Academic Excellence 

SEAL UPDATE -  a snapshot

In Year 8 Maths, students have been learning how to sketch a variety of graphs including straight lines, circles, hyperbolas and parabolas. Students will also be ready to help anyone with their tax next season, as they have been learning about income, interest and financial literacy. 

In Humanities, the Year 7 SEAL students have been studying Civics and Citizenship. They have been examining Australia's system of government and exercising democracy within the classroom, namely by holding a mock referendum. Students researched whether Australia should implement a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, created pamphlets outlining the 'Yes' and 'No' cases, and cast their vote at the ballot box (one of the students' example pamphlets is attached).

A glimpse into a Year 9 SEAL English experience:

The great thing about our Year 9 cohort is their willingness to experiment. When I spoke to the class about trialling a new unit, they were very happy to step outside their comfort zone and try something new. Introduced in Term 3, the English students were given a slightly different small project based assessment task to demonstrate their understanding of non-fiction texts. We first watched a documentary together, analysing the themes and ideas, briefly exploring the types of documentary film making techniques we saw in the work, and considering the effects these produced. A fundamental concept of our SEAL program is that we strive for students to be content creators -  as opposed to merely content consumers -  and so the idea of students creating their own documentary was born. Students would need to harness a range of higher order thinking skills: analysis, synthesis, creating, justifying. 

THE ALT: Working collaboratively, students were required to conduct research, plan and create a storyboard, source/film and edit their footage, then justify their choices. 

THE PEDAGOGY:

In Term three, a team of teachers engaged in professional learning at the select entry Suzanne Cory High School. One of the fascinating aspects of their program centred on enabling gifted student agency and the careful removal of scaffolds to construct situations where students could be inventive and autonomous. When embarking on project work, the students are really in the driving seat. Where possible, the job of the teacher is to enable students to take their choices in any direction the see fit. At Suzanne Cory I heard staff use that famous expression that ‘the sky is the limit’ … and how a key part of the teacher’s role in facilitating the learning is to ‘say yes’ as much as possible to remove the ceiling on what could be achieved. To promote curiosity and engagement, teachers need to be willing to let students make choices about their learning, and hand over some decision-making to the students.

With this in mind, an Assessed Learning Task document was constructed to ensure students knew the parameters of the task and what skills were being assessed but, crucially, many aspects were left for students to ponder and naturally the questions were forth-coming.

Can we animate our documentary?                              YES.

Can we use an AI voice generator for impact?               YES.

Can we utilise existing footage from the internet?        YES.

Can we interview people from our school?                        YES.

Can we choose the topic of…                                                   YES.

Can we use voiceover rather than appear on camera?    YES.

Can we start big picture and then zone in on…                 YES.

And so on…

THE RESULTS:

It’s been very much a trial-and error process. Some students needed to rapidly become acquainted with new technology. Some students needed to readjust their plans to work within a fairly tight timeframe. All students were able to submit work that reflected their knowledge of documentary as a non-fiction form. 

As their teacher, I have also reflected on how this unit can be further improved. It's been especially important for me to reassure students that I will be looking for the myriad of ways for students to demonstrate the expected knowledge. Overall I am so pleased that these students rose to the challenge and were able to make some thought-provoking, rich and creative work. Well done 9ENS!

VHAP Term 4

This term, selected students in Year 7 and 8 who have demonstrated exceptional skills in English and Maths are completing the Victorian High Ability Program. They engage in online lessons and learning activities designed to enrich and extend their knowledge and skills. These sessions take place in the library at Bluff Road. We are very grateful for the support of Kerri Deegan, our librarian, who enables this program to run. 

Coming up next: SEAL Workshop - UltraWild!

In a few weeks, selected Year 7 and 8 students will be treated to a workshop with Steve Mushin, inventor, illustrator and author of award-winning graphic novel style STEM book UltraWild. Steve runs creative thinking, illustration and design workshops, where he uses his ‘design thought experiments’ as starting points for madcap STEM explorations. In 2015, he was awarded an Australian Design Honours for work in sustainability design education. His book is currently on the SEAL bookshelves in the Bluff Road Library.

This incursion aims to foster curiosity,  develop students’ higher order thinking skills and links to the Critical and Creative thinking curriculum, along with consolidating and expanding STEM knowledge acquired through our existing science and maths curriculum. Students will report back on their experiences of this workshop in the next newsletter so stay tuned!

To our Year 9 students - you haven't been forgotten! We are investigating exciting opportunities for you as well. More information will follow shortly.