Sabbatical 2023
To address the literacy crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand is
going to require reform at all levels. It is not a quick fix. My
sabbatical was to give me a chance to do some readings and
study around ways to improve literacy in high schools and
how to prepare students for the new literacy standards. I was
going to go into several schools but I live in Hawke’s Bay and
the cyclone and the damage after it put a stop to that. Instead
I have emailed several schools and asked them for feedback
on how they are changing their junior programmes to help
students with their literacy and the demands of the new NCEA
requirements. I have also looked at quite a few resources and
webinars to see what other people are doing . There is a lot of
amazing work going on everywhere and some great resources
being produced linking into literacy. I think that there is a lot
of work that could also be done on looking at how literacy fits
into other subject areas in the school and not just English.
Looking at the skills taught in several different subject areas
and how they cross over or looking at literacy strategies that
the teachers of one class across different areas could share
to strengthen the literacy skills of those students would also
be a good thing to look at when schools are preparing their
curriculum.
What has been said about literacy?
1. Literacy is an essential life skill, not only for accessing
education but for participation in society more broadly.
2. Children who struggle to read and write will find it
difficult to access all areas of the curriculum.
3. Adults with low literacy not only have limited
employment opportunities but also worse health
outcomes.
4. A research report published by The Education Hub
earlier in 2022 revealed that by the age of 15, 35.4
percent of teenagers struggle to read and write.
5. It is crucial that we support learners to attain good
literacy skills.[ The Education Hub] Report will reveal 'dire
state' of literacy in Aotearoa - expert
At school every student has the right to equal opportunities of
learning in the classroom and we should have high
expectations for everyone.This right is not happening and
we are seeing some devastating results because of this.
Low literacy rates don't just impact New Zealand's
schoolchildren. The flow-on effect leads into adulthood. If
people don't have these fundamental skills by the time they
leave school, then the path to entering the productive
economy becomes that much more difficult.. A research
report published by The Education Hub earlier this year
revealed that by the age of 15, 35.4 percent of teenagers
struggle to read and write and it just gets worse. "The
Department of Corrections believes that about three out of
five prisoners don't have [an] NCEA Level 1 level of
literacy or numeracy.” Damien Venuto, NZ Herald,
Publish Date Wed, 17 Aug 2022, That is something that should not
be happening. In 2022 I watched the webinar, The Perilous
State of Literacy in New Zealand, which stated that,” A 2020
UNICEF report found that only 64.6% of 15-year-olds in
Aotearoa New Zealand have more than a basic proficiency
in reading and maths. Turning that around, a staggering
35.4% – over a third of 15-year-olds – struggle to read and
write. Given the critical (and growing) importance of
literacy, not only for education and employment but also
for broader life outcomes.” To me this was of concern.
Over the past year, The Education Hub has conducted an
extensive literature review in order to understand more
fully exactly where Aotearoa New Zealand is at in terms of
literacy achievement, how we got here, and what might be
done to turn the situation around. In this webinar, “report
co-author Dr Nina Hood moderated a discussion with:
Professor Stuart McNaughton – Chief Education Scientific
Advisor and University of Auckland. Professor Gail Gillon
(Ngāi Tahu) – literacy expert at the University of Canterbury.
Barbara Ala’alatoa – Principal at Sylvia Park Primary School
in Auckland. Taylor Hughson – co-author of the report.” I
found their concerns very worrying. I also took part in a
webinar on the 13th June 2022 with Dr Jennifer Glenn who
works at Thames High school for the community of learning
as well as publishing papers for The Ministry of Education and
Dr Irena Anderson who is an education consultant with
Education Associates. Dr Anderson[who I will refer to later]
has also worked with many schools to build literacy practices
within and across learning areas, which is going to be even
more important as every subject area will have a responsibility
for the new literacy standards. The webinar was on practical
ways that secondary teachers can use effective literacy
approaches in their classroom teaching and learning
programme. It also looks at school-wide practices and is well
worth watching.
I thought about the following questions when I started
looking into this.
1. How do you implement effective literacy strategies and
learning as well as looking at how best to support the
students' access to the new literacy standards ?
2. Will there have to be major changes to junior
programmes looking at more of an emphasis on reading
and writing?
3. Are people looking at writing for purpose as just part of
what you do when you write?
4. What reading programmes are being put in place to
encourage reading?
5. What kind of data are schools using to see if their
students are ready to sit the literacy test online?
easTTle/PATs, common assessments?
6. How can we build greater competency and accuracy in
our writers ?
Things that schools need to think about:
How have you designed your literacy programme and
what evidence have you drawn on to inform its design?
● How do you embed literacy across the different
curriculum areas?
● How do you support students who exhibit less welldeveloped literacy?
● How can literacy be promoted in schools?
What has been reported so far about literacy and the
new NCEA literacy tests?
Links to look at:
● 1. Concerns compulsory NCEA literacy and
●
●
●
●
numeracy tests will ...
2.https://www.rnz.co.nz › news › national › concerns-co
●
3. New NCEA tests could jeopardise Māori and
Pacific students ...
● https://www.rnz.co.nz › news › national › new-ncea-test..
●
4. Govt pushing on with NCEA changes as only a
third pass …
●
Concerns compulsory NCEA literacy and numeracy tests ...
●
● RNZ
● https://www.rnz.co.nz › news › national › concerns-co...
● 13/12/2022 — Teachers are worried compulsory NCEA literacy and numeracy tests will be
too tough for new migrants, refugees and international students.
●
● https://www.nzherald.co.nz › New Zealand › Education
5. Frequently Asked Questions - Amazon AWS
● https://ncea-live-3-storagestack-53q-assetstorages3bucket-
2o21xte0r81u.s3.amazonaws.com
Literacy Pedagogical Content Knowledge (LPCK)
are the techniques we can use to explicitly teach
literacy in the classroom.
Each LPCK is related to at least one Effective
Practice to Support NCEA Literacy.
NEW ZEALAND EDUCATION
26 Apr 2022
Teens could fail basic
literacy, numeracy
NCEA standards report
11:20 am on 26 April 2022
John Gerritsen, Education correspondent
@RNZeducation john.gerritsen@rnz.co.nz
Initial testing indicates some teens will fail compulsory
NCEA standards because they don't use capital letters and
full stops and don't know how many minutes are in an
hour.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The new standards, one for numeracy and two for literacy,
become a must-pass co-requisite for the certificate of
achievement next year.[2024]
But assessment reports show that a test run last year found
many teenagers cannot write without intrusive spelling,
punctuation and grammar errors, and cannot correct a text
to ensure tenses, verbs and pronouns are right.
Nearly two-thirds of students failed the writing standard
in the latest NCEA literacy and numeracy pilot, according
to results released on Friday morning. Only
a
third of students passed
writing standard in NCEA
pilot
It looked at “structured literacy.” The method – which the
report deemed “essential” for children in early primary –
taught letter sounds (phonics) systematically, helping
students decode words.
Key features of structured literacy.
A structured literacy approach is recommended for
students with dyslexia and those who are having
difficulty with decoding because it directly
addresses phonological skills, decoding, and
spelling. There seems to be substantial evidence that
it is effective for structured literacy (SL) approaches that
emphasize highly explicit and systematic teaching of all
important components of literacy. These components
include both foundational skills (e.g., decoding, spelling)
and higher-level literacy skills (e.g., reading
comprehension, written expression). This method will
obviously take awhile to be rolled out throughout NZ and
then for the effects to be seen in High Schools.
Gabrielle McCulloch15:24, Oct 21 2022
What does a structured literacy approach look like? A
structured literacy approach provides: Sourced from:
Understanding Structured Literacy - TKI - Inclusive
Education https://inclusive.tki.org.nz ›
Explicit, systematic, and sequential teaching of literacy at
multiple levels – phonemes, letter–sound relationships,
syllable patterns, morphemes, vocabulary, sentence structure,
paragraph structure, and text structure
cumulative practice and ongoing review
a high level of student–teacher interaction
the use of carefully chosen examples and non-examples
decodable texts
prompt, corrective feedback.
Structured literacy provides solid foundations
https://gazette.education.govt.nz › Latest articles
Source: Structured literacy: Effective instruction for
students with dyslexia and reading related difficulties
Useful resources
Structured literacy: An introductory guide
Structured literacy (SL) approaches emphasize highly explicit
and systematic teaching of all important components of
literacy. These components include both foundational skills
(e.g., decoding, spelling) and higher-level literacy skills (e.g.,
reading comprehension, written expression).This method will
obviously take awhile to be rolled out throughout NZ and then
for the effects to be seen in High Schools.
Gabrielle McCulloch15:24, Oct 21 2022
Useful readings:
1. A must as a starting point to read. Literacy
& Numeracy - Planning Document November 2022
https://ncea-live-3-storagestack-53q-assetstorages3bucket2o21xte0r81u.s3.amazonaws.com
So many ideas in this
document on what your programme could look like and
where to start.
2. Literacy
for secondary learning area teachers
which looks at ideas like: School-wide approaches
to literacy, equity in literacy teaching and learning and
what is secondary literacy?
https://theeducationhub.org.nz › literacy-for-secondary-..
3. SECONDARY
LITERACY by Jennifer Glenn and
Irene Anderson also a great read
https://www.mikesnews.co.nz › uploads › 2021/11
.
4. What do we know about current literacy levels of
students in Aotearoa New Zealand? A good resource
to read from Education Hub.
5. Now I Don’t Know My ABC by Nina Hood and Taylor
Hughson provides an overview of our findings,
including recommendations for how to improve the
state of literacy in New Zealand.
6. What’s happening with literacy in Aotearoa New
Zealand? This is a companion report, which provides
a more detailed analysis of the research on literacy in
New Zealand. Link into The Education Hub –
WELCOME - THE EDUCATION HUB
The Education Hub
https://theeducationhub.org.nz
To watch:
7. The new NCEA literacy and numeracy standards YouTube
https://www.yo
9:10Experts come together to improve NZ's literacy standardsThe
New Zealand Initiative · NZ Initiative9 min, 10 s15 Mei 2022
Interesting ideas from this resource:
It is possible to draw the following key conclusions about
students’ literacy levels in NZ:
● Both primary and secondary school students have
declining levels of achievement in most reliable
measures of reading achievement, especially since 2009
● In recent years, New Zealand’s reading achievement has
declined faster than achievement levels in comparable
countries
● Although there are only a handful of studies into writing
achievement, available evidence suggests that large
numbers of New Zealand children have significant issues
with writing, and these issues are getting worse over
time
● There remain persistently large gaps between students
●
●
●
from different socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds,
and between girls and boys, and these gaps continue to
be higher than in comparable countries
And also of concern from the same report
Persistently large gaps remain between students from
different socio- economic backgrounds, and these gaps
continue to be higher than in comparable countries.
There remain persistently large gaps between the literacy
levels of different ethnic groups, with Pākehā and Asian
students consistently achieving,
●
●
on average, higher reading and writing scores than Māori
and Pasifika students.
There continue to be large gender gaps in literacy, with
girls achieving, on average, higher reading and writing
scores than boys.
●
These issues seem quite major and where do we
start the how on how to address them?
What has been said about literacy?
1. Literacy is an essential life skill, not only for accessing
education but for participation in society more broadly.
2. Children who struggle to read and write will find it
difficult to access all areas of the curriculum.
3. Adults with low literacy not only have limited
employment opportunities but also worse health
outcomes.
4. It is crucial that we support learners to attain good
literacy skills.[ The Education Hub]
5. At school every student has the right to equal
opportunities of learning in the classroom and we should
have high expectations for everyone.
Also of concern:
Digital environment. What does it mean for literacy?
Struggling readers find using digital devices difficult. Can help
edit work but better cognitive thinking on paper.
All ākonga need certain literacy and language knowledge,
skills, and attitudes to meet the reading and writing demands of
the curriculum. Reading and writing, listening and speaking,
and viewing and presenting are required tools in every
curriculum area. Literacy in English is therefore a crucial factor
in student success.
●
Literacy readiness can be helped by reading every
night, talking about why people write, how people try to
influence others’ ideas when they write and how we
communicate in different registers (formally and
informally). [Rutherford school]
●
Private tutoring in reading instruction known as “structured
literacy” had helped with her daughter’s confidence.The
method – which the report deemed “essential” for children
in early primary – taught letter sounds (phonics)
systematically, helping students decode words, the woman
said.
Gabrielle McCulloch15:24, Oct 21 2022
LITERACY (PRIMARY LEVEL)
Effective vocabulary instruction
Explaining why a strong vocabulary is a critical component of
reading comprehension and how teachers can build students'
vocabulary across the curriculum.
What ideas can work?
Accepting a shared process for writing can support both
teachers and students with their literacy. These 7 steps
describe a writing process that works across most learning
areas. Remember that feedback is very important. It must be
clear and useful and students need time to process it. Can
they actually tell you what you want from them?
Below is a brief overview of the steps in the writing process
where issues are often found and is a good place to start.
WRITING by Jennifer Glen
STEP 1 Purpose and form. What kind of writing are we doing
and what will it look like?
STEP 2: Criteria-how will it be evaluated?
STEP 3: Knowledge/IDEAS
Building up ideas often involves oral discussion and/or
research and note-making. Tools such as Thinking/Discussion
Grids, 100 Ideas Challenge, all help to extend the
development of ideas prior to writing.
STEP 4: WORDS/Language
STEP 5: What patterns are needed in writing?
STEP 6 Edit and proofread and how can we do this properly?
STEP 7 Present and publish
Similarly, students need productive key vocabulary for writing
in place before a task. Often students have a higher level of
receptive vocabulary than productive ones; they can sort of
understand key words, but are not always able to use these
words fluently and correctly when they produce written pieces.
Every year NCEA Examiners’ reports discuss the effective
use of key learning area vocabulary as a marker for
achievement and success, as well as for failure. This is
something that we have all tried to improve with our senior
students especially for those aiming for excellence and I know
at times the students struggle as we do to understand what
perceptive looks like. As teachers we have to help break
down the language used and give the students strategies to
help them unpack new terminology. We of course want all
students to have a love of writing and access to a wide range
of words to use.
The more students have opportunities to use and interact with
the important terms and vocabulary before they try to write the
better. There are many strategies for this such as:
- 1.Guardian of the Word 2.Vocabulary Dominoes 3.Vocabulary Rub-out
4. Patterns and Structures. Perhaps use FANBOYS
FANBOYS | Coordinating Conjunctions | Rules &
Examples
https://www.twinkl.co.nz › teaching-wiki › fanboys
FANBOYS is a mnemonic for a set of seven coordinating
conjunctions. ... Using them allows the writer to show
readers how the ideas in two clauses relate to ...
Many students enter high school with very simplistic syntax.
They write in simple and repetitive compound sentences.
Increasing sentence variation can be a first step to improve
writing style. Sadler & Sadler (2010) found the use of
sentence combining alone (in over 80 studies) lifted the ability
to write more complex sentences of higher quality for students
with or without disabilities. Jeff Anderson has also offered
teachers many ways of working to extend sentence patterns
and to lift style.
Beyond sentences, students are working to create
paragraphs, a group of sentences with a single focus. There
are many paragraph guides out there and many schools
adopt a common approach to paragraphing across learning
areas. One such approach is TEXAS. This has the added
bonus of lifting the analysis section, the A, of a paragraph. A
TEXAS Paragraph. T - Topic Sentence: Answers the
question in one short sentence. E - Explanation: Explains
the concept(s). X - eXamples: Gives evidence that your
answer is correct. A - Ask Yourself: Read your paragraph:
have you answered the question?
Other methods to follow for writing.
Step
1
Purpose
and Form
What the writing will look like, who/what it is
for
Step
2
Criteria
What are the criteria to evaluate this
writing – what will a ‘good’ one look like?
Step
3
Ideas
What ideas and knowledge need to be in
place to undertake this writing task?
Step
4
Words
What are the keywords that need to
feature in this writing?
Step
5
Patterns & What patterns are needed in this writing
Structures – from sentence to paragraph to the
frameworks for longer pieces?
Step
6
Edit and
Proofread
What do these words mean in this
school? What helps students to ‘revision’ beyond the surface features to
meet criteria?
Step
7
Present
and
Publish
What are the requirements for a final
piece – for publication and/or
assessment?
Glenn, J. & Andersen, I. (2021)
Secondary Literacy
A Teachers Handbook. Page 97
Glenn, J. & Andersen, I. (2021)
Secondary Literacy
A Teachers Handbook. Page 119
Beyond paragraphs come longer pieces of writing such as
reports and essays. Again, templates and guides are useful
for these. A shared approach to all of these patterns and
structures can help teachers support each other and students
to gain traction.
An overall goal in writing is for students to develop and have
confidence in their own written ‘voice’. Successful students
seek a level of personal flair that lifts achievement into the
higher levels. Those that struggle gain enormously from
developing confidence that their writing can be clear and can
deliver for them.
How Can Schools Promote Literacy
With Independent Reading?
I had read that students who read just 20 minutes a day are
exposed to 1,800,000 words in the course of a year which is a
great reason to get students reading.
Reading critically is important and making inferences.
Questions asked from text need to also develop critical
thinking so do not just use surface questions.
. Look at Hine MacDonald’s Reading fitness programme
working with senior PEER coaching.
Dr Irene Anderson is an education consultant with
Education Associates. She has also worked with many
schools to build literacy practices within and across learning
areas, which is going to be even more important as every
subject area will have a responsibility for the new literacy
standards. To be able to read effectively introduce school
reading programme and she suggests:
Look at:
1. What are the reading issues
2. Use sustained reading
3. Look at how to read critically
4. School wide reading fitness programme needed.
5. Skim and scan important
6. Chunk phrases
7. Should have less than 5 unknown words per 100 to be
able to comprehend it.
8. Need texts that will engage the reader.
Other ideas:
1. Set aside time for independent reading. Time for reading
independently doesn’t just happen. Plan for it by making it a
priority in schedules across K-12 classrooms. You may need to
get creative by stealing minutes here and there, but find at least
15 minutes a day (20 recommended) for self-selecting,
independent reading.
2. Create Literacy-Rich Environments in every K-12
Classroom. A literacy-rich environment – full of print, word
walls, books, and reading materials – not only supports
academic growth, but also provides a setting that
encourages and supports speaking, listening, reading, and
writing in a variety of authentic ways – through print &
digital media. Make it a priority for every K-12 classroom to
be an inviting, print-rich environment that supports
independent reading and student learning.
3. Support High-Quality Classroom Libraries. Students
need access to interesting books and materials – both in
print and online. When students are provided with welldesigned classroom libraries, they interact more with books,
spend more time reading, exhibit more positive attitudes
toward reading, and exhibit higher levels of reading
achievement (NAEP, 2002). Additionally, research-based
classroom libraries support balanced literacy instruction.
Support teachers in building classroom libraries through
budget dollars, grants, and book drives.
4. Encourage Read Alouds. In the Becoming a Nation of
Readers report (1985), experts reported that “the single
most important activity for building the knowledge required
for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”
Not only did the experts suggest reading aloud in the home,
but they also suggested reading aloud in schools. Read
alouds not only allows teachers to model that reading is a
great way to spend time but also exposes students to more
complex vocabulary than they typically hear or read.
5.Promote reading as a lifestyle. Students need to see
their teachers as readers. Create posters of teachers and
staff reading their favorite books and display them in
hallways throughout the schools. You can also produce
bookmarks that feature teachers’ favorite book picks to help
guide students as they select books for independent reading.
6. Invite Guest Readers into Classrooms. What better way
to promote reading than by having guest readers read aloud
to students. Invite parents and community members to
select a book or article to read aloud and discuss with
students. You can even make it fun by announcing them as
‘mystery readers’ and providing clues during the week to
create a game around it. Look at joining up to Read NZ Te
Pou Muramura members (or you can become a member
for $90 plus gst) can apply for a subsidised Out on the
Shelves author visit by an LGBTQI+ author here or contact
simie@read-nz.org to find out more.
7. Encourage Students to Read Widely. Sometimes
students get in a rut and don’t read beyond their favorite
genre or author. Encourage students to read outside of their
preferred genres. To build a wide vocabulary and broad
background knowledge, students need to read in a wide
variety of genres and text types. Through book talks, read
alouds, and book displays, open students’ eyes to new
authors, genres, and text types.
8. Create a Twitter Hashtag for Sharing Books. Move
beyond traditional book reviews by creating a schoolwide
Twitter #hashtag such as #GESTitleTalk or
#PS41FavBookswhere students and teachers write supershort reviews and highlights of recently read books. In
addition, the librarian can create interest in books by posting
new titles on the school hashtag.
9. Host Book Clubs for Students and Parents. A community
of readers sometimes happens naturally; however, book
clubs are a perfect way to foster connectivity around books
and reading. Students can even host their own book clubs
within a classroom, grade level, or school.
10. Reading is important for parents, too. Host a book club
at school or online to help create an adult community of
readers and build strong parental support for reading.
“Books and Bagels” can be a perfect duo for an early
morning book club.
11. Invite them into your school so students can easily
obtain a library card and learn about how the public library
can support their reading and research needs.
12. Provide Opportunities for Summer Reading. The
summer reading slide is real. Schools can play an important
role in providing opportunities so that students read over the
summer. Ranging from giving away books to providing
summer library hours, there are many ways that schools can
support independent reading during the summer months.
13. Support Author Visits. Students need to learn about
how writers get their ideas and turn those ideas into books.
Author visits help make those connections visible for
students. If your budget is tight, work with a local library or
another school district to help financially sponsor an
14. Sponsor a Young Author Conference. Along with author
visits, a ‘young author’ conference provides a venue for
readers to showcase their writing. Some schools invite an
author and illustrator while showcasing student books. It’s a
perfect opportunity to connect reading, writing, and
illustrating. And, parents and community members can
share in the celebration of literacy.
15. Read what Students are Reading. Creating a culture of
reading includes teachers, too. Students need to read, and
so do you. As classroom teachers and librarians, it’s
important to help students find books that grab their
attention and interest them. One of the best ways to
accomplish this is to keep your book knowledge current.
16. Host a Read-In. A combination of books, pizza, and p.j.
's party can be lots of fun! Be inventive. Invite parents,
community members, and sports figures to be mystery
readers read each hour. Wrap up new books and unveil
them during the read-in. Invite a local author. A fun way to
liven up reading.
17. Solicit Donations from Local BookStores. In a day of
tightening budgets, building classroom libraries can be a
financial strain on schools and individual teachers. Local
bookstores such as Half-Price Books often willingly donate
books to schools. It can be a cost-effective way to build
classroom collections of books to support students.
18. Share Books through BookTalks. Readers need to share
books with one another. Book Talks are a perfect way for
teachers and students to share books with one another.
19. Create a Readbox to Promote Schoolwide Reading. A
new display can do wonders to highlight favorite books, new
releases, and best-loved authors. The ‘readbox’ is, of course,
a play off of ‘redbox.’ It’s a creative way to display books,
create interest, and support reading choice. Another
possibility? A movie poster (using a movie poster template)
but for books.
20. Host Reading-Related Events at School. Many schools
host Scholastic Book events as a way to promote reading
and to bring affordable books into the hands of readers.
How about coupling the book event with a school play since
many parents will be visiting your school?
21. Create Video Book Commercials. Creating videos is
easier than ever and people love to do it. Have students,
teachers, staff, and community members create book
commercials promoting a favorite book or author. Display
them on your school website or on a dedicated page for the
library. If you have morning announcements through a
production system, you could feature live book commercials
or show recent entries.
22. Create Attractive Displays of Books. Feature attractive
book displays throughout your school. Create book displays
in likely and unlikely places such as the front office,
principal’s office, in classrooms, labs, display cases, and the
school library.
23. Encourage Students & Teachers to Write Book Reviews.
Readers need to share books with each other in the form of
book reviews. Experiment with the form. For example, short
book reviews or snippets can be featured on a series of
bookmarks. Longer book reviews can be displayed in the
school library or classroom library or hosted online.
24. Partner with Parents. Schools can do their part to
support and encourage reading; however, parents play a key
role as well. Support parents by informing them of school
library hours and resources available at the school and
public library.
25. Host a Mystery Check-Out Day. Create a little mystery
around books. Wrap selected books in brown paper and
encourage students to check out a mystery book. After they
check the book, they can unwrap it to reveal their selection.
Mystery selections can encourage students – in a fun way –
to venture further and try a new genre, author, or series.
Readability Tools: https://readabilityformulas.com/free-readabilityformula-tests.php
Vocabulary Profiler: https://www.lextutor.ca/vp/eng/
Academic Word List:
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/lals/resources/academicwordlist
Text types: Structure and Language notes to support the generic rubric.
https://e-asttle.tki.org.nz/Teacher-resources/Marking-resources-for-easTTle-writing
Ideas for change:
Audit Y9-Y10 units
With a more focused eye, staff will then audit their current
units of study in their department, asking the following
questions: Which of the literacy big ideas/significant
learning and/or numeracy benchmarks are currently
addressed? Explicitly/Implicitly? What specific strategies
are used to scaffold these? How many opportunities do
students have to repeat the skill?
Map literacy/numeracy explicitly across Y9-Y10 units
We have adapted the mantra of the NCEA changes – literacy
and numeracy cannot be learning that is left to chance!
Instead of trying to cover all the skills, we are asking
departments to feature literacy/numeracy skills that best fit
with a given unit. With the curriculum refresh, the skills will be
stated in the ‘DO’ section of our planning documents,
alongside disciplinary skills.
Spiral classroom learning
Once the skills have been mapped, we will then consider as a
department what this will look like inside the classroom. If, for
instance, we are stating that students will ‘develop their
knowledge of text features and use this to navigate and
understand texts’ on a unit plan – what will this look like in the
classroom?
I have encouraged departments to think creatively and plan at
least 3 activities for students to practise this skill explicitly
during the unit.
Our biggest challenge does not come as a surprise – finding
the right time to have staff meaningfully engage with these
changes. Given the national data on literacy that has been
across the news, as well as our own experiences in the
classroom, we, as teachers, know how vital numeracy and
literacy are for preparing students for life. Leadership and
departments have been highly supportive as we have begun
to navigate the steps above. Next year, we hope to have
workshop sessions led by members of staff who hold
expertise in a particular skill.
We know that, as a school, the changes are a process not a
destination.
Valerie is currently the Teacher in Charge of Social Studies at
St Andrew’s, and is a History Teacher. She is also the
Literacy and Numeracy Coordinator and has been named as
the Head of Social Sciences from 2023.
‘Secondary Literacy: A Teacher Handbook’ (available at
www.simplylitnz. co.nz) is an indicator that teachers are
looking for inspiration and practical support in their efforts to
lift literacy levels.
Assessment and again just some ideas to think about
what has been said: Available data from PATs and easTTle are of limited usefulness due to coverage issues and
the way data are presented in available reports.
● There have been attempts to use two major assessment
tools employed by schools between Years 1 and 10, PAT
and e-AsTTle, to generate pictures of literacy
achievement. However, these data sets have some
significant weaknesses. Firstly, as neither of these
assessments are compulsory, looking at data from them
has the potential to generate a skewed picture of literacy
levels (although attempts to weight the data
appropriately have been made). 5 Berg, M., & Lawes, E. (2016).
Using PAT: Reading Comprehension data to understand student
progress in reading. New Zealand Council for Educational Research.
6 Ministry of Education (2018)
7 Ward, J. & Thomas, G. (2016). National Standards School Sample
Monitoring & Evaluation Project, 2010-2014: Report to the Ministry of
Education. Ministry of Education.
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https://www.theeducationhub.org.nz | ©The Education Hub 2022
●
Writing for purpose is a must.
KWL charts also great on tki.org.nz KWL chart - Reading - ESOL
Onlinetki.org.nzhttps://esolonline.tki.org.nz › ...
What are other schools doing?
-Moderately big changes, the main thing is a C.A.T. for language
skills in both years
e-asTTle and the CAT will decide whether they do the literacy test
in year 10 or yr 11 as well as a common assessment. Some are
also looking at PATs as well.
-Professional judgement will also decide when the kids sit it.
-Most will sit it at yr10.
-Sentence structure is our biggest concern. William HVN High
school.
Will use easTTle and moderated samples of writing in the junior
school.
Others PATs and common assessments.
Looking at restructuring the junior programmes to concentrate
more on writing skills and language.
Need to look at writing for purpose in all subjects.
Could have a literacy coordinator in the school.
Working more with cross curricular teams to see what literacy
strategies work for all subjects.
As I said in my intro, helping to strengthen literacy in NZ is not
a quick fix. There is a lot of amazing work being done around
literacy and how to raise the literacy standards in NZ. Many of
the webinars and the resources that I have put the links to are
well worth looking into. It would be great if every school had a
person who had designated hours to look into literacy and
how to implement useful strategies across different
departments in high schools. More funding into this would be
a start. If different departments had the same strategies then
students would become used to them and ideas could be
reinforced. Simple ideas that do work like Word walls to
introduce new vocabulary I think would be a good start. Even
using an acronym like WALT We are learning to…. in each
class is an easy thing to do so the students actually know
what the focus of the lesson is and then they can start to
evaluate their own work and see where they can improve. It
gives them agency over their learning. By using WALT, your
students understand the purpose of the lesson and then
they are more invested in the learning as they know the
why. Starting with simple things like writing for purpose to me
seems like it would also be doable. The structured literacy
that is being implemented into schools looks like it is working
but this will take time. We all need to care about literacy and
change some of what we are doing. As I said there are great
things being done in schools but I think junior programmes
and in particular I was looking at English need a re-think as
we can do better. Start with your literacy programme and look
at how we can embed literacy into our English programme
and then across the different curriculum areas. As we head
towards abolishing streaming in schools we need to think
more about inclusive teaching and learning practices that best
help our students and how to make sure teachers are
supported in learning how to support those students in our
classes who exhibit less well-developed literacy. Any work put
into this is going to help every student. Literacy must be
promoted in every subject area and not just English. Finally
the new NCEA literacy tests are something that we must
prepare our students for but doing better in our teaching and
hopefully making students love reading and writing. As I said
at the start at school every student has the right to equal
opportunities of learning in the classroom and we should
have high expectations for everyone.This right is not
happening and we are seeing some devastating results
because of this. Low literacy rates don't just impact New
Zealand's schoolchildren. The flow-on effect leads into
adulthood with poorer employment opportunities, poorer
health, lower life expectancies, mental health issues, and
a sense of powerlessness. I think we can make a change
to this, actually I think we must make a change to this.