I have been prompted to draw attention to oral language in the classroom by an article in Edutopia Weekly. It’s free of charge and well worth a look. This week’s article 4 Strategies for Sparking Critical Thinking in Young Children is about ‘fostering investigative conversation’ in K-2. The importance of talk in the classroom has…
There is much rich material out there for teachers of all aspects of English and English (and other languages) literacy. It can be difficult to locate just what you want for a specific focus. Here’s some of the good news. PETAA – The Primary English Teaching Association Australia has just released their first fortnightly ‘round-up’…
And some of the 2023 resources available now. With ‘that’ test coming up for Years 3, 5, 7 & 9 in mid-March, there could be a bit of a panic about trying to get our students ‘test ready’. This is misguided and not helpful for student learning. I would like to refer you to Joanne…
How can I be sure of … How do I … When should I … How much reading to my students is too much? Why is … so tricky for my students? Should I really pressure my students to … What does ‘good’ look like? How do I know I am doing it right? What…
I had the great pleasure of delivering a session at the 2022 PETAA ‘Leading with Literacy’ Conference last weekend, as part of the 50th ‘Birthday’ celebrations. The conference title was ‘’From babble to Batavia & beyond’, and we experienced a selection of amazingly informative and inspirational presentations on aspects of literacy. My topic was Vocabulary…
We have to keep thinking about why we write The writing that happens in K-6 classrooms ostensibly meet the guidelines of curriculum documents. Three types of texts, and that choice of structure, grammatical features and literary devices will be made on the basis of each type. Writing is certainly being taught, but the results on…
PETAA Annual Conference The theme for PETAA’s 50TH year is Looking back- moving forward and this conference will focus on supporting students to develop strong communication and literacy foundations – from first speech, learning language through play and experimentation, to the skills needed in learning to read, then what is required when students read to…
August is designated official poetry month by Red Room Poetry. Their website has heaps of things you can do for yourself, to enjoy and participate in poetry in various ways. For students there is the fabulous ‘Poem Forest’, a nature poetry prize. The prize has been created collaboratively by Red Room Poetry and the the…
I have had time to explore two major resources to explore or consult when you need them. No, I’m not going to comment on either the dire situation for staff in our schools, COVID or the weather. Viewing 2022 Literature Symposium: The excellent online 2022 Literature Symposium advocating for the power and pleasure of literature…
These items have come across the laptop in the last couple of weeks – a report on a survey on writing in the classroom, the ACTF My Place writing competition, an opportunity for a workshop with author Deb Abela, and a reminder about the PETAA Literacy Conference Writing in Australian classrooms First, the results of…