• Students should be aware of and apply the University policy on academic integrity (see: https://policies.mq.edu.au/document/view.php?id=3) 

• Unless a Special Consideration (see: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/special-consideration) request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a mark of‚ 0 (zero) will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical issue. This late penalty will apply to non-timed sensitive assessment (incl essays, reports, posters, portfolios, journals, recordings etc).  

• Late submission of time sensitive tasks (such as tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, scheduled practical assessments/labs etc) will only be addressed by the unit convenor in a Special consideration application. Special Consideration outcome may result in a new question or topic.  

• Please format assessments using 12-point font and 1.5 spacing. 

• All assessments are submitted electronically. Turnitin plagiarism detection software is used to check all written assessments. 

• Students can use Turnitin’s Originality Report as a learning tool to improve their academic writing if this option is made available in the unit. 

• Students should carefully check that they submit the correct file for an assessment as no re-submissions will be accepted after the due date and time, including instances where students upload an incorrect file in error. 

• Word limits are strictly applied. Work above the word limit will not be marked.  

• All assessments are marked using a clear marking scheme or a rubric. 

• Marking of all assessments is moderated by the Unit Convenor. 

• Applications for extensions must be made via AskMQ (https://ask.mq.edu.au/).  

• It is not the responsibility of unit staff to contact students who have failed to submit assessments. If you have any missing items of assessment, it is your responsibility to make contact with the unit convenor. 

Quiz Assessments 

Quizzes are an individual assessment task and MUST BE COMPLETED by each student individually. Similarities in responses between students will be checked and investigated for possible collusion.

A Note on AI Use in this Unit

Artifical intelligence software cannot be used for quizzes.

Your assignments cannot report content generated by a third party or AI sources. Please note that information or references generated by a third party or AI (e.g. Multisearch, Google Scholar, Chat GPT, etc.) needs to be checked for accuracy and reliability. AI and third party information generators are notorious for providing wrong, false, and incomplete information.

University policy on grading 

Criteria for awarding grades for assessment tasks 

Assignments will be awarded grades ranging from HD to F according to guidelines set out in the University's Grading Policy. For Professional Experience (PEx) units the PE Report is marked as satisfactory or unsatisfactory and the Teaching Performance Assessment (in final PE units) is marked as not meets, meets or exceeds.  

Descriptive Criteria for awarding grades in the unit 

To meet the unit outcomes and successfully pass this unit, students should attempt all assessment tasks. 

Note: If you fail a unit with a professional experience component, the fail grade will be on your transcript irrespective of the timing of the placement. 

Withdrawing from this unit 

If you are considering withdrawing from this unit, please seek academic advice via https://ask.mq.edu.au before doing so as this unit may be a co-requisite or prerequisite for units in the following sessions and may impact your course progression. 

Results 

Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit https://ask.mq.edu.au 

Compulsory Texts

Fellowes, J. & Oakley, G. (2024). Language, literacy and early childhood education (4^th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Derewianka, B. (2022). A new grammar companion for teachers (3^rd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia.

Highly recommended

Cavanagh, M. & Prescott, A. (2022). Your professional experience handbook: A guide for preservice teachers (2^nd ed.). Pearson. This is highly recommended as it is relevant to all your professional experience units of study.

Humphrey, S., Droga, L., & Feez, S. (2012). Grammar and meaning (2^nd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA). This book includes activities with answers, for developing and applying your grammar knowledge.

iLearn site    

This unit has a full web presence through iLearn.   

Students will need regular access to a computer and the internet to complete this unit.  

Weekly access to iLearn is compulsory for all students. Important assessment information will be posted there, as will other relevant unit notices and materials. 

Various activities and materials for discussion and tutorial preparation will be provided. Electronic links and suggested references will be included in the Leganto section, which is linked to the library. Please check the iLearn site for the unit regularly.  

Structure 

The unit will be delivered using a combination of lectures and tutorials, and there is a three-week block professional experience placement in schools towards the end of the session.

Lectures

Lectures are pre-recorded and are available along with lecture slides from the iLearn site’s Echo360 component. Students must listen to and view all lectures, making use of the full multimodal text of the lectures (i.e., not merely listening without watching). It is expected that students will engage in the active learning strategy of note-making, that is, creating their own notes of all lectures. This helps to build long-term memory and develop deeper understanding, because selecting key points to write down involves more thought than mere transcription.

There are 16 hours of lecture content, some of which is delivered in shorter mini-lectures although most are roughly 1-hour lectures. There is an average of 3 hours of lectures across each fortnight of the teaching weeks.

The weekly program for the course with the accompanying readings/ preparation will be available on the unit iLearn site.

Tutorials (and on-campus session for Infrequent mode)

For students enrolled in the 'In-person - Weekday' attendance mode, there are weekly 1.5-hour tutorials held in Weeks 1 to 10 (note - no tutorials on Easter Monday). Total tutorial time: 13.5 hours. Attendance at all tutorials is expected.

For students enrolled in the 'In-person - Infrequent' attendance mode, there is a combination of online 1.5-hour tutorials (on 20/2, 27/2, 5/3, 12/3, 2/4, 30/4 and 7/5) and one half-day on-campus session (on 22/3). Total online tutorial plus seminar time: 13.5 hours, made up of 10.5 hours in online tutorials and 3 hours in the on-campus session. Attendance at all online tutorials and on-campus sessions is expected.

In tutorials and at on-campus sessions (as relevant to their enrolment mode), students will discuss issues and questions arising from the lectures and prescribed readings. In most weeks short class preparation tasks will be set and should be completed before tutorials. Students are required to participate in small group activities and whole class discussion, to read the weekly material in advance, and to complete brief tasks either as individuals or in pairs. Students are expected to base their arguments/discussions on evidence from published research and other relevant material.

Access and technical assistance  

Information for students about access to the online component of this unit is available at https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/index.php. You will need to enter your student username and password. 

Please do NOT contact the Unit Convenor regarding iLearn technical help.  

Assistance is available from IT Helpdesk  

Ph: 9850 4357 or 1800 67 4357  

Log a request: help.mq.edu.au. 

On Campus: Ground floor at 18 Wally’s Walk

On-campus session for 'Infrequent' mode students

The on-campus session is on Friday, 22/03/2024.

All class times and venues can be found in students' personalised timetables in eStudent.

The 5Rs Framework, developed by the School of Education at Macquarie University, is embedded throughout your teacher education course.

Your use of the 5Rs Framework will help you develop the capabilities that will make your teaching career sustainable and fulfilling.

In this unit, you will learn using the 5Rs framework in the following important ways:

• Resilience practised inside and outside of the classroom. 

Students will build resilience by engaging strongly with intellectually challenging content relevant to teaching. During teaching weeks and during the professional experience placement, students will draw on social and structural supports including meaningful interaction with a range of peers as well as teaching staff in the unit, tertiary supervisors, and staff in schools. They will build foundational skills of managing new and complex contexts during the professional experience placement, and practise resilience as they engage with feedback on their teaching practice.

• Reflexive in their teaching practice.

Students learn about the 'ladder of inference' as a tool for reflecting on practice from different standpoints and to prepare for making thoughtful classroom observations. Opportunities to develop professional reflexivity will be specifically afforded by the professional experience placement, in which students will reflect upon their own practice and make effective decisions in light of their own and supervising teacher evaluations.

Reflexivity is also developed across the assessment tasks, as students reflect upon feedback and then feed forward relevant advice to subsequent assessment tasks and/or into their teaching practice in professional experience placements in this unit and in the future.

• Responsive to students, colleagues, parents and professional communities.

Students will understand and respect the roles adults play in children's literacy development, the importance of oral language as foundational for literacy success, and the development of reading, writing, and multimodal and critical literacy in homes/communities as well as in formal educational contexts. Students will begin to develop an understanding of the role of literacy education in promoting social justice for children experiencing difficulties in literacy learning, Indigenous learners, and EAL/D (English as an additional language or dialect) learners - and their responsibilities as educators in being responsive to student diversity.​

During the professional experience placement, students will demonstrate positive professional relationships with children, parents/families (as opportunity affords) and colleagues. Students will draw on their knowledge of curriculum content and how to teach it to promote children’s language and literacy development and to provide meaningful feedback as responsive teachers.

• Ready to learn.

Students will develop a foundational understanding of the role and value of language, literacy and children’s literature across the curriculum in school (K–6) contexts. They will demonstrate a basic working knowledge of aspects of language and literacies including phonology, grammar and text types including multimodal texts. This will form the basis for future learning in other units, that is, students are encouraged to see this unit as foundational and not an end point. Students will practise positive dispositions to professional learning, for example, they will come to tutorials prepared for learning, including having completed prior reading and preparatory tasks, and bringing their own questions and key understandings to share. They will engage in small group activities and discussions. They will cultivate positive attitudes towards lifelong professional learning about language, literacy education and literature.

• Research-engaged throughout their career.

Students will engage, individually and collaboratively, with research-informed lecture content, tutorials and scholarly readings. In assessment tasks, students will apply analytical skills to texts, which will provide practice for similarly informed analysis in future professional work e.g. understanding students' phonemic awareness skills; applying knowledge of language to texts for and by children. Weekly readings will engage students with research-informed principles and practices in English/literacies education.

During the professional experience placement, students will develop a tracking system for assessment purposes, collecting observations of at least 5 students per week. They will undertake observations to compile information which could be used for a mid-year report for 1 student by the completion of Professional Experience. These activities will develop understandings of how ‘small data’ from classroom assessment help to give us details about children’s learning and progress.