Planning for the Literacy Numeracy Partnership Project (LNPP)



Planning for the Program

Each program school is responsible for developing and implementing its School Plan. The program plan should be an integrated component of strategic and operational school planning. This document provides a model schools can utilise to ensure your program plan integrates with already formulated school plans.

The program school plan will be developed in collaboration, and with support from, the central office program team.

School improvement cycle

The school improvement cycle has three components. Schools:

• assess data and other evidence related to student achievement and school operations

• plan to improve the standards of student achievement

• act to implement planned strategies.

Because the school improvement cycle is an ongoing process, the three components should be seen as dynamic and interactive. While assessment leads logically to planning and planning logically to implementation, continuous self-assessment recognises that the act of implementation may cause planning decisions to be modified and may refocus self-assessment questions.

Participating schools will be required to undergo self-assessment and to articulate their strengths and weaknesses in relation to student performance.

Program team consultant principals will provide support to interrogate data and set targets for improvement.

Considerations in the planning cycle

Using information/evidence

• What data do you need to consider when analysing student academic performance at your school?

• What data do you need to consider to determine the social, emotional and well-being of your students?

Data analysis needs to consider the following:

- longitudinal analysis over time and trends;

- comparisons with like schools and state norms;

- performance of subgroups in the school e.g. gender, EAL/D, Aboriginal students;

- value adding that has occurred; and

- performance against benchmarks.

Discussion around the data

• What areas of strength for the school/cohorts across the above areas were identified?

• What areas needing improvement in the school/cohorts were identified?

• What has been planned to bring about improvement? Including:

- targets;

- evidence-based strategies;

- resources; and

- milestones/monitoring.

Your choice of strategies

After evaluation of school and student performance data, schools can select from a range of strategies to improve students’ literacy and numeracy standards. These strategies will be embedded in the school’s overall plan and will meet the learning needs of all students, with a particular focus on students who are at or below national minimum standards and/or not achieving their potential.

The strategies detailed in this document are not the only ones that schools could use to support students’ learning needs. They are suggested here to support the process of school planning, and do not preclude selection of other strategies that have a clear evidence-base indicating their efficacy in improving students’ literacy and numeracy standards.

The program team can assist schools to implement the following evidence-based strategies. Schools are required to consider them for inclusion into their LNNP plan:

1. whole-school planning and approaches;

2. case-management approaches;

3. use of data and other evidence related to student performance; including the On-entry Assessment and the ESL/ESD Progress Map;

4. building leadership capacity in specialist teachers;

5. literacy blocks and/or numeracy blocks;

6. First Steps instruction strategies;

7. development of collaborative processes;

8. targeted performance management; and

9. parent capacity building workshops.

1. Whole-school literacy and/or numeracy planning

A program can be designed that will result in the development, implementation and evaluation of a Whole-school Literacy and/or Numeracy Plan that incorporates school and classroom literacy/numeracy improvement strategies for Kindergarten to Year 7. Such a program will include all members of the school’s literacy/numeracy team.

Members of the school literacy/numeracy team work with the program team to:

• design and develop a Whole-school Literacy and/or Numeracy Plan;

• develop an understanding of current key learning, teaching and assessment strategies which improve classroom, school and students’ literacy and/or numeracy outcomes;

• develop an understanding of effective school improvement processes and strategies;

• enhance professional collegial decision-making as a result of working in school literacy/numeracy teams;

• enhance the development of school, curriculum and classroom educational leadership roles within primary schools; and

• maximise the use of para-professional resources in classrooms.

2. Case-management

Participating schools should use a case-management approach. Case-management involves using available data to identify individual student and small group learning needs so that teachers can effectively differentiate instruction to build on and extend each student’s literacy and/or numeracy skills. This can be achieved by:

• setting realistic targets for the next stage of learning;

• identifying and planning learning and teaching support to help students achieve their literacy and/or numeracy targets and learning goals, and to overcome barriers to learning;

• being inclusive of students’ cultural, social and academic considerations;

• encouraging all teachers in the school to take collective responsibility for all students;

• ensuring consistent review of the data and updated information on students’ progress;

• ensuring diagnostic and formative assessment tools are in place that allow all staff to monitor student progress throughout the year;

• using data to inform the ‘next steps’ for meeting the needs of each student and ‘next steps’ for meeting the professional development needs of the teachers within the school;

• providing leadership that ensures consistent information, communication, coordination and care for students is available to the school community; and

• aligning available resources to support teacher development and tailoring learning experiences and the learning environment for students and groups.

Interventions to address the specific learning needs of students experiencing difficulty in literacy and/or numeracy should be evidence based, data driven, individually targeted, systematic and intensive. Intervention approaches do not necessarily require one-to-one instruction or withdrawal programs.

3. Use of data and other evidence related to student performance; including the

on-entry assessment and the ESL/ESD Progress Map.

Effective schools engage all staff in a continuous cycle of improvement. The effective use of system data and school-based evidence has a powerful impact on teaching and learning. Analysis of NAPLAN testing, other system data and school evidence allows judgements to be made about school, groups of students and individual achievement. Data and evidence is thoroughly interrogated in relation to progress and achievement measures over time and targets are set. The school and operational plans articulate these targets in relation to identified areas for improvement. Support is provided to teachers to translate these targets into classroom practice.

Student progress is maximised when the teacher uses fine-grained knowledge of children’s performance in planning and teaching. This is evident when a teacher:

• demonstrates awareness of individual student progress;

• uses careful observations of students to initiate specific literacy and numeracy teaching;

• makes judgements about what to teach next based on their assessment of the student’s needs; and

• provides additional support or challenge at the point of need.

On-entry assessment

The development of a greater understanding of On-entry assessment data in Pre-primary and Year 1 enables the school to deliver high quality educational opportunities in the critical early years of schooling. Using this data helps schools to identify students for whom early intervention is vital and case-management is indicated.

ESL/ESD Progress Map

The ESL/ESD Progress Map is the most appropriate tool for the teaching, learning and assessment of EAL/D students. It is at the forefront of such documents in Australia.

The processes of first language acquisition and second language acquisition differ in a number of important ways. It is important that teachers use the most appropriate tools for the teaching, learning and assessment of English as Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) students.

The ESL/ESD Progress Map:

• alerts mainstream teachers about specific considerations for EAL/D learners;

• provides a description of how language proficiency develops;

• raises awareness were additional specialist EAL/D expertise may be required; and

• points out what cultural considerations should be considered and what strategies may assist in improving EAL/D students’ understandings.

The purpose of the ESL/ESD Progress Map is to:

• assist in the identification of EAL/D learners;

• assist teachers to better understand the second-language/dialect learning process;

• monitor and assess EAL/D learner progress in Standard Australian English (SAE)

• provide a more effective and valid means of reporting EAL/D learner proficiency in SAE;

• assist teachers to plan meaningful teaching and learning programs to meet the particular needs of EAL/D students; and

• assist teachers to plan learning opportunities appropriate to particular modes and levels.

4. Building leadership capacity in specialist teachers

The two common approaches:

• the school appoints a specialist teacher who assists and supports identified groups of staff and applies a gradual release model; and

• the school identifies phase leaders and allocates time for the provision of modelling, mentoring and coaching support.

Specialist teachers

Specialist teachers provide leadership and work alongside classroom teachers to improve literacy and numeracy practice. Specialist teachers may be drawn from existing school staff members. Training will be provided by the program team to enable specialist teachers to work effectively in the context of particular schools and student populations.

Teachers in this role will share their expertise with colleagues and build the capacity of the whole-school to improve literacy and numeracy from K-7. This includes the use of the Department’s literacy and numeracy resources such as the explicit K-7 Literacy and Numeracy Learning and Teaching Resources and the Australian Curriculum to plan learning, teaching and assessment programs.

The expertise and leadership of the specialist teacher will be integral to the success of the school-based support and to ensuring that each student is case-managed effectively. They also assist colleagues in the following areas:

• effective translation of assessment information into focused instruction;

• diagnostic practice that is responsive to the specific learning needs of individual students, including Aboriginal students and EAL/D learners;

• ongoing formative assessment related to diagnostic maps of progress as an integral part of the learning, teaching and assessment cycle; and

• the development of a whole-school approach to learning and teaching literacy and numeracy that is founded on, sequences of content and instructional practices that are consistent within and across phases of schooling.

5. Literacy and/or Numeracy Block

Literacy block

A literacy block is more than just an uninterrupted time for learning. A literacy block is based upon the gradual release model of instruction. A literacy block includes explicit teaching of reading, writing, speaking and listening. A range of evidenced-based instructional strategies are used to consolidate and develop student literacy achievement.

The components of a literacy block include:

• modelled reading/writing - involves the teacher making explicit the consideration and thinking behind a piece of text as well as articulating the process;

• shared reading - involves the teacher and students working together using an enlarge text. The text can be used to demonstrate the reading process to students or demonstrate how texts work;

• shared /interactive writing - involves the teacher and small groups of students jointly creating a large print text on a subject of interest to the students and sharing responsibility for the recording at various points in the writing;

• guided reading/writing - involves the teacher guiding students as they read or create their own text through discussion and questions that extend the student’s thinking about the text; and

• independent reading/writing - involves selecting and reading or creating a text of interest.

Numeracy block

A numeracy block is a daily opportunity to develop numeracy by accelerating learning and building facility and fluency with mathematical concepts and strategies. A numeracy block provides learning experiences across mathematical strands that target the numeracy needs of students based on data. Students work individually or in groups on differentiated, purposeful activities in order to practise and develop mathematical skills.

6. First Steps instructional strategies

Key First Steps instructional strategies, the Australian Curriculum and the Early Years Learning Framework are at the core of the school’s literacy and numeracy program.

Guided Reading

Guided Reading is a procedure that enables teachers to support small groups of students who use similar reading strategies and who are able to read texts at a similar level. Teachers provide a scaffold and support to a small group of students, with a similar need, as they read a common text.

Guided Reading enables students to practise using strategies that have already been introduced. The teacher guides or directs the readers to sections of the text using the following pattern: set a focus question, predict, read and discuss. Most of the reading is performed silently. Reading aloud is reserved for substantiation.

It is essential that the texts used in Guided Reading sessions be selected to match the readers’ instructional level and interests. Guided Reading texts need to provide a challenge with out being so difficult that the readers become discouraged. Selected texts need to be appropriate so they allow students to practise the chosen reading strategies.

Guided Reading helps students to:

• practise and monitor their use of strategies in a supportive setting;

• develop confidence in their use of strategies;

• refine their understandings about the text as they read;

• explore the questions, feelings and ideas about the text; and

• compare their interpretations of the text with other students.

Reference: First Steps reading resource book, page 20

The program team will provide leaders and specialist teachers with support to implement Guided Reading.

First Steps Numeracy Strategies

Linking number sense and computational skills in the early years

This professional development program builds on the Department’s First Step in Mathematics resource. During the first few years of schooling, children typically learn to reliably say the number names in order, link the number names to the numerals, and begin to see the patterns in the number system. At some point they must connect numbers to quantities and realise the role counting has in quantifying collections for a range of purposes. Early computational skills are usually tied to counting, whereby children are expected to initially ‘add’ two collections by combining them and counting all of the items, and later, to start from the first number and ‘count on’. Many children get locked into this method and fail to progress beyond the idea of ‘counting on’ for basic computations and continue to use this primitive calculation method well beyond the early years.

An alternative process for acquiring early computational skills is to capitalise on children’s early ‘number sense’ rather than their developing counting skills. Young children can learn to recognise and name very small collections by just looking (subitising) and larger collections by seeing them as combinations of smaller collections (partitioning), without needing to count. Children who have been exposed to this approach in the early years typically develop robust and flexible computational strategies in the middle years, as their understanding of the structure of the number system expands.

Many early number programs focus only on learning to calculate through counting ‘how many’, and then later, by memorising basic facts. These programs often neglect to build on children’s early subitising/partitioning skills, and so leave many children with little opportunity for progress beyond counting to calculate.

The program team will provide leaders and specialist teachers with support to implement strategies to improve computational skills in the early years.

Developing a repertoire of calculation strategies in Years 4-7

This professional learning program builds on the Department’s First Step in Mathematics resource. The ability to calculate confidently and accurately is fundamental to becoming numerate. Mathematically able students are flexible in their approach and are able to choose appropriately from a wide range of mental and written computational strategies. Students take account of the context, the numbers involved and the degree of accuracy required when they select a strategy.

Students who depend on restricted, often rote-learned, methods for carrying out mental and written calculations have increasing difficulty coping with the numeracy demands of all the learning areas and their future success can be compromised. Such students often do not fully understand the way the number system works and are unable to connect larger numbers to the quantities they represent. They therefore do not trust the results of partitioning and manipulating numbers to solve a problem, preferring instead to count on their fingers or reach for a calculator.

The program team will provide leaders and specialist teachers with support to implement strategies to develop a repertoire of calculation strategies in Years 4-7.

7. Development of collaborative processes

Leaders need to ensure that organisational structures, including timetabling, facilitate collaboration. A distributed model of leadership is employed with Literacy and Numeracy expertise deployed across the schools to mentor and work shoulder to shoulder with colleagues.

As part of a systematic approach to implementing key instructional strategies school based expertise is identified and time is given for these experts to model, mentor and guide their colleagues. School structures regularly allow time for staff to collaboratively review student performance, plan for improvement and reflect on instructional strategies. Staff collaborate to take responsibility for the implementation of the program school plan and for working toward the literacy and numeracy targets. Regardless of year level, staff view their role as part of the school’s combined commitment to improving all students literacy and numeracy achievement. Each staff member takes collective responsibility for all students in their phase or cohort not just the students they teach.

8. Targeted Performance Management

Performance management is a process that allows teachers and line managers to ensure that strategic, operational and classroom planning are aligned to maximise student achievement and school performance. The line manager and employee should develop a Performance Management Plan (PMP) that contains goals, performance indicators, actions, agreed support and timeframes that link to the targets and strategies contained in the Program School Plan.

9. Parent capacity building workshops

Effective schools work hard to create a community of learners through staff collaboration and through the building of positive relationships with students and parents. The school needs to view parents as partners in education. The school refines the channels of communication to ensure it provides regular information about teaching and learning programs, policies and organisational matters. Specific information sessions related to supporting literacy and numeracy learning at home are held at designated times through out the year utilising school-based and external expertise. Parents are regularly invited into the classroom to support the delivery of class programs

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© Department of Education, Western Australia, 2012

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