Think Forward Blog
A Question of Genre
One of the questions we have had from members of the TFE Writing Network has been related to genre teaching. Teaching writing in the context of genres is a common practice in Australia particularly due to our curriculum progressions that specify across several year levels: an expectation that students will be able to produce ‘imaginative, informative and persuasive’ texts. In Victoria this is first mentioned in Year 1.
This was highlighted when a friend recently called me during one of our lockdowns, frustrated at watching her Year 2 daughter cry during an online writing lesson where she was required to come up with a problem, solution and list of characters. Why was this so hard for her and why was I not surprised having seen this many times in an early years classroom? An understanding of genres is important. We know it makes a difference and students need to be able to write about different topics and create specific compositions. So perhaps the problem lies in the way we teach it.
Five Ways Series: The Science of Reading
Five Ways Series: The Science of Reading
Over the coming weeks, Think Forward Educators will be posting a series of blog articles written by educational experts providing ready-to-use tips on how to implement the Science of Reading into the classroom.
Inspired by Tom Sherrington’s Five Ways Collection, the posts have been edited and curated by Brendan Lee and Dr Nathaniel Swain.
Heather Fearn
The challenges of teaching coherently without a school-wide approach.
Individual teachers cannot easily deliver well-sequenced, cumulative instruction without shared structures. A clearly mapped, carefully planned scope and sequence across subjects ensures that students encounter the right content at the right time, and that teachers avoid both unintentional gaps and unnecessary repetition in what students learn.
DEVELOPING A KNOWLEDGE-RICH SUBJECT CURRICULUM
(Webinar featuring: Heather Fearn - Snapshot blogpost by Samantha Charlton)
Heather Fearn’s webinar, Developing a Knowledge-Rich Subject Curriculum outlined some of the key ideas that schools and teachers should consider and understand when enacting a knowledge-rich approach to curriculum.
Some of Heather’s focus areas included:
The significance of subject-specific knowledge in developing students’ broad and interconnected schema of knowledge. T
he ability to think like an expert; whether a chemist, literature expert, philosopher, geographer or artist, depends on a substantial body of disciplinary knowledge built over time. To make this possible, we need to untangle our previous integrated-studies approach in areas such as History, Geography, The Arts and Science so each subject can be taught cumulatively and coherently.
The difference between hierarchical and cumulative knowledge. Hierarchical knowledge develops in a necessary order because each idea builds upon the one before it. Maths is an obvious and familiar example of this. Cumulative knowledge, by contrast, grows over time as securely sequenced concepts are revisited, deepened and connected within and across subjects.
This level of interconnected knowledge and understanding begins with carefully chosen and taught building blocks.
Heather’s points about the vagueness and lack of clarity in the curriculum resonated with me. She showed how unclear expectations make coherence difficult and often lead teachers to plan in inefficient and unsustainable ways. While adhering to a specific and granular school-wide scope and sequence, or the use of well-designed resources that were not developed in-house, can initially feel as though they reduce a teacher’s autonomy or limit opportunities for creativity, the wider impact is clear: students are able to build more secure and substantial knowledge. An added benefit is that teachers can use their planning time more effectively, focusing on how they will teach rather than trying to decipher what they need to teach.
Heather’s webinar reinforces that clarity, coherence and disciplinary knowledge matter. As many schools shift their practices within other aspects of teaching and learning, the development of a knowledge-rich curriculum that provides clarity for teachers and secure learning for students becomes a valuable asset. It strengthens students’ knowledge and builds the critical thinking and confidence that effective learning depends on.
Over the coming weeks, Think Forward Educators will be posting a series of blog articles written by educational experts providing ready-to-use tips on how to implement the Science of Reading into the classroom. Inspired by Tom Sherrington’s Five Ways Collection, the posts have been edited and curated by Brendan Lee and Dr Nathaniel Swain. The second blog post of the series comes from teacher and consultant, Lindsey Bartes, on Phonics teaching.