This is the title of an excellent paper by Judith Scott, William Nagy, and Susan Flinspach (2008). I have used this reference in a previous blog on this site, ‘The beginnings of literacy’, and as the basis of our online course, ‘Exploring literacy: Vocabulary’ (available soon). The paper puts the interactive role of vocabulary learning…
‘The theme for Reconciliation Week this year — More Than A Word: Reconciliation Takes Action — encourages the broader community to consider the steps they can take to promote healing and unity with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’ Truth-telling and how cultural repatriation is fundamental to the reconciliation process by Jai McAlister We know…
This week’s blog is inspired by research that James Russo, Toby Russo, and Leicha Bragg have recently conducted (and will present at the upcoming MERGA online conference) about factors that influence the mathematical games teachers’ choose. They propose a number of factor themes related to why teachers choose specific games – I will utilise these themes to share a…
We’ve talked about NAPLAN before, and how to maximise its usefulness, as with student growth being a more useful gauge of achievement. But concerns remain. Are you concerned about NAPLAN’s relevance to classroom teaching? lack of attention to the full range of key learning areas? relevance to the full range of students in your class?…
The revision of the NSW English K-10 syllabus for Stage 1, so far, maintains ‘audience’ as a key consideration of in the writing process for students: Students need opportunities to explore how language use in texts differs according to the subject matter, purpose and audience. NESA Teaching strategies Stage 1 Audience is defined and explained…
If you’re teaching Year 5 or Year 6, then this question is one I’d ask your students this week. Last week when I was talking with a Year 5 student, we needed to solve 12 x 18 as part of a larger problem. When I asked, do you know how to work out 12 x…
‘Mistranslations’ was the title of one of the exhibitions for Melbourne Design Week 2021 (to April 5). It was devised in response to translation errors and confusing information regarding COVID-19, produced during 2020. Artists from non-English speaking backgrounds were invited to create posters in languages other than English to make the COVID-19 safety messages clear. …
This week’s blog is a continuation of my reflections on MANSW’s PreK-8 conference held in March 2021. The first blog Noticing the mathematics: Making the connections Part 1 shared insights and lessons learnt from the two Friday masterclasses. Part 2 will share some of the ideas gathered from Saturday workshops I attended and the morning…
The Mathematical Association of NSW’s (@MathsNSW) annual Pre K-8 conference was held last Friday and Saturday. What a wonderful opportunity it was to meet up with other teachers and educators to chat and learn about mathematics. Last year the conference was unable to go ahead so it’s been a while since could meet together face-to-face…
We’ve missed it by a day, but there is always room for poetry. We can honour poetry this week in our classrooms with a bit of history, lots of readings, and even more writing. It’s in the English syllabus so we have to. As I am preparing this, it is STILL raining, and I am…