Literacy
in secondary schools
From term 3 this year 2002, secondary schools will be offered the
opportunity to work towards improving the literacy achievement of
all their students. The focus is cross-curricular and based on the
premise that all staff in all learning areas need to share understanding
about literacy learning.
The
Literacy Leadership programme
Awareness workshops for secondary principals
In 2002, principals will be invited to attend a half-day awareness workshop on:
- investigating how literacy learning is linked to raising the achievement of all students;
- analysing the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and NEMP data;
- reviewing the literacy role of the principal;
- exploring effective practice (including exploring comments from students, teachers, and principals).
The principals will be introduced to literacy enquiry tools, which will give them a process for facilitating change at both the classroom and the school-wide level.
Readiness workshops for school literacy leaders
The secondary school principals who attend the awareness workshop will also be invited to attend a full-day workshop with their literacy leader. This workshop will focus on strategies for sustaining teachers' commitment to improving literacy for all students. The leaders will be introduced to:
- gathering and using data;
- home-school partnerships;
- transition: bridging learning;
- when to intervene: supporting learning.
This workshop will emphasise the importance of developing a school-wide plan for improving the achievement of all learners through literacy.
Awareness workshops for professional subject association leaders
Local subject association leaders will be invited to attend a half-day workshop. This will focus on characteristics of effective literacy teaching and learning across all learning areas and will include specific case studies of effective practice.
| A
pilot study
Thames High School is involved in a 2002 pilot study that is
helping its teachers to understand and meet the language-learning
needs of all its students, not just those with learning difficulties.
The school has implemented a professional development programme,
which includes the Learning Through Language materials, to help
its teachers to focus more effectively on who, how, and what
they are teaching.
The teachers have been introduced to strategies for language teaching and encouraged to adapt them to the specific language demands of the subjects they teach. The principal, Garry Willacy, says that the school wants to increase the students' language skills across the curriculum: "We are confident that we will see measurable improvements in student achievement as a result of this programme."
|
FarNet
In 2002, ten secondary schools involved in the FarNet project (see
www.tki.org.nz/r/farnet_new/),
are also involved with the Literacy Leadership programme. Funding
has been made available to the schools through a Schooling Improvement
Initiative. Each school has a 0.6 literacy facilitator who has been
trained to use the Learning Through Language materials. The main aim
is to strengthen educational delivery in cross-curricular literacy
within and between the schools. In improving the literacy levels of
their students, the schools are aiming for higher retention rates
and for a large number of their students being able to achieve NCEA
literacy credits.
Opportunities
in 2003-2005
From 2003, funding for up to 20 secondary schools a year for three
years (60 schools) will help the schools to focus on cross-curricular
literacy. |
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