Tutorial Letter 103/0/2019 Practical Teaching for the Senior Phase (Grades 7 - 9)
Assignment 50. Year module. PORTFOLIO TEMPLATE HE PURPOSE OF THIS PAGE IS TO IDENTIFY THE ONE
SENIOR PHASE SUBJECT DIDACTICS MODULE THAT IS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PRACTICAL TEACHING PORTFOLIO
Mark the box next to the one senior phase subject (grade 7-9) for which you prepared this portfolio
Subject didactics senior Tick box with an X PLEASE NOTE:
phase (grades 7-9)
Teaching Technology IF YOU DO NOT
Teaching languages COMPLETE THIS
Teaching Economic & PAGE CORRECTLY
management sciences
WE WILL DEDUCT
Teaching Human & Social
sciences 10% FROM YOUR
PORTFOLIO MARK.
Teaching Life
orientation
x
Teaching Natural sciences
3.10 Marks records sheets ................................................................................................... 47-70
FIVE LESSON PLANS AND EVIDENCE ................................................................................... 73-105
5 .LESSON OBSERVATIONS AND DIARY/RELECTIVE JOURNAL .............................. 106-456
8. GOOD PRACTICES IN YOUR SUBJECT ..................................................................... 161-163
9. SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT OF PRACTICES IN YOUR SUBJECT ............ 163-165
10. DECLARATION FORM .................................................................................................. 166
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PTEAC2Y: Assignment 50
Unique number: 753473
1. INTRODUCTION
Dear Student
This tutorial letter contains the portfolio template to be used to complete assignment 50 for PTEAC2Y
(Teaching practice for SP (grades 7 - 9).
Please read the instructions and guidelines carefully and thoroughly before attempting to complete the
portfolio. This portfolio counts 80% of your final mark for PTEAC2Y. Also, read the attachment for information
regarding lesson plans.
Your future and your career depend on quality teaching practice and timely submission of the
portfolio. You must submit the portfolio as soon as you finished your practical teaching period of 25 school
days. Since this is a non-venue based examination and you are expected to do it every day. In the interest
of quality assessment we have to stagger the submissions so that they do not all come to us for marking at
the end of the year. If you do not complete the portfolio during the Teaching Practice period and do not submit
it on the last day of your teaching practice you will be penalized in the following way: If it reaches us two
weeks late – minus 10%, three weeks late – minus 20%, four weeks late 30% and so on.. IT IS YOUR
RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE YOUR PORTFOLIO IS RECEIVED IN GOOD ORDER AND ON TIME.
You might think that these measures are harsh but we work with huge numbers of portfolios and expect you
to take responsibility for your work and to make sure you follow the guidelines as you are also expected to
instill the same skills to learners.
PLEASE NOTE: The school visit is a very important part of your training as you get advice and support that
is valuable for your preparation as a teacher. The mark you receive for the school visit does however not
count towards your marks for this course, as at this stage we cannot yet guarantee that every student
can be visited. If it happens that you are not visited your marks will not be affected in any way.
If you have any queries regarding the portfolio (read your tutorial letters before you ask questions),
you can contact me at:
INSTRUCTIONS
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE STARTING WITH YOUR TEACHING PRACTICE
This is a non-venue based exam called portfolio. It has to be completed on each day you are at school (every
day). You should learn as much as possible from your mentor and other teachers as well as from the learners.
During Teaching Practice (TP), you are expected to comply with all the school rules and policies e.g. leave
policy, code of conduct etc. Read this document thoroughly before you start your TP. For this module, you
can do TP at high school in grade 10-12 or TVET College in NCV L2-4.
This document is the teaching portfolio template and must please be completed fully and submitted as one
document with comprehensive evidence of each aspect inserted at the appropriate sections. PLEASE DO
NOT ATTACH ALL EVIDENCE AT THE END OR AS A SEPARATE SECTION.
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This portfolio is a structured portfolio and you must use the portfolio template we provided. All aspects of the
portfolio are compulsory except where it is indicated that something can be included for additional marks.
You are expected to complete all activities for each aspect of the portfolio that is compulsory.
Where applicable you have to include documentary evidence. Attach the evidence at the appropriate section
in the portfolio. For instance, if you want to include a copy of the school’s disciplinary code you attach it
where the disciplinary code is discussed.
The portfolio also includes lesson plans that you have to complete and present. You can present as many
lessons as you are allowed to by the school but at least five of these lessons need to be assessed by your
mentor. Mentors will give you a mark and feedback and will sign the assessments. You also need to get the
assessed lesson plans stamped with the official school stamp.
After completing the portfolio, you need to sign the declaration form at the end and you must also get it signed
by the mentor and the school principal. This also needs to be stamped with the official school stamp.
It is best to complete your portfolio electronically and submit it online. The electronic template is available
online. All online assignments and online portfolios must be submitted as pdf documents. NO WORD
DOCUMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED. After submitting it please check that everything was downloaded and
that it appears correctly on the system. PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY OTHER DOCUMENTS IN THE
PORTAL FOR THE PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION. MAKE SURE ALL YOUR INFORMATION IS IN THE
PORTFOLIO BEFORE SUBMITTING IT. No additional information can be added later. DO NOT SUBMIT
THE WRONG PORTFOLIO IN THE PORTAL MEANT FOR ANOTHER PORTFOLIO.
Always keep a backup of your portfolio. I have heard all the hard luck stories (some true and some very
innovative inventions) about laptops being stolen from cars, from homes, from schools and everywhere else
you can think of and from crashed computers, viruses, etc. These things happen, and you should KEEP
BACKUPS ALL THE TIME. If you send a hard copy you must submit this whole document and evidence
must be attached to the pages where it is relevant. Send the portfolio by courier or registered mail. Shops
and the postal service are not reliable. ALWAYS KEEP A COPY. PORTFOLIOS CANNOT BE REMARKED
OR PURCHASED.
If you do not receive an SMS that your portfolio has been received please contact assignments immediately
and make sure what the problem is. If your portfolio is submitted early, you will have an opportunity to attend
to problems.
If you add substantial amounts of colourful, interesting and credible evidence you must please reduce the
size of your artifacts to keep within the maximum size of documents that can be submitted online or rather
make use of the e-portfolio option.
Negative marking will be used when sections of the portfolio are not completed. For instance, if we require
you to keep a diary and you do not submit it, you will not only loose the 20 marks allocated to it, you will be
given minus 20. That goes for all sections not completed fully and comprehensively in the portfolio. It is
virtually impossible to make any changes or additions after submission and we need enough time to do
quality assessment. If you do your bit and follow the guidelines I promise you that I will do anything in my
power to assist you with challenges regarding your teaching practice and your portfolios that might crop up.
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The following could be reasons why students fail their practical teaching: Non-submission, late
submission or failure of assignments, late submission of portfolios, lack of credible evidence, poor
quality of lesson plans, poor quality of answers, failure to complete all sections of the portfolio
comprehensively (including meaningful reflections), cheating (with school stamps, signatures,
copying of the work of other students, submitting the work of teachers instead of your own, not
attending all practical teaching days).
Portfolios are examination equivalents and are not sent back to the students. The portfolio results are
released in December. Please do not include anything valuable or anything that you will need again.
Make sure you get an SMS confirming that the portfolio has been received by Unisa and is registered
on the assessment system. You can also check this on myUnisa on your student record. If there are
challenges contact assignment section. Do not wait until the results come out before you check this.
You cannot claim later that you did submit it if you did not receive this confirmation. If no
confirmation is received it means that your submission was not received by Unisa. You will then have
to resend a copy. It is highly recommended to submit your portfolio online to avoid problems that
can lead to resending assignments.
Portfolios are submitted immediately after completion. This means your due date is based on when you finish
your teaching practice. The 27th of September is for students who will complete their teaching practice at the
end of the third term. No portfolios received after 27 September 2019 will be marked! All portfolios
received after the due date will be returned to you and you will have to reregister and repeat your
teaching practice module the following year. Make sure that you send the portfolio on time and that
is has been received by Unisa.
ORIENTATION REGARDING YOUR TEACHING PRACTICE
Except for all the other modules you have already completed as preparation for teaching practice and
information already contained in the tutorial letters and the portfolio, it is recommended that you consult
chapter one in the recommended book Teaching practice perspectives and frameworks which you can
request from the library (see tutorial letter 101).
Chapter one is titled “A positive and enriching teaching practice experience” and its purpose is to make
available additional information to orientate you regarding teaching practice. It covers topics like: why
teaching practice is done, how to prepare for it, how to do your observations, what to expect and what will
be expected from you, such as student classroom behaviour and student school behaviour.
It is not essential to your teaching practice but might help to allay some doubts you have and to answer some
questions on things you are not sure of.
One of the biggest challenges students seem to encounter when preparing and presenting their lessons is
planning and implementation of assessments. Most students lose a lot of marks because of the poor
assessments they include in their lesson plans and some just do not complete the assessment sections.
This is despite the fact that they completed the “Teacher as assessor” module successfully.
To refresh your memory on what is required when planning assessments you could read chapter 10:
Assessment in practical teaching. Practical advice is given regarding all the types of assessments you will
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encounter at school and you will also find a section on the assessments you yourself will undergo during
teaching practice.
Quite a lot of reflection is built into your portfolio. To learn more about reflection you could consult chapters
11 and 12 while in chapter 7 there are useful sections on lesson presentation that you might benefit from.
You are also encouraged to read other books and articles on teaching practice to equip you better on
teaching and learning environment.
The success of your teaching practice is mostly in your hands and if you approach it with an energetic and
positive attitude it can be a very satisfying and enriching experience. Go and show them out there that you
are going to be a professional teacher when you start teaching!
PORTFOLIO FOCUS
The purpose of this portfolio is to demonstrate and give evidence that you completed a successful teaching
practice period of 25 full school days in the Senior Phase (grades 7-9).
Teacher education consists of different types of knowledge that must be integrated:
• Conceptual knowledge (foundations of education/ theories/disciplinary knowledge/ content) with the
aim of acquiring knowledge specialised proficiency.
• Contextual knowledge (all aspects that endeavours to contextualise knowledge for occupational
purposes, such as subject didactics and practical teaching) with the aim of acquiring task-specific
proficiency.
It is therefore important that you find links between school practices (including their associated
activities) and your studies (including disciplinary knowledge and skills). You must do this in every
section of the portfolio.
This portfolio will have a whole-school perspective (understanding your role as teacher in the school). As
student you are expected to familiarise yourself with the full range of activities that are associated with a
functional school. You not only have to observe these activities but are expected to take part in as many of
them as is possible. You are also expected to look at these activities critically and to comment on
their purpose, functionality, outstanding features and possible shortcomings where applicable.
PLEASE NOTE:
THIS PORTFOLIO CAN BE COMPLETED AND HANDED IN THE FF WAYS:
• As a written/typed hard copy that is posted; As an electronic online submission;
• As an e-portfolio.
For guidelines regarding preparation and submission as an e-portfolio please go to myUnisa and look under
additional sources where the procedure is explained in full.
Portfolios can be sent to Unisa via:
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Courier to Assignments
Second floor, OR Tambo building
Unisa, Leyds Street Muckleneuk, 0003
Assignments may be couriered free of charge by handing them in at any branch of Skynet
or
Hand it in personally at Assignments, Second floor, OR Tambo building Unisa, Leyds Street Muckleneuk,
0003
Or
Hand it in at a regional office and ask them to acknowledge receipt
or
Post it at a Unisa post-box
or
Submit it online or as an e-portfolio (highly recommended)
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2 MENTOR LETTER
Please hand this letter to your mentor to read on your first day at the school:
Dear mentor
Thank you very much for agreeing to support and guide this student from Unisa. It is only possible for our
students to get acquainted with the realities of teaching under the supervision of experienced top teachers.
What you do for our students is irreplaceable and inestimable in their preparation to become teachers. We
request you to assist us with the following?
• dedicate some time each week to formally meet with the student to discuss her/his progress during
the past week and schedule for the following week.
• allow the student to observe all the lessons you present and write a short report on 25 of them (as
in the report form included in this portfolio under section 4). Please control that this is done regularly.
• assist the student in working through the portfolio systematically to enable her/him to
comprehensively complete it in the 25 days at the school.
• control that the portfolio is comprehensively completed (including all attachments) at the end of the
25 days.
• assist the student with lesson preparation for lessons she/he has to present.
• assist the student to present as many lessons as possible under your supervision.
• provide feedback to the student after every lesson.
• assess five of the lessons that must be presented and included in this portfolio.
• provide feedback and make suggestions for improvement of these five lessons.
• write a short report on the behaviour and activities of the student during the Practical Teaching
period on the following page.
• include contact details with your report if we need to make contact with you regarding any aspect of
the Practical Teaching (it may also be the school contact details).
• contact me if there is any indistinctness regarding what is expected of you or regarding what the
student must do.
• contact me regarding any misbehaviour or unethical actions by the student (e.g. if the student comes
late or is absent without a good reason or if the student does not cooperate or if the student does
not prepare properly for the lessons she/he must present).
My contact details are:
Thank you very much for agreeing to help and guide the student.
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