Following on from the micro teach you now have to talk about some of the decisions that went in to that. As long as you planned it out properly in your session plan back in P2 this isn’t going to be hard and you will just have to talk about the theory behind the activities you did and resources you used. This is all part of the continual learning process and you’re demonstrating you understand why you did stuff not just what you did.
Level 3 – Explain and justify the reasons behind your choice of teaching and learning approaches and use of resources for your delivered session. Recommended word count: 150-250 words.
Level 4 – Evaluate the teaching and learning approaches and effectiveness of resources, for your observed session. Evaluate how your session met the needs of individual learners. Recommended word count: 250-450 words.
Teaching and learning approaches
These are all the issues you’ve been learning about:
- How did you provide for visual, aural and kinaesthetic learners?
- How did you have the room laid out? Why like that?
- Did you split up in to groups? Why?
It depends so much on what you actually did do that it’s hard to summarise here! Basically everything that you did you need to know why you did it. You need to show you took the concepts you learnt in the course and applied them to your own actual teaching in the lesson plan, in the lesson and then again reinforced in this assignment.
Use and effectiveness of resources
Again, you have your resources list so you need to go through that and talk about why you made the choices you did, showing the links between what you wanted from that particular activity and how you organised it. You need to show your background understanding and not just that you did an activity “because you should”, that there was a well-reasoned plan behind it.
How your session met the needs of individual learners
Your level 4 bonus part of the question is about looking at the individuals in your group and you’re thinking along the lines of…
- What different needs did you think you might have? Did you find out?
- Did you differentiate? Did you have back up tasks for early finishers?
- What assessment and feedback methods did you use to check you had met everyone’s needs?
Level 3 and 4
This is an actual written essay-style question and there is a level 3/4 difference.
Level 3 you have to “explain and justify” whereas in level 4 you have to “evaluate” which would probably involve some explanation of the options you considered but discarded. There’s also an extra part to the level 4 question which is covered above. The dictionary definitions:
explain: make (an idea or situation) clear to someone by describing it in more detail or revealing relevant facts
justify: show or prove to be right or reasonable
evaluate: form an idea of the amount, number, or value of; assess
Okay! Hope that helped. It’s a tricky one because everyone will be so different based on their own session. Hopefully I’ve been able to give a few pointers as to the general direction to be going in. Drop a comment if you have anything to add. All the other Ptlls essays are also covered, so check them out if you need.
i am at present on the pttls course and sometimes wonder if i am reading the questions correctly, this website has helped me a great deal, im not saying that i am stupid but i do like things broken down a little further, perhaps its my age. All i can say is a big thankyou to your website and i hope others find it as informative as i have done.
Hi Janice, thanks for the comment and best of luck with your course!
I have just finished my ptlls course and once I found this website and ptlls resource I have used it as a guideline for nearly every assignment. It has been an invaluable resource. Thank you sooooooo much.
I’m so glad I found your website; it has been invaluable in helping me plan and write my assignments. Your notes on each assignment have made it easier for me to select relevant points to write about – and, hopefully, I have avoided ‘waffling’ about irrelevant topics. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much, it’s very helpful. Sometimes interpreting the questions can be so difficult. Thanks for breaking it down for me.
Hi i hope you can help me i need to answer a question on my Level 3 course. I need to explain why it is important to select teaching and learning approaches, resources and assessment methods to meet individual learner needs. Using initial assessments, training needs analysis to consider how the session can be planned. I think im stuck for words.