Video Script

Meeting 1

Sajeeda: Welcome everyone. This will only be a brief meeting. We’re here to talk about Kayla. As we
all know she’s in year 7 and has been struggling both socially and academically. She has approached
me as her year advisor saying that she’s having trouble and wants help. As the heads of your
departments, and because she is in classes with both of you, I have enlisted your help with Kayla.
Varsha: She’s having trouble with Maths and science, she told me she’s forgetting content.
David: Mr. Hawkins told me she wasn’t here for Geography yesterday, but she was in my Art class,
she likes Art though and she’s quite good at it.
Varsha: She wasn’t in my Science class this morning-
Sajeeda: She was here for P.E. I was surprised when she approached me because she’s a good
student in my P.E. classes.
David: Sounds like she’s picking and choosing.
Varsha: That’s nothing new, she’s been truanting for some time, as well as hanging out with those
year 9 kids.
David: We should definitely send her to the counsellor to begin with, perhaps on the premise that
she’ll help her with her academic struggles but then she can help out with her social and
developmental issues as well. Counsellors are good at that.
Sajeeda: The reason I haven’t sent her to the counsellor yet is because it might make her feel that
there is something wrong with her.
David: Yes, that’s true, but that’s why I suggested sending her on the premise that she will help her
with her academic struggles, which is what she asked you for help with. Counsellors are always very
good at dealing with the fact that students might feel that they’re somehow in deficit if they need
extra help.
Sajeeda: Alright I’ll speak to the counsellor and organise an appointment for Kayla. We’re going to
have another meeting on Thursday. Because you both know her already, I trust you to make some
observations and come up with some intervention strategies which we will discuss at our next
meeting.

Meeting 2

Sajeeda: Thank you for coming, I hope we’ve all come up with good strategies for helping Kayla. Her
issues are typical for girls her age who have developed physically more quickly than their peers,
which she clearly has. I’ve been thinking about including an activity or a resource in a Health class
that emphasises that maturing earlier or later is okay, there are other girls like her too, who would
benefit from knowing this. There is some content from the year 8 and 9 courses which would be
beneficial. I can teach this early, given that there are other girls like Kayla as well. Mr Robertson and I
have our classes at the same time. I can take all of the girls and he can take all of the boys for a
special class in which we will cover the fact that it’s okay to mature early and some of the other
content from year 8 and 9. We’ve had year groups like this before and this strategy has worked
before.
Varsha: How do we get that kind of message across to kids that age?
Sajeeda: The movie Thirteen is targeted at girls who mature early like Kayla, I’m planning to use
excerpts from it with a worksheet. The potential downfall of using this resource is that the film might
encourage risk taking behaviour but it also shows the consequences of hanging out with kids who
are a bad influence and I can choose which excerpts I make use of.
David: I’ve been thinking we should perhaps encourage her to engage with some better role models,
although that might be a delicate matter. The year 9 kids she’s been making friends with are mostly
the same kids who were caught with drugs last year. She’s probably only being friends with them
because she doesn’t identify with kids her age, they seem infantile to her, I presume.
Varsha: How are you going to give her better role models?
David: I was thinking that perhaps we should put her in some extension programs, if we feel she’s
ready. She would mix with some high achievers then. She’s a very good student in Art. I could speak
to her and her parents about enrolling her in my extracurricular classes after school. The older
students in these classes are good role models and the classes are free for students enrolled at this
school. I can also encourage her to enter the inter-school Art competition in July and she will meet
more students from other schools there. I imagine she might be keen to do these activities because
she has told me she would like to one day attend University to study Visual Arts. The only problem I
envisage with this strategy is the fact that at her age it isn’t cool to be smart and that might further
complicate matters if she’s in extension programs. However, creative subjects like Art and Music
seem to be somewhat exempt from the “smart isn’t cool” syndrome.
Sajeeda: She’s also very athletic, I’ll suggest she joins the soccer team as well. However, she enjoys
both Sport and Art, did you have any ideas for other classes in which she might not have the benefit
of achieving well because of her enthusiasm?
David: I thought that she might respond well to group work if her teacher puts her in groups with
the right peers. It’s like Vygotsky says, when kids are working together they are more engaged, but
this will also help her make friends her own age and potentially help with her attendance problems.
If you say there are other girls in her classes who have similarly developed early like her, then
perhaps someone could put her in a group with some of these girls so she would feel less alienated,
provided that group work suits what they’re teaching. it depends on the girls in question, of course.
If someone blindly implements this suggestion without proper consideration, it could become
counter-productive, we would need to choose the right peers.
Sajeeda: That’s a great idea, I’ve thought of someone already, but yes, like you say, we should
exercise caution. I’ll speak to some of her other teachers. So Miss Narain, have you looked into Kayla
in relation to your Maths and Science classes?
Varsha: Like you asked in our previous meeting Miss Shah, I have looked into Kayla and her issues in
my Maths and Science classes. She is forgetting class content which means she can’t keep up. I think
she is struggling with her working memory and we need to work on transitioning this into her long
term memory. The best way to do this is to use certain mnemonic devices in my lesson.
Sajeeda: Okay so what would these devices include? How would you implement this in your lessons?
Varsha: Some of the mnemonic strategies I have devised are:
 We could have lessons with rhyming and poetry used to discuss certain topics in my Science
class. Next lesson I will be beginning the Periodic Table. I also thought group work might
be a good idea, I might well implement Mr. Kass’s suggestion with the groups I choose. So
I’m going to divide the class into groups of 4 and get them each to spend two lessons on
creating a rap or song to present the Periodic Table to the class and in the third lesson I
will have them present this to the whole class and have a class vote on which team's
performance they preferred and I will provide a prize. The presentation will give me an
indication of how well she has memorised the elements and in the following lesson I’ll
have a class quiz to follow up.
 For my Maths classes I have decided to include some resources with visual prompts assisting
with fractions. So perhaps have a card showing half of a cake plus a quarter of a cake and
then they will have to match the correct answer cards with the question cards. This will
work well as it is suggested that visual imagery works well as a memory device. I’ll have
comprehensions and quizzes following after to see progress.
David: Is it an issue that you’re changing the classes for everyone with only Kayla’s benefit in mind?
Varsha: I have considered that, I feel that many of the other students will also benefit from these
strategies, not only Kayla.
Sajeeda: Okay well this sounds like a start. Is there anything else you would like to add ?
Varsha: Well, If these strategies fail to work by the end of this term I will provide Kayla with forms to
the school science club and mathletes to provide her extra assistance with content she finds herself
struggling with. There is also peer tutoring available which she could attend if she desires, I’ll tell her
about these and take her through the process if she wants.
Sajeeda: Okay sounds like we’ve come up with some good strategies to assist Kayla. Let’s work on
implementing these as soon as possible and keep each other up to date with her progress. As the
heads of your departments please speak to your staff about these strategies as they may be useful in
their classes too.
Reflection
In this unit I have learned a lot about how to identify with adolescent learners. Potential issues that
were never a problem for me during adolescence have been brought to my attention and I now
know of many strategies for helping these young students overcome their struggles with social,
physical and psychological development. This will become invaluable when I start teaching.

It was easy to imagine myself as a heroically inspiring teacher when I didn’t fully understand the
difficulties adolescents face, but I now understand that a good teacher must look out for their
students’ emotional wellbeing and the so-called heroic teacher may not be the one who is helping a
high achiever go further still, but the one who has the insight to ask a student what is bothering
them if they’re struggling with their work rather than punishing them for being lazy.

In a Design and Technology classroom, I feel that I need take particular care to reduce distractions to
allow my students to focus more easily, having learned about how working memory and long term
memory function and how adolescents need their midbrain to be appeased in order for the
forebrain to work to its full potential. I also feel that my lesson plans need be written with this in
mind, while remaining engaging. All this because a Design and Technology classroom is a dynamic
environment with many potential distractions, especially during a practical lesson.