Greensborough Focus 

Learning Specialist - Update

The Role of the Learning Specialist

The role of the Learning specialist is to provide expertise to and support of teachers in the classroom. The Learning specialist for Literacy and Pedagogy organises programs that support students by helping teachers improve their teaching practice. All teachers work in teams where they investigate a problem they have identified and develop strategies to solve that problem. In the last few years all teachers have developed their skills in teaching literacy strategies in every subject using Reciprocal Teaching. This strategy involves teaching students to use 4 reading strategies when they find something difficult to read. 

They are:

  • Predict what is coming up in the text
  • Clarify any difficult words in the text
  • Develop some questions about the reading
  • Summarise the reading

These strategies can be used any time your child finds it hard to read anything including their textbooks.

Testing

Term 1 has been a testing time for students in regard to literacy! For students in years 7-10 there has been online testing for both reading, writing and numeracy.  While from the student’s point of view it might seem like a lot of testing these tests help teachers plan differentiated class activities and target students in the classroom who may need some additional help. 

NAPLAN

This year NAPLAN will be going on line for all students in Years 7&9. This will a great improvement for students because:

  • As the student completes the test questions at their ability level will be asked rather than a ‘one size fits all’ approach
  • The test will also easily adjust for those who need more time and have part of the test read to them
  • Parents should be able to access the results quicker and easier
  • Teachers will have instant access to the results and will be able to use them to support student learning

In the short term this will mean additional testing for students as the school will need to run practice tests to ensure the students understand the online platform. Practice testing will take place on Tuesday 15th and Thursday 24th of March. A compass notification explaining the process has been sent to affected parents

Edrolo

Edrolo is an online teaching system that supports VCE students in many of their subjects. Many teachers and students found it to be especially valuable during our lockdowns and that is why we have again listed it as a booklist item for many subjects. The cut off for final payment is March 14th and I am pleased to report over 96% of all students currently have access to this resource.

 

Patricia Quan,

Learning Specialist - Literacy & Pedagogy