A Message from our Assistant Principal, Learning and Innovation and Religious Education Coordinator
This week our second cohort of participants have travelled for Canberra to take part in a face-to-face delivery of the year-long, Catalyst, TeachWell program. Six staff, Louise Ibbett, Sandra Harris, Wayne Foster, Karen Ashby, Emma Kenna and Jason Szkwarek have now completed two out of five sessions. The content this week covered the topics:
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Inclusive Reading and Complex Texts |
Vocabulary and Morphology |
Spaced Practice and Review Mechanisms |
Sentence-Level Writing |
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· Understanding how students read · Strategies to support reading for understanding · Encouraging reading · Reading prompts · The benefit of reading difficult texts
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· The importance of definitions/word banks/glossary of term · Subject specific language · High-frequency words e.g examine, analyse, establish · Breaking down new vocabulary by pronouncing the word, chunking the word into syllables, attention to spelling and links to other route or related words. |
· Planning when, where and how daily, weekly, monthly reviews of previous learning will occur · Reteach, Retrieve and Apply |
· Implementing The Writing Revolution strategies · Sentence expansion · Sentence stems · Summarising · Sentence combining · Sentence tables |
A key feature of a good classroom will be a review of learning at the start of the lesson. In Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction research article, the most effective classroom practise was found to be a review of prior learning. He writes, “Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning: Daily review can strengthen previous learning and can lead to fluent recall.” (B. Rosenshine, 2012)
The review process is essential in embedding learning into long-term memory. All CC staff are taking part in Catalyst and learning about the value and importance of reviewing learning. The TeachWell course takes this even further and staff are required to create daily reviews and submit them for feedback. The use of daily reviews is happening all the time in effective classrooms, and we are now formalising this part of our lessons.
I thank the Cohort Two participants for their time in undertaking what is a demanding but very professionally rewarding course. Ultimately, teachers engage in further training and learning as we have a deep love of learning ourselves but also a great passion to help our students. The skills Carroll College staff are gaining by being part of Catalyst and the intensive TeachWell program will benefit our students both now and into the future.
Erica Drewsen
Assistant Principal, Learning and Innovation
Religious Education Coordinator