Literacy Connections

Does "explicit teaching" mean following the script word for word? Not at all.

In a new piece for Teacher Magazine, researcher and instructional coach Dr Nathaniel Swain makes a case worth sitting with: good explicit teaching isn't rigid, and being responsive to your students isn't the same as flying by the seat of your pants.

If you have seen one of our modelled lessons you will have seen us model exactly this. How to be responsive to the students in front of you.

Swain sets out four ways a lesson can go:

Meaningfully prepared + willing to adapt = responsive teaching (the goal)
Prepared but unwilling to deviate = rigid teaching
Unprepared but improvising anyway = reactive teaching
Following someone else's plan without understanding it = derivative teaching

The line that stood out to us: "structure should paradoxically give teachers better options for flexibility, as they know where they are trying to go." Knowing your lesson inside out is what makes it possible to deviate well — to catch a misconception, follow a good question, or move on when students are ready.

Worth a read if you're thinking about how shared curriculum resources and teacher judgement fit together in your school.

🔗 Full article in the comments.

Becc had an awesome day today in Invercargill with the lovely team at Windsor North School. This kura completed their funded PLD with us and have continued working with us to learn more throughout their implementation phase. Today Becc mentored teams separately with Writing content and pedagogy, and Comprehension plus formative assessment. The whole school explored their own design of a Writing Scope and Sequence too. Thanks for hosting us Debbie and team - your manaakitanga is off the charts and we love seeing you living your vision 💚🥳

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Registrations CLOSE tomorrow.

Christchurch | Auckland | Online options available
Year 0- 3
Year 4-8

Register with us today.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16IuC1-0Y5NJvN6NK4v6s3W8Djyt9RrcntJlHpb4sNag/edit

Literacy Connections is pleased to support Charlotte Cottrell from Wainuiomata Intermediate School to conduct this survey for her Master of Education. Please see below if you're interested on sharing your thoughts on ways to support young autistic children.

Are you:
· A self-identified or diagnosed autistic person (16 years+)?
· A parent, caregiver or family member of an autistic child?
· A practitioner or researcher working with young autistic children?
Do you live in New Zealand or Australia?
If so, we want to know what you think about different ways of supporting young autistic children.
Please scan follow this link to access the survey:
https://vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_55um9IOT9U9AaSW

The anonymous survey will ask about:
· What’s important when supporting autistic children
· What you think about the acceptability of different ways of supporting autistic children.
The survey should take 15-30 minutes.
To find out more contact: [email protected]
This research has been approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee [Approval Number HE040327].

Got 5 minutes before your literacy block? Here's a quick phoneme segmentation warm-up your students will love.

👉 Say a word (e.g. "ship")
👉 Students tap each sound on their fingers: /sh/ /ĭ/ /p/
👉 They write the sounds, then blend back to the word

It's simple. It's fast. And it builds exactly the phonological awareness that underpins confident reading.

This is the kind of practical strategy we cover in depth at our workshops - because theory is great, but what teachers actually need is this. And we will show you practical ways to incorporate phonemic awareness into your phonics lessons.

Christchurch | Auckland | Online options available
Year 0- 3
Year 4-8

Register with us today.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/16IuC1-0Y5NJvN6NK4v6s3W8Djyt9RrcntJlHpb4sNag/edit