Saturday morning abuzz with structured literacy at Sunnyhills School
Sunday 27 June, 2021. View pdf here.
SATURDAY MORNING ABUZZ WITH STRUCTURED LITERACY AT SUNNYHILLS SCHOOL
More than 200 teachers from all over Auckland gave up their Saturday morning for an informal ‘Unconference’ – a free introductory professional development session about Structured Literacy, hosted by Sunnyhills School in Pakuranga last weekend.
Structured Literacy is an evidence-based practice of literacy instruction based on the Science of Reading. Many schools in New Zealand take a ‘balanced’ approach to literacy but this is leaving many students struggling unnecessarily.
The principal benefit of an explicit Structured Literacy approach is that reading is not left to chance. Instead, learners follow a scope and sequence and early gaps in knowledge are filled systematically and at the learner’s own pace.
Facilitator and teacher at Summerland School in West Auckland, Adrienne Kinder, was thrilled but not surprised by the popularity of the session, the third of its kind in this region. She says “There is a massive groundswell across the country to change practice to raise achievement in literacy. Teachers all over Aotearoa are switching on to the Structured Literacy approach and there is a real hunger for more information.”
There are Structured Literacy groups set up across Auckland for further support, sharing and collaboration, and the facebook page has grown to 4000 members in just 12 months. Demand for professional learning in this area is growing rapidly, as teachers embrace the motto: When you know better, you do better.
Teachers who came along on Saturday agreed that continuing to deliver literacy instruction in the way they were taught in university teacher education programmes is not ethical.
“We have to keep building our own knowledge about our rich and complex language so we can give our students the very best chance of becoming successful readers, writers and spellers” says Adrienne.
Lifting Literacy Aotearoa is non-profit organisation advocating for a shakeup of our literacy teacher training schemes, classroom instruction and literacy resourcing and is in full support of local events like this one.
Steering Group Chair, Alice Wilson, says “Structured Literacy is beneficial for all and harmful to none. It is the first best solution to solving literacy underachievement in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Current practices are failing too many students and our poor literacy ratings in international surveys attest to this.”
The session on Saturday morning covered demystifying the term Structured Literacy, discussed the English language ‘code’ and phonological awareness (the way words are made up of distinct sounds), and shared the journey of schools that have pursued this path already and are seeing outstanding results. There were also workshops for smaller groups to experience a typical lesson inside the classroom. Afterwards, attendees lined up to scan QR codes linking them to local Structured Literacy groups.
As the conversation grows, more and more teachers are reaching for professional development opportunities like this one – even if it means giving up their Saturday morning lie in.
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