Learning is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge Mackenzie 2017 Katherin Cartwright – Images are a wonderful way to launch a mathematics lesson, especially if they are full of intriguing or ‘explorable’ mathematical ideas. Kath regularly draws attention to the importance of looking and noticing in building mathematical ideas – see ‘A picture is…
Recording our thoughts and ideas, plans and hopes, onto a surface seems to be a necessary part of the human condition. We have certainly been doing it for long enough. Reasons to write We write for so many reasons – I have a list that I have explored and added to over the years. I…
It is so good to be back with face to face learning with PETAA, and a vocabulary workshop that I love working with. It seems almost natural that our teacher minds, our training, our interest in learning steer us into a deep interest in words. Some of the most interesting words and word ideas that…
It’s WORLD POETRY DAY, Monday 21 March 2022 – Hooray! This is the best excuse (if you ever need one) for spending the day with words and meaning. For yourself, revisit the poems you remember from your own childhood – the ones that moved you, the lines you keep in your head somewhere, the vague…
Getting in early for PETAA’s 2022 Leading with Literacy Conference This year’s title is from babble to Batavia and beyond. When: October 21 and 22 from 8:30 am to 5:00pm AEDT Where: The University of Sydney Holme Building, Science Road, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY 2050 Registration: is open now, for in-person or online attendance, or for…
Dear Mum and Dad I have been going through a box of my mother’s. She was a hoarder, and the box contained mementos from her life. And ours. When we were young we made our own birthday, Christmas, and Fathers’ and Mothers’ Day cards. The ones I found had mostly been created on simple lined…
The NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) has released its English K-2 syllabus, replacing K-2 content in English K-10 Syllabus. The content is being delivered in some schools in 2022, and will be implemented in all NSW schools from 2023. There is so much support for this exciting time of implementation of a new syllabus. The…
It’s the end of another challenging year for us all, and I don’t think we need to try to wrap our brains around anything more specific than being with the people we care about, Christmas dinner and having a rest. At home During the school closures forced on us by the pandemic, the emphasis for…
While we can’t actually ‘kick back’ and relax, it is time to ease the strain on our work with students, and on ourselves. Poetry and all that Poetry is one of those aspects of English that can really be delved into in the closing weeks of the year, as things start to wind down. Poetry…
A recent conversation with a teacher-in-training colleague has prompted this blog. My friend was given the task of preparing and delivering a 45-minute lesson on the question mark. This is pretty typical of the type of lesson we work with in normal circumstances. Now I can’t think of anything more tedious. As a topic for…