Wednesday, 28 August 2024

Structured Literacy PLD with Dr Jannie

Today we were honoured to have Dr Jannie Van Hees lead us through a PLD around Structured Literacy. 

With my inquiry around reading it is timely and relevant. Here are my notes from her presentation:


This language is tricky, so many layers in focus.  Systems of English.  The Morphology of words.

Knowing how to read and for writing structure is important.

Words are made of sounds.  Language is culture.  K, s, t, o.  Raising awareness of the trickiness of English.

Sounds written down. /e/ -ai- ou

This is very helpful for decoding and spelling.

Comprehension is different:  Noun, verb, adverb, adjective, pronouns.


Metaphorical words are word groups.  Eg. holey - full of holes, holy-devine, wholly.

Question:  when would we find the time to do this? How can A.I help with this?  What are the primary schools doing.


Bite size.  It’s the language that’s tricky, not you.  Eg. Government Concepts.


Make no assumptions that students can read.  And they can’t pronounce it.  

To know a word, say it, read it, write it is the easy bit.  Knowing and explaining the meaning of words is the powerhouse of reading and writing English. 

Context: using the word in utterance and sentences - appropriate and detailed usage.

Explanation ready:  explaining the word’s meaning without using the word.


Create vocab list relevant lists for each subject at the start of the unit (Key concepts and vocab).  

Team Implementation:  Discuss and review, make no assumptions, plan and start now, increase your knowledge and awareness.

Primary school level. More preventive on top of what we already do. Confidence.  Self-efficacy and fixed mindset coming into secondary school with this, it will be harder to unlearn.  The blame should be on the language not the student.  It’s all catch-up the workload it puts teacher on us, in a perfect environment. We are relieving subject areas and I want are relieving.


Streaming kids is important to support structured literacy for that stream. 




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