Case Study Report

Name: Kevin Savvas Student Number: 18330058 Content

 Situational Analysis
 Professional Goals
 Case Study Report
Name of school: Leumeah High School  Overview of Participants
 Key Classroom Event 1
 Lesson Plan 1
Address of school: Junction road Leumeah NSW 2560  Pre-lesson Discussion Form 1
 Evaluated Lesson Plan 1
 Lesson 1 Observation Feedback
 Post Lesson Discussion Form 1
Phone number: 02 4625 7755
 Key Classroom Event 2
 Lesson Plan 2
Professional  Pre-lesson Discussion Form 2
School Principal: Paul Zielinski  Evaluated Lesson Plan 2
Experience
Placement  Lesson 2 Observation Feedback
 Post Lesson Discussion Form 2
Mentor Teacher/s: Peter Garagounis  Key Classroom Event 3
 Lesson Plan 3
Weebly URL: https://kevayrts.weebly.com/  Pre-lesson Discussion Form 3
 Evaluated Lesson Plan 3
 Lesson 3 Observation Feedback
 Post Lesson Discussion Form 3
 Summary of Impact
 Supporting Appendices
 Caregivers’ consent forms
 Appendix 2 [optional; provide

Professional Goals
Goal 1: Incorporating ICT in the classroom to cater for all types of learners
Links to Standards:
1.2 Understand how students learn
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
2.6 Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
Strategies:
- Observe mentor teachers’ lessons and previous work to get a sense
of what students are capable of
- Develop scaffolded and procedural activities so students can be
familiar with the process before moving on to more complex
questions that require interpretation
- Relate each lesson, activity and skill to the Learning Intention (LI)
and success Criteria (SC)
- Create open-ended and engaging questions for students to answer,
differentiating the learning and demonstration of understanding
- Creating fun and engaging activities using ICT
Ongoing evaluation and reflection
Date: 3.6.20 (3rd observation day): During this lesson, I observed my
mentor and found that the teacher does consistently use metalanguage and
encourages the students to do so too. He also uses a range of ICT resources
such as PowerPoint, Mathletics and Transum activities. Since his junior
classes’ (year 7s/8s) are technology classes which the school only recently
introduced, every student has an iPad they can use in the classroom. (I do
have to add there is currently only 1 class per year group that are technology
classes) Therefore, my mentor plans his lessons accordingly. His classes
seem very balanced in that students are well behaved, always attempt to do
the work when asked and always ask questions when they need help. I had
the pleasure of helping multiple students over the course of the day. His
classes however chatter while working which I don’t necessarily have a
problem with as when noise gets to loud my mentor teacher does quite the
classroom back down. Overall, his teaching style is quite similar to mine
which will make teaching his classes quite simple. Well hopefully.
Date: 10.6.20
My first case study lesson was still on the topic equations, but more
specifically, it was on the subtopic one and two step equations. The lesson
asked students log onto “Mathletics” and complete the exercise given by the
teacher on one and two-step equations. Mathletics to me is an excellent ICT
tool that students using their iPads can work on as it not only provides
instant feedback for students, meaning the software will show students
straight away whether or not they get the questions correct. Also, this
software shows me information as well. I am able to see what marks
students are obtaining during the exercise, how many attempts they had and
how well they are doing overall. Before given them this activity I ran
through a few examples on how to do one and two-step equations which
made students understand the topic a lot better. Students still had question
or help I should, say that needed my assistance, which I gladly was able to
assist. Activities like this provide students a different outlook on how to
learn the syllabus, which is a big step because textbook and worksheets
aren’t really working anymore.
Date: 21.7.20

Goal 2: Differentiation – being able to cater for all learners and providing
students engaging activities
Links to Standards:
2.1 Content and teaching strategies for teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
3.2 Plan, structure and sequence learning programs
Strategies:
- Observe mentor teachers’ lessons, flow of lessons, metalanguage
use, connectedness of lessons to real world, and connection to
previous lessons, and try to see how much interconnectedness is
conveyed
- Create real-world examples and questions (as per ‘3.5
Connectedness’ of Jennifer Gore’s Quality Teaching (QT) Model
[ CITATION Gor07 \l 1033 ])
- Ensure flow within and, especially, between lessons so that content
and skills are consistently recalled and highlighted
Today was the third case study lesson which was on area and perimeter,
specifically focusing on the area and perimeter of squares, triangles and
other quadrilaterals. The lesson was a student-centered approach to learning.
Students were taught last lesson how to work out the perimeter of these
shapes but not area. At the start of the lesson I ran through the idea of what
area is and how we use area. Students were given an engaging activity
called the escape room activity. The questions in this activity were a
mixture of perimeter and area-based questions. Students were given a
formula sheet providing them with the formula of the areas of the shapes
provided above. Students had to read and analyse what the formulas mean
and use them accordingly. Some students struggled with this as they had to
figure out how to use the formula instead of just being told what it was. This
was countered as it was a collaborative learning task, meaning that students
were able to discuss this information as a team and suss out what it all
means. Once they were able to figure out what they needed to do, students
were highly engaged. Overall, this activity went well, students were able to
use their iPads to research extra materials on area and perimeter to assist
them further.
Ongoing evaluation and reflection
Date: 3.6.20
During the observation lesson I was able to see how students reacted to
certain tasks. Students were not engaged when given the usual
textbook/worksheet activities. They acted up, misbehaved causing them to
be unmotivated to do work. To me these students seem to respond to
engaging activities involving the use of ICT as well as just out of the norm
activities, activities that they have never seen before. During this lesson I
was able to see what activities worked well and what to stay around from, as
well as how my mental teacher responded to these specific classroom
behaviour incidents. Overall, I think I have a good grasp on what and how I
am going to teach these students, and hopefully it all works out well.
Date: 10.6.20
In this lesson on equations, I attempted to branch out from the usual
teachings and decide to take a different approach on teaching equations.
Differentiation was a big deal of mine and I wanted to incorporate as much
- Be consistent with metalanguage use and reinforce correct and
critical use from students
- Give students a chance to show how the content or skills in class can
or has related to their own life in some way
of this as possible. Students used their iPads to work through activities on
Mathletics, which catered to all student’s needs. This software provided
instead feedback for students so they were able to see what they did
wrong/right and if they did get something wrong, they put they hand up
asking for assistance. I was able to check on my computer the marks that
students were getting, how many attempts they had as well as how many
exercises they have done. Meaning that I was able to see who was doing
well and who wasn’t, focusing on the students who were doing poorly I was
able to give them extra support and assistance. Students loved the idea of
solving problems using their iPads instead of handwriting solutions.
I believe the visual aspects of the work questions also helped students to
identify with the question and create a connection with it and reality. Of
course, some of the class was not particularly engaged and did very little
work, as well as, just wanted to play games on their iPads instead of doing
work. My mistake was focusing on getting them on task, which didn’t work
very well, since it meant that I was ignoring the remainder of the class and
failed to make effective use of my time. This aside, the lesson went still
went thoroughly well.
Date: 19.6.20
Today was the second case study lesson, and it went very well! Students
were engaged the entire time and learned almost everything that was put to
them, as I discovered when I walked the room and observed students work.
This lesson mainly involved collaborative and cooperative learning, as well
as game-based learning. Students were given the opportunity to form groups
of 4 and work together to solve the tasks at hand. This activity involved 4
rounds where each round had a set of questions each group had to answer.
These questions were worth points, meaning you answer the question
correctly you get the acquired amount of points for it. The idea that a group
would win, as well as a reward went out to the winners motivated the whole
class to participate. Each round had an extension question worth bonus
points that students were able to solve as well. These questions were quite
difficult however most of the groups managed to solve them which was
excellent. Students loved the idea of being able to work with their friends
but at the same time, learn the curriculum as well. The overall take away for
this task was that group-work based activities works and students seem to
highly enjoy it.
 Case Study Report
Overview of Case Study Participants

Student 1 – Advanced Learner

Kay (pseudonym) is a 14-year-old male. Kay is a conscientious student that enjoys school, and in particular, mathematics. He will sometimes
ask for homework so that he can keep abreast of the topics learned in class, especially when he feels confident with the material and wishes to
demonstrate this to himself and the teacher. Kay will always raise his hand every time I would ask a question in class and most if not all the
time his answers will be correct. In fact, every time a difficult question would arise the class will just scream out “Kay” because they would
just assume he knows the answer. He is friendly with the entire class and is not disruptive in his behaviour or attitudes, rarely chatting unless
inquiring about the content of the lesson. When asked, Kay said he wasn’t sure what he wants to be when he gets older, but he does hope to go
to university and obtain a job somewhere along the line through this.

Student 2 – Working at Expected Level

Jay (pseudonym) is a 13-year-old male. He can be very talkative with two of the other students in the class whom he sits next to and behind.
Jay is not contentious and needs a lot of guidance and structure so that he can follow what is happening in class without being lost. He is
unorganised and unstructured in his work and working out, sometimes missing pages between lessons, and rushes his handwriting so that it is
difficult to read. However, Jay works hard when he is interested in the subject matter at hand. He loves history and P.E., prefers hands-on
work to theoretical work, and is not afraid of giving something a go even if he isn’t confident in it. Jay is also very honest and aware of when
he is learning and understanding something and when he isn’t. When the class is asked to rate their understanding of a lesson or concept, Jay
is often the surest of the fact that he does or does not sufficiently grasp it, sometimes telling the teacher outright that he doesn’t understand
midway through an activity or after an explanation.

Student 3 – Emergent Learner

Soph (pseudonym) is a 14-year-old female and is an only child. She is a very positive student when she wants to be, however most of the time
she plays the role of the “class clown”. She is late to nearly every class and is always talking or trying to talk over the top of me while I am
teaching. Since all the students are in a seating plan her seat is purposely at the front due to her behaviour, however it doesn’t stop her from
trying to communicate to her friends across the room. Soph’s literacy skills are low too, and she struggles with reading, understanding and
comprehending even slightly complex texts. She does enjoy stories, however, and is quite a competent listener. Heavily scaffolded work with
lots of examples seems to work best for Soph to be able to learn effectively and retain her learning. Soph does pay attention to activities that
require any sort of group work or any work where she can work with her friends. Overall, Soph is a positive outgoing student and if pushed
can be very intelligent.
Links to Standards
7.3 – Engage with parents/carers
 Maintained confidentiality regarding collection and presentation of students’ information; consent forms were handed out and returned
signed before beginning planned TPA lessons with the students and collection of their data/information

Factors Influencing Learning

These three students are all in the same low-ability class which has a total of 30 students. The class operates below expected levels of
understanding and ability, with most students only being able to operate at a stage 2 or 3 level for problem-solving and reasoning aspects of
working mathematically. Most of the class know their times tables and can use multiplication algorithms for two-digit numbers, but some
struggle with this and some cannot at all. Negative numbers are also a hassle for them; it takes quite a bit longer to work out questions
involving negative numbers and they often still making common mistakes regarding them. Questions with negatives require a great deal of
scaffolding or else students will simply become confused and disengaged. Decimals are understood conceptually very well but fractions are
not – almost all students cannot add simple fractions without guidance. Each of these three students are well behaved for the most part and are
highly engaged with the class, especially when doing any form of group work activities.
Links to Standards
1.1 – Social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
7.1 – Meet professional ethics and responsibilities
7.3 – Engage with parents/carers

Lesson 1 Observation Feedback

Agreed focus area(s)
 Soph – use of visual stimulants
 Kay– use of extension questions
 Jay– clear and explicit instructions to stay on task
What did the Teacher Education Student say/do? Evidence
 Recap of previous lesson to begin- reinforcement of learning – this
immediately had students engaged
 Questioning techniques were scaffolded to suit the levels of ability
in this class and with the targeted students – used higher order
questions for Kay, clear and explicit for Jay
 Lesson content clearly linked to Learning Intention – expectations
were very explicit and left no doubt as to what needed to be
covered and understood. This catered for all 3 targeted students.
 Formative assessment – questioning, monitoring
 Less time should be taken to settle certain students while others
waited
Teacher Education Student: Kevin Savvas
Mentor Teacher / Observer: Peter Garagounis
Date: 10 / 6 / 2020
What did the students say/do? Evidence
 Students were settled quickly – the girls were not but they need
strict boundaries
 Students were on task from the beginning of the lesson – this
enabled student to recall facts from the previous lesson to then
build on their knowledge
 Visual stimuli seemed to engage Soph and she was engaged for
most of the lesson
 Kay was extended which enabled him to move forward at his own
pace
 The use of extensive scaffolding is vital to the achievement of
outcomes for this class. On task behaviour was apparent because of
this scaffolding
 Summary of Impact
Teacher Education Student: Kevin Savvas
Completed by Teacher Education
Mentor Teacher / Observer: Peter Garagounis
Student
Date: 8 / 7 / 2020
Case Study Participants (Focus Students)
Kay – Advanced Learner
Jay – Working at Expected Level
Soph – Emergent Learner
Link to Graduate
Discussion Teacher Standards
Provide a summary of impact on the learning of the three Case Study Participants Standard 1 Know students and
The first goal was incorporating ICT in the classroom to cater for all learning needs. This how they learn
goal proved to be impactful to all three focus students. As I discovered from my last (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.5)
prac, and as I remember from my own experiences in high school, students rarely
payed attention to mathematics due to the fact there were doing the same “textbook Standard 2 Know the content
worksheet activities” every lesson. Students especially juniors need something different and how to teach it
to cater for their learnings and that’s where ICT comes in. Both second and third case (2.1, 2.2, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6)
study lesson involved cooperative and collaborative learning as well as cooperative
Standard 3 Plan for and
game theory. All students proved to work splendidly during their groups. They
implement effective teaching
incorporated all the knowledge they obtained and translated it within their groups to
and learning
formulate the correct answers. However, I do believe the all the skills obtained through (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5)
these theories will ultimately be diminished after my prac is over as the replacing
teacher will go back to his “normal style of teaching”. The entirety of a student’s
mathematics education should be wrought with real-life and application-based
examples where possible and effective, and not just a single topic, which in this case
was equations. I think I have showed myself that I am able to hit those targets when I
truly do aim at them, but consistency and routine is key, and this I am not able to
provide with these students.

Kay was always a delight to have in the classroom and frequently performed to at least
an expected level. What makes him an advanced learner is not his raw talent, but his
hard work and determination in class (and outside of it too) and motivation to continue
learning and understand the content. Kay did not shine any more during my time as his
teacher as when I saw when my mentor was on class. Kay is a consistent student and
never strayed from learning, even when things were difficult, always raising his hand if
he had a question or needed help. Kay ability to interpret and understand a question
may have only slightly improved while I worked on it with him. Kay loved the ability of
the Escape Room activities and all the other activities that were out of the norm. He
loved working independently, but at the same time loved working with his friends in
groups and always asked me to provide him with extra or harder work which I loved to
cater for his needs. His mathematical skills were exceptional and it was an absolute
pressure being able to teach this student.

Jay was an exceptional learner when he was switched on and engaged. His ability to
talk with friends or be off task in some way, perhaps distracted, was better than this
ability to listen. However, I felt that I saw the most improvement in Jay compared to
the other focus students. His ability to interpret a question improved quite rapidly over
my time as his teacher, and his ability to connect mathematics to real-life also
drastically improved. Once my lessons became sufficiently scaffolded; that is, scaffolded
to the right amount for the class, Jay showed a great increase in motivation,
enjoyment, learning and overall comfort in the class and content. Jay would always be
open about whether or not he understood the content – which served as a good litmus
test for the remainder of the class – but this could sometimes be resolved with another
example that contained real-life elements in it, so it was more understandable. He also
loved working in groups where he was able to branch off ideas with his friends. He
excelled in all group worked given to him.

Soph was a student that simply needed more time and questions to go through in order
to understand things as well as everyone else. Her confidence rose over the time I had
her as my student, and her ability to answer questions unaided (after explanation and
examples) increased somewhat. Her ability to participate in collaborative learning
showed to be evident. She loved the idea of working with her friends and being able to
learn through them. Soph thoroughly enjoyed all the creative and differentiating
activities I supplied to her. Anything that was not textbook or worksheet related
activities she was highly engaged, motivated and concentrated throughout the whole
lesson. Overall, the biggest improvements was seen in Soph and I wish I had more time
to work with her more.
Write a critical reflection on your own classroom teaching practice in terms of the Standard 2- Know the content
teaching cycle of planning, teaching and assessing, reflecting on and how to teach it
feedback/observation/ student data. (2.1, 2.2, 2.3)
This professional teaching experience really opened by eyes in a lot of ways. Each of
the elements of the teaching cycle that I took part in – those being planning, teaching, Standard 3 Plan for and
assessing, and reflecting – were greatly tested. During the beginning of the prac I implement effective teaching
treated each element in the cycle somewhat independently from the others, and most and learning
of my attention was focussed on the planning and reflecting stage. Over the course the (3.1, 3.2, 3.5,3.6)
6 weeks, however, the cycle began to take a more fluid form and be more crucial to me
Standard 4 Create and
as an effective teacher. I was always big on reflecting and knew that was the means to
maintain supportive and safe
self-improvement but assessing was something I felt I fell short on frequently. Too learning environments
often I relied on informal formative assessments to gather data and evidence of (4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4)
learning and did not gather formal or concrete evidence as recording. Given this, I can
say that I have improved fantastically in each of the elements of the teaching cycle, Standard 5 Assess, provide
teaching and assessing most of all, and in the adapting of this cycle to each aspect of feedback and report on
the role of a teacher. student learning
(5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5)
During this prac, I relied a great deal on my lesson plan template as my reminder for all
the ways in which I could be effective in teaching, assessing, and reflecting. That is to
say that I would begin each day anew working forward from the planning to the Standard 6 Engage in
reflecting stage. My template had specific space for assessment for learning, of learning professional learning
and as learning so that I could consider how to implement any or all of them into my (6.1.1, 6.2.1, 6.3.1, 6.4.1)
lessons. There was also space for each of Jennifer Gore’s QT model elements so I could
consider which ones could be capitalised on in a single lesson for diversity across
lessons. There was space for recording assumed knowledge and assumed skills of the
students, so that this could be used for planning the next lesson and so that there is a
record of the accumulation of knowledge and skills. And there was a specifically
cultivated reflection section so that I could judge various aspects of where my lesson
went well and where it did not, and potentially correct for it in the next lesson. This
template allowed me to keep within the cycle daily and I was always looking to update
it and make it more effective so that I was developing better plans, teaching better,
assessing more and with higher quality/accuracy, and reflecting with more precision
too. This helped a great deal. It also helped me to realise some very important things
about teaching too, such as this: make sure that the questions and activities you are
planning, your students have a high to very high chance of completing successfully, and
always with incrementally increasing complexity/difficulty. For me, this appeared to
raise motivation and confidence, ensure effective and quality learning, and increase
engagement with the content and class.
From your critical reflection, what future professional learning would you undertake Standard 7 Engage
to improve your teaching practice. professionally with colleagues,
There many aspects of my teaching practice that could do with some updating or parents/carers and the
professional development. Despite saying that, I am confident with how I will be as a community
teacher, and mostly because I want to improve myself and push myself to be better, (7.1.1, 7.2.1, 7.4.1)
more informed, more accommodating, and more respectable. And perhaps this will
always be the case; being a teacher appears to be a job where there is no upper limit to Standard 6 Engage in
how prepared and developed you can be. That said, one area that I feel that I certainly professional learning
(6.1.1, 6.2.1, 6.3.1, 6.4.1)
need development on is my ability to effectively differentiate my learning, especially to
students with specific and primary learning needs such as autism. Students with autism
in public schools has been increasing rapidly in recent years [ CITATION Bou11 \l
1033 ], and there is a strong chance I will have one or more in my classes in the future.
In addition to this, I would like to improve my professional development to assist my
support of students of an EAL/D background. This was already common in LHS and I
could certainly do with some more understanding and strategies to cater for these
students who are not uncommon.

Outside of these professional developments, I would have to say that I am still looking
to improve in several other domains in my teaching. Some include; providing quality
feedback, articulating goals, delivering high expectations, explicit teaching and
instructions, classroom behaviour, facilitating the ability for both collaborative AND
individual work in students, and being more structured in my lessons and presentation
of work and working out on the board. I am only new at teaching (and I am not even
yet a teacher), but I realise that I have a great deal of painful learning to go before I can
consider myself competent. Having said that, I am confident in my ability to get there,
because I really do want to improve myself, whether via better reflecting and
implementation of the teaching cycle, or by participating in more professional
development, I will get there.

Supporti
ng
Appendic
es
Appendix
1–

Caregivers’
consent
forms
Appendix
2–

Example of
Mathletics.
Below we can see when using “Mathletics” what the scores were for each
individual student, how many attempts they had as well as what activities they
actually did. Number 2 is K, Number 14 is Jay and number 8 is soph. So, we can
evidently see which student needs one on one assistance and which student
understands the content.
Appendix
3–

The escape
room
activity
This was an
example of
Soph’s
work. She
was only
able to get
to the end
of round 3,
which is
excellent
for her
considering
she doesn’t
really do
any work in
class. Her
answers
were
correct and
she did
have
working
out, just
could have
laid out her
answers a
bit better.
Appendix
4– Kay’s workbook, which
as you can see his
Kay’s structure and layout of
workbook these equations are
for the perfect. He has
second followed my examples
case study
on the board and used
lesson
his knowledge to lay
answering
al out his equations like
questions this.
correctly
including
the bonus
or
extension
question
Appendix
5

Jay’s
workbook
showing
evidence
he is able
to work
out two-
step
equations
and
further
two-step
equations.
His
working
out needs
a bit of
work but
overall, he
was able
to
understan
d the
concept
very well
with a