Literacy

‘Comedy scriptwriting doesn’t just teach literacy, it gives young people the confidence and creativity to see themselves as writers, performers and storytellers.’ Bridget Hanna – Education Manager at the Australian Children’s Television Foundation – shares how comedy scriptwriting brings energy, laughter and collaboration into the classroom and helps develop literacy and language skills.

Teacher editor Jo Earp sits down with Mali Jorm, Madison Dearnaley and Tracy Kelly to talk about managing school library and reading spaces, including building a student-driven collection, creating fresh and welcoming spaces, and strategies to encourage reading for pleasure. They also share their personal and student book recommendations. 

In this exclusive extract from her new book, Connecting Whole-School Literacy: Building Capacity from Leadership to Classroom Practice, author Hayley Harrison explores the vocabulary, reading skills and writing demands of students in a secondary school context, how teachers should consider their complexity, and why it is important to set high expectations for student writing.

A survey of over 115,000 students in the UK found that over 71,000 only enjoy reading ‘a bit’ or ‘not at all’ in their free time. To understand more about what could make them want to read, these respondents were asked to choose as many options as they liked from a list of 13 suggestions. The results presented in this infographic offer insights into possible strategies for your own students.

The Australian Council for Educational Research’s (ACER’s) Pru Mitchell was named winner of the inaugural Victorian Library and Information Award (VLIA). Teacher editor Jo Earp sat down with her to talk about teaching and teacher librarianship, sharing knowledge and expertise, and the role of AI, technology and digital literacy in the classroom.

In a 3-part series for Teacher, the leadership team at Warriapendi Primary School in Perth are sharing how they have built staff instructional capacity to improve student outcomes in literacy. In their final article, they present the impact their work is having on student outcomes so far. 

Our latest edition of Teacher’s Bookshelf features the open-access resource Teaching Reading Comprehension in a Digital World: Evidence-Based Contributions Using PIRLS and Digital Texts – a collaboration between the IEA and researchers from the Dutch Centre for Language Education. This extract is from the chapter on good practices for teaching and shares an example from Talbot Senior National School, Ireland.

In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, the role of the teacher librarian has never been more important. Charles Sturt University’s Master of Education (Teacher Librarianship) course is tailored for qualified teachers who wish to specialise in this critical field, offering flexible online delivery designed to fit into your busy schedule. 

Schools across Australia are marking Children’s Book Week this week, and library spaces are at the heart of the celebrations. They’re a hub of expertise throughout the year, supporting teaching and learning. In this article, we share new research findings about their evolving role.

Today’s students are entering school with more digital literacy than ever before and there is an advantage to leaning into this skill. Educators can meet students where they are and introduce screen time with a purpose.  Sora, used in thousands of schools across the world, including Australian schools, provides access to ebooks, audiobooks, comics and more – all in one platform.