I observed Shyla teaching a history lesson to her student. The session focused on historical figures, their lives and their significance. An example was the historical figure Ned Kelly and exploring the complexity of his life. She broke down the content step by step to help the student understand the order of Kelly’s life events and how it connected to the broader historical context. Using the booklet the student provided (which had the content in long paragraphs), she broke it down by constructing a timeline in order to make the information easier to follow and helped the student see Kelly’s story as a sequence of connected events rather than separate facts. After this, she quizzed the student on the facts to ensure she had understood and memorised all the key events in his life. She also asked her short answer questions which gleaned whether the student understood the significance of these facts. Her approach supported the students comprehension and helped make a complex topic more structured and accessible. She followed the same structure for other historical figures in the booklet. Overall, the session was specifically tailored the the students specific learning style by making large blocks of text much more accessible for the student to memorise and understand. Great job !

Annaliese Lakis