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Phase 2: What are my learning needs, as a leader?

ACTIONS

RESOURCES

Identify how best I can use expertise (teachers and/or outside agencies).
Collect and analyse evidence of teachers’ content knowledge of and practice in literacy
Teachers’ personal professional learning goals are aligned to student needs.
Leadership learning goals are aligned with identified needs of students and teachers.
Conduct learning conversations with teachers.

Knowing about current developments in literacy

 

Understanding and knowing how to support cultural and linguistic responsiveness.

Maori resources

Pasifika resources

Use resources to support my own knowledge of literacy.

Phase 3: Design of tasks, experiences and actions (for leaders, teachers and students)

ACTIONS RESOURCES
Regularly tracking and monitoring evidence of student progress and achievement towards targets

Align resource selection and allocation to support goals

 

Enable teachers to base decisions on teaching as an inquiry process.
Guide and support the planning and delivery of literacy across the curriculum
Ensure that when literacy interventions are put into place, they are also aligned and designed to help parents support children’s learning at home
Facilitating home-school partnerships, appropriate to your school and community

Professional learning and development

Professional development for teachers

Using The English Language Learning Progressions: professional support for leaders and teachers 
This provides professional development material that you can access in your own time, and in your own way.

Literacy Professional Development for Primary schools (LPDP) 
A national project conducted from 2004–2010. Provides links to key findings and research that literacy leaders, teachers, and principals may find useful to support their school’s literacy inquiry.

An integrated system of support for learners and schools
This system connects the everyday resources and tools available to learners, teachers, leaders, and schools for targeted and supplementary support.

National Library of New Zealand’s Services to Schools
The National Library of New Zealand’s  Services to Schools is a detailed exploration of what it means to have a reading culture and the role adults play in creating, supporting, and extending reading in students' lives.

Knowledge of literacy learning
This module focuses on knowledge of literacy learning in relation to the reading and writing standards for years 1–8.

Video resources

A student-led inquiry – Homai Primary School
This video resource is centred around a student-led chemistry inquiry with a specific focus on the development of metacognition through the teaching of writing.

Literacy and learning coaches at Konini School
Literacy coaches, Gill Aldworth and Denise Brown talk about their role in supporting teachers using the literacy progressions, refining what they are teaching, and being very specific in forming their next steps.

Ministry resources

Effective Literacy Practice in Years 1–4 and  Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5–8  
These handbooks identify and describe the features of literacy teaching, at the respective year levels, that are clearly linked by research to improved outcomes for students. They are designed to help teachers to: build their professional knowledge; become more aware of what makes literacy teaching effective for students; become more strategic; examine their beliefs about themselves as teachers and about children as literacy learners; see themselves as part of a professional learning community and reflect critically on their practice.

Learning through Talk: Oral Language in Years 1–3 and  Learning through Talk: Oral Language in Years 4–8  
These texts have been developed to support the teaching of oral language in primary schools, recognising the link between oral language and achievement. They are companions to the earlier handbooks on Effective Literacy Practice (Ministry of Education, 2003 and 2005).

Literacy Learning Progressions  
This resource shows teachers what knowledge and skills their students need in order to meet the reading and writing demands of The New Zealand Curriculum.

The English Language Learning Progressions  
This resource can help teachers of English choose appropriate strategies and tasks to personalise learning for diverse learners, particularly those for whom English is a second language. It also helps teachers assess where their students are at in terms of English language acquisition and to plan the next steps.

Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis 
This report investigates research-based evidence linked to student outcomes to discuss what constitutes effective teaching for diverse groups of learners.

Pathways over the Transition to Schools: Studies in Family Literacy Practices and Effective Classroom Concepts for Māori and Pasifika children

Literacy Professional Development Project: Identifying Effective Teaching and Professional Development Practices for Enhanced Student Learning

Literacy Teaching and Learning in e-Learning Contexts  
This report presents the findings of a research project on literacy teaching and learning in e-learning contexts carried out by CORE Education and the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) for the Ministry of Education in 2009.

Picking up the Pace
This research project delivered concentrated professional development in literacy instruction to groups of early childhood and new entrant teachers in decile one schools in Mangere and Otara. The outcome was a substantial lift in the reading and writing achievement of new entrants. 

NZ Curriculum Update 23 (July 2012) – Literacy across the curriculum 
This Update focuses on the languages, texts, and literacy practices of the different curriculum learning areas.

Literacy associations

New Zealand associations and services

New Zealand Literacy Association 
This site includes information about the association, its executive, and regional affiliates. It also includes subscription information, links to related associations, and information about conferences.

New Zealand Association of Teachers of English (NZATE)
This site includes information about the national association and its regional affiliates, along with subscription information, and has links to other very useful English and media sites.

School Library Association of New Zealand (SLANZA)
The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) supports teaching and learning by providing a national voice for school libraries throughout New Zealand and representing all school library staff.

International associations and groups

International Literacy Association

Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE)

National Association for the Teaching of English – UK (NATE)

Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)

See also

Mailing lists

The community mailing lists provide a connection between teachers and Literacy Online. Subscribers to the lists will receive weekly Literacy updates and all emails sent by the community.

Maintaining momentum

Your school’s literacy focus can be described as ‘sustainable’ so long as there is continued improvement in valued student outcomes. It is important to start creating the conditions for sustainability from the beginning of your literacy intervention.

Three factors seem particularly important in creating sustainability

1. A culture of student-focused inquiry

Indicators of a culture of student-focused inquiry

Indicators of a culture of student-focused inquiry include:

  • collecting and analysing student literacy achievement data (for example, e-asTTle, PAT) at the beginning and end of each year
  • teachers having access to assessment information and support to interpret it
  • student learning goals established on basis of data and other evidence
  • teacher learning goals established on basis of identified student needs and evidence about teaching
  • regular timetabled inquiry meetings to discuss evidence about teaching and learning
  • monitoring the impact of changed teaching practices on student achievement during, and at the end of, each year
  • evidence that teaching practices were adjusted in response to monitoring.

Embedding ongoing literacy inquiry

Ongoing literacy inquiry can be formally embedded by specifically requiring it to be a feature of:

  • annual and strategic plans
  • staff and department meeting times
  • Principal and Head of Department reports to the Board of Trustees
  • appraisal
  • student reports
  • the assessment calendar.

2. Managed inter-dependence (for example, professional learning communities)

Professional learning communities

Some characteristics of professional learning communities able to sustain ongoing improvements are that:

  • meetings are held regularly at different levels of the school (for example, focus groups, whole staff) to analyse and critically discuss evidence about learning and teaching
  • where appropriate, external expertise is enlisted to provide new knowledge and alternative viewpoints
  • artefacts (for example, student data and voice, video, observation templates) are used to maintain focus on improving student learning
  • participants work collaboratively to test interpretations of data, develop shared meaning, build collective responsibility and collective efficacy.

3. Leadership

Leaders maintaining momentum

Some characteristics of leadership that sustains ongoing improvements are:

  • designated roles for literacy leadership, for example, a Literacy Leader and a member of senior management with literacy in their portfolio
  • ongoing communication of literacy-related goals and expectations of teachers
  • processes to induct new teachers into school-wide literacy practices (including inquiry processes and professional learning communities)
  • teachers are regularly observed and receive feedback about literacy teaching practices
  • leaders who ensure that literacy practices are consistent with other instructional programmes in a school
  • leaders who avoid taking on board too many additional programmes/initiatives.

Further reading about sustainability

Lai, M. K., McNaughton, S., Amituanai-Toloa, M., Turner, R., & Hsiao, S. (2009). Sustained acceleration of achievement in reading comprehension: The New Zealand experience. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 30-56.

Lai, M. K., McNaughton, S., Hsiao, S. (2010). Sustaining improvements in student achievement: Myth or reality? set: Research Information for Teachers, 1, 10-17.

Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., & Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional learning and development: Best evidence synthesis iteration (BES) Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Education.

Download the  Teacher Professional Learning and Development Best Evidence Synthesis.

Read more about professional learning communities:

Ka Hikitia - Managing for Success: The Māori Education Strategy 2008 – 2012

Focusing Inquiry: Know your students

What literacy knowledge and skills do my students have in Mathematics?

Use multiple sources of information to determine the focus of your inquiry – student voice, assessment information, diagnostic tasks.

  • Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning e-asTTle This is a norm-referenced online tool for assessing reading achievement relevant to levels 2–6 of the curriculum. It provides national norms of performance for students in years 4–12. You may wish to discuss the implications of asTTle results for your learning area with the Literacy Leader in your school.
  • The Assessment Resource Banks : are collections of classroom assessment resources in English, Mathematics, and Science from Curriculum levels 2-5. The username and password to access the ARBs is available from your school.They are intended to support classroom assessment for learning within New Zealand schools. Examples of resources with a literacy focus that may be suitable for use in Mathematics include: 
  • Subject resources related to NCEA assessments are available - click on the relevant subject page.

What literacy knowledge and skills need to be developed?

  • The Literacy Learning Progressions describe the specific literacy knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students draw on in order to meet the reading and writing demands of the curriculum. Teachers need to ensure that their students develop the literacy expertise that will enable them to engage with the Mathematics curriculum at increasing levels of complexity.

Focusing inquiry: Know the learner

Learning about my students' needs

What is important (and therefore worth spending time on), given where my students are at? This focusing inquiry establishes a baseline and a direction. The teacher uses all available information to determine what their students have already learned and what they need to learn next.

Key questions

What do we know about each student's:

  • prior learning?
  • ethnicity/culture (Ko wai? No hea? - Who are you? Where are you from? eg. hapu/iwi/country of origin)?
  • linguistic background/languages spoken?
  • interests/hobbies/community involvement?
  • aspirations/goals (both student and whanau/community)?
  • skills, knowledge (including prior cultural knowledge) and understandings?
  • expected levels of progress in English?

Why are these questions important?

Our two national curriculum documents  The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and  Te Marautanga Aotearoa place the learner at the centre of teaching and learning. In order to effectively "attend to the cultural and linguistic diversity of all students" (NZC p34), teachers need to develop a rich knowledge and understanding of who their students are, what they bring with them, and their learning strengths and needs.

Teachers as Learners: Improving Outcomes for Māori and Pasifika Students through Inquiry
Seven case studies about teacher inquiry in New Zealand classrooms have been adapted as learning stories; these are included in this set of materials as springboards for thinking about the Teaching as Inquiry cycle, effective pedagogy, and cultural responsiveness and how they might connect to your own practice.

Teaching Secrets: When the Kids Don’t Share Your Culture 
An article from the New York Times which provides a number of practical ways to get to know students from different cultural backgrounds.

Back to top

Useful resources

Student Voice: Have we considered what our students would like from us? What helps them realise their potential?

[Video – Student voice]

Where can I find out more?

  • Ethnicity data from your Student Management System
  • Student achievement data derived from, for example:
  • Information from contributing schools, and, where relevant, ESOL department and RTLB
  • The Literacy Learning Progressions describe the specific literacy knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students draw on in order to meet the reading and writing demands of the curriculum.

Making Language and Learning Work in Secondary Science and Maths: Know the Learner

[Video – The importance of knowing the learner]

Recounts

school play.

Purpose

The purpose of this style of writing is to recall an event or experience for the reader's information or enjoyment.  It differs from a narrative in that the events are portrayed in chronological order - in the order in which they occurred rather than manipulated for maximum impact or drama.

Writers should remember that while the purpose is to retell they still need to craft their retelling to be interesting to the reader.  Rather than retelling every minor detail, the writer needs to select the important information  or events, and expand on these in an interesting manner.  If you were recounting a sports day, you could focus on the place, time, events and results (which may be appropriate for a report), but to interest the reader think about what would lift this above the dreary detail - What was the highlight of the day for you?  How did you feel when you tripped just before the finish line?  Did anything funny or surprising occur?

Types of recount

  • Personal recount
     These usually retell an event that the writer was personally involved in.
  • Factual recount
     Recording an incident, eg. a science experiment, police report.
  • Imaginative recount
     Writing an imaginary role and giving details of events, eg. A day in the life of a pirate; How I invented...

Features 

recount features.
  • Focuses on individual participants/events
  • Events in chronological order (the order they happened)
  • Can use features such as dialogue and description to embellish the retelling

Structure

  • the recount has a title, which usually summarises the text
  • specific participants (Mum, the crab)
  • the basic recount consists of three parts:
    1. the setting or orientation - background information answering who? when? where? why?
    2. events are identified and described in chronological order.
    3. concluding comments express a personal opinion regarding the events described
  • details are selected to help the reader reconstruct the activity or incident (Factual Recount)
  • the ending may describe the outcome of the activity, eg. in a science activity (Factual Recount)
  • details of time, place and incident need to be clearly stated, eg. At 11.15 pm, between Reid Rd and Havelock St a man drove at 140 kms toward the shopping centre (Factual Recount)
  • descriptive details may also be required to provide information, eg. He was a skinny boy with a blue shirt, red sneakers and long tied back hair (Factual Recount)
  • includes personal thoughts/reactions (Imaginative Recount)

Language

  • is written in the past tense (she yelled, it nipped, she walked)
  • frequent use is made of words which link events in time, such as next, later, when, then, after, before, first, at the same time, as soon as she left, late on Friday)
  • recounts describe events, so plenty of use is made of verbs (action words), and of adverbs (which describe or add more detail to verbs)
  • details are often chosen to add interest or humour to the recount.
  • use of personal pronouns (I, we) (Personal Recount)
  • the passive voice may be used, eg. the bottle was filled with ink (Factual Recount)

Planning for writing a recount

It is often a good idea to brainstorm all the things that happened in the event or experience, and then select and sequence those that you will use.

Popplet is a tool you could try for this - double click anywhere on the screen to add the events and then move into chronological sequence.  You can then add title ideas and personal comments or anecdotes.

recount poplet 3.
recount poplet 4

e-Learning tools to support recount writing

Planning 

eBook tools

  • Book Creator is a free iPad app that allows for inclusion of text, images and sound in creating eBooks.
  • Storyjumper is a free web 2.0 tool to make eBooks - very similar to Book Creator but uses Flash so not available on iPads.
  • Comic and Meme Creator is a free Android app for making eBooks.
  • Powerpoint or Keynote can also be used to create eBooks, with action buttons being used to create pick-a-path stories.

Illustrations
A recount does not always require illustration, but for some audiences or some formats, such as eBooks, illustrations could well enhance the retelling. Illustrations could be drawn freehand and then scanned or photographed for inclusion in a book or eBook, or they could be drawn on computer using free web 2.0 tools or apps. 

  • Artrage - natural painting software - free demo version or purchase for Mac or Windows $49.99, iPad app $4.99 or iPhone app $1.99
  • SketchUp - to make 3D drawings - free for educational use in primary and secondary
  • Tux Paint - free open source art programme for kids - available for Mac, PC, iPad and Blackberry Playbook & other.
  • Kid Pix Deluxe 4 for Schools - Paint and slideshow programme for kids

Photos
Attendance at an actual event often yields good digital photos to add to the recount.  These can be cropped, rotated and enhanced using free software or apps.  

Dr Livingstone, I presume?

Teacher Anne Girven

 

 YEAR

 LEVEL

 DURATION

7-8 4 6 weeks

 

Achievement Objective Being Assessed

Learning Outcomes

Transactional Writing  Write factual accounts, organising and linking ideas logically. Apply a range of skills to gather information, eg. skim rereading, note taking, summarising information.
Social Studies
Place and Environment 4.2
Why and how people find out about places and environments.
 Identify different reasons people have for finding out about places and environments.

Processes

 Processing Information  Gather, select and present coherent information from a variety of sources, using different technologies.
 Thinking Critically  Discuss and convey meanings in texts, exploring relevant experiences and other points of view.
Social Studies
 Inquiry Plan questions, collect, process and communicate information through the presentation of a brochure, a fact file or using PowerPoint.

Supporting Achievement Objective

Learning Outcomes

 Close Reading Discuss language, meanings, and ideas in a range of texts. Extract, compare and contrast relevant information from a variety of sources.
 Interpersonal Speaking  Report the results of research/inquiry to the class coherently, in small or large groups organising the information effectively.
 Poetic Writing Write a diary/log (Dr Livingstone) expressing ideas and experiences imaginatively, using appropriate vocabulary and conventions, shaping, editing and reworking text.

 

Introduction

 The aim of this unit is for the students to develop information research study skills through shared, guided and independent reading programmes - gathering and ordering information, question setting, resource selection, skim reading, note taking, summarising, and use of electronic resources, eg. CD ROM/Internet. See:

  • Gwen Gawith - Action Learning (Longman Paul 1988)

Teacher background reading

Teaching and learning activities

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

Learning task 1

Learning task 2

Learning task 3

Links for students

Collaborative online projects:

Assessment

Assessment task

 Explain to the students the assessment indicators for this task. Groups then decide upon three or four key questions they want answered:

  • How and why people find out about places.
  • The reasons people have for these expeditions.
  • The challenges/problem faced.

The students will conference with the teacher to ensure that the questions are not so specific or closed that the research process is invalidated or so broad as to be unmanageable. Information is to be presented in small groups using, eg. PowerPoint, OHT, fact file or a brochure.

self_assessment (RTF 11KB)
assessment (RTF 9KB)

See also:




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