YEAR 11 REFLECTION

End of year reflection - year 11 graphics

This year the year 11 students are very behind. The reason the students are behind seems to be due to bad time management and also the various degrees of experience in the subject.

Most of the students are good students who try their best. These students are in their first year of NCEA. There are three external standards that need to be submitted at the end of each year. The students were already at least three weeks behind their schedule and combined with having never taking the subject before it has been very difficult to teach them the skills to get these three external standards. Some students are also struggling with the main skills required in the subject. I have been trying to help them as much as possible but sometimes it almost seems like I am helping them too much because they don’t know what they’re doing. Standard one required at the end of the year is an ortho graphic drawing. This drawing style is quite difficult for students to learn especially in a very short amount of time. The second drawing standard is for an isometric drawing. Students are better at this but they still take a lot of time. Students do not understand how long each drawing style takes and have under estimated every time. I have given them guidelines and checkpoint dates that they have missed. The third standard requires evidence for sketching. This standard is good because the evidence comes from projects throughout the year, so that students do not have to take extra time to create extra evidence.

This year the students do not have as much experience as the students last year. I think that for next year year the year 11’s who have never taken graphics before will need to do a little course at the start of the year so that they can learn the basic skills for isometric and ortho graphic. Also I try to do it this year a lot of the students did not actually retain the knowledge from the practice. Next year I will give the students practice activities closer to the time of the actual drawing assessments I will also not leave all of the instrumental drawing to the end of the year. There will be one ortho graphic drawing required at then end of topic one. Topic one will still be the birdhouse for Horowhenua Lake. This topic was good as it gives the students good practice understanding construction and joinery. A comment made by a local teacher said the topic was also good because it was related to local issues. I think because the birdhouse is not so big students who have not taken the subject before also worked well with it. At the end of this topic we will use sketch up the way that it was used this year to take front side and top views of the object and translate that to paper for the ortho graphic drawing. The isometric drawing will be done on the second topic. That way the second topic has more genuine meaning. This year the second topic was almost a throwaway unit. This was because the students were not only rushed, but they also did not see the relevance of this topic because there was no mark. This topic was done to create evidence for the three external standards listed above but because it was done fast and with no real marking attached to it students have done it in a very messy way. I do not think this is their fault, but mine. Students work well when there is an assessment schedule attached and they did not see the relevance of the external assessment schedules. I asked the students what they thought of the years structure. The students told me that it was good but they said it was very full on this is true and a good comment. I would like to make it less cluttered for them but, they need to know the work load for year 12 and 13 and especially if they are going to tertiary study they need to be prepared to work very very hard. A lot of other schools have isometric and ortho graphic drawings attached to each project that they do. I do not think that the students at the school would cope with that as they have a very relaxed attitude towards work and also they do get a lot done adding those expectations in would not work.

For 2017, I expect that the schedule will look something like this:

• Research topic on designer

• Birdhouse design based on the designer

• Ortho graphic drawing of the birdhouse using sketch up

• Presentation topic Learning in design

• Unit two pop up shop: students will choose what the shop sells and base their design on what the shop sells (Provided categories) – relate to Levin shopping centre

• Isometric drawing of the shop design

• External submission for sketching isometric and ortho graphic

• Year complete

I hope it goes well.

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