Literacy Is the Key
What happens when you do not understand what is written? What you are expected to do when you do not understand the questions? How do you feel when you know you do not understand? Frustration! Anger! Aggression! Withdrawal! Sounds familiar to all teachers! To parents and to employers.
What happens if 25% of the population of Australia in the working age group are unable to grasp simple Emergency Planning signs? What impact does 25% of the workforce being unskilled have on the economy? How do they read the labels on the medicines? What does a 5ml dose if over 65 kilos mean? The low levels of literacy skills demonstrated by Australian students points to a problem that is getting worse! Putting more computers in school is not going to help those barely able to read or write their name in grade 4.
And do not look at teachers or parents as the culprits! Look at the speed society is in - fast food, fast cars, fast talking, fast computers, instant communications! There is no time to sit and read and discuss what is being read, what ideas the words are giving, how the patterns of reading and numbers work...
you must get through 3 books a week...
4 weeks a month, 10 months of the year and you can be ticked off that you are literate!! Sadly, some children move seamlessly through their large classes with minimal literacy skills - with not enough reading or writing or maths skills to know what the homework really means or be able to actually read that book rather than watch the DVD - or when employable - to understand basic workplace health and safety rules or read a newspaper without help or know how to calculate 10% of an item! I believe the schools and their teachers have been struggling with high demands on teachers to provide activities or act in a manner that are not part of the curriculum, a lack of resources for providing a range of interesting approaches to relevant topics, and large class sizes.
My ideal would be to have no more than 15 students from Prep to Year 4 class - then no one would be missed in the literacy race.
My belief is that we need the members of the community - Caucasian, Samoan, Indigenous, Filipino, Chinese, Polish and so on..
to be trained to teach literacy skills to the young ones in the schools.
What happens if 25% of the population of Australia in the working age group are unable to grasp simple Emergency Planning signs? What impact does 25% of the workforce being unskilled have on the economy? How do they read the labels on the medicines? What does a 5ml dose if over 65 kilos mean? The low levels of literacy skills demonstrated by Australian students points to a problem that is getting worse! Putting more computers in school is not going to help those barely able to read or write their name in grade 4.
And do not look at teachers or parents as the culprits! Look at the speed society is in - fast food, fast cars, fast talking, fast computers, instant communications! There is no time to sit and read and discuss what is being read, what ideas the words are giving, how the patterns of reading and numbers work...
you must get through 3 books a week...
4 weeks a month, 10 months of the year and you can be ticked off that you are literate!! Sadly, some children move seamlessly through their large classes with minimal literacy skills - with not enough reading or writing or maths skills to know what the homework really means or be able to actually read that book rather than watch the DVD - or when employable - to understand basic workplace health and safety rules or read a newspaper without help or know how to calculate 10% of an item! I believe the schools and their teachers have been struggling with high demands on teachers to provide activities or act in a manner that are not part of the curriculum, a lack of resources for providing a range of interesting approaches to relevant topics, and large class sizes.
My ideal would be to have no more than 15 students from Prep to Year 4 class - then no one would be missed in the literacy race.
My belief is that we need the members of the community - Caucasian, Samoan, Indigenous, Filipino, Chinese, Polish and so on..
to be trained to teach literacy skills to the young ones in the schools.
