Case Study

Julie is employed in the English department of a language specialist school. She works with a group of pupils in Year 7 who require additional support. Last week she was told that the teacher who normally teaches the class is off sick and so a supply teacher will be covering the lessons for the week.The pupils are continuing their work on Harry Potter. There are three tasks to do, and they are due to start designing their own covers for the book. There is a prediction task to do using white boards before the story is continued as class reading.Julie seeks out the supply teacher before the lesson and introduces herself. She gives the teacher an overview of what has been planned. She explains that her role is to support two children in the class who have English as an additional language and to discreetly oversee a bright dyslexic boy who can find it difficult to read aloud. She tells the supply teacher where the books, paper, and coloured pencils for this task are stored.At the start of the lesson, the supply teacher asks Julie to recap with the children on the story so far and then sets the tasks of designing a new front cover for the book. Two children who can be a distraction take the opportunity to sit together despite a seating plan. Julie discreetly mentions it to the teacher who asks if she would distract one of them by giving out the books and then ask him to sit on another table. Towards the end of the lesson the task is changed. The children begin making predictions about the story on their white boards and there are 15 minutes of reading the story. Children volunteer to read and Julie moves to sit near the dyslexic boy so that the teacher knows not to ask him to read.Julie meets with the English teacher on her return to explain what has taken place in the lesson and where they have reached in the book, so if need be the teacher can read ahead in preparation for the next lesson.

1. In what ways did Julie’s role change due to the absence of the regular teacher?
How did Julie’s actions before, during and after the lesson support the flow of the lesson?
2. What might have happened if Julie had not been involved in the planning of the lesson?
3. Supply teaching is not easy, and how do you think the supply teacher felt?
4. How do you think the absent teacher felt about missing the class? What could Julie do to help bring her up to speed about the class on her return?
5. Would you have the confidence to behave as Julie did? If not, what would help you do so?

It is rare that thereis just one way to respond to a scenario or situation, so do not consider thatthe responses you have to the above scenario will be judged as right or wrong.Share your scenario with a work colleague or friend and ask them to tell youwhether they think you have responded appropriately. Ask them to challenge yourresponse if necessary. You do not need to submit this task for assessmentunless asked to do so by your assessor.