Dear Parents, Carers, Boys and Girls,

Explicit Direct Instruction
This term, as part of the staff professional learning on helping students to be better writers, staff have been studying the importance of vocabulary. Vocabulary is defined as, the words children must know to communicate effectively. In school terms, it can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary.

What is interesting is that whilst many children come to school with what they term Tier 1 words - words that they need to use to be functional, such as basic nouns or labels for objects etc, good readers and writers are often those children who have a wider range of vocabulary, rich in descriptive words and subject specific words.

It is well known that the larger the vocabulary children have, the more successful they tend to be in reading and writing. Our teachers use Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) in their strategically planned lessons to teach new vocabulary. The lesson begins with the teacher teaching students the meanings of words, showing the words in multiple contexts, and lastly providing repeated practice and opportunities to use those words in different contexts.

During EDI lessons, teachers utilise ‘engagement norms’ to motivate students and hold them accountable for their learning. Engagement Norms ensure children are doing something every minute, whether it be discussion with a partner, reading text aloud, showing responses on a whiteboard or gesturing. These norms are designed to keep students actively engaged in their learning.

It has been wonderful to hear the effects of this vocabulary instruction in my conversations with students and as I read it in their daily writing samples that they proudly share with me.

Yesterday we had an early career teacher from St Bede’s at Braidwood come and observe some of our teachers ‘in action’ as they delivered their explicit direct instruction lessons. At the end of the day this young teacher shared with me that after observing our teachers, she now felt she had many new things to add to her own teacher toolbox that would support her in the effective delivery of explicit direct instruction and daily review. It was a very affirming experience for our teachers and a testament to the success of their implementation of this high impact teaching practice in their classrooms.

Year 6 Future Finder Program - UOW
Today our Year 6 students participated in an ‘Introduction to University' program at the University of Wollongong Batemans Bay campus. The Year 6 Future Finder Program is an initiative of the University of Wollongong, which aims to develop our students’ future aspirations and expand their understanding of future careers and job possibilities.  Students have participated in a range of faculty taster sessions that has given them an insight into potential post-school pathways and careers. 

There was much excitement as students extracted Banana DNA and completed an engineering challenge to design a way to transport a ball from point A to B. In criminology, our students have had to assess a crime scene, look for evidence and try to work out the scenario of the crime! They have heard from two neuroscientists about how incredible our brain is…did you know that our brain is creating illusions for the ways we interact in our world, for example, when we speak no sounds come out…it’s the waves in our ears and brain interpreting this information! Our minds are blown!  

The university supports this program by providing bus transport to and from the venue as well as morning tea for our students and teachers. We would like to thank the University of Wollongong for this opportunity to explore the possibilities available for our future.

God bless and take care.

Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal