Archive for the ‘Literacy general’ Category

Findings from our 2008 Literacy Survey

Tuesday, 6 January 2009 at 2:41 pm

In November and December 2008, we conducted a survey of our site visitors on a number of issues. Almost 200 visitors responded, providing useful data to help us plan our services for 2009 and beyond.

A short summary of the feedback the survey revealed includes:

41% of you said there is not a consistent approach to teaching literacy across your school
35% indicated that guided reading is not …

English grammar returns to the classroom

Thursday, 30 October 2008 at 8:28 pm

New curriculum or more effective teaching practices?

James O’Loan covered an interesting topic in The Courier Mail on October 16 which has sparked ongoing discourse within the teaching community and beyond. Mr O’Loan highlighted the “controversial ‘new’ curriculum focusing on grammar and punctuation” and including phonics as part of students’ literacy education. Is Mr O’Loan inferring that this is a controversial new curriculum because …

The Literacy Solutions Survey

Wednesday, 15 October 2008 at 1:39 pm

Literacy Solutions’ annual educator’s survey is now open. The information it collects will help us determine the ways with which we can meet the professional development needs of literacy educators. The more people who complete the survey, the richer and more detailed the picture will become.

The survey has only 13 questions, nearly all of them multiple choice. A fluent English speaker should be able to …

‘Smart Queensland’ & the role of strategic language instruction

Monday, 29 September 2008 at 12:56 pm

The Queensland Government has announced an early education initiative aimed at increased participation in pre prep programs by children aged 3-and-a-half to four-and-a-half years.

Queensland currently has 97% of children aged four-and-a-half to five-and-a-half attending full-time preparatory year programs, but only 29% of pre prep aged children participate in early education programs, delivered by qualified teachers. Whilst participation in education programs is relatively low, 48% of …

Targeting Literacy Intervention Strategies

Wednesday, 17 September 2008 at 9:53 pm

Queensland Education minister, Rod Welford recently commented on the results of the Years 3, 5 and 7 literacy and numeracy tests on ABC radio.

Mr Welford commented that a student’s success at school is largely dependent on the literacy levels of their parents, and in particular their mother.

Extensive studies highlight the link between students’ home lives and their school achievement levels. Factors of race, …