Lisa Burman - Consulting in Pedagogical Growth

It’s so exciting to see a new group of young authors catch the bookmaking bug. For some, the first time they’ve seen themselves as a writer. They’re leaning the habit of mind to read like writers, noticing, naming and trying out. The engagement is high and positive learner senders are being built by the daily intentional teaching. Bravo to the Wallaroo Primary School teachers and young authors!

In the last two weeks, I’ve received three emails from preschool/kindergarten and reception teachers asking when the next Intro to Bookmaking mini course is. We haven’t any planned for now…but I thought I’d put it out there. If you are interested in our most popular PL offering, please comment or email me at [email protected]. We will definitely look for dates if we get enough interest.

**edit** the response has been promising! We are looking for dates in term 3 and will advertise via mailing list asap. To be on the mailing list, just use the link on the homepage of my website.

When I think about the first year of school, I think about far more than academic outcomes.

I think about children learning how to live and learn alongside others. Learning to negotiate, to manage conflict, to build friendships and to regulate their emotions.

I think about movement. Young children need to move. Their bodies and brains are designed for it. Movement is not a break from learning; it is an essential part of learning.

I think about play, songs, games, conversations and shared experiences that help children develop the executive functioning they will draw upon for the rest of their lives.

And perhaps most importantly, I think about identity.

The first year of school is a time for children to begin seeing themselves as capable and successful learners. It is where the foundations are laid for how they come to think about themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians, artists, scientists, musicians, dancers and so much more.

These things matter deeply because they shape not only what children learn, but who they believe themselves to be as learners.

To check out my other posts on this topic, click on this hashtag

I had so much fun guiding some young word scientists at St Paul Lutheran School, Blair Athol today! We investigated ways to represent the /oy/ phoneme in English and built our knowledge of morphology so we could spell so many other words. The children acted in the role of word scientists - wondering, theorising, testing theories, noticing patterns. They used their knowledge of phonemic awareness, morphemes and syllables to investigate and test their theories. They have new working theories to investigate tomorrow…

And to cap it off, they made me blush with a spontaneous round of applause when we finished our Word Study! 😮.

I’m so grateful for our ongoing collaboration with St Paul.

I’m grateful to be invited to collaborate with Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia - AISWA next week. I’ve spent today putting the finishing touches to two workshop days that connect the powerful pedagogical approaches of bookmaking, small world play and story tables.

In preparing the sessions, I came across this photo I took in ngutucollege library a few weeks ago. Celebrating the child-author with an authentic publishing opportunity AND creating a story table about their book. 🙌🏼

When I was a classroom-based teacher, I was blessed for many years to teach five- and six-year-old children in their first year of school. What an honour to walk with them and their families in that special year.

In my state of South Australia, this year is called Reception. In other parts of Australia and the world it is known by many other names – Foundation, Prep, Kindergarten, Pre-primary and more. Whatever we call it, it is a very special and unique year in a child's schooling and continues to hold a very large part of my teacher-heart.

In so many ways, I still identify as a "Reception teacher". Which is why I've been hit hard by the emails, texts and conversations with Reception teachers recently, telling me their concerns about what is happening in too many schools to too many children (and their teachers).

Over the next few weeks I'll be sharing some of my perspective on this precious first year of school. Thoughts that came to me one day as I sat in one of my favourite cafes with a strong flat white, recording a stream of consciousness on my phone as a way to work through my distress.

This is the first.

Reflecting on Prof Helen Adam’s model, I see so many connections to of our way of teaching reading - playful literacy and Reading Workshop. I would only add opportunities for young children to develop a reader identity and interact with texts in their play. Too often, I see the opportunity to practise, apply, and transfer reading skills and strategies in meaningful contexts are missing from some approaches to teaching young readers.

Powerful questions to critically reflect on.

It is good practice to always question our WHYs.

I am always keeping tabs on everything I expect children to do as part of our routine.

Here are the questions I constantly ask myself:

Who is this for?
Do I need to direct this OR will it happen organically, WITHOUT me leading, if I am patient?
Who does this empower?
Who needs to be empowered?
Is this worthy of a child's time?
Am I listening to the children?