Undergraduate Primary Teaching Assignment

Second-year student teachers studying our undergraduate primary teaching degrees were recently given an assignment to create a poster for their foundation subject module EP508.

Working in groups of 4, trainee teachers had the option of four subjects to choose from, to plan six consecutive lessons with cross-curricular links to answer an overarching question.

Course leader, Cara Parkhurst explains “This assignment explores creativity and active learning, allowing students the opportunity to explore, discuss and plan a sequence of lessons linked to an enquiry. The poster and rationales give an insight into decisions made linked to policy and literature. This is a stepping stone to support students in their second phase of school-based training where they will be planning and teaching a sequence of lessons in a Foundation Subject and/or RE. Working together on this reflects working alongside teachers in schools where professionalism is key and again supports students as they head into their placements in school.”

Student, Katie Williams, tells us more about her poster:

“The question/statement we chose was “Colours Bring Emotions: How Do Colours Make You Feel?” The inspiration for this came from the picture book ‘The Colour Monster by Anna Llenas. The story has some wonderful messages surrounding understanding our emotions, and we thought we could make some great links to PSHE as well. As we recognise that there is an increasing need to promote positive wellbeing, to support their mental health. For children understanding their emotions can be difficult, so thought the association to colours was very useful for them to identify how they are feeling, and links with the Zones of Regulation.

“The specific subject I planned for was MFL. I chose this subject as I enjoy learning languages myself, German was my favourite subject in secondary school and I still use Duolingo to this day. I was also intrigued at the links I could make between communicating specific emotions in another language, and how extending our vocabulary in other languages will support children as global citizens in a growing multi-cultural society. Also, that communication about how we feel is so important, regardless of language. 

“This assignment has been beneficial in preparing for school-based training. I can recognise the cross-curricular links within learning a lot easier, and having experience planning a sequence of 6 lessons with progression will really support me when it comes to doing the same on my second placement, as I already have experience doing it. I also hope the chance will arise to use some of my planning, as my current placement school also enjoyed the text we used!  

“Overall the course is wonderful. Lecturers are extremely supportive and encouraging, and I feel that I am learning so much- not just subject knowledge, but strategies to actually teach and support learners. Also love the emphasis on inclusive practice this year as it is so important. “

Interested in a career in teaching?
Find out how you can become a teacher with Brighton.