Teaching Reading in the Early Years- Why did nobody tell me that!?
At SPELD NSW we have the great privilege of working with teachers at various stages in their careers. In a lot of our Professional Learning and school-consulting work we hear the exasperated catch-cry ‘Why didn’t anyone ever teach me that?!’. All too familiar for many hard-working, passionate and highly knowledgeable teachers is that feeling that they need to empower themselves with technical knowledge about how our writing system works in order to confidently support the various needs in their classrooms.
Day 1 of our 3-day Teaching Reading In the Early Years course is an important and fun (yes, fun!) first step into the course. We explore some core knowledge that every teacher should have about how we learn to read and ensure that teachers walk away with a confident grasp of the metalanguage and core concepts. Further learning through our online Learning Management System ensures that teachers are supported at every step.
We look closely at a model Literacy Block and challenge teachers to consider the purpose of each element of their literacy program. How are we ensuring that students get the instruction and the practice in all the subskills of reading? How can we differentiate learning and what are the points of differentiation?
The rest of the day is a journey through the core elements of a systematic scope and sequence. Teachers are set a series of challenging activities that see them working with words and building decodable sentences. This depth of understanding if crucial but we never fail to have a laugh or two when working with words. As it should be in our classrooms too!
The most recent group to complete this course found the first day entertaining, challenging and inspiring. The foundational knowledge addressed in Day 1 provides the context for the planning, instruction and assessment that is the focus on Days 2 and 3.
We are really excited by the learning teachers take from this course as well as a wealth of resources, planning models and activity templates. We look forward to seeing you at our next course!
See our Upcoming Professional Learning Courses including the next Teaching Reading in the Early Years.
– Veronica Alexander, SPELD NSW Professional Learning and Development Lead
