Literacy News
Lisa Keskinen Professional Learning
In Week 1, the very talented Lisa Keskinen returned to the school to lead some further professional learning with teachers in the area of writing. Lisa had just returned from presenting at the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association Conference in Darwin and had lots of new ideas to share. Staff were engaged in a ‘stream of consciousness’ writing activity and we learned how this can be used to motivate and inspire students with their writing. We also revisited some of the cornerstones of our writing program, such as allowing students choice in what they write about for much of the time, and using teacher modelling to demonstrate and explain elements integral to the writing process.
Lisa very kindly donated a copy of her new book, Billy Bobbarooni and the Mystery Words to the school. It’s a great read that is part mystery, part history with a lot of riddles and rhyme thrown in for good measure. We are lucky to have secured Lisa for this session and are looking forward to refining our writing program using her ideas.
Reading Recovery Network
Towards the end of last term, I attended a Reading Recovery Australia network meeting along with our Reading Recovery teacher, Natalie Arandt. The focus was also on writing, and in particular, on building writing independence using strategies that are effective both in Reading Recovery sessions and in a classroom setting. These include:
- establishing the expectation of independence from the start
- pushing for fluency and speed with known letters and words
- building fast recognition of and discrimination between letters through activities such as letter sorts or finding the same letters in different contexts.
Congratulations go out to Natalie Arandt for the wonderful video that she produced to show this process in action, featuring one of our year 1 students. The national audience appreciated the hands-on demonstration showing Natalie very skillfully using the strategies being discussed and it’s wonderful to see the great work that she does at Our Lady’s being recognised.
MS Read-a-thon
As part of our Book Week celebrations this year, the whole school has the opportunity to participate in the MS Read-a-thon.
Reading can take kids on incredible journeys of discovery, awakens their imagination, and builds their confidence. It is never too early or too late to help them find inspiration and motivation to pick up a book.
The MS Readathon has been inspiring kids to read more for 45 years, and this August, it will be more fun than ever before. We have authors and ambassadors who can share their stories, incentives, and prizes to motivate kids.
If that is not enough, all the money raised will help support the thousands of families living with MS in Australia. We have stories to share about the people we care for that will warm your heart.
The Year 3/4 students have already received their invitation to join and will be taking the lead in informing the rest of the school about the MS Read-a-thon, what it involves and who it will help. Look out for an invitation in Operoo over the next week.
Wishing you all a safe and well term,
Annie Facchinetti
Literacy Leader and Teaching & Learning Leader