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Strengthen the building blocks for literacy education
Designing learning for real learners is critical as success in literacy requires a culturally sustaining and relational approach.
For our children to experience success, the collaborative eff orts of parents, communities, teachers, school leaders and support networks in all our schools are required. In Aotearoa New Zealand, our educational partnerships begin with power-sharing conversations and close relationships with communities and whānau since they both know their children best and want the best for them.
As a bi-cultural nation, responsiveness in our teaching needs to be underpinned by cultural and relational responsiveness as ways of working. Children draw on diff erent experiences, language backgrounds and histories of engagement with diff erent literacies. These include oral, written and visual texts. Each child has diff ering rates and types of progress, and they each learn diff erent things from the same learning experience.
Some children find literacy learning more challenging than others, and diff erent aspects of literacy challenge children in various ways. Children who find literacy learning diff icult can be taught to read and write. The earlier they do so, the more they benefit from their literacy skills, processes, positive attitudes and knowledge. In many cases, early literacy diff iculties create further diff iculties for children. So, the key to preventing literacy diff iculties is to notice early and wrap support around children so that they can progress to become confident readers and writers.
Instructional packages don’t just work. What works is the close match between where a child is at, and the teaching that they receive. To make this practical in classrooms, a comprehensive approach can be designed that considers what happens in class programmes, extra support in small group teaching and individual learning support. At each tier, the approach becomes increasingly tailored to children’s unique profiles, and additional teaching expertise is required to support that targeted teaching.
A tiered model requires a team approach to prevent literacy learning diff iculties. At each Tier, the group size gets smaller, meaning teaching is increasingly targeted to children requiring additional support, and tailored to their learning profiles. In this way, schools can systematically increase the literacy support by adding expertise, by bringing another expert teacher into the class to support the teaching of a small group. This approach adds another person to that existing relationship between the whānau, the teacher and the child. Formative use of assessments and conversations among professionals, whānau and students underpin teaching designed for specific children.
Dr Rebecca Jesson, Associate Professor in Literacy Education, University of Auckland
Creating a school-wide coherent approach to literacy means drawing on all the literacy expertise in your school to off er more wraparound support
Teacher collaboration, co-planning, and coteaching build selfimproving teams
Success in literacy requires both teacher knowledge of the child and teacher expertise in literacy. Instead of seeking the right way to teach literacy, we seek the right way to teach the child. We look to make sure there is a close match between the child and the literacy teaching they receive. This is a question of close observation, noticing change, expectation of pace, how to design for children, how to teach in front of colleagues.
These are the skills that underpin teachers’ experience and expertise. That adaptive expertise can contribute to the targeting of the teaching to small groups in the classroom or to individual needs. By drawing on the skills of teachers and the knowledge of whānau, lessons can be designed to be powerful, positive and inclusive, based on real children.
Continuous improvement
Whereas a traditional approach to literacy programmes requires that procedures are implemented as designed in routine ways, a responsive approach to literacy improvement means that teachers make adaptive decisions based on children.
Continuous measurement and improvement ensures that decisions are good ones that result in learning. Teachers collect regular evidence about their decisions and the learning that results. That’s why regular analysis and review underpin the teacher’s craft. That’s also why teacher collaboration and a team approach support the decision making. Using expertise, making strong decisions, reviewing eff ectiveness: collectively these actions work to make sure that learning is equitable for all.
© stock.adobe.com University of Auckland Associate Professor Rebecca Jesson was recently appointed as Research and Academic Director – Literacy for Tui Tuia | Learning Circle. She is also a Reading Recovery Trainer and leads National Reading Recovery in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Making sure our literacy teaching is equitable
By Dr Rebecca Jesson,
Tui Tuia | Learning Circle Research and Academic Director - Literacy, Associate Professor University of Auckland and Reading Recovery Trainer In Aotearoa New Zealand, over 8000 Reading Recovery teachers have helped more than 350,000 students become confi dent, independent readers and writers.
Reading Recovery has over 40 years of research and evaluation results to prove its effi cacy worldwide. An evaluation of New Zealand Reading Recovery indicated that we are eff ective in improving literacy levels for the children we teach. The evaluation also indicated that Reading Recovery is no more expensive for schools than many other supports. While the training is highly valued by schools, fewer are using Reading Recovery because demand for support exceeded what could be provided. As a result, since 2021, National Reading Recovery has been evolving the way Reading Recovery is delivered in schools to help enable stronger and more equitable outcomes for children. Building on the success of its one-to-one approach with children, it now off ers a three-tiered support framework that will enable a broader range of children to access literacy support. At each tier, the instruction is increasingly tailored to children’s learning. Assessment and ongoing observation is used to tailor how teachers respond to children’s learning. We know there are no simple quick fi xes to support all learners, so we are building systems for collecting, analysing and using evidence to self-improve. Our solution is embracing complexity. For multifaceted, complex and long-term issues, there aren’t silver bullets or simple solutions. Instead, it's a collective, joined-up response. Highly skilled teachers make responsive decisions based on evidence. Teachers draw on what they know about the child and how the child is making sense of literacy, in order to support them to learn. Ultimately, it’s all about teachers problem-solving, collaborating and sharing expertise. Put together, it is planning eff ective, balanced schoolwide programmes that build children’s love of literacy and self-confi dence in learning. We’ve started this transformative process and have had some great feedback and exciting results from schools. One Associate Principal said: “It’s a framework for freedom, which we can change as we need to. We’ve found it gives us more reach, so rather than one kaiako alone navigating the range of challenges, we’re supporting each other, which means intervention and support comes earlier, and kaiako share an integrated and aligned approach. That’s what we’re seeing in our results, even at this half-year mark; our ākonga are having great results and movement in literacy.” We’ve also implemented educational science processes, to ensure that we continue
TIER 1: School wide learning
TIER 2: Small group learning
TIER 3: Individual learners
Three tiers of support
to self-improve. This includes more frequent reporting on child literacy development, monitoring progress and more support for the teacher network.
We aren’t there yet, as there is always more to be done.
Ultimately, what we can contribute to schools are highly trained teachers making catalytic teaching decisions with colleagues, building on the strengths of students, families and communities. That’s the complex world of teaching. For frequently asked questions about Reading Recovery & Early Literacy Support, please scan this QR code.
Stronger Readers together
A refreshed Reading Recovery
Reading Recovery now has a 3-tiered Early Literacy Support framework to improve early literacy outcomes at an individual, small group and school-wide level. Specially trained Reading Recovery teachers will work alongside tumuaki, kaiako and whānau to deliver the right level of support based on the child’s individual learning needs.
To learn more about our success to date, scan the QR code or visit:
