Podcast and Blog

photo-1504868584819-f8e8b4b6d7e3

Reasons the Wheels Might Fall off Your Whole School Approach - Part 2



Subscribe to the Podcast


Transcript

 00.00
Introduction
Hi there, it's Jocelyn here. Welcome to the Structured Literacy podcast coming to you from the beautiful home of the Palawa People, Tasmania.

In our last episode, I shared the first reason that the wheels might be falling off your literacy improvement efforts. and if you haven't listened to that episode, all about the need for strong, decisive leadership, I'd suggest that you go back and have a listen when you have a moment.

00.27
Are …

Read more…

1

Reasons the Wheels Might Fall off Your Whole School Approach - Part 1


Subscribe to the Podcast

 Transcript

00.00
A difficult discussion
You've chosen your phonics program, had everyone trained, and have begun to teach. At first, things seem to be going well, but a year or so down the track, you still aren't seeing those text-level results you were hoping for. This scenario is really common.

Hello there. My name's Jocelyn, and I want to welcome you to the Structured Literacy Podcast. Today I'm going to share some observations from my work with schools about …

Read more…

Depositphotos_11879944_XL

5 Evidence-informed Alternatives to Independent Silent Reading



Transcript Summary 

00.28
Today, I'd like to talk to you about is the issue that has had me with a bee in my bonnet for a little while now, and that is the large amount of time that many children spend in independent silent reading during literacy instruction.

My challenge with this is not that it is bad for children to read on their own; in fact, we know that there are positive impacts. Professor Pam Snow from La Trobe University talks often about the fact t…

Read more…

photo-1652377516270-c085a9ebd3d6

8 Myths of Reading Instruction that Every Teacher Should Know About



Subscribe to the Podcast

Transcript Summary

Myth No. 1 -  learning to read is as natural as learning to speak.
Myth number one is that learning to read is as natural as learning to speak, and this is where this idea that if we just immerse children in rich text, if we have language-rich environments for them to grow up in, then all will be well and they'll learn how to read. That's where this comes from. 

Now, it's absolutely flawed, and I'm going to read to you a paragraph from my book, R…

Read more…

morphology pic

When should we start morphology instruction and what might it look like?




Subscribe to the Podcast

Transcript Summary

Some people think that morphology should be taught from day one of foundation. They tend to think that people should only be exploring words and phoneme-grapheme correspondences through the exploration of morphology and that phonics shouldn't be taught in a systematic structured way as we do in systematic synthetic phonics.

Other people think that morphology should not be touched until after students have the full alphabetic code under their b…

Read more…

YT Thumbnail

How do I Differentiate to Support a Range of Learners?

Episode 13 - How do I Differentiate to Support a Range of Learners?


Transcript Summary

00.00
Introduction
Hey everyone. It's Jocelyn coming to you from the home of the Palawa people here in beautiful Tasmania. We have had so many questions over the last few years about differentiation, and today I would like to share some suggestions for you and some different ways of thinking about it. When I started to plan this episode, I realized that I actually have quite a decent chunk of text already …

Read more…

The Velveteen Rabbit Teacher Guide

What Does an Upper Primary Reading Lesson Look Like?



Subscribe to the Podcast

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…

Read more…

photo-1596464716127-f2a82984de30

What Play Can and Cannot Do for our Early Years Students.



Subscribe to the Podcast

The first thing I want to say is that I'm a strong advocate for explicit teaching in early literacy skills. And if you know me, that will come as no shock to you at all.   I write about and I teach others about teacher-led systematic instruction and literacy. There is ample research evidence showing that full guidance instruction is much more effective than partial guidance for everyone but experts, and that comes from an article by Clark from 2012.

Now, this is pa…

Read more…

4

Your Upper Primary Phonics Catch-Up Action Plan


 

Subscribe to the Podcast

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…

Read more…

boy-g3c462f4e2_1920

What does 'authentic text' really mean in the Australian curriculum?

 


Subscribe to the Podcast 

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…

Read more…