The joy of listening to kids read

Not long after I started school as a little girl I was curled up in the book corner reading away when the Headmaster, Mr Evans, came into the classroom and said 'What's that silly girl doing over there pretending to read?'

I was four, and I still remember it - perhaps I need to get over now! I still remember being so angry that he thought I was pretending. I even remember the book I was reading - The Princess and the Pea from the Ladybird series. As a child I amassed many of these little hardcovers. I wish I still had them - they are worth a fortune now!

Anyway, back to Mr Evans - needless to say, he wasn't my inspiration to become a teacher - well, maybe he was. I think I knew then that kids deserve a lot better than that.

There is nothing I enjoy more than listening to kids read - any kid, at whatever level of development they are at. Reading is the key to the world and every time an adult listens to a child read and uses gentle timely interventions, they are helping the child cut another notch on that key.

I listened to couple of little girls in 3/2B the other day. They had picked a book for partner reading and were having the best fun. At the end of taking turns, using funny voices, flipping backwards and forwards through the pages, laughing at the funny parts and asking questions about the hard words I told them I thought they were amazing readers and I asked them how I would know that.

'Oh' they said 'We are fluency [sic], we use expression, we know what the words mean, and we can work stuff out - we comprend it.'

'Great,' I said. 'And how do I as the listener know you can understand what you are reading? That you comprend it, so to speak.'

'The voices we use and the funny bits we laugh at - if we weren't comprending we wouldn't know when to laugh or stop reading and think and stuff...' they said. Hmmm...

I was so glad they didn't say 'You know we are good readers because we are on Level J reading books'.

A child's reading level says nothing to a child about how they see themselves as a reader. A reading level is information for the teacher that helps guide instructional decisions. It is the result of a complex array of factors including decoding skills, voice control, fluency, expression, strategies used to make meaning, knowledge about punctuation and vocabulary, and much more.  It's not a competition nor a badge of honour. It's simply a tool teachers use to ensure children are reading at exactly the right level to continue to learn, to continue to make meaning. It's a way of making sure we don't expect children to jump to the top of a flight of stairs from half way down.

Because in the words of a couple of Year 2 girls, it's all about comprending it!

I'm sorry... such a powerful phrase when we mean it

It has been six years since the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous Peoples was delivered on 13 February 2008 to Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for past laws, policies and practices which affected the lives of Australia’s First Nations Peoples and Stolen Generations.

The department has marked the occasion with a display of the National Apology in the Education House foyer, which is also available to read here.  I have reprinted the transcript of these historic words below.

Aboriginal Mosaic In Forecourt Of Parliament House, Canberra, Australia*

The apology has enormous significance for Indigenous Australians and every year at this time there is discussion in the media about whether we as a nation and as individuals really have embraced these words and moved closer to resolving the injustices of the past and harnessing the determination of all Australians to close the gap in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity. Many would argue that no, we haven't. In six years we haven't moved any closer to this goal, and one has to wonder how long it will take.

The education of children is instrumental in achieving this goal. At Peregian Springs we have only a small population of Indigenous children - and many would question what the plight of Indigenous peoples has to do with us. It has everything to do with all of us. Understanding the Apology and acting on its principles is about the health and prosperity of all Australians, no matter where they come from or for how long their families have resided in this country.


We acknowledge country at Assembly every week and I long for the day when one of our Indigenous children will feel they can welcome country. We assess and check the educational achievement of every child; we monitor absences from school; we teach the cross curriculum demands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures; we recognise and celebrate Indigenous peoples' special days and we are trying to do our bit.

Is it enough? Probably not - in fact almost certainly not. It's an area that requires constant attention and development. We've said we're sorry and these are powerful words. Powerful words can lead to even more powerful intentions - but they are only powerful if we mean it and being sorry translates into actions.

The transcript:
 I move:

That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.
We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations - this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.
And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

* Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. http://year3history.edublogs.org/indigenous-art-forms/

If you are diving with Great Whites, I'm coming next time

Taking holidays during school term time is such a conundrum. It's frowned upon by the state and even legislated against in the Education Act. It requires a Principal's approval (imagine if I said 'no'!) and is quite disruptive to the learning program of a class. While children are away, they miss key learnings, and the sequential development of complex concepts in literacy, numeracy and science are interrupted. It's difficult for the class teacher and even more difficult for the child when they return to school to find the class has moved on and that they are in the middle of a lot of half finished work.

The flip side is the wonderful time children have being with family, visiting far flung places, engaging with other cultures and the local people, meeting the wildlife, learning about food and customs and developing an understanding of tolerance and diversity - this is much harder to achieve in the classroom, and can be the most valuable learning of all!

Last year one of our beloved families took off for a 12 month hike around Australia. The kids were enrolled with the School of Distance Education, the maps were drawn, the caravan prepared and off they went. They have returned this year with a collection of the best memories of a wonderful year on the road. They dropped the flash drive into my pigeon-hole in the office to have a look at. Being a traveller myself I had to fight the urge to sit and look at it until the weekend. And when I finally plugged that drive into my Mac I saw the best images of a family having fun, drawing closer together, creating a life time of memories of the places they have visited. I followed their journey through the images of north Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, NT and South Australia, and up the west coast of WA. There were animals, paddle steamers, turtles, Parliament House, swimming, Uluru, massive escarpments, Ningaloo, our great capital cities and ... Great White Sharks! Oh, so lucky! I so want to swim with

these amazing, majestic creatures. My friends and family think I'm mad and no one will come with me!

I loved seeing these photos of a family at play.  I didn't see any of the kids engaging with the School of Distance Education!!! However, I know that what they have learned about our magnificent country cannot be described in any curriculum.

I have to say, I don't and can't approve of holidays in school time.  The time children are with their teacher is too short, too valuable. But if you are going diving with the Great Whites, I'm coming with you.

Stop dragging my heart around...

This week for the first time in the history of our school I watched students walking past rubbish and litter on the ground. I watched adults doing it too. Well, that's a small thing, you might say - especially in a week where EVERY class settled quickly including Preps, where (nearly) EVERY kid was smiling about being back at school, and EVERY child was learning by 9.20am on Tuesday morning.

Actually, it's not a small thing. It's a big thing.

I talked about this on Assembly on Friday morning. If we are going to start walking past rubbish on the ground, are we also going to start walking past someone who is lonely in the playground? Are we going to stop insisting everyone uses common courtesies? Are we going to stop standing up for a friend and helping them if they are bullied? Are we saying it's okay to ride bikes and scooters and skateboards all over the school ignoring the safety of all?

Bystander behaviour is well documented in print and online literature. A bystander is someone who is present at an event without participating in it. It's dangerous behaviour as it leads to a tacit acceptance of the less desirable behaviour or values. Research shows that the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely it is than someone will take a stand. We have 793 children in our school, over 550 families and more than 70 staff - we can't afford for even some of us to just 'walk past'.

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos (see end note)

I loved 4H's Assembly performance last week. It was a clear demonstration of a simple sentence that can change a child's whole day - come and play with us! So simple and so powerful. The large heart being dragged around on stage was symbolic of how a lonely person feels. We encourage our kids to notice the children who are dragging their hearts around and work to include them - not simply leave it be.

Equally we encourage children (and adults) to pick up rubbish as they walk past.  Leaving litter on the ground says we don't care, and if we don't care about the cleanliness of our playgrounds, the next step is not caring about any of the core values that make our school so special.

At Peregian Springs we wear our core values of respect, responsibility, relationships and choice on our sleeves - we model them, talk about them, reinforce them, explicitly teach them. As we continue to grow as a community, we need to take a stand when someone walks past rubbish.

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos ((http://static5.depositphotos.com/1014680/489/i/950/depositphotos_4892724-Heart-collage.jpg)