The Teacher's Tool Kit For Literacy

With such limited time and resources, teachers find it difficult to cater for the needs of all students in the class. It can be hard to know where they are at, and to match them with the curriculum for their year level. To talk about differentiation and how to overcome these challenges, we are joined by numeracy consultant Rob Vingerhoets.  Rob is an experienced and highly effective educator and s...

In part 2 of this discussion, Sharon Callen continues to reveal the key insights and outcomes from a three day literacy teaching intensive that she recently ran for a group of schools. It's all about making connections. Integrating reading, writing and word work is the most efficient and powerful way to teach literacy.  In this episode, Sharon provides more guidance, tips and solutions that you ca...

After recently completing a three day literacy teaching intensive for a group of schools, Sharon Callen reveals the key insights and outcomes in this episode. It's all about making connections. Integrating reading, writing and word work is the most efficient and powerful way to teach literacy.  Sharon talks about: 'Every Child, Every Day' True classroom practice The importance of ACARA as a great...

School leaders are always looking for new models and ways to get better teaching results. In the hope of finding a quick and easy fix, some will choose to adopt programs. But many of these 'out of the box' programs come with many limitations and often don't deliver on the promised fast results. Is there a better way? As we explore this, we look to Melbourne where literacy and educational outcomes...

In this week's episode, literacy expert Sharon Callen talks about how to identify and utilise literature on complex issues to enrich student experiences. This is important for teachers for a range of reasons. Helping students to appreciate literary texts and to create their own literary texts enriches their understanding of human experiences and the capacity for language to deepen those experience...

Independent reading is crucial to literacy learning but schools and teachers can still struggle to bring it to its full potential. Mark Macleod joins the show to share his insights. Mark has been involved with children's publishing for over 25 years as a lecturer, publisher, freelance editor, President of the Children's Book Council and now as an author. Mark published books for young readers and...

Many teachers are constantly searching for great information books to fit their mini lessons in English and other learning areas. Finding the right books is one thing, teachers also want to know how to make these texts a central part of their teaching,  Teachers need to give students access to ‘just right’ information books for independent reading and writing and connect it to reading, writing and...

Sharon Callen continues her conversation about inferring, to help in the teaching of reading comprehension. Remember, inferring is a strategy. It permits readers to merge their background knowledge with text clues to come to a conclusion about new ideas that aren’t directly stated in the text. Drawing conclusions helps readers gather more information and ideas and understand the writer’s point of...

Teachers are looking for ways to teach reading comprehension strategies more effectively.  If we notice that our students are falling down in reading comprehension, particularly on formal assessments, how do we help them be more successful? What do we teach to help students be good at inferencing? Firstly, we need to understand what inferring is. Inferring is a strategy. It permits readers to merg...

Joining Sharon Callen on the podcast is Amelia McInerney, a humorous picture book author based in Canberra, Australia. Amelia is the author of Who Fed Zed?, a zany picture book about a gluten-intolerant goldfish which she produced with Adam Nickel, the illustrator of the phenomenally successful No One Likes a Fart . Her other titles include The Book Chook illustrated by Connah Brecon (a CBCA Notab...

Many teachers want to improve student writing but feel like they're drawing on the same routines to teach - what’s the text type, what’s the structure, where’s the planning template, what’s the topic and where’s the link to the curriculum (trying to find purpose and audience), how do I fit it into a 5-6 weeks ... the challenges go on. It can be hard to move on from here without having a toolkit of...

Good teachers are always looking for ways to teach effectively so all students feel included and nurtured. Lucy, a Year 1 teacher in Australia, says the arts can do just that. Lucy joins literacy expert Sharon Callen to talk about the impact of the arts on literacy learning, and how the arts can be a springboard for the four key capabilities discussed by Robyn Ewing - curiosity, compassion, connec...

As teachers we spend a lot of time teaching new skills, but students often don't have enough time to rehearse these skills in real contexts. Practice should make up the majority of a lesson. So, what does high impact practice look like?   Firstly we use the MINI LESSON to have our students practise WITH us as we continue our demonstration.  The active art of student practice begins right here, wit...

Many teachers are yet to unlock the full potential of the arts as a powerful way to unlock literacy learning in students. So how do we fully utilise the arts in the teaching of reading and writing? One of Australia's leading educators joins us to share her insights. Robyn Ewing AM is Professor Emerita, Teacher Education and the Arts and Co-Director of the Creativity in Research, Engaging the Arts,...

Teachers often struggle with students who don't have the motivation, skills and strategies to activate their extended writing and start taking risks. This is where it is important for teachers to support a rehearsal process.  What is Quick Writing? It's a quick-to-use tool to free the writer’s mind, to help them learn how to craft writing and to give it a go, once, twice, reflect ... and again. It...

True success in spelling comes when schools have a strategy that integrates and evolves with every year level. In this episode, one of Australia's top educators and Teacher's Tool Kit regular Diane Snowball joined literacy expert Sharon Callen to talk about how to do that. The trio talk about: How to teach in a coordinated way across the school that addresses the two spelling strands: Teaching chi...

Award winning Indigenous Australian author and performer Boori Monty Prior joins the Teacher's Tool Kit podcast for an incredible interview about storytelling, writing, communicating, performing and his own journey.  Boori was born in Townsville, North Queensland. His father is from the Juru people of Cape Upstart from the Bowen region. His mother is a descendant of the Gurubana Moiety group from...

When working with teachers and leaders, we are always working towards the best outcomes for all of our literacy learners and looking to enable highly effective outcomes.  This drives us to these considerations: What are the high impact strategies that many of us are working with? And how can these be managed to enable high impact for every child, every day? In this episode, we’ll look at this in r...

How can teachers effectively understand where students are at in their literacy development? There's testing and running records, which have benefits and limitations, and the Reading Conference , which is a powerful process when done the right way. This is the art of conferring with kids, which is easier said than done. So how do we plan for a highly effective Reading Conference and what tools do...

Picture books aren't just for young students, they also have the power to impact upper primary aged children.  Teacher Giselle returns to the show to share her insights on activating older students with picture books, and shares a huge list of books that teachers can use to motivate and engage.  Resources from Episode 34 TEACHIFIC Our Class Read Aloud Calendars, K-7 BOOKTOPIA Books mentioned in th...

For many teachers, it's a challenge to help students go beyond the ordinary, featureless writing and vast amounts of copying that can come with informational texts.  In reality, informational texts are engaging and masterfully crafted to guide the reader through the rich array of features incorporated into these texts. So, to be inspired by these features, to understand how they work, how to read...

Many teachers are looking for more ways to engage secondary students and young adults in their reading. And a lot of that comes down to choosing the right books and texts. But how can teachers find 'just right' texts for students? How do we find a place for these texts when there is so much required content? How do we create more space for independent reading? Sharon Callen is again joined by Rebe...

Many teachers will say "my students aren't motivated to read!" But how much do we really know about this? We test students, effectively and sometimes not effectively, in a number of ways to find out what they're doing and  how they're performing as readers, but we don't often take the time to discover a child’s self concept as a reader or the value they place on reading. Are you determining the re...

In our ongoing discussion about the importance of poetry for literacy, this episode draws on the important insights and practical tips from highly experienced education expert Alan Wright. Alan is an education consultant and author who has worked extensively in the United States and Australia, promoting best practice in primary and secondary schools and at a systems level. While based in New York...

Poetry plays a key role in literacy learning, but the subject is still easily misunderstood. Teachers must understand the purpose of poetry, why and how we teach it. Poetry requires intentional focus, not just an add-on or a four week unit. Making poetry a part of your weekly or fortnightly routine (K-6) clearly shows students how much you value it. It enables them to develop momentum in their poe...