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=Welcome to St Francis Literacy Group=

//"The progressive development of literacy knowledge and skills is essential for success in all learning areas and is the responsibility of all teachers." ACARA//

//Thankyou for joining the Literacy Group. This page is designed to disseminate information about Literacy PD opportunities, to share information gathered, to share resources, and to discuss issues relating to literacy at St Francis de Sales College. I will endeavour to acknowledge the authors of ideas and resources as best I can but please l ﻿ et me know if you have any concerns as to the Intellectual Property shared on this page. Please realise that this is a work in progress and a trial in communication. Any feedback that you have on this page is more than welcome.// //Currently this Wiki is Securely Protected which means that anyone can view the pages if they search for the group but only members of the Wiki can edit pages (including taking part in discussion forums). I have applied for a free upgrade to a Private Security which means that only members of the page can view content, but until that time please know that any views expressed on this page are those of individual members and not of the college.// //Read Below for Updated Information//
 * //Privacy Note//**

//Please have a look at this document proposal for a Literacy Portal for Staff and Students at St Francis de Sales College and give me as much feedback as you can as to how far you think it will be successful and any concerns or ideas you have. //
 * //Proposal for St Francis de Sales Literacy Portal: Monday 10th October 2011//**

//I've started looking at matching up what we already do in English in year 9 with ACARA capabilities and the General Capability of Literacy (to start with). It's just an idea and may not work for everyone. I would love as much feedback as you can give, potentially it is a bit of a framework to help guide teachers (particularly those who are new to the college) in planning and preparing students for Year 9 and for entry into Stage 1.//
 * //Planning for 2012//**

Changing the Educational Paradigm
 * Check out this Youtube video bySir Ken Robinson entitled: Changing the Educational Paradigm**

Feedback from the 2011 Literacy and Numeracy Expo 29th - 30th August
//Below are my notes from the Expo, please know that these notes are my interpretation of the presentations, and not my own work. Please ask me if you have any questions.//

**Moving beyond the 'C'**

 * Students learn literacy best when it is contextualised through scientific, socially contextual education.
 * Begin each lesson with a 'hook', some humour, a problem, a premise, statistics etc. This will engage students in the moment.
 * Consistent assessment of literacy should be done so that we can adjust our teaching and student's learning. This assessment can be formal or informal.
 * Gain a students understanding of their studies as they proceed. Gauge understanding by having them respond in this manner: 'I think the answer is.....' 'I think it's this because....' and 'I worked it out by....'
 * Explain to students the point or purpose of their learning to increase engagement.
 * Peer Assessment and Self Assessment are excellent tools for deepening student's understanding of the lesson.
 * Refer to Assessment Criteria as 'Criteria for Success'
 * Unpack rubrics with students to deepen understanding of their assessment task
 * Have students highlight on each other's work 'green is for growth' and 'purple is perfect'. Then have them explain why they thought something needed improvement or was perfect and how to change it. This oral feedback will benefit the student whose work is being assessed and the student who's assessing it.
 * Provide the students with C grade and A grade exemplars and have them asess them before completing the task, this will allow them to be more directed and quicker when developing their own work.
 * It's ok for students to flounder for a while, as frustrating as it may be for them and for you. When they eventually get to the understanding they were aiming for they will feel far more success.

**SACE: Building core skills**
//This school offers students an Integrated SACE completion package. It integrated 3 subjects and was designed to allow students at risk of not completing their SACE from doing so.//

**SACE: Differentiation in the literacy curriculum**
//This speaker worked with a Year 10/11 class of students who struggled to meet the C grade in English and were offered the opportunity to complete 'English for Work and Community Life' in Year 10 and 'English Pathways' in Year 11. This was a combined class with one key teacher and ESO support. Many of the students missed lessons due to VET commitments.//
 * Give students as much choice and variation as possible to maintain motivation
 * In a differentiated class, small class sizes and multiple teaching and support staff
 * In Pathways and Literacy classes it's good to have an entry point mid year for students not achieving the C grade in English.
 * Potentially English for Workplace and Community and Pathways English can link with the PLP and the Research project.
 * The nature of these classes require teachers to be flexible with teaching methods and assessment deadlines.
 * Teach students to learn, keep it relevant, explicitly teach them about plagerism.

**Whole School LIteracy**
Practices evident in high achieving schools:
 * Gradual Release of Responsibility
 * Teaching and Learning Cycle
 * Backwards design
 * Whole school shared language of literacy
 * Students prepared for Senior Years by consistently teaching text types
 * High Expectations of Leadership, Staff and Students
 * Collaboration with parents
 * Whole school vision.
 * All teachers share the understanding that they are all teachers of literacy.

Key note: Jackie French

 * Allow students to choose to read books that are fun
 * Allow them to taste the book
 * Allow them not to finish it
 * Books are so important because they are the only text type that so successfully allows students to explore social education, empathy, language, world perspectives etc.
 * Allow your students to ask questions about the books -- not just literary techniques, but about the characters, and what they would do if faced in the same situations as presented.
 * No one learns when they are bored.If the students are bored then that is the failure of the teacher. It is our job to find multiple ways to teach.
 * Teachers should use lapel microphones. Allow your students to get noisy. Use the microphone to get there attention with a quiet voice, rather than a raised voice which sends a subconscious message to students that you are stressed or angry.
 * One of the problems facing our students today is that many of them learn to speak while background noise such as the TV is on, this makes it hard for them to articulate sounds. If the TV is a constant in their lives then they learn to make comments, rather than how to have a conversation.
 * The nature of TV is that is changes every 4 seconds to maintain interest. No wonder our students can't focus on sustained information given in the same manner for an extended period of time.
 * Allow students to choose 'big' books. Books that teach them to question. Books that were written with intent. These 'big' books don't have to be large in terms of number of pages but in their ability to get students to question.
 * Technology does not mean the end of the book. Whether in IT form or print form, students are tactile creatures, they like to hold a book, to carry it with them, and if they like it, access it at any time.

Language, LIteracy and the Australian Curriculum
Misty Adoniou -- Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, Canberra University


 * Education Revolution
 * effective schools need a collective, deep understanding of the task ahead of them.
 * Content and pedagogical knowledge are the key

What is the difference between Language and Literacy?
 * You must have good language knowledge to be able to access literacy education
 * Language is distinguishable from Literacy, and is not taught as explicityl.
 * ACARA: Teachers need good content knowledge to teach well.
 * Many students don't have 'school English' and while we can't judge them on the language used at home, we must teach them the language of school. Students need to be taught, this is how you speak/ write in school in order to get your message heard.
 * Teachers are masters of 'school English' and often forget that it is not intuitive for everyone.
 * Disadvantaged kids are likely only learning at school, don't waste this time for them, teach them how to access educaiton.
 * Literacy Education assumes that students arrive at school with age appropriate 'School English' but needs to focus on 'everday' intuitive language.
 * Some language features that are not intuitive: order of adjectives, tenses, collocating (on a bus, in a car), understanding 'everday' language is culturally defined.
 * ACARA refers to 'everyday language' -- who's everyday language?
 * We can't expect students to self correct their work if it's not how language is used at home.
 * Students need to learn the language of vocabulary and grammar to access literacy educaiton
 * Vocabulary building in students can be seen as a direct predictor of literacy disparities throughout the school.
 * Tap into the student's contextual knowledge as a great resource for teaching language.
 * Teachers have good pedagogy, always use this with your content, all the time.

Think it. Write it. Now!
Creative Writing -- Jackie French
 * Brainstorm where they are to establish setting, but when it comes to writing, don't use too much visual description as it clogs the reader's imagination and turns them off reading.
 * aim for 3 main descriptives (the most the human brain can cope with at once) sound and smell alone, often encapsulate it. This can be done in one sentence.
 * Brainstorm your protagonist. What do they want? Will they get it by the end? Where is this story going?
 * Where will this story end?
 * It is the hardest place to start at the beginning without knowing where you are going, plan for students to start at the end.
 * Brainstorming for creative writing: model it as a class, then in groups, with a friend, and individually.
 * Teach students to develop their ideas in a step by step manner, teach them how to plan in a focused and concentrated manner.
 * Creative writing is not a forumla to stick to, question each other and yourself.
 * When students are developing their ideas and their writing, don't stop the flow by focusing on spelling, rather encourage them to use words they can't spell. Don't worry about handwriting, just let them keep the ideas flowing and fix the rest later.
 * The word lengths we put on creative writing teach students to hurry their writing and in this way they don't learn pacing and we end up with stories that are all action without building tension, orare overwritten because the focus has been on description and imagery.
 * Images are powerful, teach students to use that descriptive/figurative writing with discression to avoid overwriting which will lose impact. SImilarly if it's been used before it will lose it's impact.

Using Tactictal Teaching Reading
Sonia Pringle -- Balaklava High School
 * Poor NAPLAN results led them to the 'stepping out program'
 * Stephen Graham 'literacy god'
 * This type of program needs funding and resources
 * It must be a whole school focus: Literacy to support content
 * Teach teachers to scaffold student's work in a consistent manner accross all subject areas.
 * Have spelling, vocab lists and word walls in every subject including topic and task specific content and process words.
 * Have staff ask themselves 'how have I taught literacy explicitly today?'
 * Learning journals, reflecting on process.
 * Include literacy tasks before reading, during reading and after reading.
 * If every teacher spent 10 minutes of each class on explicitly teaching literacy, then students could be receiving 50 minutes a day of explicit literacy education, takes the onus of English teachers.

SACE: Flexible Learning Delivery of Literacy and Numeracy.
Tennison Woods LIteracy and Numeracy program for disengaged students.