Podcast and Blog
reading instruction
S1 E12 - What Does an Upper Primary Reading Lesson Look Like?
Transcript Summary
Many upper primary teachers are very used to having small groups and running guided reading lessons as a core part of their literacy block. Equally, many of us are used to teaching from a novel and having a novel study present in our classrooms. If we are already teaching with a rich text, we are able to level this up with some key practices. If we aren't there yet, we have a little more work to do, but moving to structured literacy is absol…
S1 E10 - Your Upper Primary Phonics Catch-Up Action Plan
Transcript Summary
In the past, when we had struggling readers in our class, we'd do a benchmark assessment, identify reading levels, and try to support these students. In our small group rotations. But these days, with the growing awareness that guided reading, levelled texts and three queuing are no longer supported, upper primary teachers are asking exactly what am I supposed to do? Well, we here at Jocelyn Seamer Education have the answer. In today’s episode…
S1 E9 - What does 'authentic text' really mean in the Australian curriculum?
Transcript Summary
When the words predictable texts were removed from the Australian curriculum in 2022, supporters of structured literacy cheered very loudly. For years, arguments against the inclusion of predictable or levelled text were met with the response, "But it says in the curriculum that children should be using them," and you'd think that having those words removed from the curriculum would be the end of the discussion, but no. The reason that this d…
S1 E7 - Why It's So Scary to Let go of Benchmark Assessment
Transcript Summary
Benchmark assessments are something that have been in schools forever in a day, and they've come to be understood as a way for us to track student growth and progress through their reading development. The challenge with a benchmark assessment is that they are usually written to align with a series of levelled texts that will be represented by a number or a letter and, unfortunately, they don't actually measure the thing that we think they do…
Should I Go Rogue or Follow My School's Approach to Literacy?
At one time or another, most teachers have gone rogue in their classrooms. We have been asked to do something that we don't want to do and thought, 'nope'. This doesn't impact things too badly when we've gone rogue about only 1 box of tissues from the office a time or not signing for that extra box of lead pencils, but it can have significant impacts when it comes to substantial areas of our teaching.
There are many reasons that teachers go rogue. They could be change…
S1 E4 - How Many Feet Does Your School Have on the Bus?
This idea of the bus was something that occurred to me a few years ago. It was the idea that we're all moving in the same direction, that everybody is welcome and that we are part of a network of primary teachers and leaders committed to advocating for the right of every child to be t…
S1 E3 - How do I know if resources are evidence aligned?
Here are the highlights from this episode:
S1 E2 - Should we be using commercial programs to teach reading?
In our 2022 Teach Voice in Literacy Instruction Survey, a whopping 96.5% of teachers said that they wanted a program to guide them step by step through reading instruction
Signing off for 2022
To say that it has been a big year here at Jocelyn Seamer Education is an understatement! Over the past 12 months, I have:
- Submitted, finalised and released my first book with Routledge
- Delivered Teach Along courses to almost 1000 people
- Finished and released Reading Success in Action – Decoding 3
- Written around 50 blog posts
- Presented at 3 Sharing Best Practice conferences
- Met and had dinner with Linnea Ehri (eek, so exciting!) and presented at an event alongside her
- Directly support…
All I want for Christmas is an Evidence Informed Classroom
As we approach the end of the 2022 school year here in Australia, you may have the good fortune to be asked what resources you would like to order for 2023. If that's the case, here are my top suggestions for items that can support you in your quest to move towards a structured literacy classroom.
1) A subscription to the Resource Room. The Resource Room is the only online membership dedicated solely to structured literacy. Sure, morning teas are lovely, but if you really want to support your te…