On our continued journey to improve Literacy for our tamariki, this afternoons PD was delivered by Dr Rebecca Jesson from Woolf Fisher. This focussed on Literacy for Juniors particularly our Yr 1 - 3s.
She revisited the 'T Shaped Literacy' hypothesis which is derived from the thinking or theory, that to learn about words and to learn to read, you need to read widely. If we are to produce life long lovers of reading and effective readers we need to ensure they are capable of reading widely.
We know we need to practise to read, as we know we get better at something by practising the skill frequently and repeatedly. So are we Reading widely enough in our Junior classrooms? In her discussion of wide reading she discussed the idea of Reading 5+ a day books. A great reminder and somewhat of a checklist was provided for us around the various types of reading that should be happening in our classrooms everyday. Reading to, exposing them to both new word and world knowledge. Shared Reading, Buddy Reading and Independent Reading along with our Instructional Reading. This all contributes to building that reading muscle.
The challenge for us in this is whether we are doing each of these on a daily basis and how we can use the affordances of the technology we have to support this!
How can we read more deeply and more widely at the same time complement, contradict, and support our learners to become more critical in their reading. Dr Rebecca Jesson carefully guided and cleverly unpacked T Shaped literacy at a Junior level by helping us to consider the Themes within and across texts and how with careful planning, these can be unpacked within a weeks learning. What a great foundation we will be creating for our tamariki who are learning to read if we start doing this when they are in the critical learning to read stage. By choosing text sets that both complement and compete with a theme, the teacher is able to really support and provoke learners at a deeper level to understand and think about the characters, what they might learn or how they develop.
How do we plan for this learning? Start with a provocation and in doing so consider the NZC. To find out more - follow the link ...definitely well worth a watch and listen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHH3nsyz1dQ
