Category: Secondary
-
Q&A: Indigenous literacy trainer Emily Davies
Working in Indigenous literacy can be ‘pure magic’ according to NT Government Literacy and Numeracy Projects Training Officer Emily Davies. To celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day, we spoke to Emily about her role visiting schools in the Katherine region, the challenges she faces and the joy of helping Indigenous students to read. Where do you work?…
-
Suspension and exclusion rates from schools in most Australian states are skyrocketing. Are we inclusive or exclusive?
By Professor Emeritus Merv Hyde PhD AM, School of Education, University of the Sunshine Coast More and more students are being suspended and excluded from schools than in the past, according to recent reports from several Australian school systems. We have even seen rapidly escalating rates of student suspensions from Prep and Grade 1 classes. Disturbingly, some states…
-
Using the correct terminology – Teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives
(An abridged extract from Yarning Strong Professional Support Years 3-4) Language and individual words gain their meaning from a particular context or the perspective of the observer. Within the Australian historical context, some terms used to describe past events are value-laden and need to be understood in context. For example, terms such as ‘discovery’, ‘pioneers’…
-
Lost without atlas skills
By Annie Facchinetti The digital native, tech savvy students in our classrooms today have no need for traditional skills such as knowing how to use an atlas or to read a map, right? They’ll just use Google to get fast information about places or to find their way around. While it’s tempting to think that…
-
More than Mercutio – English teaching for the future
By Michael Horne Discussion of what teachers and educational leaders really want students to get out of their schooling has recently shifted to the types of skills that they will need in the 21st century. In the face of a paradigm that still emphasises knowledge retention and memorisation, and when viewed in combination with the…
-
Comprehension is an essential part of the literacy equation
By Annie Facchinetti Imagine that you were lost in Turkey and the only directions you had were written in Turkish. You could probably read them out loud with reasonable accuracy, even though your phonological awareness of the language may not be perfect, but unless you can speak Turkish, your understanding would be limited. Reading the…
-
Catering for mixed abilities in the English classroom
The term ‘mixed ability class’ is one that teachers often react to with an inward groan, but it’s a reality in most Australian classrooms. When I consider my Year 8 English class, there is a gap of around three years between the highest and lowest performing students, and I’m sure that this isn’t too unusual…
-
Forget about Maths experts, Australian schools need well-supported teachers
By Brian Murray Hardly a year seems to pass by without some survey or other exposing a slip in numeracy standards in Australian schools. In late 2016, Education Minister, Simon Birmingham, said he was “embarrassed for Australia” because of the way Year 4 students had fallen behind other countries in Maths. Bodies such as the…