News from the Deputy Principal

This coming week the staff of St Joseph's will be engaged in professional learning around the Science of Learning and in particular Barak Rosenshine's 10 Principles of Instruction. Rosenshine, a Professor in the Department of Psychology in Illinois, examined in close detail how master teachers instruct.  With this deep research, he categorised this research into 3 areas in which the Principles of Instruction are grounded. Rosenshine's focus was directly observing master teachers in action, the Cognitive Science approach and research into the use of scaffolds and cognitive supports in the classroom.

From this, Rosenshine formulated the 10 Principle's for instruction.

1. Daily review.
2. Present new material using small steps.
3. Ask questions.
4. Provide models.
5. Guide Student practice.
6. Check for student understanding.
7. Obtain a high success rate.
8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.
9. Independent practice.
10. Weekly and monthly review.

With our learning already focused on the Science of Learning and our work in the area of Mathematics, we have already been able to reflect on how we currently use these principles in our classrooms.  At our Professional Learning we will be unpacking further these principles in particular with a focus on I do (teacher) We do (modeled and scaffolded examples completed together with the teacher) and You Do (Independent, scaffolded and differentiated tasks completed by the student with teacher support).  The students have been using this model with teachers in our classes since the beginning of the year and already are quite adept in the I do, We do, You do model of teaching.  With the whole school focused on the Principles of instruction, we are excited to see students efficiently acquire, rehearse and connect knowledge by teachers providing a good deal of instructional support to all students.

PSGs Next Week

Thankyou to the families who have booked PSG meetings. The PSG meetings for 1/2 will be held next term. All other year levels will hold PSG meetings from Wednesday 19th until Friday 21st June.  These meetings will take place in the Conference Room in the main building.

Out and about on the playground this week

Even though the weather has been particularly cold, there has been a hive of activity out on the playground.  With the recent pruning, the stick area has been wonderful cubby building occurring from all levels of the school.  Each playtime there have been rallies of modified volleyball and Gaga taking place and children using their imagination in invented games. It has been a pleasure to be out on duty engaging with students as they take part in creative play.