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In your HG list, post a literacy specific question/problem of practice that you're facing or would like someone to answer.

To add a new post, click the 'plus sign'. Please make sure your name is also included (it's required later!).

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Read through some of the posts on this padlet and 'upvote' any questions that resonate with you using the 'thumb up' symbol. (Our literacy team will be reading and responding to popular posts and the upvotes will help us pick them.)

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Step 3 (to do after your synchronous sessions) 

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Step 3 (to do after your synchronous sessions) 

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You are each partnered with someone (the list is attached below to this post).

Answer your partners question/problem of practice by  'adding a comment' to their original post. Make your answer meaningful and helpful. You may need to refer to your LEO unit page or other resources to help them out!

If you don't see their post, please send them a reminder message on Slack: https://app.slack.com/client/T01BR57JLTG/C01DNCWPYS0

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Literacy 'Give One, Get One' Partners - Sheet1

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How do you work around differing literacy abilities when it comes to  assessment? For example if a student in your class can barely read and or write, while there are students in the class that can write an essay and read with ease, how do you get them to complete the same test? or do you give them different tests?

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Some students refuse to do their reading tests (such as NAPLAN) and just fill in random answers and then are flagged to have extra testing, which, when administered one on one, shows that they are at standard. How do I get them to actually do the testing the first time so that they don't need to be tested again. There are students that need the reading help who are not getting my full attention.

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BRIAN ZUCCALA - NAPLAN (EAL/D ATSI remote)

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BRIAN ZUCCALA - NAPLAN (EAL/D ATSI remote)

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SS not engaging in NAPLAN writing on the basis that
1) topics "are not relevant";
2) a practice is not "the real thing".

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1)How do I manage students who are still working on decoding longer words (i.e. year one level reading) while delivering content lessons? e.g. vocab matching tasks but they are struggling to read definitions
2) how do I manage students who are very low literacy/ language proficiency at year ten when the rest of the class is writing essays? These students if unassisted struggle to understand tasks and will just copy text from novels.

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When completing written assessment tasks, many students struggle to comprehend extending their responses. What is a good strategy towards assisting students to elaborate beyond a sentence, or incorporating the question in their answer?

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What are the most effective ways to differentiate for students without the core literacy skills (usually learned in primary school e.g. comprehension, sentence structure), needed to access high-level literacy thinking e.g. textual analysis, essay writing? I have identified a gap in my ability to address the literacy needs of Year 7 students scoring at a grade 3-4 level. What building blocks should I focus on embedding with such students, first, so that they can meaningfully engage with the Year 7 literacy curriculum?

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How do you increase a student's confidence in applying their own literacy skills independently? Some students do limited independent reading/writing. There is already modelling, worked examples, scaffolding, prompting questions, repeated reassurances etc. They still wait and ask for help until the teacher arrives. I end up spending my time watching them perform the skills competently and only seem to be there to confirm if they are right or not. How do I encourage independence beyond simply affirming that they are able to do the skill themselves?

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I have a number of students who have dyslexia or dysgraphia, their comprehension is high enough that they don't receive any funded support as they can 'access the curriculum with differentiated teaching' however it is difficult to help them produce work they are happy with and experience success (and grade them appropriately) as it is difficult to get a piece of assessment that shows the extent of their knowledge. I have tried talk to text (does not work very well), dictating and me writing (very difficult in a class with 25 other students) and offered for them to record answers verbally (but general reluctance to be seen as different to peers). Would love any suggestions for how to support these students.

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In year 7 maths, there are numerous new words that students need to learn and memorise to be able to identify how to correctly determine an answer. What are some suggestions that could be engaging and fun to help them retain the definitions of these mathematical words?

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How do I encourage students to use (and therefore practice) the words/terms we learn in maths?

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What is an effective strategy to support students with low literacy and no confidence? I have one student in my Year 7 English class who won't even attempt a lot of the work because he is so worried he will fail. He can read and write but often freezes when he has to complete work. My positive encouragement does not seem to be working.

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Other subjects are able to differentiate assessments, where in English that isn't as possible where writing is being assessed. For students with difficulties writing or who are at a much lower comprehension level this reflects in their assessment scores.

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What strategies could I use to encourage students who are very introverted/quiet in nature and have low confidence to communicate loudly, clearly and effectively with their peers during physical activity?

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Every class at my school begins with 10 minutes of silent reading your choice of book. However, I've noticed a large proportion of students use this time to stare around the classroom while their book is open on their desk. Or even unknowingly hold their book upside down! I have started setting a question students have to answer about what they are reading each lesson as part of rollcall, which has helped but I've see students bringing in the same book for the whole year. A lack of enthusiasm for reading was exemplified this term when the majority of one of my classes did not read a substantial amount of the novel we were studying in class, which led to further disengagement and difficulty completing classwork and the assignment. How can I make reading books more enjoyable for my students, and not something they want to avoid

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Is there a precedent for students not progressing to the next year level if they haven't met literacy requirements? Why is it that a student who is measured as having level 1 literacy is in a grade 8 English class?

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I have an EAL/D student in my maths class who cannot access much work because he cannot understand it due to English not being his first language. He is low in maths but not extremely low. In order to differentiate for this student I remove words from his work and give him work to do that does not require reading, however I fear that this is counterproductive because he will not be improving his literacy. When I give him work with writing he says he cannot do it. Unfortunately being a big class I can only sit with to work with him 1:1 for 5 or 10 minutes each lesson, the rest of the time he does not do any work. What strategies can I try, specific to a maths context, that will allow him to access the mathematical content without completely removing any literacy content?

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I try to make my French classes as speaking based as possible, due to low literacy levels in my classes meaning reading/writing are very time consuming tasks, and students do not engage in these as well as other activities. However I find it difficult when it comes to assessment because my school mandates written exams so I have some students who write nothing, and others who don't demonstrate their knowledge because of the writing constraints even when I scaffold writing and we practice in class before written assessment. What are some other strategies I can use to help them demonstrate their understanding and achieve success in compulsory written assessment?

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Many of my students avoid using maths vocabulary even though they might know it. I believe could be because of a lack of confidence but also because using maths words isn't 'cool'. I have been getting the class to repeat words in chorus as well as individually to try and build this confidence but it is still a challenge. What strategies could I use to encourage the use of these new words?

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As a PE teacher I am actually really struggling with this unit and finding it difficult to come up with ways that I am helping to develop students' literacy. 90% of our sessions are prac based and we spend very little time in the classroom. We often go over key terminology and students are required to keep an activity journal but besides that we spend very little time reading and writing in this subject. I would love to get any input/insight from teachers who are teaching other prac based subjects on ideas to incorporate ways to develop literacy.

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As a PE teacher I am actually really struggling with this unit and finding it difficult to come up with ways that I am helping to develop students' literacy. 90% of our sessions are prac based and we spend very little time in the classroom. We often go over key terminology and students are required to keep an activity journal but besides that we spend very little time reading and writing in this subject. I would love to get any input/insight from teachers who are teaching other prac based subjects on ideas to incorporate ways to develop literacy.

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I find my senior class (VCAL) most frustrating when it comes to literacy, as many students are disengaged and have developed poor habits that are hard to break, how can I re-engage them with literacy and get them writing to the level that they are capable of ?

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I'm teaching Math and incorporate literacy but struggling to come up with a question for this forum. The issues that come to mind all seem to have solutions however it is a shortage of time both for myself and the students that is impacting the most.

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I would like advice on how to allow for different modes of assessment which allow students to draw upon their literacy strengths. I find this difficult in Mathematics, given it relies so heavily on written discourses. Would it be possible to assess verbally? What would this look like?

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I'm wondering how best to support a student in Year 9 who's spelling is very low. The student has autism and always has an EA in my classroom who works with them. Often the solution for this student, from past feedback, is that either the EA will write the notes for them from the board or the student will take a photo. I have spoken with the student and they want to start using the iPad in class to type their notes and the EA has also suggested for me to give the writing on a separate worksheet for the student, and then they copy it out into their book.
The EAs have said to me that the student will never be able to spell properly, but I don't believe that and I want to really try to work to help this student with their spelling and gramma, so I'm wondering if anyone else has any suggestions on this and what might be some other strategies to use?
(Just a note, we do weekly spelling tests where I test them on Monday and then test them with the same words on Friday so they can see their improvement).

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There are low literacy students in my Year 7 and Year 8 Italian classes, so a technique I have been using in these classes is to address language concepts in English and then introduce the concept in Italian (i.e Sentence structure, adjectives, nouns, verbs, etc..). That has been one of the predominate strategies that I have used. One area where I have become stuck is differentiating in my Italian classes to support students' different literacy levels. While I have tried to modify tasks for low literacy students and focused more on speaking and listening activities with them, the writing and reading is already low and I am unsure of how to support them with not only their literacy development, but also they language learning in Italian. The students are assessed on their reading, writing, speaking and listening, so I am curious to find out if there are ways in which both can occur concurrently.

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Other than written tasks (e.g. presentations, research reports) and tests/quizzes, what are some good tasks for gathering, formally or informally, literacy data from maths/science students?

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A lot of my kids haven't had the opportunity to develop their notetaking ability to a level that will support and facilitate their learning. Even in Maths I am finding that even if they take notes, the value they get from the revision is really low due to the quality of them. Any people have any online resources to develop these skills in students from yr 7 - 12?

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I have found many of my students struggle to recall important technical vocabulary that has been used and defined in class (Maths & Science). I think that some targeted 'vocabulary lessons' might be helpful, but don't want them to be just copying definitions. What are some useful strategies specifically for learning specialised vocabulary?

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I have a few students who have very low literacy when writing by hand but are very confident and able when given a device. Part of me thinks they need to be able to write well by hand but another part thinks that maybe this is fine as we head into the digital age. Anyone have an opinion?

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I love integrating little literacy tasks as content breaks into my science classes to help with vocabulary and sentence construction relevant to the current topic.

My students are growing tired of my current reportoire of these tasks (single word focus e.g. use in a sentence/make acrostic poem/student created definition, crosswords, word finds, hangman).

Any suggestions of other fun literacy tasks to give Term 3 some variety?

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How can I effectively teach my Year 8 HASS class when most are two-three years (or more) behind the standard for reading, writing and comprehension? I am finding that I have to continuously adapt written class materials to make it easier for them to understand...

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In my Year 11 Business class, I use business
article readings and a subsequent discussion as a Do Now activity that then helps transition the class to the topic. However, I sense that this is no longer engaging the students as it used to (e.g. looking bored, on phones, etc). Therefore, what array of Do Now activities have you employed to keep the Do Now section engaging for students?

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My school is a supported inclusion school, which means we have a higher than average percentage of students with special needs (not necessarily funded, normally ASD, low IQ, severe behaviour disorder etc). One of my Y7 classes has about 5 students who are at a level 1-2 for literacy - they are completely unable to access the content at all even with differentiation and scaffolding and modified content. How can I help them access basic concepts and demonstrate understanding?

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I have students with dyslexia/dysgraphia who don't seem to have any formal supports in place. I find it very difficult, especially in one class which has a total of 26 students, to find time to help them personally. What should I do about this? I feel very overwhelmed and like I am letting these students down.

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I have a basic settling routine that incorporates exposure to scientific literacy at the beginning of my classes. What techniques are you using in your classes to specifically teach complex scientific terms? i focus my students by having a glossary of relevant terms to the lesson that they spend time adding to at the start of each lesson but want something more engaging to use for the end of a lesson to review the terms covered

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One of my students has autism .but loves reading characters. How should I encourage his growth as an actor. beyond just reading his script.

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I'm finding it really difficult to help English as a Second Language (ESL) students succeed in common assessment tasks. Many of the ESL students in my class have low reading comprehension and it's difficult for them show their understanding in assessment tasks when they can't understand the questions. I can't differentiate the common assessments because they are used to compare students across the year level.

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I have some really, really strong maths students who love learning and love maths, but they absolutely refuse English as a subject. They combat me and suggest that it’s not necessary for maths. I don’t know how many times I can tell them “you’ll need it for worded questions” or “it’s super important in all of life.” Just feeling a little stuck with how to not only excite them, but also really reinforce that literacy can be a maths skill too

From Georgia
Love you all

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Wide range of literacy (and numeracy!) abilities in the class, ranging from being unable to read basic words to working a year above their age-related peers. I cannot scaffold sufficiently for those who are working 5 years below their peers while still providing a quality lesson for those who are at standard and do not know how to proceed. Is anyone having similar issues? I am curious to know how some of you are dealing with this!

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I'm finding it hard to scaffold for a couple of students who have significantly lower literacy ability than the rest of the class. They are both funded and will occasionally have an aid in the class helping them which is great, but when the aid isn't there I haven't found any great ways to scaffold reading and writing tasks that still gives them the opportunity to learn the same content as the rest of the class.

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How much should we allow students to rely on using technology instead of handwriting? Students have access to an iPad at my school, however I am unsure when I should remove this option so they are practicing their handwriting and spelling. The iPads increase engagement as they can therefore listen to music, except they use the spellcheck tools (I have tried removing this function – they just change the settings back :') ) and often get distracted.

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I feel out of my depth in trying to help students with really low literacy. I am trying new things with them but find I just do not get that one on one time with them to really see what it is they know and really target their literacy development. I know students will respond to different strategies but are there any truly 'stand out' strategies that will really help to boost their reading comprehension/writing?

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Hi everyone,
I have an ESL student in one of my Year 8 classes. His comprehension skills were extremely low and he was only able to copy off the board. I flagged this with the school and he ended up being moved to a specialised class. In future however, I would like to be able to help this student engage in my class despite his low levels. Does anyone have any recommendations on how to do so?
Thank you!

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Any tips to support a student who can only write when copying words, but cannot write even simple words without seeing them in front of him? Even when copying, he struggles to form letters correctly and often gets the spelling wrong. His carers said he's likely dyslexic, but haven't been able to get him assessed to have it confirmed. There are literacy support programs in school but no one has been able to give advice that's suitable for a student this low.

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Tips on how to integrate opportunities to improve students spelling in a fun way? I have a number of students who have very low spelling abilities, similar to a very low primary school level. I teach humanities and so writing is included in every single lesson, but I am struggling to find ways to help support their spelling within my classroom context. I've implemented word walls around the room for subject specific words but its the more simple ones I struggle with.

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In the VCAL literacy curriculum, there are few literacy skills outlined for students to master - with no real requirement to teach grammar, spelling or other core literacy concepts. Where does the balance come in pushing for rigour, excellence, high expectations and learning and just getting the evidence completed to meet VCAL outcomes? Is there a line others have found to guide when it is worth abandoning a
valuable lesson in sentence structure just to have students complete the paragraph and get the piece in?

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When doing source analysis, I have preferred to teach kids a formula on how to get each mark for a source analysis question.
Eg Compare and contrast the messages of......
Message of source 1 is, this is evidenced by, key message la la la.

Is this okay and am I restricting their personal writing style? How do others teach source analysis writing?

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Punctuation and grammar -
Even though my students know that a sentence and proper nouns should start with a capital letter, that contractions should have apostrophes and that there are three different types of 'there' each with their own meaning, their writing in class often doesn't reflect this - they say they "can't be bothered" with correct grammar and punctuation. When it comes to assessment time, because they're out of practice, their grammar and punctuation is pretty shocking and doesn't reflect their learning. How do I incentivise them to use correct grammar and punctuation every time they write?

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I teach a year 9 science class with extremely low literacy levels. I have found that I am more likely to get these students to engage in and complete the work if I work with them individually/in pairs. Although this strategy appears to be somewhat effective, it is not time efficient. What sorts of strategies can I use in this sort of classroom to help students become more independent learners?

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My biggest struggle in Science is finding age appropriate texts and resources for Senior School, whos literacy and numeracy are that of a 7 year old from PATS testing. Finding resources that are not:
1. Degrading "Babyish"
2. Relevant to the content I am expected to teach
3. Not spending hours reinventing the wheel

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In my Year 9 English class I have two students who have organised to begin IEPs next semester. However, they both have no funding, but have extremely low literacy capabilities. Most of the advice I have been given from other teachers and EAs is to give these students booklets they can complete in class independently. However, I do not believe this method will be helpful for these students. How would you approach this scenario to achieve the best outcome for these two students while still being available for your overall class?

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What is an effective measure to appropriately provide extension/support for students in a class where the literacy levels and abilities are very low, within a whole class setting without it becoming 'homework'. How do i integrate the subject specific vocabulary that is beyond their comprehension? When it comes to common assessment tasks, do i differentiate those as well?

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I have a student in my year 11 integrated class who can not read very well and is category 1 in OLNA for writing. I find that the only way I can get him to write is if I tell him word for word how to write and spell each word for him. I do not feel I am helping him improve his literacy at all! But how do I scaffold when the ability is so low?

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My school has standardised assessment in Year 7-9. Many of my Year 7 and 8 students require significant adjustments to be able to access these assessments due to very low literacy levels. However, when I raise this with the program coordinators I am often told the students must complete the assessment as is. Is there a simple way I can justify/explain why I need to differentiate standardised summative assessment?

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Science assessments that have long/extended answer questions are overwhelming my students with below average ability and literacy skills. Assessments aren't differentiated to suit these individuals, so many look at a long question and give up before they start.

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At the beginning of the year, I was surprised with the note-taking ability of my Year 11 Ancient History ATAR students. I found them copying word for word the dot points on slides and struggled to summarise key points from texts. I have since gone through activities such as the Cornell note taking method and provide them with summary tables leading up to assessments. Has anyone else found this to be an area of improvement in their senior school students? If so, what strategies do you use to teach note taking and summarising skills?

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Meags Butler - Science              I have been regularly exposing students in my science class to new terminology through the use of a glossary, quizzes and questioning, but for students with low literacy, these approaches seem ineffective and possibly out of their ZPD.  Are there other approaches to supporting low literacy students in science with concepts and words so they can engage better in my class?

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Meags Butler - Science              I have been regularly exposing students in my science class to new terminology through the use of a glossary, quizzes and questioning, but for students with low literacy, these approaches seem ineffective and possibly out of their ZPD.  Are there other approaches to supporting low literacy students in science with concepts and words so they can engage better in my class?

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I find the English curriculum to be very crowded, with a huge amount of abstract concepts for students to master. I feel that some students would be better served by undertaking back-to-basics reading and writing programs instead of learning different persuasive techniques, for example. How can I meet my responsibility to deliver the Victorian curriculum while also serving students that simply need help developing basic literacy skills?

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What are some practical suggestions that will help improve the note taking ability of my students?

I am finding that a lot of my students are at a disadvantage when it comes to tests as they do not have a page of notes that they can fall back on when they are having a mind blank (Year 7's and 8's are allowed them for Calc sections).

I am wondering if I need to review how I lay my notes out on the board and the 'flow' of my notes, or whether I should lower my expectations of what students should be able to write in a 15 minute time period.

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How do I work to build individual literacy skills such as understanding, inferring, finding facts and details, etc. We have worksheets based on these individual skills that the tutors from the Tutors Learning Initiative use, but how can I build these as a class and/or individually in ways so we can measure success?

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Around 40% of my 7/8 class really struggle with literacy. Some students are diagnosed with ID's and are funded, a few students are writing and reading at a mid primary level. Therefore many don't complete written tasks in class or for homework or complete tasks to a really low quality. I make time during writing tasks to help these students but as there are so many of them I struggle to assist them all. Ideally I wouldn't set these students homework at all however I only have them for one class a week so there is a need when learning scripts etc for them to practice outside of class time. I have made myself available to help them in class and during recess, some take up the offer but most do not.

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I am teaching Unit 1 Legal Studies which is. incredibly content heavy. Students need to be writing notes and constantly reviewing. I tried to teach them about cornell notes but it didn't stick. Looking for simpler ways for students to develop more effective note taking habits

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I regularly give my year 7 students the option to use their computers to write up their work. Most choose to use this option and I feel that it enhances their spelling and overall ability to complete tasks. In other classes some students even use the speech to text function. There are obviously both benefits and limitations to allowing this use of ICT. What are some ICT strategies you have used that have improved literacy without limiting growth?

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Any tips for balancing the needs of a class where about 20% of the class does not write logical sentences or paragraphs without 1:1 support? The rest of the class are competent with a small group of very high achievers -- how to teach to the whole class AND catch up the stragglers?

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A lot of my upper school students are really bad at writing sentences. As someone who never really struggled in this area, I don't even know where to start with helping students know what a sentence should look like. What does a sentence look like? How do you know if it's too long or too short? I have an intuitive feel for this, but have no idea how I would communicate this to a senior student - particularly without coming off as condescending.

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My question is very similar to Harleen's and Pola's. With such a broad range of student literacy ability, how do I best support my students who have barely functional literacy skills i.e. sub year 4 level

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I have many low-literacy students in year 7/8. The syntax in Indonesian is often very similar to English so translations often work well, however explaining word order as they become more advanced is hindered by a lack of understanding of basic English grammar and especially syntax. I don't like the idea of spending time explicitly teaching grammar and in fact it is discouraged in most of the literature I've read on teaching language in the beginning stages. If my goal is improving English literacy and building understanding of syntax, how can I do this without overwhelming my students?

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Emily Stambanis  - Humanities & Social Sciences

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Emily Stambanis  - Humanities & Social Sciences

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How can I support students in gaining confidence, even as they take small and scaffolded steps forward?

I feel like sometimes students can feel downtrodden, especially if they notice that their learning is different from other students

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Students struggle more with interpreting and decoding questions when they are printed on paper compared to when they read them from a computer screen. Problem is, VCE exams are all paper-based which prompts the question: why the greater barrier with paper than via ICT? I'm trying to prep them for the exams (and therefore we do a lot of paper-based revision/review/analysis of past exam papers) but something is amiss. Has > 10 years of heavily ICT-based learning created a psychological barrier to paper-based mathematical problems?

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I have some students who have such poor writing skills that I cannot read their writing and they often can't tell me what they have written either. I have found that allowing them to do their work on a device is much better and that they have much better responses when they can type them. Should I insist on them writing some responses to practice their writing skills or is it ok to let them always use a device?

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I would like advise on how to engage students in the struggle of literacy a bit more. I find that I have a number of students who can confidently rote learn worded questions in maths, then the second a word or two is changed they loose confidence and are convinced they're not able to figure out the answer. When I sit with students individually and provide little input, they absolutely have the ability to step through the problem on their own, its only their self belief that's preventing them.

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I think my biggest literacy challenges have been students who are below grade 3 or 4 level (as mentioned a few times above). The one-on-one time they need to engage with assessment is impracticable. I've found in some contexts motivating them works for short learning or for differentiated assessment, but some just never take on the work and it is a challenge dealing with their confidence levels and ensuring the step-by-step engagement. I guess my question is just a general one about what are some ways to diagnose learning barriers, ways of overcoming them, and ways of focusing on motivation and less on the fixed idea of assessment and what it should look like. I think I'm doing this, but it's not as strategic and consistent as it could be.

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I have a broad range of literacy capability across all my classes. I have a number of students in Year 8 who are taken out of my classes every second lesson to take part in MYLNS (Middle Years Literacy & Numeracy Support). Supporting them in their Indonesian and DigiTech learning cycles is a challenge, as they miss more time than other students.
In my Year 10 Business Studies teaching load, I have a number of students who are in literacy support programs and write at a grade 4 level. Ideation is a challenge, and I support them more during work time to help them come up with ideas for their writing. I also provide them partially completed templates for written work. Are there other strategies I could employ to support these student meet the success criteria?

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I have a student who refuses to write anything and the only way to get him to do work on topic is through drawing. Any ideas on how to make him engage with even basic writing skills?

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The majority of my year 7 and 8 students have low disciplinary literacy skills and general literacy skills. Their disciplinary literacy skills often improve by the end of the unit, but I find it more difficult to target their general literacy skills as its difficult to engage them. Any suggestions for embedding these skills throughout lessons in ways that are engaging (and painless)?

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What are some practical strategies I can use to help my students currently at Year 1-3 level to read out loud? Not all students agree to participate in corrective reading classes and I have tried to differentiate by adding line numbers and changing fonts, but would be grateful for some other tips.

In my EAL classes I am wondering how to best support students who have a primary level of literacy, but their EAL funding is running out and they will be forced to enter VCE English (mainstream) next year. What can I do for the rest of this year to support these students as they still struggle to formulate simple sentences and have limited vocabulary?

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How can I encourage my students to want to read? Many of them outright refuse to read or engage with the text, claiming that they just hate reading.

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In year 7 science I (well the students) am struggling with the volume of information and new terminology.  The current method of presenting text-heavy slides and getting students to take notes is not exactly igniting students' passion for science.  What are some ways of covering the info engagingly, while still teaching those key concpets and terminology?

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At the start of each new topic I explicitly teach the topic's vocabulary (for example, mean, median and mode for data), but I have two problems that keep a lot of students confused: 1) there are students who miss this initial lesson and don't catch up and are confused every time topic-specific terminology comes up and 2) for many students, the words don't seem to go into long-term memory - and they become disengaged when I try to immerse them in the topic with the appropriate language. (For example, they say they've forgotten what a word is and they'll refuse to do the Do Now because of it.)

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When it comes to requiring students to read aloud, they often refuse. I will usually not let them pass that easily, and ask them again, with encouragement.

My question is: how much pressure can we reasonably put on students who want to avoid reading aloud?

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How can we better assess writing for core English students with low literacy levels? Currently my school uses the same assessment topic and format, with added "scaffolds" that further explain the instructions. But realistically, this just increases the number of words on the page for the students, and I always need to be attending to each step of the process anyway as they're intimidated by all the instructions.

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I’d like some ideas for literacy-rich activities in science classrooms. ie: Activities that are accessible and foster meaningful growth in below-level students, activities that are challenging for at-level students, and also activities that provide extension for students that are above level.
Also, does anyone have any tips on engaging students with low-literacy levels other than a scaffold? I have had the same issue as Aria ^ where scaffolds don’t necessarily increase confidence and are sometimes more daunting for students to read.

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I have English and HaSS classes with students who have low level literacy and language skills. Two classes in particular have huge range of abilities and their marks range from A to E. The D/E students struggle to read and write and require much more scaffolding and differentiation, while the A/B students require extension activities and greater challenges and can work at a faster pace. I'd like to know how to approach this and what strategies I could use so that everyone's learning needs are catered for but no-one is left behind or at risk of becoming bored or underachieving. I need to be efficient and economical with my resources and planning for each lesson too.  

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I have English and HaSS classes with students who have low level literacy and language skills. Two classes in particular have huge range of abilities and their marks range from A to E. The D/E students struggle to read and write and require much more scaffolding and differentiation, while the A/B students require extension activities and greater challenges and can work at a faster pace. I'd like to know how to approach this and what strategies I could use so that everyone's learning needs are catered for but no-one is left behind or at risk of becoming bored or underachieving. I need to be efficient and economical with my resources and planning for each lesson too.  

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What are simple strategies I can implement to help students familiarise with large words like "centrifugation" or "distillation". Despite my attempts at creating connections between phonemes, sounds and meaning, my students still struggle with literacy terribly in lessons.

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I am struggling to engage a class of Year 10 students who require a high level of intervention. A couple of these students have significant learning difficulties which impact their ability to retain information, while others speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) and can barely read or write at all. Others have missed a substantial amount of school over the years and have fallen behind the rest of their peers. I do not have an Education Assistant to assist. Anyone have any pointers? I just cannot differentiate the program enough to cater for all these individual needs, nor sit with each student one-on-one for extended periods of time without the rest of the class veering off-task.

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A big part of a subject I teach (Enhanced Literacy) constantly employs and tests critical reading techniques. It's all we seem to do and the students hate it because quite simply, they're over it. Is there another way I can get them to develop the same skills (summarising, predicting, synthesising) that isn't just about constantly marking up texts and answering questions. I came up with the idea of doing Socratic Circles, but I'd like more ideas...

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I'm wondering how to push my top students, so they are not "cruising".

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A common piece of feedback I have been giving is that students need to add more detail, or explain their answers in science. However, I have found that some students have difficulty with this, specifically understanding why they would need to do this. Any advice on how to explicitly teach this, including any hooks as to why it is important?

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I have a particular pair of students in Year 8 that are illiterate, they cannot read nor write. This is balanced with a group of students who are in the same classroom, reading at a Year 10 level, and writing at standard. I differentiate all of our assessments, formative and summative, and scaffold it down to pictorial tasks; i.e. organising an essay task to represent a narrative in pictures, and commenting on them. Does anyone have any other differentiation ideas? Pictures and simple sentences is where I'm at, and that's been the advice from my colleagues too. Any other bright ideas?

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I have EAL students in my year 10 science class. I am struggling to meet them where they at in terms of their vocabulary, as when I try to scaffold they still are struggling with the vocabulary. Any tips on helping EAL students understand key science terms?

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I have a class of students who need a lot of encouragement to engage in literacy. What are some strategies that you have used to help learners enjoy literacy?

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I've decided that I'm doing to explicitly teach my students how to take down notes in maths, how to set their pages out, even how to write out their number sentences. This will take a lot of them needing to unlearn 'bad' practices they've held for years (came from primary school). While I'm sure many of them can replicate a new style that would benefit them later, how could I develop their deeper understanding of concepts at the same time? I don't want them rote learning or blindly copying.

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Similar to what has already been noted above. I have some low literacy students (mostly dyslexic) who 'check out' of tests as it can be demoralising and tiring for them. I have had an EA read assessment questions to them, which has been working. Are there any other suggestions for this sort of thing?

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I have two year 10 students that are unable to write in paragraphs and struggle with forming sentences. Both have funding for an EA but the parents/carers won't sign off on SEN assessment so they need to be assessed against the standard curriculum. Aside from heavily scaffolding or modifying assessment where possible does anyone have a suggestion?

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What are some good ways to actually assess the adeptness of a students literacy in Mathematics? I want to be able to understand whether their issue is with interpreting the mathematics or the written question itself?

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How do you give a student confidence to attempt a literacy-based activity (eg. Responding to a short answer question) when they feel insecure about their literacy capability?

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Literacy levels so low for some students…

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Literacy levels so low for some students…

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Claire: when literacy levels are super low, how do we best assess / give feedback to students without breaking them completely?