This article covers the following common questions:
- What are the teaching activities?
- How do I use the teaching activities?
- Are the teaching activities differentiated? How can I find the appropriate activities for differentiated learning in my class?
- Sample teaching activities
What are the teaching activities?
Created by the team of Australian researchers responsible for the flagship PAT suite of assessments and reporting, teaching activities provide targeted resources differentiated to meet the needs of students below, at and beyond their current level of achievement. Learning intentions are clearly articulated at the beginning of teaching activities, which use a variety of instructional strategies to convey information, facilitate understanding and promote active learning. The activities include discussion starting points, individual and group work, hands-on mini activities and games, and a range of multimedia resources.
How do I use the teaching activities?
You can use teaching activities to:
- identify and set specific learning intentions
- consolidate and develop your students’ skills, including how they learn skills
- provide stretch activities for students who are ready to progress their skills
- identify curriculum links to all Australian and national curricula
- spark and facilitate classroom discussion
- improve student learning when unexpected answers are identified in PAT assessments.
The teaching activities can be delivered as whole lessons or you may choose to use only part of the teaching activity in your classroom, allowing for your expert knowledge and interpretation of your students' ability levels. The teaching activities further provide targeted resources differentiated to meet the needs of students below, at and beyond their current level of achievement.
You can view the teaching activities on your computer, tablet, smartboard, or other device of your choice within the classroom while delivering the lesson, or you can download and print out a copy beforehand.
Are the teaching activities differentiated? How can I find the appropriate activities for differentiated learning in my class?
- Generate an Item Performance Report (in the PAT Data Explorer) or a PAT Group Report (in the PAT linear reports)
- If in the PAT Data Explorer, filter by the band you wish to focus on. If in the linear PAT Group Report, sort by the students’ scale scores
- In the PAT Teaching Resources Centre, select the strand that you wish to focus on, and then further drill down by topic/strand process.
Examples
- In Reading, you can select a topic to further target learning intentions for your students. All activities are organised according to a reading process (e.g. ‘Comparing and contrasting’ in ‘Interpreting implied meaning’). Once an activity has been selected, look at the related activities above and below the level, or adapt the learning intention and apply to texts of appropriate complexity above and below the target activity. Use these activities for the differentiated groups in your class.
- In Maths, you can select a topic to further target your activities. All activities are organised according to topics (e.g. ‘Location and transformation’ in the sub-strand of Space). Once an activity has been selected, look at the related activities above and below the level. If it is clear from the PAT reports that there is a need to focus on larger Mathematical concepts or ideas then the Thinking Mathematically range (and particularly Newman’s Error Analysis) will enable to you to find activities that support development in the appropriate areas. These activities are designed to support mathematical thinking generally without necessarily focusing on any one learning area in particular.