Reading and research
Headlines from some news media’s education desks appear to indicate that the state of education is verging on collapse.
Annette Gray is a literacy consultant and adviser. She has many years’ successful teaching experience in classrooms K-10 across Australia and in international settings.
Reading for the joy of it
I love it when teachers ask for advice and ideas from others regarding suitable texts for particular grades, or texts on specific topics or appropriate to different subjects or themes. Here are sites to share with colleagues as you become a book expert yourself.
Handwriting
Recent research describes the importance and impact of teaching handwriting, particularly in the first four years of school.
Graphic images
Understanding that visual images convey meaning on different levels supports the development of understanding that words in written text can do the same thing – the viewer/reader can infer meaning from the message created by the author.
Building words
We are a creative lot, always discovering new things and combining familiar ideas into new ones. The term COVID-19 is one such term, created to explicitly refer to this pandemic we are all experiencing.
Back to school
Back at school, we need ways to ensure that the classroom’s richness as a learning environment is maximised.
Literacy, assessment and where to from here?
I have been clearing out many of my old and well used resources. The Graded Reading Vocabulary Test, was the ‘go to’ guide for many years. It was designed to ‘calculate a reading age’, and consisted of a list of words to be read to the teacher. The test began with: tree little milk egg…
Addressing spelling
I have had a query from a concerned teacher, a member of the school’s Literacy Committee, about ways to ‘effectively boost spelling outcomes across the school’.
Vocabulary – more than just words
My latest online course, Exploring literacy – vocabulary, guides us through an understanding of ways to take our students’ vocabulary from that of the everyday – part of the ‘literate identity’ that starts in the home and the child brings to school – through to the academic literacy acquired through learning, and required for school…
May the fourth be with you!
It’s Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you! This contemporary acknowledgement of the classic movie series provides an introduction to the power of those sayings that we often quote, and frequently use to guide – or justify – our behaviour. It’s time to share some of these words of wisdom with our students.…