Post on 16-Dec-2015
Shared Philosophy
Quality Teaching
Point-in-time Support
TargetedIntervention
Whole school community
Few children
All staffSchool Literacy Strategy
All children
Some children
• We must avoid the push-down of teaching methods into Prep.
• We must ensure rigour across the Early Years.
View of Children Have a kitbag of resources Learn by acting and doing Strive to make meaning and be
successful Use strategies and tactics Enact agency and voice
Scaffolder of LearningScaffolder of Learning• listens and responds listens and responds
• builds understandingsbuilds understandings
• makes learning explicit and relevantmakes learning explicit and relevant
• builds connectionsbuilds connections
• investigates alternative ways investigates alternative ways
• discusses outcomes of choicesdiscusses outcomes of choices
• challenges thinkingchallenges thinking
• reduces support as independence growsreduces support as independence grows
Pathways to Prevention
Strong correlation between children’s language development, their behaviour and success in school.
38% receptive vocabulary difficulties
19% expressive vocabulary difficulties
44% language complexity difficulties
Homel et al. (2006).
Features of Conversation Two (or more) speakers cooperate. The speakers draw upon their knowledge of the world and their
ability to use language. Each speaker is supported by the listener through eye contact,
attention and encouraging, affirming utterances of ‘yes!’ ‘absolutely!’ ‘Uh-huh’ and so on.
A speaker ensures that the listener has understood and adapts the message accordingly.
The co-constructed message is genuinely negotiated. There is interest and engagement from both parties. In the best of conversations, the interaction occurs over a
minimum of five exchanges, from which both parties benefit, learn, and gain enjoyment.
Riley, J. (2006).
Implications
The most important aspect of children’s language experience is its amount.
The most important aspect in early years’ classrooms is the amount of talk actually going on, moment by moment, between children and their teachers.
Phonological awareness skills Word LevelWord Level - recognize how many words are in a sentence
Syllable LevelSyllable Level -segment and blend words of at least 3 syllables
Rhyme LevelRhyme Level - understand the concept of rhyming - recognize and generate rhyming words
Sound LevelSound Level - isolate the beginning or ending sound in words - segment and blend sounds in a word with three sounds - change a sound in a word to make a new word in familiar games and songs
“Without direct instructional support, almost one quarter of all children are unaware of phonemes” …..
which impacts on learning to read. (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg & Beeler,1998).
Fourth Grade Slump
Lack comprehension strategies
Lack of fluency and automaticity (Chall, 1983, 1996; Stanovich, 1986)
Language gap (Hirsch, 2003)
“Because of the developmental nature of reading, the later one waits to strengthen weaknesses, the more difficult it is for the children to cope with the increasing literacy demands in the later grades.”
Chall & Jacobs, 2003.
Active comprehension strategies
Inferring
Predicting
Questioning the text
Making connections •Text-to-text•Text-to-self
Finding important information
Visualizing
Summarizing
Monitoring comprehension
Comprehension
Strategies at work
QUT Literacy Secretariat, 2009.
Building Comprehension Skills Read Alouds Page peeping Asking Questions Elbow partners -The Big Idea Concept mapping, story mapping Accountable talk Comic strips and picture strips Telling a friend – inside outside circles Pictures in the mind – drawing Did that make sense to me?
Principles that underpin comprehension
Fluency allows the mind to concentrate on comprehension
Breadth of vocabulary increases comprehension and facilitates further learning; and
Domain knowledge increases fluency, broadens vocabulary and enables deeper comprehension.
Hirsch, 2003
To read fluently children require:
Accurate decoding of words in text;
Automaticity, or decoding words with
minimal use of attentional resources; and
Appropriate use of phrasing and
expression to convey meaning.
Strategies to develop fluency
Repeated oral reading practice Echo reading Choral reading Readers’ Theatre Paired reading Recorded reading Computer assisted reading Buddy reading (peer tutoring)
The Three Billy Goats Gruff Reader's Theatre
Seven Characters: Narrator1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Troll, Little Billy Goat, Seven Characters: Narrator1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Troll, Little Billy Goat, Middle-Sized Billy Goat, and Big Billy GoatMiddle-Sized Billy Goat, and Big Billy Goat
NARRATOR 1: Once upon a time there were three billy goat brothers NARRATOR 1: Once upon a time there were three billy goat brothers named Gruff. named Gruff.
NARRATOR 2: The three billy goats lived by a river. NARRATOR 2: The three billy goats lived by a river.
NARRATOR 3: Across the river was a meadow with tall green grass. NARRATOR 3: Across the river was a meadow with tall green grass.
NARRATOR 1: One day, the billy goats wanted to cross the river to eat the NARRATOR 1: One day, the billy goats wanted to cross the river to eat the grass. grass.
NARRATOR 2: But there was only one bridge across the river. NARRATOR 2: But there was only one bridge across the river.
NARRATOR 3: And under that bridge lived a mean, hungry troll. NARRATOR 3: And under that bridge lived a mean, hungry troll.
NARRATOR 1: The troll had eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as NARRATOR 1: The troll had eyes as big as saucers and a nose as long as a poker. a poker.
Knowledge of Words and the World
• Emphasize oral comprehension
• Larger focus on expository text
• Systematically build word and world knowledge
teach decoding skills develop fluency develop automaticity teach vocabulary build word knowledge teach children to use active
comprehension strategies encourage students to monitor their
own comprehension
In the early years we need to:
Primary Classroom teaching
76% teacher centred (didactic) 16% subject centred 6% child centred Limited student engagement Borman (2005)
Personalization Puts each and every child at
the centre and provides an education that is tailored to the students’ learning and motivational needs at any given time
Fullan, Hill, & Crevola, 2006.
PrecisionPrecision To get something right. Precision is in the service of
personalization because it means to be uniquely accurate, that is precise to the learning needs of individuals.
Fullan, Hill, & Crevola, 2006
Reading Assessment• Oral language development
• Comprehension of texts
• Fluency
• Concepts about print
• Phonemic awareness
• Letter identification
• Phonics
• Word knowledge
• Vocabulary
Professional Learning Focused on-going learning for each and every teacher
Daily learning is needed individually and collectively
Schools need to work from the classroom outward - not centrally developed PD
Professional development works when it is school-based and embedded in the daily work of teachers
Fullan, Hill, & Crevola, 2006
Shared Philosophy
Quality Teaching
Point-in-time Support
TargetedIntervention
Whole school community
Few children
All staffSchool Literacy Strategy
All children
Some children
ReferencesAdams, M., Foorman, B., Lundberg, L. & Beeler, T. (1998). The elusive phoneme: Why phonemic
awareness is so important and how to help children develop it. American Educator, 22, 18-29).Baumann, J. Ware, D. Carr Edwards, E. (2007). “Bumping into spicy, tasty words that catch your
tongue”: A formative experiment on vocabulary instruction. The Reading Teacher, 61(2), pp.108-122.
Borman, K. & Associates. (2005). Meaningful urban education reform. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Chall, J. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York: McGraw-Hill.Chall, J. (1996). Learning to read: The great debate (Third Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.Chall, J.S., & Jacobs, V.A. (2003). Poor children’s fourth-grade slump. American Educator, 27(1), 14–15, 44.Fullan, M. Hill, P. & Crevola, C. (2006). Breakthrough. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Gambrell, L. (2005). Reading literature, reading text, reading the internet: The times they are
a’changing’. The Reading Teacher 58(6), 588-591.Hirsch, E.D. (2003). Reading comprehension requires knowledge of words and the world. American
Educator [retrieved online 20.03.09].Homel et al. (2006). The Pathways to Prevention Project: The First Five Years, 1099-2004. Sydney:
Mission Australia and the Key Centre for ethics, Law Justice & Governance.Hart, E. & Risley, T. (2003). The Early Catastrophe. American Educator. [Retrieved online 20.03.09].QUT Literacy Secretariat, (2009). Effective instruction in reading comprehension. Professional
learning series for classroom teachers. Queensland University of Technology.Rasinski, T. V. (2003). The fluent reader: Oral reading strategies for building word recognition, fluency
and comprehension. New York: Scholastic.Riley, J. (2006). Language and Literacy 3-7. London: Sage Publications.Stanovich, K.E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in
the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21, 360 -407.