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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Australia publishes more children’s books per head of population than any other country. That’s something to be proud of, it’s something to celebrate, as we do every year in our classrooms, and with the Annual CBCA Book Week and book awards. Congratulations to all CBCA 2021 winners, and to honour book and shortlisted authors and…
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…
Authors of successful texts ensure the purpose is clear, and appropriate for the intended audience. … a recent analysis of COVID-19 information on government websites found only two of the 52 documents examined could be read with relative ease. Most of the others were full of long sentences and unnecessarily difficult words where simple language…
Things have been a bit awry this year, with major disruptions to almost every one of our usual activities, and events have been cancelled and postponed, many to the hoped-for normality of 2021. I wonder what the key words and terms from this year will be the ones that represent and encapsulate 2020. NAIDOC Week…