Teaching and Learning
Elevate Study Skills
Our Middle Years students participated in study skills sessions with a visiting guest speaker from Elevate on Tuesday. The activities were fun and interactive and they are timely for our Middle Years students, given that our Year 7 and 8 students have Semester One Examinations in Week 5, and our Year 9 students have settled back into the school routine after the excitement of their trip to China.
Our Year 7 students completed the ‘Study Skills Kick Start’ program, which focussed on note taking skills, including finding, recording and ordering key information in a manner that allows for recall and later revision.
Our Year 8 students completed the ‘Time Management’ course, which focussed on breaking up extended tasks into manageable chunks. In assignment work, this involves clarifying the four stages of researching, organising, writing and presenting; in examination preparation, this involves clarifying the steps of preparing notes, memorising, testing and practising.
Our Year 9 students do not have formal examinations this semester and their course focused on ‘Memory and Mnemonics’, exploring factors and techniques that influence the transfer of information from short term to long term memory. One interesting technique is to turn chunks of information into stories that are strange, personal, sensory and interactive.
NAPLAN
A reminder that our Year 7 and 9 students will take part in the NAPLAN testing next week.
Dates
The Year 7 and 9 students will complete the tasks during the mornings of the following days:
Tuesday, May 14: Writing
Wednesday, May 15: Reading
Thursday, May 16: Language Conventions
Friday, May 17: Numeracy
Catch up sessions will occur for students who have missed a test, but we ask that families try to avoid scheduling appointments during these times. Normal classes will be running for the rest of each day.
Preparation
On Tuesday, our Year 7 and 9 students set up their school laptops in preparation for the tests, including installing the online NAPLAN program. The students completed the online practice tasks using this program, ensuring that they are familiar with the testing environment and procedures.
Each day next week, students will need to ensure that their laptop is charged, and they will need to bring earphones with them to school, as some of the NAPLAN activities involve an audio component. Backup laptops and earphones will be provided where necessary. Students are also encouraged to restart their computer over the weekend to ensure that updates of other programs are successfully installed, avoiding this possibility on the testing days.
Ralph Carolan