Literacy and numeracy are ‘foundational skills’ that underpin the subsequent development of more complex skills. They underpin workforce participation, productivity and the broader economy, and can impact on social and health outcomes. At WBHS, supported by teacher professional learning, we are building teams to develop school wide and KLA specific strategies to support the growth of Literacy and Numeracy skills in all students.
In Literacy
Our top highlights were:
Literacy Achievement in NAPLAN Tests
In Year 7 NAPLAN in 2019, 46% of students achieved expected growth in Reading and Writing. In Year 9 NAPLAN in 2019, expected growth was achieved by 50% of students in Reading and 52% of students in Writing.
A Whole School Approach to TEEEL Paragraphs
A whole school approach to structuring paragraphs was devised across Years 7-10 in 2018 and this shared structure and language has become embedded across KLAs in 2019. It has also been used successfully to enhance the understanding of students, including seniors, when responding to short answer and essay-style responses. This approach helps students to understand the function and placement of each sentence in a paragraph of an argument including a topic sentence, explanation, example, evaluation and linking sentence back to the main idea/ topic sentence. This has resulted in increased student confidence in understanding how to structure an argument and it has alleviated the confusion students experienced when different acronyms were taught in different KLAs. Every classroom now has the TEEEL poster as a visual cue to enhance their writing skills.
Vocabulary Sprint
A whole school vocabulary sprint took place in Term Two from Weeks 5 till 9. Teachers were provided with a variety of vocabulary tools, selected new words that students would encounter in that unit of work and scaffolded the learning of this identified metalanguage by using joint brainstorming activities of definitions, examples of the word in context, synonyms and antonyms. Students benefitted from extending their subject specific vocabulary through this explicit focus on breaking down the metalanguage of each subject.
‘Do Now’ Literacy Activities
The Literacy Team, comprised of one representative from each faculty, has been busy creating short literacy activities for their colleagues to use in the first few minutes of their classes while they set up for the lesson. These activities are relevant to the content being taught at the time and sharpening students’ reading and writing skills. These activities were shared on the WBHS Literacy Google Drive where all members of staff could access short lesson starters. This provided opportunities for teachers and students to maximise class time while honing important literacy skills.
Literacy Progression Mapping
Teachers of PDHPE, TAS and Music have begun mapping the new Literacy Progression codes into their junior school programs. Activities that are rich in literacy skills are thereby linked to the progressions, which assists with differentiation and ‘where to next’ skills.
