Welcome to TY: Running a Senior Cycle Subject Sampler. This short course has four lessons of about 30 minutes. You know your TY programme; this course is about one part of it that is easy to get wrong: subject tasters.
In this first lesson you rate your confidence, see where subject sampling sits in the TY Programme Statement, and study a sampler planner filled in for an invented school. Then you note where your own sampler will sit. Your survey, reflections and plan across the four lessons compile into a downloadable Professional Learning Portfolio when you finish.
Before the presentation, rate your confidence on the five areas this course develops. There are no right answers. You will rate the same five statements at the end of the course, so you can compare each rating with your first.
Watch this presentation on where subject sampling sits in the TY Programme Statement: the four Student Dimensions, sampling among their student experiences, the elective modules and their time, the shape of a TY week, the limit on early teaching, and the TY Core Team.
Study this sampler planner, filled in for an invented school with four TY class groups. Read the notes on each choice.
Download the blank planner to use for your own school: TY sampler planner (Word).
Use the planner you have just studied to start on your own school's sampler. Download the blank template if you want the full planner beside you: TY sampler planner (Word). On screen, answer one question. It saves to your Professional Learning Portfolio as My Sampler's Place.
In this lesson you set a confidence baseline and placed subject sampling in the TY Programme Statement.
| Key idea | Why it matters for your teaching | Classroom application |
|---|---|---|
| Sampling has a place: a student experience of Being a Learner, among the elective modules | The elective modules have a combined time allocation of the equivalent of three to four hours per week, depending on school context | Decide how much of your elective time the sampler uses |
| The school decides the shape | Table 3: the organisation of the components into semesters, blocks or across the entire year is decided at school level | Place the sampler in a block or semester that ends before your subject choice date |
| The limit | TY should not be used to spread a Leaving Certificate subject specification over three years | Plan it with the TY Core Team, using the TY sampler planner (Word) |
Next: designing a taster that samples a subject without starting it.
Enrol to take the whole course. Your work is saved as you go, and you get a certificate when you finish.