Literacy Solutions Blog

Bronwyn Sheehan is the founder and CEO of the Pyjama Foundation and the 2009 Queenslander of the Year.

What is the Pyjama Foundation?
The Pyjama Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2004 with the vision of transforming vulnerable children’s lives through the immersion of literacy.
What prompted you to create the Pyjama Foundation?
Having 3 children of my own, I experienced first hand the benefits of reading books …

Someone recently asked me to explain the term, ‘best practice’, and as he was changing year levels, asked what he should teach his new class. Here is a quick guide linking his two queries:

Best practice is always informed. It is drawn from specific data and observation about what students can do, are attempting to do and neglecting to do. It is guided by expectations about …

It was my recent pleasure to conduct a session for a new group of Pyjama Angels, a group of individuals volunteering time on a weekly basis to read to children in foster care.

With only eight per cent of foster children achieving average literacy levels by the age of seven and only 25 per cent graduating high school, foster children are among our most vulnerable …

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 …

Deciding whether to repeat a child at school is often difficult for administrators, teachers and parents. A range of social, emotional and learning issues must be addressed as adults endeavour to make the best decision possible for the child concerned. Repeating offers no guarantees, so when is it the best decision?

In some cases, a decision is clear cut. And for many children, repeating a …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

The practice of homogeneous group reading is not new. This model of reading has been a common practice in schools for many decades. So what is the difference between small group, round robin reading and guided reading?

Guided reading occurs when teachers select texts based around the instructional reading level of students and also consider how texts support and challenge particular groups of students. At the …