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Teaching English - Teachers Talk Teaching
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At the time of this interview Mandy
Paske had an AST2 role at Devonport Primary School
where she was Flying Start Program Manager in the Early
Childhood section. She also worked in primary classes
each week. In this interview, Mandy discusses the
following aspects of her work: |
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This year, we have tried to involve parents more fully within the culture of the school. There are quite a few ways in which our teachers communicate with parents. We recognise that oral, written and visual forms of communication are all important. Given that some parents experience difficulties with literacy a variety of communication avenues are important to make exchanges meaningful and relevant. You see examples of this important informal talk between teachers and parents in the mornings at our school over individual spelling tests and exchanges of literacy backpacks. There is a Flying Start Newsletter produced twice a term which showcases our students' written work. We also use celebration books, photograph albums and displays in corridors to communicate with parents. We feel that it's important to inform our prospective parents about English literacy. At the moment we have a display at The Playhouse, a childcare centre that caters for students from birth to four years. There are about 70 families who use this facility. The focus of the display is on early writing. The display highlights that children write in various genres, for different audiences and purposes. Annotations, descriptions and explanations accompany the material to direct parents observations - for example, "It is important to value both unpublished and published forms of writing." |
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| Currently we're looking at our reporting policy and procedures. There have been quite a few questions raised by both staff and parents about the content, value and audience of our reports. We're looking at creating reports that are manageable for teachers and reflect the monitoring and assessment practices in their classrooms that meet Departmental requirements and most importantly are effective and meaningful for parents. Our teachers have been using the TLOs for reporting for some time, but we also recognise that the TLOs present only certain aspects of literacy in that they don't reflect students' speaking and listening skills. Next year, our focus will be on listening and speaking, an identified need revealed in our ASSR process. |
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I think that we've learnt some lessons during this ASSR year. The most important of these is that we need to be really clear about the purposes and outcomes of our English program. This year, we targeted resources so that pairs of teachers could be released to plan together during class time. We've found that this has been a powerful way for teachers to share ideas and strategies and reflect on their practice. At the moment teachers in the Prep to 3 area have release time for collaborative planning. Those not involved have recognised that this has been a powerful learning experience for their colleagues. Our resourcing for next year will allow all staff time to come together in learning teams.
A really positive aspect of having tribes as we've had all year is the bonding that goes on between those groups and the support network that's built up among the children in the groups. Also, having mixed ability groups means that children who need some support don't have to rely on me all the time to give that. They can speak to somebody else in their group to ask for help or clarification. It also gives the Grade 1's a little bit of responsibility: they enjoy feeling able to help some of the Preps.
I found that the behaviour problems of some of the children at the start of the year have lessened because the people in their group have started to exert some influence on them. When they're working if they start to be too noisy or if to get off task then there will always be someone in the group that will re-focus them. This saves me a lot of time - it frees me up for doing other things, like teaching. So that's worked really well.
Our school doesn't have an English syllabus as such. We use the English Statement and Profile to guide practice. Last year the staff at Devonport spent time looking at the Statement and Profile, particularly with regard to the inclusion of visual texts in their practice and programs. We've had a continual emphasis on the balance and range of text types that teachers offer to their students and that the students create themselves. We realise we need to continually reflect on and mirror in our classroom programs the recognition that there are oral, written and visual forms of texts in literature, mass media and everyday texts. The ASSR process has re-emphasised the importance of developing students' listening and speaking skills.
Implementing a Whole School Program in Speaking and Listening
I work in each primary classroom for 45 minutes per week focusing on listening and speaking skills. I've been able to model quite explicitly with teachers the intentional teaching of listening and speaking skills. I think modelling is a powerful way of encouraging teachers to reflect and perhaps change their practice so that we don't just tell, we also show.
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It was evident our students needed to develop their oral skills. I began using the expression "effective listening and speaking skills" but realised we needed to develop some kind of shared understanding about what "effective" meant, what a "good" listener was. So as you walk around our classrooms you will see that there is a Y chart in each class about what effective listening "looks like, sounds like and feels like". You see the body language of kids being positive, you see them nodding, you see them leaning forward. You hear single voices, and hopefully witness feelings of value, inclusion, warmth and empowerment. All these things you'll see mentioned on the charts as you go around the classrooms. |
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We've recognised that we need to cater for both informal and formal speaking. We've just started working on more formal speaking. Cooperative learning structures have formed the basis of much of our work; including 'Corners' and 'Three step interviews'. Something we did in initial sessions was to heighten students awareness of how much they actually spoke and listened in varying situations and how their speaking would vary given different contexts.
Peer and Self Assessment of Speaking and Listening
Something we've been focusing on recently is self and peer assessment. The students currently have a self and peer assessment speaking checklist which relates to 30 second impromptu speeches. The criteria are the same for the self and peers: "Did you speak clearly"?, "Did you speak loudly?", "Did you stand still?" and "Did you look at the class?" with students rating themselves on a continuum from 1-5. I think that you need to be really explicit with students and teach them how to self and peer assess. It's interesting that this process is helping student relationships because they realise that peer feedback can be given constructively without causing offence.
In my AST II and Flying Start Manager role, I'm responsible for general supervision of teachers. Our school has been involved in a myriad of changes this year and it's interesting that staff seem to have organised, without any structure, a kind of a buddy system. This system is also reflected among the classes with a 5/6 class whose buddy class is a Prep/1 class. They share reading, writing, etc. on a regular basis. In the ASSR process this year, our staff indicated that they wanted greater feedback on programs and practices through both informal and formal appraisal processes. That's something that we'll need to work on for next year. The Principal and I have started discussing individual professional learning plans for our staff members.
Coordinating Professional Development in English
English was the curriculum priority for our school last year. This year, the review process has been a significant focus. Our teaching staff have an individual allocation of professional development funding and many have chosen PD opportunities within the English literacy area - for example, boys' literacy, THRASS workshops, Barrington Literacy professional development and feedback sessions on National Benchmarks. We also have teachers involved in searching for lesson plans and ideas for English on the Internet.
The Role of Professional Associations
Our links with professional associations, including my presidency of the North-west Branch of TATE, has attracted some resources and expertise to the school that otherwise we probably wouldn't have had access to. For example, author Andy Griffiths has worked at Devonport Primary under the TATE umbrella, worked with schools in the Barrington District and conducted an afternoon session for teachers across the Arthur and Barrington Districts. But he actually worked at our school because of these links we had. I think that cultivating these links is vitally important, especially as the structure for professional development is changing across the state. Because schools have become more self-managing and responsible for the professional learning of their teachers, they have become more insular. Consequently, links to professional associations are really important. The north-west hosted the State TATE/ALEA Conference in 1999 and we'll continue to have access to authors, illustrators, academics and exemplary English educators because of our associations with professional bodies. We have three staff members from Devonport Primary on the organisation team for the Conference this year.
I'm quite excited about next year because our forthcoming Partnership Agreement will state quite clearly that we need to be focusing on improving literacy skills. Our literacy and English programs are tied very closely together. The ASSR process has encouraged us to define, refine and refocus, and be clear about where we're going. Also the state's newly released Literacy Policy gives us guidelines and dedicated time for English literacy and confirms what many teachers have been lamenting as the overcrowded curriculum. We're starting the planning process now about what we hope to achieve next year, where we will put our resources to meet our needs and what will be our success indicators. The community are involved in making these decisions. Parental involvement in the education process will continue to be a vital focus for us.
