In this episode we talk about handwriting. Why is it such an important skill to learn? How do we teach it? Listen in to hear our key messaging about handwriting.

For further support and resources visit the NSWDoE Literacy and Numeracy website https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy

Effective writing professional learning - https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/professional-learning/effective-writing-evidence

Handwriting lesson advice guide - https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/teaching-and-learning-resources/literacy/lesson-advice-guides

Rosie Farnham, Linda De Marcellis and Shannan Salvestro from the Literacy and Numeracy team talk through the Professional Learning pathways documents that have been developed to support schools’ priorities in literacy and numeracy according to the needs of teachers and students.

Each pathway displays an overview of the professional learning and resources available in a suite of learning and provides a recommended order for engagement. Scenarios provide examples of how you can tailor a pathway to suit individual contexts.

You may benefit from having the pathways documents open while you listen to the discussion. They can be accessed by NSWDoE staff on the literacy and numeracy website -

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/resources-for-schools/pathways

You can join the Literacy and Numeracy Statewide Staffroom to ask questions and stay informed.

Literacy SWS - https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3a42316349d42e47178cba9da92ab992dd%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=26306aea-e8d5-49fe-88fd-4da661f01fd5&tenantId=05a0e69a-418a-47c1-9c25-9387261bf991

Numeracy SWS -https://teams.microsoft.com/l/team/19%3a25f15c444946478698aa09a497223ab6%40thread.tacv2/conversations?groupId=1b4d6e82-09f3-4598-ac69-8a47327eedc6&tenantId=05a0e69a-418a-47c1-9c25-9387261bf991

You can join the AP, C&I Yammer community - https://web.yammer.com/main/groups/eyJfdHlwZSI6Ikdyb3VwIiwiaWQiOiI5NDA3MTc1ODg0OCJ9

This podcast discusses assessment of student reading. For our NSW DoE teachers, we chat about what is available and how these assessments support us in identifying the reading behaviours and strategies of our students. We can use that information to make decisions about the next focus areas to target our teaching to meet student need.

For more information on these assessments and how to access them you can visit the assessment section on the Literacy and Numeracy website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/assessment-resources

or the Learning Resource Hub: https://resources.education.nsw.gov.au/?source=readingandnumeracy&sort=relevance

For further support please email [email protected]

Following the recent roll out of decodable texts to primary schools to support school's reading programs, the literacy team got together to discuss the effective use of these books for reading instruction. We talk about what they are, what their purpose is, how to select a text for instruction or independent practice and about the inclusion of other texts in reading instruction. Listen in to our discussion on effective reading instruction incorporating decodable readers.

For further information you could also visit the decodables section on the Literacy and numeracy website: https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/teaching-and-learning-resources/literacy/effective-reading-in-the-early-years-of-school/decodable-texts

Kate Blackwell, a classroom teacher at Blackheath Public School in the Blue Mountains shares what she has learnt about the neuroscience of reading and what the implications of that knowledge has meant to her classroom practice when teaching children to read.

Kate references these sources:

Reader come home: The reading brain in a digital world by Maryanne Wolf https://www.maryannewolf.com/reader-come-home-1

Language at the speed of sight by Mark Seidenberg

https://seidenbergreading.net/

Reading in the brain, the science of how we read by Stanilas Daheane https://www.penguin.com.au/books/reading-in-the-brain-9780143118053?utm_expid=.JC69wDioR_Kc4RimyKASfg.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Educating the brain - Stanislas Daheane

https://youtu.be/0esnsHI4opA

Literacy & Numeracy website (DoE intranet) https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy

Dr Danielle Colenbrander chats with us about the role of vocabulary in reading instruction.

Dr Danielle Colenbrander is a researcher and member of the Macquarie University Centre for Reading. Danielle trained as a speech language pathologist at Macquarie University before completing her PhD exploring the role of oral vocabulary in reading comprehension difficulties. She has worked with diverse populations of children in a variety of settings in Australia and the UK. She is interested in relationships between vocabulary knowledge, reading aloud and reading comprehension.

For further reading and professional learning:

Effective Reading: Vocabulary (professional learning for NSWDoE teachers)https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy/professional-learning

Literacy and numeracy website (NSWDoE intranet)

education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-l…y-and-numeracy1)

Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2013). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction (2nd edition)

Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2008). Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions and Extended Examples,

Parsons & Branagan (2017). Word Aware: Teaching Vocabulary Across the Day, Across the Curriculum.

Duff, Dawna (2019).Has Vocabulary Intervention Had an Effect? A Valid, Reliable, and (Fairly) Quick Outcome Measure for Semantic Knowledge, Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools • Vol. 50 • 506–517

In this conversation Dr Tessa Daffern explains why an instructional approach for spelling should include phonological, orthographical and morphological word forms. Effective spelling instruction should be explicit and occur frequently from the early years of school.

Dr Tessa Daffern has contributed to education in many capacities for over 20 years: as a classroom teacher in schools, teaching and learning specialist, literacy coordinator, academic, and education consultant. Tessa is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wollongong and has previously held positions at the University of Canberra and Charles Sturt University. Tessa's research is driven by her passion for English language education and for empowering teachers and undergraduate teacher education students to develop contemporary understandings that can inform their teaching of language and literacy. Tessa’s PhD examined the teaching and learning of spelling and writing in Australian school contexts.

Further reading and resources:

Spelling in the primary years

https://youtu.be/MWEgQ6WxaxI

The Unique Role of Early Spelling in the Prediction of Later Literacy Performance

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888438.2019.1573242

Progress in Reading Instruction Requires a Better Understanding of the English Spelling System

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0963721418773749?journalCode=cdpa

Does spelling instruction make students better spellers, readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11145-014-9517-0

What Happens When a Teacher Uses Metalanguage to Teach Spelling?

https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/trtr.1528

Literacy and numeracy website (NSWDoE intranet)

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy

Year 1 teachers from Cronulla Public School talk about how they use decodable texts in their classrooms during guided reading sessions and for independent practice of the strategies that students are being taught.

Oral language is the system we use for spoken words to communicate ideas, knowledge and emotions. It has a strong relationship to reading and writing and is recognised as a component of early reading instruction. Here we begin the first of a two part discussion podcast with Jane Beale, a speech pathologist, to hear her views on oral language.

Further resources:

Deslea Konza, Phonological awareness

https://speldnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1.2-phonological-awareness.pdf

Deslea Konza, Oral language

https://speldnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1.1-oral-language.pdf

Deslea Konza, Phonics https://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/663699/SA-DECS-Phonics.pdf

Deslea Konza, understanding the reading process https://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/663696/SA-DECS_-Understanding-the-Reading-Process.pdf

Isabel Beck, Making sense of phonics

https://www.booktopia.com.au/making-sense-of-phonics-second-edition-isabel-l-beck/prod9781462511990.html

Literacy and numeracy NSWDoE

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy

This second part of the podcast continues on from our discussion on oral language in part 1, and we take the chat onto phonological awareness, the sounds of our language, and to phonics which is about the relationship between sounds and the letters that represent them. Speech pathologist Jane Beale discusses her view on how these components work together for effective early reading and writing instruction. Further resources:

Deslea Konza, Phonological awareness

https://speldnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1.2-phonological-awareness.pdf

Deslea Konza, Oral language

https://speldnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1.1-oral-language.pdf

Deslea Konza, Phonics https://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/663699/SA-DECS-Phonics.pdf

Deslea Konza, understanding the reading process https://www.ecu.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/663696/SA-DECS_-Understanding-the-Reading-Process.pdf

Isabel Beck, Making sense of phonics

https://www.booktopia.com.au/making-sense-of-phonics-second-edition-isabel-l-beck/prod9781462511990.html

Literacy and numeracy NSWDoE

https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/literacy-and-numeracy