Author: hfernandes

Did you know….

….a Social Story is a social learning tool that supports the exchange of information in a safe, meaningful way between parents/professionals and people with Autism?

….the hallmark of a Social Story is in the ten defining characteristics that guide the development of every Story? (These characteristics/criteria distinguish a genuine Social Story from social scripts and checklists etc).

….the only definition of a Social Story is a Story that ‘accurately describes a context, skill, achievement or concept according to ten defining criteria’?

….the Social Story was discovered by Carol Gray,  Author, Primary School Teacher and consultant to children, adolescence and adults with Autism.

….’Social Stories’ are generally capitalised to distinguish the genuine Stories that meet the ten criteria.

….the word ‘Story’ or ‘Stories’ are also capitalised if used in reference to a genuine Social Story.

….when “social story/social stories’ or ‘story/stories’ appear without capitalisation they would not be considered Social Stories today.

In a nutshell, a Social Story is written to share information (that most of us take for granted) for people with Autism that they seem to be missing. It contains a title with three parts and considers the ability and interest of its specific audience, using positive language in the 1st or 3rd person perspective. It answers the ‘wh’ questions using mostly descriptive sentences with some coaching sentences and is reviewed to ensure the criteria are met.  The success of any Social Story is in its positive tone that displays respect for the intended audience.

 

The start of every year brings about many new challenges both professionally and personally and this year was definitely one that was determined to test my limits. Being a Reading Recovery Teacher and an EMU Specialist provided an uplifting and satisfying experience, which proved an invaluable contribution in the midst of the many huddles this year.

 

In Reading Recovery I was faced with very unique learners who were unwavering in their quest to make me the learner. I was challenged to observe with an opened mind, humbled to seek support and confronted in recognising that if learning didn’t take place then the teaching needed questioning. I am grateful for each one of them for pushing me to be the best teacher I can be and keeping me grounded.

 

My role as EMU Specialist was equally energising. I had three groups of three students all with unique needs. I watched them move from a very concrete stage of problem solving to using various mental strategies and verbalising their reasoning as they helped each other out. I noticed timid, reluctant learners become enthusiastic mathematicians who welcomed their rich task and worked together passionately to come up with a solution. Their thirty-minute session seemed only minutes long and they would leave always insisting they should stay longer the next day because I never give them enough time.

 

For me this year was full of experiences deemed to make or break but as my mum used to say ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’. So in honour of her memory I chose to focus and celebrate the successes in all aspects of life regardless of the challenges involved.

I have been an EMU Specialist since 2010 and for as long as I can remember homework has always been a challenging task. Most parents of students on the program are very motivated and enthusiastic and are ever willing to assist their child. The most frequent question I get asked is, ‘What can I do at home apart from helping with the set homework tasks?’ But almost always, it follows with information that their child is involved with one of the many online maths programs available over the Internet.

Most online programs have a time and place but children who are challenged mathematically need concrete manipulatives and real life experiences to support their learning. They need to see that mathematics is encountered at home and in the community where we engage in the really important mathematics like counting, measuring, locating, designing etc each day of our lives.

Ann Gervasoni, creator of the school based program Extending Mathematical Understanding (EMU), believes to be truly numerate is to be able to apply the mathematical understanding and skills learned at school to solve problems that arise in our day-to-day lives. So what can parents do to support their child’s numeracy learning at home? There are many suggestions on Ann Gervasoni’s website numeracyathome.com. In addition families can create a Numeracy Treasure Chest with task cards of activities that will raise awareness of their daily encounters with mathematics. Asking questions like ‘how did you work it out, or explain what you were thinking,’ can prompt further discussion. It has an added bonus of spending quality family time whilst building a positive attitude towards numeracy. Furthermore children get to be involved in activities they so desperately want to be involved in. Cooking, gardening and shopping will never be the same!

Here are some suggested activities to get started.

• Find some things in your house or garden that are less than one metre long.
• How much liquid did my family drink at dinnertime?
• Trace on a map the route my dad/mum took to the office?
• What things did people do today that took more than 10 minutes?
• How many square metres of carpet are in the house?
• How much milk do you drink a day? How long will it take to finish a litre? How many litres will we need for the week? How many bottles is that?
• You can spend up to $5/2 when we do groceries. What could you buy?

The list is endless and limited only to one’s imagination. Have fun!

In all my teaching years, something that’s always stood out is that every member of the teaching community brings with them something unique both to their role as an educator as well as a contributing member of the school community. This has stood out this term in particular as we farewell two unique founding members of staff who leave us at the end of this term to return to their home in Spain.

Sr. Mary and Sr. Theresa have brought a sense of positivity and creativity to the teachers and the students. Their love of people and education was felt throughout the St Luke’s community and their presence will be greatly missed. The Spanish Steps is such a fitting tribute to what they leave behind.

Term Two has always been a busy time in the school calendar. Writing reports and preparing for student-led conferences add to the regular workload but whilst this makes for a hectic time, it is matched with the increased interaction and support between various staff members. The staff room has an air of solidarity and partnership as it is filled with advice and the sharing of learning and challenges.

In the midst of the normal expectations of Term Two at any school, the term for St Luke’s teaching community had more to offer. It began with the excitement of moving into our new Foundations building. The bigger classrooms, the unending storage space, the gentle colour scheme, the big breakout rooms and televisions fitted everywhere you turn is amazing and drew attention far and wide. ABC’s 7:30 Report brought The College to the forefront but along with it came both critiques, to which we were neither shaken nor stirred and encouragement, to which we acknowledged with appreciation. All the while it was business as usual with confidence in what we believe in and what we do. To add to the excitement however, the term rolled out three baby announcements!

So to say that Term Two ends with mixed emotions would be an understatement. Taking on both joys and huddles can leave you drained but without it forging friendships would be more challenging. As I walk through the staff room, the heart of our teaching community, I observe friendships between teachers from the School of Leadership and School of Foundations. I see our Principal painstakingly cooking us lunch as a mid year treat, and hear laughter in the corner. I look forward to the term to come and all that it brings.

For those of us whose schooling days is a faint memory, we have probably forgotten the difficulty we faced while learning to read. Whilst it looks like an easy and quick task, our brains are actually problem-solving by linking sounds of speech to symbols in print and then, using the language we are familiar with we make links to the print on paper. This comes automatically but for the beginner reader it is no easy task. For them to make sense of what they are reading they must attend to several different kinds of knowledge, choose between alternatives, work on word after word with the flexibility to change responses quickly at any point. They must constantly search, select, reject, self-monitor and self-correct. For the successful reader this process is automatic. The successful reader should be able to read silently, sorting out puzzles in their head without slowing down the pace, solve words on the run while maintaining meaning, structure and flow. The successful reader will continue building their vocabulary and assimilating larger chunks of information as they read with increased speed.

Marie Clay describes the progress in reading as two distinct models, the additive model and the transformation model. The additive model, which she likens to “credit in a bank account or scores for words known’ where an accumulation of known things such as words, letters, phrases and books are reported as progress. The transformation model she characterises as “change in the complexity of the processing system.” In this transformational model, we look for the reader to integrate different kinds of information, demonstrate alternative ways of using information and mobilising several resources needed for a specific task.

Although both models are useful, it is important for us as teachers to be aware that the way we think about reading influences what we attend to when looking and assessing change in reading behaviours. It is easy to measure change in an additive way through word count and book levels simply because these things are easily measured and tested. However. it is paramount to focus on transformations in children’s learning as processing becomes more complex.

Developing successful readers is a challenging task. For the teacher this means finding a starting point by observing closely what knowledge the child already has. From the very first lesson in reading children should use what little they know to engage in simple processing. With regular close observation and analysing of reading behaviours, the teacher is able to plan and implement a reading program, which will guide them to more complex processing, enabling a change over time that will lead to a successful reader.

 

As I come to the end of another term at St Luke’s I reflect back to the start of the year when I was told I would be co-teaching Stage Two. This term students were offered a ‘Passion Project’ within their stage instead of Adventure Learning. Students were asked what they would like to learn about and accordingly topics were created. This time we were asked to teach Master Chef! Having no idea what to teach 8-10 year olds that didn’t involve cooking or baking, my colleague and I quickly turned to Google. We were amazed to see the number of ideas that swamped the Internet.

We decided to link our ideas with the expectation that by Stage Two, students should be able to make their own lunch. With that in mind, we asked Stage Two students for suggestions on healthy foods and snacks they would like to eat. The term ‘healthy’ didn’t go down too well but tweaking the name to ‘fun’ snacks with fruits and vegetables was well received. We threw in some not so healthy snacks as well, just to keep the balance.

As a group they were asked to design their snack and then choose one to create. They learned that planning, creating, presentation and the clean up were all part of being a good chef. I learned that it didn’t take much to keep them on task. Each week they welcomed their project with excitement and anticipation. It was so rewarding to hear them say things like ‘this is so much fun’ and ‘this was the best day of my life’. It was equally rewarding seeing them carefully pack their end product to take home to their parents, not forgetting to take a photo first. Sr. Theresa was an added bonus as she came in each week and helped the kids with getting those creative juices flowing.

This experience has definitely reiterated to me the power of motivation and interest in the given subject, as the student’s excitement around creativity and experimentation heavily contributed to the success of the unit.

As I walked through Col-legi Mare de Déu dels Àngels and Col-legi Montserrat, two of the three schools I visited in Barcelona with my colleagues, consistency and progression were manifested in every process and facet of the day-to-day operations. Immersing myself in these schools has been a life changing experience. It has changed my view of teaching and education and has reaffirmed my belief that our own education system here in Australia demands change and transformation.

In order to develop the whole child, the schools embody the theory of Multiple Intelligence by Howard Gardner who theorised that people don’t only have an intellectual capacity, but many other kinds of intelligence, including Musical, Spatial-Visual, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic-Verbal, Logical, Bodily Kinesthetic and Naturalistic intelligence. Addressing every aspect of the human being is clear right from preschool through physical stimulation, violin classes and water activities, through primary and high school with Chess, Robethics (robotics and ethics), Project Based Learning and Visual Learning Projects.

 

 

As we observe their carefully implemented activities, the ‘why’ becomes obvious. The two schools believe in a holistic approach to educating a child, where self esteem, self reflection and self respect makes way for respecting others, as it develops an independent, confident, self driven contributor to society. The traditional syllabus is still very much at the core of the school’s foundation, which raised an interesting notion of finding a balance between a transformed way of thinking with the traditional education system which still addresses the needs of a 1950’s child.

The pre-school program was particularly interesting. Early physical stimulation is a prerequisite

for developing multiple intelligences. The theory suggests that physical excellence at different levels is related to learning success because when the brain doesn’t work well it provokes learning problems as they believe reading problems are related to an inability to focus rather than problems with vision.

At the pre-school level we observed students on the monkey bars. One would think it’s main focus would be to develop and strengthen the arm muscles, but it was enlightening to learn that muscle strength would just be the by-product of such an activity. As it turns out students needed to learn at the age of three to hold the bars with their thumbs in front and over their four fingers. This skill would later assist with handwriting. They were then encouraged to move forward using alternate hands, as the focus became the objective. This activity also helps control breathing, and cultivates confidence and a sense of security through the development of trust between each student and their teacher, as the student is asked to let go at the end of the activity and fall into the hands of their teacher.

 

 

The Suzuki method was used in a violin class with 4 years olds. The instrument provides a window to multiple intelligences. They learned to play the violin through imitation; very much the same way language is learned. Parents help start students from a year and half! They pickup hand position and how to hold the bow as well as learn a simple song at 3 years of age and at 4 years they learn to play a more complex song. Holding the bow develops fine motor skills while learning rhythm through bodily movement addresses Musical, Linguistic and Kinesthetic intelligence.

 

Students at the age of one year were involved in physical stimulation classes, which have significant repercussions on brain development regarding Interpersonal and Logical Intelligence. Side to side movement developed balance, which was coupled with emotional work to foster feelings of safety. Parents were required to do a formation course to help them understand why this was important in their child’s development and so that they could reiterate and practice these activities at home.

 

 

In the Year One class children were learning to express themselves through art as it developed Interpersonal and Intrapersonal intelligence along with Spatial-Visual intelligence. They chose topics of interest such as family and friendship and through these lived experiences they focus on the other, helping to recognise the creativity of each individual.

 

 

 

In Year Six we observed a lesson in Chess, which focuses on the development of Gardener’s Visual and Logical Intelligence. Students begin learning Chess at the age of two and continue on into Year Six. Chess is believed to develop various skills such as cognitive abilities, coping and problem-solving skills, leadership skills, decision-making, strategic planning, logical thinking and responsibility. The Armenian education minister said once in support of Chess being part of their curriculum that “The future of the world depends on such creative leaders who have the capacity to make the right decisions, as well as the character to take responsibility for wrong decisions.”

 

 

At the High School level we observed students develop Intrapersonal and logical intelligence through their Robethics class, a combination of robotics and ethics where students, find real life problems and work together as a team towards solving them. We also saw Years 11 and 12 present a PBL and visual learning project. In all the classes we observed, students worked together to solve a problem that was posed to them.

 

The things that stood out most for me were the confidence of the students who were presenting to us, their fluency in English, the politeness, manners and respect particularly of the young adults we encountered. In the primary years we saw well behaved, and engaged students who were ever willing to explain their activity and answer our questions.

 

Our Dream School, the third school we visited, got us thinking about building positive relationships, shifting our mindset from control and helping students to discover their strength, interest, passion and purpose which leads to empowerment.

 

The week spent in Barcelona has reaffirmed my belief in the importance of a holistic approach to education. I would like to see the reflective time we have implemented this year grow further by introducing the mood meter that allows for students to name their emotion. The chart works by plotting their energy and feelings by measuring them numerically, which ultimately defines the student’s emotional position that day. Focusing on the theory of Multiple Intelligence to diversify instruction will honour and respond to the diversity in each student’s talents and abilities while building values and independence, making it possible to nurture faith filled curious children and innovative problem solvers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Often individuals with dyslexia are very capable so whilst the challenges need to be addressed, there is a very high need to identify and cultivate their strengths whilst minimising their weaknesses   ADA

In my 25 years experience in teaching students with disabilities, I have come across only a handful that typically present with dyslexia but I have heard the term used so frequently one would think I would have taught far more. I believe the misconception comes from the belief that if a child is having difficulty reading, or shows signs of letter reversals, then they must have dyslexia. Dyslexia is commonly confused with intellectual disabilities and other disabilities such as ADHD, OCD and Tourette’s syndrome, where students may present with dyslexia among other challenges. So what is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia- a word originating from Greek simply means ‘difficulty with words’. Contrary to common belief, people with dyslexia don’t just write letters backwards. They have significant difficulty with reading and spelling despite having the ability to learn. More often than not, people with dyslexia are talented, have productive minds and are gifted. For this reason, dyslexia is not considered an intellectual disability but rather a learning difficulty. It is perceived as a continuum ranging from mild to severe, and while there is no cure, appropriate instruction aimed at individual needs can help overcome literacy difficulties, allowing for normal productive lives.

Dyslexia is highly hereditary. Students with dyslexia have a particular difficulty with single word reading that is said to be neurological in nature, which could interfere with comprehension. Often times however, they use meaning and structure to support their reading which can often mask their difficulty with decoding. The central difficulty with such students is in letter to sound and sound to letter relationships. Poor understanding of orthography- the understanding of the conventions of written language can also be part of the difficulty. Research has found that there is a difference in the way the brain works for people with dyslexia, with problems lying in the development of phonological awareness. Early signs of dyslexia include problems with retaining letter-sound relationships, difficulty reading single words, poor spelling and poor visual gestalt, that is, norms of spelling, chunking, word breaks etc.

Students with dyslexia however, display an inquiring mind, insightful and creative thinking, and may be good at 3D construction, finding different strategies when problem solving and seeing the big picture. In fact research implies their strengths outweigh their weakness and it is important to nurture their capabilities so that they can reach their potential. Michael Faraday, the discoverer of electro-magnetic induction, electro-magnetic rotation and diamagnetism is one example of a person with dyslexia who claims was able to see the big pictures in his mind and then arrived at the parts through analysis. Albert Einstein believed knowledge is limited as his creative insightful mind leaned towards imagination as the key to his success. Other gifted and talented individuals with dyslexia include Richard Branson, Leonardo da Vinci, Steven Spielberg and Walt Disney amongst many others. Steven Spielberg said in an interview that he hated school, dreaded being called up to read in front of the class and detested hearing his teachers tell his parents he was not trying hard enough or that he was just plain lazy. Many adults with dyslexia tend to go into the arts like architecture, or the sciences, but Steven Spielberg amazes me, as does Agatha Christie, because their professions have a large element of reading and writing. Steven Spielberg claims he is still slow at reading and Agatha Christie claims to still be a poor speller!!

Having such inspirations can undoubtedly give reason to bring dyslexia to the limelight in the political arena. Whilst Australia recognises dyslexia as a learning disability under the Disability Discrimination Act, NSW is the only state where it is legally recognised as a learning disability. Nonetheless, there is no funding assistance under the Program for Students with Disabilities. Clearly their understanding of dyslexia is limited!

According to the Australian Dyslexia Association-ADA, 10% of students are diagnosed with it but this figure could be higher as many students are not tested due to the high cost of assessments for parents to bear without financial assistance. In the US, UK and Canada, statistics show about 20% of students are diagnosed and Canadian statistics go further in showing that about 80% of all students in learning support have dyslexia. For this reason teachers in these countries are provided with appropriate professional development to understand, identify and address the needs of these students, which includes identifying and addressing their strengths. Early intervention is considered paramount to success. The Australian Dyslexia Association also believes Australian schools require professional development that would provide direct, explicit and systematic multi-sensory instruction, which will benefit students with dyslexia as well as the rest of the class.

So while our politicians continue to debate the need to identify and cultivate the strengths of the many undiagnosed children with dyslexia in our schools and provide appropriate funding, teachers will continue to face these challenges unassisted and these students will either come out shining despite their education or succumb to a false realisation that they are just “dumb”.

 

This year the focus in Reading Recovery has been on oral language and its significance in the intervention program. As a result many professional readings were provided to assist teachers foster awareness in students’ oral language development, which can then be addressed through the intervention process. Three articles were used to summarise my take on oral language and its importance in literacy success in the early years. (Oral Language Opportunities- Children’s Talk; Katherine Luongo-Orlando, Talk to Think, Learn and Teach; Bridie Raban, and Put Your Ear a Little Closer-Tuning In to a Child’s Language to Aid Literacy Acquision; Megan Dixon)

 

“Children do not learn language by imitation. They learn to talk by talking to people who talk to them; people who make efforts to understand what they are trying to say.” Marie Clay

 

Marie Clay believed that when we provide preschool opportunities for our children, their ‘natural’ environment changes and with this comes some gains but also some losses. Preschool offers increased opportunities to play and socialise but less time to talk with adults than they would have had at home. Studies show however, that in order for language to develop, children require more encounters with more well developed speakers as a language resource. Mature speakers provide appropriate modelling as well as offer an opportunity to converse.

Children come to learn without effort that language is a complex interrelationship of subsystems we know as pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology and phonemic awareness. Children also come to understand that language is multilayered, rule governed, and that it recognises sensitivities as it develops recursively by fitting new with old ideas, turn taking to build meaning together etc. Language development depends on the amount of conversation between child and adult. The foundations of literacy achievement are embedded in early childhood experiences. Oral language experiences rooted in conversation, personal recounts, book talk, story telling, are cornerstones to literacy as it promotes word learning, vocabulary development, grammatical knowledge and narrative skills.

So if children lack this opportunity in their preschool years then more is left to learn at school. Marie Clay comprises that while language is developing, there is an intermingling of learning at many levels. So while children are being taught using a single focus like phonics or letter of the week, or some other feature of language, children are learning about language independently across all levels at once. If a child’s attention is elsewhere they miss the significance of the particular aspect of linguistic complexity. For this reason it is important to keep the focus on language levels within the context of a larger frame of meaning. Language is used with a purpose- to explain, share, and have our needs met. “According to Halliday, it is through learning how to mean that other aspects of language are acquired” (Hall, 1987, p. 12).

The ultimate goal in Reading Recovery intervention is to develop a self-extending system in students in order to become independent readers and writers. Marie Clay describes oral language as the first self-extending system a child develops through the ‘serve and return of an intention sharing conversation’. Self-extending activity consist of searching for and using further information to give meaning and to gain meaning, relating new information to previous learning, noticing new things and actively seeking new learning, repeating and rehearsing to secure learning, self-monitoring leading to self-correcting and integrating and controlling a range of information flexibly. Hence, the development of oral language is essential to reading, writing, and overall literacy and therefore time for conversation in a tightly structured program is justified and a rich oral language classroom is paramount.

Teaching in the Twenty-first century demands teachers to be highly proficient in all key learning areas but particularly in mathematics where planning, preparing and implementing a lesson involves many aspects. Margaret S Smith and Mary Kay Stein, authors of the book 5 Practices believes in order to advance mathematic thinking and reasoning skills, teachers need to orchestrate productive, whole class discussion through the five practises; anticipate, monitor, select, sequence and connect. These five practices not only depend on cognitively demanding tasks with well defined goals and multiple student responses, but also on teachers’ understanding of their students current mathematic thinking and practices.

After carefully selecting a rich task a teacher must anticipate how a student will approach the problem. They must be aware of the common misconceptions that could arise. They must identify the mathematics and find all possible solutions and the only way to do this is to actually do the task themselves. By doing this teachers are better able to pre-empt misconceptions, making them more prepared with enabling and extending prompts and probing questions. They must ask themselves the same question they ask their students ‘Can you do it another way?’ Planning with a partner is particularly helpful for this as each person will bring their own solutions to the table, which can then be discussed.

During the activity a teacher should monitor student thinking. Observing and identifying key strategies and by being well prepared and having anticipated the various responses the teacher is well equipped with effective questions and prompts that would support, consolidate and extend their students as they steer them toward the learning intention of the lesson. Offering this support could help students who are on the verge of implementing an important strategy achieve this, as well as assist students who are challenged at starting the problem. Teachers are encouraged to walk around taking notes of student discussions and capturing images of materials used when possible to make selections of work to be shared during reflection.

Once students have had an opportunity to explore and the teacher has monitored, a selection of appropriate work samples beginnings. It is important to know the students thinking in advance and the mathematics they want their students to unpack. The selection should be mapped out to show a range of strategies as well as misconceptions not for ‘show and tell’ but to ensure that mathematical ideas are discussed, allowing ideas to be illustrated and highlighted. The teacher must be in control of this selection process, which is planned and implemented with the learning intention in mind.

Sequencing student work samples should also be well thought out and purposeful. There are many different ways to do this. The easy to understand strategies before the more complicated ones or the most common strategies and the most common misconceptions or related strategies first followed by contrasting strategies or ‘scaling up’ practises demonstrating varying degrees of complexity in problem solving are all useful ways to sequence in order to facilitate discussion and to explicitly teach particular concepts. Both selecting and sequencing are done ‘on the run’ demanding teachers to think critically and analytically while managing, monitoring and orchestrating the lesson.

Finally it is important to draw connections between mathematical ideas through different strategies and help students to notice that the same ideas can be embedded in two different strategies. Allow them to decide which would be the most efficient strategy, challenge them to think if the numbers/ratio etc changes would one strategy be more efficient than another? They should be given time to reflect and revise their thinking. Further questions can be posed to advance the maths used and to set up the learning for the next day, which is then added to the Success Criteria.

In conclusion, the ideal mathematics lesson is a cycle that consists of detailed planning, strategic implementing with intentional navigating that will then lend itself to further planning that will continually advance students’ problem solving skills and develop growth mindsets. I believe, as a twenty-first century teacher adopting the five practices is paramount to nurturing innovative problem solvers.