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’…
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…
PETAA is the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia and is a not-for-profit organisation that supports primary school educators in the teaching and learning of English and literacies across the curriculum. Here’s the perfect opportunity to get hold of those classic texts for teaching English K-6. Hop on to the PETAA website before Thursday 30…
Classrooms are gradually developing a new ‘normal’, where time is still short and too many so-called ‘assessments’ – read tests’ – are requiring completion. In between, we carry on. One of the most rewarding, interesting, challenging and useful strategies for teaching history/geography/maths/etc, and the potential for addressing the vast majority of the outcomes in the…
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…
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…
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected us all. Many members of our school community have been exposed to trauma, and will need care and support during the transition to whatever the new ‘normal’ is. We need to make sure we don’t overload our students (and ourselves) as we return to what has been familiar. In this…
And, thank goodness, books continue to be published, read, and loved. Reading has been described as the perfect lockdown-in-COVID-19-activity. In these difficult times, it is worth reminding ourselves, and our students, that: “Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the…
The range of English literature, English literacy research, and reading resources that is available to teachers in Australian schools is rich and extensive. Any work we want to prepare for our students, whether in a time of online learning, or for working on in the classroom, is improved when it is based on reliable sources.…