New & Returning Teachers Workshop

If you want the knowledge and confidence to improve reading standards in your classroom, this workshop will give it to you - step by step...

Improve your knowledge and confidence as we show you how to master the essential elements of teaching literacy.

The 'New & Returning Teachers Workshop' has been developed especially for recent teaching graduates and those re-familiarising themselves with teaching literacy after time away from the classroom. By examining the ways reading is taught and learned, you will be have the knowledge and confidence to:

• gather and analyse reading data to inform your teaching;
• plan and implement high quality Shared, Guided and Independent reading lessons;
• understand, plan for and confidently promote the vital role of home reading;
• explicitly teach reading across other KLA’s in a variety of ways.

You will gain knowledge of the very latest strategies used by literacy experts, that will make your teaching both powerful and efficient. In fact our strategies will actually free up time by dramatically improving classroom management, your own confidence, and heightening student engagement.

We’ll also show you how to free up further time by removing unnecessary clutter in the classroom literacy program.

This workshop will explore:

Ways to gather and analyse reading data in order to identify what students know, what they are grappling with and what they need to learn. Running records will be examined and short video segments will be viewed and discussed in order to determine future teaching goals.

Prompts and Strategies

What are the prompts and strategies and how do I know exactly what to say? When do I give a prompt and when do I wait? How much thinking time should I give the student? The prompts and their relationship to strategic problem solving will be discussed and participants will examine the importance of developing and teaching for a common, yet simple language which describes the problem solving required.

You will leave with a list of strategies and will have practised applying the prompts to a lower and an upper primary reading text.

Options for delivering a balanced reading program.

What are the approaches used to teach reading across the primary setting and what are the roles and responsibilities of teachers and learners within each approach? How frequently should reading instruction be provided for students of different ages and what do shared and guided reading lessons look like at different year levels across the school?

Participants will explore:

• flexible options for timetabling reading instruction
• shared reading and guided reading including frequency of instruction
• ways to explicitly teach reading across other KLAs
• options for classroom management and organization.

Promoting and Developing Independence

What do the other students do while the teacher takes a guided reading group? How do I provide quality learning tasks which extend reading skills and knowledge without assigning the much frowned upon 'busy work' and how do I identify rich learning from busy work?

You will explore strategies for developing self extending systems of learning and self regulatory reading behaviour and compare these to commonly assigned tasks in order to determine the validity of tasks assigned. The roles of reading journals, learning centres and reading contracts in supporting independent learners are explored as options for teacher directed and negotiated learning.

You will gain the knowledge to:

• plan for, structure and implement high quality shared, guided and independent reading
• plan quality tasks to support independent learning
• understand and discuss confidently the role of home reading

You will receive:

• a Literacy Solutions' classroom resource
• workshop notes
• tea/coffee on arrival, morning tea and lunch

Cost

$285 + GST (Limited spaces are available so please register early.)
RSVP: Five (5) working days prior to workshop

Should you attend?

This workshop is suitable for recent graduates or teachers returning to the classroom after a significant absence.