Literacy

With the rapid growth in digital technologies, digital writing skills are becoming more and more relevant for students. A new research project from Deakin University will look at the potential to complement traditional writing tasks in schools with contemporary forms of digital writing.

Equal education involves many things – equal representation, participation, access to resources, and more. There’s a lot to explore around equal education in the Teacher archives, and in this edition of Teacher Staffroom, we bring you some recent examples.

For many of Australia’s regional and rural schools, accessing culturally relevant reading material can be a challenge. Here, we speak to Principal Jeff Parker and Early Childhood Leader Monique Marzocchi from Clyde Fenton Primary School in Katherine, Northern Territory, about how the school is working to improve student literacy.

An OECD report 21st-Century Readers: Developing Literacy Skills in a Digital World analyses data from the 2018 PISA test and student survey to report on the reading habits of 15-year-olds in OECD countries. Find out more about how reading in digital and paper formats affects students’ reading performance and enjoyment in today's infographic.

At Melba Copland Secondary School in Canberra, the library has been improving students' connection to recreational reading through an innovative program that allows students to select the books the library purchases. In this photo story, Teacher Librarian Mali Jorm shares how the program operates and the impact on student borrowing rates.

School strategic priorities such as improving literacy and numeracy outcomes involve all staff. In this reader submission, art teacher Kerry Kaskamanidis shares how she responded to a whole-school focus on literacy by building a partnership with a local art museum.

How can we support reading aloud in the early years, at school and at home? And how does reading aloud affect our lives in the long term? Today, we’ll be speaking with Professor Emerita Rosemary Johnston AM, who shares some of the research on the benefits and joys of reading aloud and how we can continue to support reading aloud at school and at home.

Home support of children’s literacy skills in the early years is a well-known indicator of their reading progress at the start of school. A new study has explored how different reading experiences at home have an impact on children’s continued reading development at school.

Readers often get in touch with Teacher to share how their school is making a difference to student outcomes. New South Wales educator Mary Semaan contacted us recently to talk about how the teaching and leadership team at Al Sadiq College has been working to improve primary students’ writing skills.

Season three of award-winning animated series Little J & Big Cuz features the very first Kriol episodes translated by students at Ngukurr School in the Katherine Region of the Northern Territory, as part of a real-world school education project.