Published in Literacy Learning: the Middle Years Vol 18 No 2, June 2010
Introduction: In 2001, against a backdrop of national research and activity concerned with the middle years (5 to 8) of schooling, the Catholic Education Office Melbourne (CEOM) established the Middle Years (5–9) Literacy Project. By the end of 2009, when the Project formally concluded, the Middle Years Literacy (MYL) 5–9 Project had developed from four clusters of 19 primary and secondary schools in 2001 to 25 clusters involving 150 schools. While this ‘stage of schooling’ approach to literacy support served teachers and students well for eight years, recent shifts in educational thinking and context around contemporary learning, innovation and improvement processes demand from systems and schools alike more precise and more differentiated approaches to literacy policy and strategy. The significant shifts in educational thinking and context that led to changes to CEOM middle years literacy support include:
• increased diversity of texts in contemporary learning environments;
• learning that is more readily monitored, observed, analysed and examined;
• raised expectations and accountability for learning and teaching;
• greater complexity around literacies and literacy pedagogy.

Published in Literacy Learning: the Middle Years Vol 18 No 2, June 2010
Introduction: In November 2009, ninety Western Australian educators including central office staff, high school principals and specialist literacy and numeracy teachers attended a Getting it Right (GiR) Secondary Forum to share experiences and celebrate successes associated with the state-funded pilot Getting it Right Secondary (GiR) Strategy. While this was an opportunity for these schools to tell their stories, the story of the GiR secondary strategy had begun four years earlier in 2006, building on the acclaimed GiR primary model that had operated in primary schools in WA since 2002.

Soft white cotton t-shirts for new babies. 'Read to Me' on the front.

Published in Literacy Learning: the Middle Years Vol 18 No 2, June 2010
Abstract: This paper provides information about an innovative new program currently being rolled out in NSW within the context of the National Partnership for Literacy and Numeracy, Focus on Reading 3–6. This initial implementation involves 37 schools, 494 teachers and approximately 7,500 students from all three NSW education sectors. In particular, the paper outlines the program’s research base, content overview, professional learning model and gives insights into delivery, implementation and impact to date.
‘Learning to read’ receives much attention in the research, in the media and in classrooms – and rightfully so. Paris (2005) reminds us that ‘learning to read is one of the
greatest accomplishments of childhood’. It is the foundation for all learning. As students move beyond the early years, the texts they are required to read become more complex, more diverse and more knowledge-bound and teaching students to understand these texts becomes the over-riding challenge for teachers. It’s been obvious for some time that more needs to be done to help students in the upper primary years to better understand the increasingly complex texts they encounter. That is, more needs to be done to arrest the ‘slump’ in students’ motivation to read and in their reading performance once they move beyond the early years. Despite what could be termed an ‘explosion of research’ about comprehension in recent decades which Michael Pressley (2002) says ‘has the potential for a revolution in schools with respect to comprehension instruction … no such revolution has occurred.’ In NSW, the program, Focus on Reading 3–6 has taken up the challenge to start a ‘revolution’ about the teaching of reading in upper primary classrooms. Initial feedback indicates that the program is having an immediate and dramatic impact in classrooms. ‘I feel I’m involved in a program where I can see the difference it is making even after a short period of time. My students are participating more confidently, enthusiastically and positively in literacy sessions. I have noted that many students are transferring
their knowledge of the strategies I’ve explicitly taught them into many other areas of the curriculum.’ (Teacher)