Creating routines

The teacher demonstrates how she establishes and maintains orderly routines in the classroom and effectively communicates to support student understanding and participation. Within a class with an English literacy focus, the teacher demonstrates through a series of group activities how effective learning behaviours can be enhanced through positive reinforcement, the use of clear signals to gain students’ attention, the establishment of defined roles and tasks, controlled questioning, the modelling of positive behaviours, and the in-depth explanation of these to students.

The school is located on the Innawonga and East Guruma Lands in the mining town of Tom Price, around 1600km from Perth. Twenty per cent of the school’s 330 students are Aboriginal and the school has a diverse student population due to the town’s mining industry. The teacher has worked at the school during the last four years. At the beginning of each year, she works with other teachers to establish planned, predictable routines that will be implemented within teaching programs across the school throughout the year.