with Australian Curriculum content?
  3. What are some of the key points teachers may need to consider when using augmentative and assistive communication?

Similar illustrations of practice

Copyright

These illustrations of personalised learning are not licensed under the creative commons license used for other material on the Australian Curriculum website. Instead, you may view, download, display, reproduce, and distribute these materials in unaltered form only for your personal, non-commercial educational purposes or for the non-commercial educational purposes of your organisation, provided that you retain this copyright notice. This means you cannot edit, modify or adapt any of these materials and you cannot sub-license any of these materials to others. Apart from any uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), and those explicitly granted above, all other rights are reserved by ACARA.