Contact us
www.education.vic.gov.au/vlns
[email protected]
*This professional learning workshop has been designed to build
participants understanding of the Literacy and Numeracy 6-18 Month
Strategy.
It has been developed using the E5 Instructional Model as a
planning framework. See the design framework (on the VLNS website)
for this professional learning workshop for more details. **This
workshop has several aims:
To provide a brief introduction to the Victorian Literacy and
Numeracy Secretariat, who developed the Strategy and to reinforce
the importance of literacy and numeracy teaching and learning for
all students, teachers, school leaders, families and
communities
To provide participants with key background information on the
development and purpose of the Strategy
To provide opportunities for school leaders, through the
provided activities, to deepen their understanding of the Strategy
and to explore the implications the Strategy may have on their own
work. *The Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (VLNS) was
established in January 2010 with the appointment of former Hume
Regional Director, Dr Stephen Brown (pictured) and works to
coordinate and influence literacy and numeracy improvement action
with an initial focus on Smarter Schools. These are the 300+
schools in receipt of National Partnership Smarter Schools Funding,
including those funded through the Low SES status school
communities and Literacy and Numeracy initiatives. The VLNS
released the Literacy and Numeracy 6-18 Month Strategy in April
2010. The VLNS will evaluate the effectiveness of the Strategy in
the latter part of 2010.
The VLNS has nine terms of reference, which provides the
structure and focus for the Secretariats work. The terms of
reference are to:Ensure regional literacy and numeracy plans align
with DEECD policy and programsWork with regional offices to support
the effective implementation of all DEECD literacy and numeracy
initiatives with an immediate focus on the national partnerships
initiative involving 300+ low SES, literacy and numeracy
schoolsBuild strong connections with other relevant parts of the
Department, especially the Office for Policy, Research and
Innovation and the Office for Children and Portfolio
CoordinationWork with regions and networks to develop student
literacy and numeracy targets and to support the development of
detailed plans to meet those targetsMonitor and evaluate literacy
and numeracy performance in all schools, in collaboration with
Data, Outcomes and Evaluation Division and generate future
recommendations for further research, policy and programs and the
targeting of resourcesIdentify examples of excellent practice in
schools and networks and share the practice across the systemBuild
on an emergent culture where the literacy and numeracy performance
of individual students is continuously monitored and evidence based
strategies are implemented to support improvement in the literacy
and numeracy outcomesSupport regions to engage principals,
teachers, early childhood educators and parents in the importance
of improving literacy and numeracy outcomesIdentify strategies that
best meet the literacy and numeracy needs of students from Koorie
and ESL backgrounds. *Animation: Each text / duo of texts comes in
on mouse click.
There is a suite of key documents that all participants are
encouraged to be familiar with in order to deepen their
understanding of literacy and numeracy in Victoria.
The Literacy and Numeracy Statement was released in December
2009 and provides a comprehensive overview of literacy and numeracy
in Victoria. It reinforces the ambitious goals set in the 2008
Blueprint for Education and Early Childhood Development, highlights
the important role that families play in literacy and numeracy
learning and provides information on the resources and programs
that make up Victorias multifaceted approach to literacy and
numeracy learning and teaching. The other key documents need to be
considered in light of the Statement.
The Literacy and Numeracy 6-18 Month Strategy was designed to
support the application of the Literacy and Numeracy Statement and
to assist school leaders, including Regional Network Leaders and
Principals, to focus their energy on literacy and numeracy
improvement. It contains detailed information of assessments and
analysis, resources and planning the Strategies will be unpacked
later in this session.
The Key Characteristics for Effective Literacy Teaching P-6 and
7-10 were designed to support teachers to develop their literacy
knowledge, understanding and skills. The documents are divided into
VELS levels and aim to provide practical support to teachers. The
7-10 document has a focus on literacy across the Domains and
provides support to all secondary teachers, regardless of the
subjects they teach. They are online documents, and while they can
be printed, they include many hyperlinks and are therefore best
used with an active internet connection.
The Key Characteristics for Effective Numeracy Teaching P-6 and
7-10 provide similar support in numeracy; however the 7-10 document
is designed primarily for teachers of mathematics. A Numeracy
Teaching within the Domains document is out for consultation and
addresses numeracy teaching across VELS Domains from 7 to 10.
All of these documents are available via the DEECD Student
Learning Website. *Animation: Each statement appears on mouse
click.
There are some key ideas to note when discussing the
Strategy:
It is one component of Victorias approach to literacy and
numeracy improvement. It is not everything you need to know but it
is a good starting point. The Strategys primary function is to
support ongoing, rich dialogue about how a school is working to
improve literacy and numeracy outcomes for every student.It was
developed to support National Partnership Smarter Schools in
focussing their energy and resources on improving literacy and
numeracy learning and teaching. All schools are encouraged to use
the Strategy as a tool to promote conversation and to reflect on
practice. Many may find they are already engaged in many of the
strategies listed, as well as other, additional activities. This
may be because the Strategy outlines minimum expectations for
action. If schools are already engaged in all of these strategies,
and doing them effectively, conversations will be about what else
you can do to focus your energy on literacy and numeracy
improvement.Finally, the Strategy is not a checklist: dont just
tick off what you have done. If you do use the Strategy as an audit
tool, which is one of the activities discussed later, ensure that
there is conversation about what you are doing and why, what you
dont do and what you do in its place. Remember the dialogue is the
key.
*This presentation has been developed in Prezi, a zooming
presentation tool, and is stored online. It provides a more
comprehensive background to the Strategy and would be useful where
there has been limited exposure to the Strategy so far.
At this stage Prezi is not compatible with PowerPoint so to view
the Prezi you need an active internet connection.
Click on the link provided in the presentation. This will take
you directly to the Prezi. Click on More and select Full screen.
Then clicking on Play (the triangle) move your way through the path
set for this presentation.
Notes for the PreziThe Prezi has 4 parts with no additional
information required for presentation:The Victorian context, with
quotes from the Literacy and Numeracy Statement and the Blueprint
for Education and Early Childhood DevelopmentThe Aims of the
StrategyThe Strategy itselfUses for the StrategyYou may choose to
skip this Prezi if you believe your participants are already
familiar with the Strategy. Alternatively, this Prezi can also be
navigated by participants prior to the workshop. Email participants
this link:
https://prezi.com/secure/ad1e5cc41900c3b21706310707b0fe6409d69ef2
*Animation: Each image appears on mouse click.
The Strategy uses the Effective Schools Model as its conceptual
organiser. This model was chosen for a number of reasons,
including:Schools are already using, or are familiar with, the
Effective Schools Model to focus their effort for school
improvement. It does not introduce any additional models.
Highlighting that literacy and numeracy improvement is not
restricted to Focus on teaching and learning and Purposeful
teaching, but a whole-school responsibility and challengePutting
literacy and numeracy improvement at the heart of school
improvement.
In addition, the Strategy was divided into two components the
first is Assessment for Learning. This provides an overview of
typical assessments for each year of schooling as well as advice on
analysing student learning data to inform the teaching and learning
programs. This section also provides advice on what to do for
students achieving well above or well below expected levels.
The second component is Whole-school Planning, which outlines
the actions required across the school to support literacy and
numeracy improvement. This includes professional learning
requirements, actions required for students requiring individual
learning plans, recommendations for resourcing and advice for
working in partnership with families.
Neither component is sufficient on its own. It is the balance of
the two that is vital for literacy and numeracy improvement.
There are other ways that the Strategy could have been
structured, other elements that could have been emphasised. If you
have feedback on the structure please email the VLNS
([email protected] *This is the story of how one principal
has used the Strategy to support her work, as an instructional
leader.
Eastwood Primary School is in the Eastern Metropolitan Region
and while this is a primary context, the core actions taken by Lee
Ann and her team will be familiar, and instructive, in all
educational settings.
The digital story runs for 6 minutes.
You will need audio output when showing the digital story.
*Ordered sharing activity.
Depending on the time available this activity can be conducted
in between 5 and 15 minutes.
Ordered sharing protocol: each member of the small group speaks
without interruption in response to the digital story. Once all
members of the small group have shared their response they are
invited to move into conversation mode, including asking questions
to clarify their understanding of the responses.
You may like to also dedicate time for whole group sharing,
again depending on available time. *Animation: The highlighting
circles appear with one mouse click.
This is the activity that Lee Ann discusses in the digital story
and is made easier through the provision of the Strategy in Word
version.
This slide can either be included as a suggestion for what
school leaders can do when working with their leadership teams or
as an activity.
The activity involves all participants highlighting what they
are already doing in the Strategy. This provides an opportunity for
staff to reflect on practices across the school within the selected
term.
During the discussion it is important to note what all
participants believe is already happening and to spend time
ensuring that there is a shared understanding of the activities. It
is also important to discuss the gaps, or as Lee Ann indicated,
things that dont sit comfortably.
Be prepared to use a variety of open-ended questions:Where are
our gaps / opportunities?Why dont we ...?Why should we?How could we
do this differently?What are our strengths?
*This activity requires a template What does it mean?
This activity has been designed to promote reflection and to
provide an opportunity for school leaders to discuss their work in
literacy and numeracy improvement.
If you are running this activity in the presentation
Allocate 10 15 minutes. Participants will need a copy of the
Strategy (or a term from the Strategy) to complete this
activity.
Large groups (eg staff meetings) Distribute one card (with one
section of the Strategy explained) to each small group and have
them discuss the two questions. Provide a written answer to the
second question for collection and further consideration.
Small teams (eg leadership teams) Distribute one card to one
person, or have all participants complete all eight sections, or
complete the sections participants consider relevant to their own
work. Ask for 3-5 minutes of silent reflection and then answers can
be discussed in pairs.
**This activity requires a template Developing an action plan?
(displayed here and presented with examples on the next two
slides)
This activity has been designed to promote reflection and to
provide an opportunity for school leaders to plan their immediate
actions for improving literacy and numeracy outcomes.
It builds upon the planning structures provided in the School
and Network Improvement and Accountability Frameworks.
If you are running this activity in the presentation
Allocate 15 20 minutes. Participants will need a copy of the
Strategy (or a term from the Strategy) to complete this
activity.
The activity is best completed in pairs or small groups.
All members of the leadership team are encouraged to participate
to ensure that it reflects whole school practice. *Animation: Each
statement appears after one mouse click for the primary
example.
This is the first example template that focuses on Professional
Leadership in term 3 2010.
The what has been taken from the Professional Leadership
component of Term 3 2010.
We have taken one task (or one what) and looked at using the Key
Characteristics documents to develop staff capacity in planning and
instruction in a primary setting and a secondary setting
In a primary context it may be that the action involves building
the capacity of year level or team leaders to become literacy
leaders within their teams.
This approach also has a focus on determining what success will
look like from the outset starting with the end in mind and being
really clear what you are aiming to achieve, can assist school
leaders in determining what action they need to take.
*Animation: Each statement appears after one mouse click for the
secondary example. This is the second example template that focuses
on Professional Leadership in term 3 2010.
The what has been taken from the Professional Leadership
component of Term 3 2010.
We have taken one task (or one what) and looked at using the Key
Characteristics documents to develop staff capacity in planning and
instruction in a primary setting and a secondary setting.
In a secondary context it may be working with a specific Domain
team, in this case Science, and developing a level of understanding
that will enable the Science teachers to incorporate literacy
planning within their regular curriculum planning meetings.
This approach also has a focus on determining what success will
look like from the outset starting with the end in mind and being
really clear what you are aiming to achieve, can assist school
leaders in determining what action they need to take *This is one
approach to completing the action plan template.
Select just one component (or element of the Effective Schools
Model) to start. This allows for clarity of purpose. This is not to
say that the components dont overlap, in many areas they do but
these areas of overlap can be determined once actions have been
initially mapped.It is recommended that the person with
responsibility for the area create the action plan this enables
them to take ownership of the tasks from the beginning and also
promotes a model of distributive leadership that shares
responsibility for literacy and numeracy improvement across the
school. Use the template to assist in ordering thoughts. If your
school or network uses different templates for planning, use them
instead of the template. Ideally, work through one task (or what)
so that you have time to understand the process. This is a six term
schedule and while each component is present every term, some terms
have more detail than others. Term 1 in either year is a good place
to look for more information. *It is important that the Strategy is
not seen as an additional task. It should be seen as a tool to help
school leaders focus on literacy and numeracy improvement.
Therefore its effectiveness in supporting your work should be
evaluated through your current planning and reflection
practices.
The processes outlined in the School and Network Accountability
Frameworks support this work. *Please visit the VLNS website the
Strategy is published in both PDF and Word versions on the site, as
are all the resources used for this presentation.
For any further communication, please contact the VLNS via the
email address provided.
