In this episode, I chat with Christopher Such. He is the author of, “The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading” and an experienced teacher, school leader and educational consultant. In our conversation, Chris touches on teacher workload, professional development and he goes through the thought behind his book and how his thinking has developed since its release. We then take a deep dive into teaching reading fluency and look at what it is, common misconceptions that teachers have and what it looks like across different year levels. After that, we somehow manage to fit in an overview of comprehension! This episode is not to be missed!

Resources mentioned:

• Kathy Rastle: 
  • https://www.rastlelab.com/

You can connect with Chris:

Twitter: @Suchmo83

Website: https://primarycolour.home.blog/

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

This is the final instalment of the three-part series that has focused on the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. Across the 3 episodes, I have delved into Catalyst which is the term used that encompasses their approach to teaching and learning across the system. 

In the first part (Episode 14), Ross Fox, the Director described how and why Catalyst came about. Then (Episode 15), Education Lead, Patrick Ellis went into detail about the implementation process.

Today, you will hear about how the messages from Catalyst are being translated into the classroom. Throughout the episode, Johanna Wain (Principal), Jennifer Smith (Coordinator) and Rebecca Brady (Teacher( describe St Bernard’s Primary School's transformation, what they have done to support staff in the change journey and how they have benefited from Catalyst.

Resources mentioned:

Teach Well

EDI

Lorraine Hammond

Brooke Wardana

Let’s Decode

Ochre

Think Forward Educators

RSiS FB group

ERRR Podcast

Bringing Words to Life - Beck, McKeown and Kucan

Dataworks

This is the second of a three-part series that focuses on the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. Across the three episodes, Brendan Lee will delve into Catalyst, the term used that encompasses the system's approach to teaching and learning across the system.

In the previous episode, Brendan spoke with Ross Fox, the Director, and he gave an inspiring recap of how Catalyst was initiated and the vision behind it. In this chat with Patrick Ellis, the Education Lead for Catalyst, you will hear in detail about the implementation process, the challenges they have faced, and what they have learned from it.

Resources mentioned:

Catalyst

COG Learn

Shaping Minds

Teach Well

How Learning Happens - Paul Kirschner and Carl Hendrick

You can connect with Patrick:

Twitter: @ellis_patrick

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/patellis1/

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

This is the first of a three-part series that is focused on the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. Across the 3 episodes, Brendan Lee will delve into how they have changed their approach to teaching and learning across the system under the banner of Catalyst. 

For this episode, Brendan chats with Ross Fox the Director of the Catholic Education Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn. He is the visionary behind Catalyst and you will hear about his journey. He will also discuss the process that he and his team have gone through in implementing Catalyst across 56 schools.

Resources mentioned:

https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/

Deans for Impact - The science of learning

Ochre Education

Spelling Mastery

Knowledge Society

E.D. Hirsch Jr - Why Knowledge Matters

Cognitive Load Theory

https://www.ollielovell.com/errr/lorrainehammond/

You can connect with Ross:

Twitter: @Rossefox

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers podcast, Brendan Lee chats with Jordan O’Sullivan from Shaping Minds. Together with Jared Bussell and now Brooke Wardana, they have been supporting teachers in implementing the science of learning in the classroom through practical professional learning combined with lesson demonstrations. For this podcast, Jordan goes through the simple memory model, the process of building a mathematics curriculum, delivering effective PL and much much more.

Resources mentioned:

Willingham’s Simple Memory Model (Article by Tom Sherrington and graphic by Oliver Caviglioli)

Fred Jones - Tools for Teaching

Ybarra and Hollingsworth’s Explicit Direct Instruction 

Archer and Hughes - Explicit Instruction

Guskey, Thomas. (2002). Professional Development and Teacher Change. Teachers and Teaching. 8. 381-391. 10.1080/135406002100000512

Sarah Cottingham - https://overpractised.wordpress.com/

Craig Barton - How I wish I’d taught maths

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.

Ollie Lovell - Cognitive Load Theory in Action

You can connect with:

Twitter: @ShapingmindsAus

Facebook: @ShapingMindsAustralia/

Website: https://shapingminds.com.au/

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

This is the second episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, which focuses on Marsden Road Public School. In the previous chat, Brendan Lee spoke with Marsden Road’s Principal, Manisha Gazula. Her story has inspired thousands of educators around the world. In this conversation, you will hear from Deputy Principal, Troy Verey. He is a highly respected educator in his own right and is also a shining example of Manisha’s ability to support the development of her staff. Throughout the conversation, Troy details the Core Program and describes what it looks like in the classroom.

Resources mentioned:

www.training247.com.au/

Get Reading Right

Pr1ME Maths

Doug Lemov

John Sweller

Daniel Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School

Rosenshine’s Principles

Ybarra and Hollingsworth’s Explicit Direct Instruction

Lorraine Hammond

Australian Education Research Organisation (AERO)

Castles, A., Rastle, K., & Nation, K. (2018). Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 19(1), 5-51.

You can connect with Troy:

Twitter: @TVtheTeacher

 You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee had the opportunity of visiting Marsden Road Public School and then speaking to the Principal, Manisha Gazula. Marsden Road has recently featured in a number of reports from the Grattan Institute on role-model schools from around the country. This is the first of a two part series on the school. In the next episode, you will hear from Deputy Principal Troy Verey. 

Manisha’s leadership style has been compared to Katherine Birbilsingh from Michaela Community School in the UK. However, in this conversation you will hear how Manisha’s clear vision, high expectations and relentless care have turned the schools results and culture around. Manisha also details their behaviour curriculum called The Marsden Way and their whole school curriculum - the  Core Program.

Resources mentioned:

Joanne Dooner - www.training247.com.au/

Dan Willingham

Mark Seidenberg

The Grattan Institute - Jordana Hunter and Amy Haywood

How to implement a whole-school curriculum approach 

Ending the lesson lottery: How to improve curriculum planning in schools

You can connect with Manisha:

Twitter: @manisha_gazula

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Kieran Mackle. Kieran is a primary mathematics specialist teacher from the UK, an author and is currently working with Complete Maths. He is also the host of Thinking Deeply about Primary Education, a podcast that should be on your playlist, and this episode is actually the second part of our conversation. In the first part, Kieran quizzes me for his podcast. However, in this episode you will get an in-depth look at how deeply Kieran has thought about primary mathematics. We look at a number of topics including: 

• Concrete, context, pictorial, abstract, language

In this episode, Kieran also analyses the lesson structure that I recently proposed. 

Resources mentioned:

• Christopher Such

Part 1 of the conversation: Episode 120 Thinking Deeply about Primary Education - In search of the Science of Mathematics (Teaching) with Brendan Lee

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/thinking-deeply-about-primary-education/id1546748470?i=1000609050064

My original blog post on A Systematic and Structured Approach to Teaching Primary Mathematics:

https://www.learnwithlee.net/a-systematic-and-structured-approach-to-teaching-primary-mathematics-part-1/

You can connect with Kieran:

Twitter: @Kieran_M_Ed

Website: thinkingdeeply.info

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Karen Tzanetopoulos, a trained speech and language pathologist. Karen tells us about how she started working out of an office that was like a janitor’s closet to quietly do her own structured literacy with students and how her interest in math began while working in the public schools, as she observed that many of her students with language disorders also struggled to learn math and then she made a connection between the two. 

In this conversation, Karen goes through everything from the fundamentals that students need automaticity in, common misconceptions, the importance of language to maths, how to approach word problems and much much more.

Resources mentioned:

- How Children Learn Math The Science of Math Learning in Research and Practice (Nancy Krasa, Karen Tzanetopoulos, Colleen Maas)

- sternmath.com

You can connect with Karen:

mathandlanguage.com

Email: [email protected]

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast, Brendan Lee speaks to Dr. Rouzana Komesidou, a researcher who fell into implementation science after seeing the gap between research and practice in schools. In our conversation, she gives an overview of what things schools should consider before implementing something, how leaders can support the process and what things to avoid.

Resources mentioned in this conversation:

• Dr. Tiffany Hogan

• Pre-print: https://osf.io/6zpq7/ 

You can connect with Rouzana:

Twitter: @rkomesidou

Website: https://mosinian.com/

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Website: learnwithlee.net