Literacy

The Book With No pictures

Published by Nick

Here is a book written for 4-8 year olds that has no pictures or illustrations of any kind and funnily enough is called, “The Book With No Pictures.”

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The author, B.J. Novak, has created a book that engages young children with words alone, “The Book With No Pictures is a funny read-aloud experience for young children that may also inspire conversation about the power of the written word and the nature of a book itself.”

For more information about the book click here.

If you are wondering how a book with no pictures can engage 4-8 year olds then watch as B.J. Novak reads his book to a room full of children and their reactions to the words he reads. A fun and engaging book with a difference.

How not to write an email

Published by Nick

I watched this video the other day and thought back to the work Tanya did with Literacy for Learning. In particular the use of informal (everyday) and formal (technical) language and moving students along this continuum.

The video is of a college professor sending a message to his students using a fake email he wrote based on emails he had received from real students.

Could be a good teaching tool with older students who are required to use email with teachers, potential employers, TAFE lecturers, Open Access teachers and in the future University lecturers and employers.

I found the video quite funny. Just the way the professor sighs after reading the lower case “i” at the beginning of the email made me laugh.

PBAS Student Free Day – Friday 17th May

Published by Nick

This post is for PBAS staff with regards to the student free day to be held on Friday of week 3, term 2 at PBAS. This day will be focusing on Learning Design and Comprehension (questioning & inferencing). Ali Newbold and Trish Boschetti have been a part of the planning for this day and will be joining us on the day to assist with its running.

The day will provide staff the opportunity to learn about how to improve their planning/programming process through the use of Learning Design and also give staff the opportunity to work with Ali on our Site Improvement Plan goal around comprehension (inferencing and questioning).

Learning Design – some teachers will be familiar with this process and used it to varying degrees to program and plan. It is something that is a Regional focus and it is my understanding that it will be a part of the Regional student free day to be held Friday 7th June. Learning Design is a process that assists teachers with their ability to program and plan effectively (a core part of the teaching and learning cycle). Last year I wrote a series of posts on Learning Design. Click here if you would like to scan through these to find out more about Learning Design prior to the day.

Comprehension – as part of our Site Improvement Plan we have made a commitment to focus on comprehension and in particular questioning and the higher order thinking skill of inferencing.

Structure of the day

Teachers are asked to bring the following on the day:

1. A program that you are very familiar with (preferably a program you are running or will be running this year). This could be a program you have used or are intending to use later in the term/year. You will be using the Learning Design process to redevelop or develop this program.

2. Any resources that you require to assist you with your planning for that program.

3. The appropriate year level content, elaborations and achievement standards for the Australian Curriculum. If your subject area is not finished yet bring the draft paper for your subject area. You can access these documents online on the day. However, if the Internet goes down you will not have a key starting point for your Learning Design program. Organising a hard copy or downloading the PDF version onto your iPad may be worthwhile. This is very easy to do just ask if you are not sure.

4. The programing proforma that you want to use to plan your program on.

I hope this clarifies the intention of our student free day early term 2. If you have any questions let me know.