At Jilbup Primary School we are guided by science and research, ensuring our practice is evidence based and provides the best possible opportunities for our students to master their learning.
We believe in the power of collective efficacy with all our teachers on the same page, building cumulative knowledge that is developed through detailed scope and sequences. This connected practice will ensure our students have a ‘no gaps’ approach to their education.
We will provide a range of effective pedagogies and instructional strategies to ensure our students have the skills to be critical thinkers and thrive at school and into the future.
Using the Teaching for Impact instructional model as our guide we will implement best practice.
Teaching+for+Impact+overview.PDF
Science of Learning
At Jilbup Primary School we use the Science of Learning principles. The Science of Learning summarises existing cognitive science research on how students learn and connects practical implications for teaching.
- Attention - Students can only think about what they attend to; they can only learn what they think about; they can only recall or practise what they've already learnt.
- Working memory - Before students can successfully think and therefore learn we need to ensure that the quantity or challenge of content is appropriate.
- Thought - Before students can retrieve learning, initial encoding needs to take place. Students need to think about the right things, at the right times, to learn.
- Long Term-Memory - Once students have successfully encoded new learning, retrieval and practise are necessary conditions of lasting learning.
We do this by:
- Retrieval practice boosts learning by pulling information out of students’ heads. Retrieval practice is a no-stakes learning opportunity that increases student performance, beyond formative and summative assessments.
- Spaced practice boosts learning by spreading lessons and retrieval opportunities out over time. By returning to content at intervals, students’ brains have had time to rest and be refreshed.
- Interleaving boosts learning by mixing up closely related topics and encouraging discrimination. For example, learning increases when students practise addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems all mixed up, rather than one type of problem at a time.
- Feedback boosts learning by providing the student the opportunity to know what they know and know what they don’t know. This enhances students’ metacognition or understanding about their own learning progress.
- Cognitive Load Theory reducing the load on the brain to allow for new learning to take place.
- Daily Reviews
- Worked Examples
- Reduce Extraneous Load
Explicit Instruction
At Jilbup Primary School we adopt the Explicit Direct Instruction model (Ybarra and Hollingsworth).
- Learning Objective – Clearly communicate learning intentions and success criteria to provide purpose and clarity of expected learning.
- Activating Prior Knowledge - Review prior learning to provide opportunities for students to recall learning from previous lessons and life experiences.
- Daily reviews – A short revision of concepts that have already been covered.
- Concept Development - Teachers demonstrate and / or model using clear and concise language to introduce the new concept or skill.
- Skill Development - Teachers provide scaffolds and direction to engage students in using new concepts or skill development during focussed instruction.
- Guided Practice - Students consolidate understanding through discussion, working with peers, while the teacher provides support and feedback.
- Independent learning – Students apply the learning from the lesson to independent practise activities.
- Relevance – Teachers connect the new information to previous learning to make meaning for the students.
- Closure – Teachers link the learning intention to the plenary. Teachers need to ensure the children are coming away with exactly the learning they have intended for the lesson with a final check for understanding. It can also be a time of student reflection about the lesson and how well the students feel they have achieved the lesson outcomes.
Continuous Checking for Understanding (CFU), implemented properly, is the backbone of effective instruction. Most educators are already familiar with the words "Checking for Understanding." In fact, almost every observation, coaching, or evaluation form ever written contains words to that effect. In Explicit Direct Instruction, there is a very explicit method of Checking for Understanding that will make teaching even better as teachers monitor student learning in real time.
Teach First
Each EDI lesson begins with teaching first. The purpose of Checking for Understanding is to verify that the students are learning what is being taught. Teaching first equips the students to respond. After teaching the content, students should be able to answer correctly or demonstrate their understanding accurately.
Engagement Norms
- Pronounce with me - Pronounce terminology or difficult words with the children.
- Track with me - The children track along as the lesson components are read out loud.
- Read with me - The children read along together as a group.
- Gesture with me - Use gestures to consolidate definitions or terminology.
- Pair Share - Children know who their pair share partner is at the start of the lesson. Children pair share constantly throughout the lesson, to practice their answers, consolidate a point, discuss.
- Attention signal – Have a clear and understood attention signal that is used with the students. Wait for 100% attendance before continuing.
- Whiteboards – To check for understanding. Whiteboards allow the teacher to scan the room for any misconceptions and to give the students immediate feedback on their answers.
- Complete Sentences- Students stand and deliver their answers using full sentences and correct vocabulary and public speaking protocols.
Daily Reviews
Daily Reviews are short 10–15-minute review of previously taught concepts, vocabulary, and skills.
According to Rosenshine (2012), Daily Reviews strengthen connections between the material the students have learned and new learning. Daily Reviews increase fluency in word, concept and fact recall. They develop automaticity recalling foundation information that needs to be used in more complex learning e.g., automatic multiplication facts recall assisting in more complex number problems.
Daily Reviews can be used in every area, but they are a non – negotiable in Literacy and Numeracy. Literacy and Numeracy blocks have a time allocated to daily reviews.
Reading
InitiaLit
At Jilbup Primary School we will be using InitiaLit as our reading program in the early years. InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school (Pre-Primary to Year 2).
In the context of a Response to Intervention framework, InitiaLit is a Tier 1 program, designed to be delivered to whole classes by classroom teachers.
Critical Reading
Critical Reading is a scaffolded repeated reading program and collaborative discussion to critically analyse short passages of complex texts.
Critical Reading:
- Focusses on analysis and comprehension of difficult vocabulary
- Teaches comprehension strategies in context
- Children practise their fluency
- Gives exposure and access to rich texts to inspire the love of reading
- Develops transferable skills to writing
- Develop students’ comprehension from “surface” to “deep” and to “transfer”
- Builds up knowledge which is essential for reading comprehension
Ten Essential Elements of Effective Reading Comprehension
- Build disciplinary and world knowledge
- Provide exposure to a volume and range of texts
- Provide motivating texts and contexts for reading
- Teach strategies for comprehending
- Teach text structures
- Engage students in discussion
- Build vocabulary and language knowledge
- Integrate reading and writing
- Observe and assess
- Differentiate instruction
(Duke et al., 2011)
Spelling
Spelling Mastery is a targeted DI program used to teach spelling through strategies, patterns, and rules. The lessons combine phonemic, morphemic, and whole word instruction.
Spelling Mastery:
- Uses explicit instruction, scaffolding and continuous feedback.
- Teaches morphology and phonology, and direct vocabulary instruction for commonly used, irregularly spelled words.
- Uses phonology to teach phonemes that are consistently used.
- Teaches root words, suffixes and prefixes.
Expectations and Protocols
- Spelling Mastery will be our spelling program from years 3 to 6.
- Children will be tested in the year before with the Placement Test, and using PAT SPAG, children will be placed into groups.
- Students will be streamed in year groups. (Years 3-4 and years 5-6)
- Lessons will be timetabled for four, 20-minute lessons a week.
- Data is collected from reviews every five lessons.
- Teachers will be coached on their delivery. Speed and engagement are essential to maintain rigour.
- Children mark their work as they go ensuring feedback is immediate throughout the whole of the lesson.
- Children who have moved past Book F will have an extension program.