Books, Books and More Books – and Winners!
The range of books for children to read about our world was pretty limited when I was at primary school, Thank goodness that’s changed!
Reading and research
Headlines from some news media’s education desks appear to indicate that the state of education is verging on collapse.
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’.
Visualising big numbers
This week my blog is inspired by a lovely Twitter post by @johnqgoh (principal at Merrylands East PS) and the discussion that followed regarding mathematics-focused picture books. John shared images from a book called A Million Dots by Sven Völker. A beautifully illustrated picture book that explores the growing pattern of doubling. Michelle Tregoning (@TregoningMich)…
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.…
Exploring Literacy – Talking about learning
As part of Primary Learning’s online professional resources, we are launching the ‘Exploring Literacy’ series of courses for teachers. Each course consists of a reading or research, questions to consider, and ideas for implementation in the learning process; possibilities for our students’ learning are introduced. Each course is available as a ‘stand-alone’, or as part…
National Events
In the next few weeks we have some major, national and religious events that we can acknowledge in our schools. They provide the opportunity to examine the Australian Curriculum’s general capability of Intercultural Understanding and examining some of the stated and unstated values in our everyday context.
Which book will I read to my class?
We have an amazing choice of reading material as we fulfill the obligation to read widely to our students. How can we broaden our knowledge of how and what to choose?