Week 3 Term 1: English Department: Structured Literacy Part 1 (Feb 10 - Feb 14)

 For the English Department, one of the school goals that we are focused on this year is: 

Goal 3 Literacy and Numeracy

By the end of Year 10, 80% of students will be reading at or above the expected level

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are writing at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

By the end of Year 10, 70% of students are achieving in Mathematics at or above the expected Curriculum Level.

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Literacy. 

That 90% of Year 11 students will achieve NCEA Numeracy.

Specifically focusing on Literacy. One of the ways that we would like to support this school goal is prioritizing Structured Literacy in our Year 9 and Year 10 English classes. As a cross curricular collaboration with the Social Science and Science Departments, we are undertaking a specific Structured Literacy strategy with across all of the English, Social Science and Science Year 9 and Year 10 classes. Led by our Literacy expert, Dr Jannie Van Hees, we will be looking at a structured literacy strategy and implementing it in our junior classes. The focus for this term is syllabification. 

Structured literacy in New Zealand focuses systematic instruction of reading and writing, focusing on:

Phonemic awareness
Phonics
Vocabulary fluency
Comprehension
Teachers use a multi-sensory, direct approach, breaking down language components into manageable units.
Structured literacy supports a solid foundation for literacy development, aiming to ensure all students achieve proficiency and confidence in reading and writing across all educational levels.

English, Social Science and Science Department - Structured Literacy PLD

At Tamaki College, the Structured Literacy strategy will be centered around the learning areas driving two parts that essentially work well together. 

Letter knowledge + Word/s and Phonemes (the sound of words) - English Department

Sentence + Text Fluency. Graphemes (sound as they are written) - Social Science and Science Department. 

Collectively we cover - 

• Syllabification - syllabification and multi-syllable words
• Fluent - word group reading
• Vocabulary meanings - explain ready
• Word + Word Group - Sentence, fluence - flow and rhythm
• Phonology - sounds of the language, the sound of words
• Orthography - the look of words
• Morphology - the meaning of words

The next steps from here is that we are having two sessions with Dr Jannie to get ourselves on the same page with the strategy and understanding how we can implement the do now activity in our lessons. We have currently completed one out of two sessions. I look forward to reflecting on what I learnt from this PLD.