The Teacher's Tool Kit For Literacy

In the second part of the podcast with Lisa Burman, the discussion centres on the concept of student agency and its direct link to teacher agency. Lisa emphasises that educators play a crucial role in shaping learning experiences, and how a teacher’s sense of agency directly affects students’ ability to take ownership of their learning.

Teacher Agency as the Foundation for Student Agency
Lisa reflects on her teaching career in the 1980s when teachers had more freedom to design learning experiences tailored to their students’ needs. She stresses that teachers should view students as individuals developing identities—as readers, writers, scientists, or mathematicians—rather than just teaching specific subjects. However, she notes that increased educational pressures today risk undermining this sense of agency.

The Bigger Picture: Education and Democracy
Lisa connects student and teacher agency with democratic values, referencing Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which affirms children’s right to have a say in matters that affect them. She argues that for true student agency to thrive, teachers must feel empowered to make instructional decisions. However, some educational systems restrict this freedom, hindering creativity and students' development of agency.

Agency and Wellbeing: Lessons from the Pandemic
The conversation turns to the impact of agency on wellbeing. Reflecting on the pandemic, Lisa points out how restrictions led to feelings of helplessness, similar to how students feel in rigid, formulaic teaching environments. Teachers play a key role in creating spaces where students feel their voices matter.

Leadership’s Role and Small Changes
Lisa encourages teachers to introduce small changes, even in controlled settings, and suggests taking a professional stance with leadership to promote student agency. By focusing on student interests and co-constructing classroom routines, teachers can foster a learning culture where students become engaged, purposeful learners.

JOIN TEACHIFIC NOW AND SAVE!

• Join Teachific today. Access thousands of resources and a growing number of 'anytime' courses within your membership.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Tune in to "Teacher's Tool Kit For Literacy," a free podcast where accomplished literacy educator Sharon Callen and her team share valuable insights and tips. With over 30 years of experience, they provide strategic learning solutions to empower teachers and leaders worldwide. Subscribe on your favourite platform for exclusive literacy learning content. Apple, Spotify, Google, YouTube

• Read our insightful blogs, which make valuable connections between resources, podcasts and courses.
• Visit our Cue Learning website and sign up for the Teacher's Toolkit Weekly newsletter to stay updated on resources, events and discover how Cue can support you and your school.
• Explore Teachific, our vast collection of PDF resources, to enhance your teaching toolkit. And get even more support from our growing number of 'anytime' online courses.
• Connect with the latest news and other educators by joining our Teacher's Toolkit Facebook group
• Explore upcoming live or online webinar events

Have questions or feedback? Reach out to us directly at admin@cu...

School leaders are always looking for new models and ways to get better teaching results. In the hope of finding a quick and easy fix, some will choose to adopt programs. But many of these 'out of the box' programs come with many limitations and often don't deliver on the promised fast results. Is there a better way?

As we explore this, we look to Melbourne where literacy and educational outcomes have been broadly excellent. This is where education consultant Bobbie Cameron has been making an impact.

Bobbie began her career in education more than 15 years ago with a Bachelor of Education (Hons) and has a vast array of experience in the public education sector, firstly as a classroom teacher across all year levels, then a Leading Teacher and Assistant Principal. Bobbie launched her successful consultancy in 2017 and hasn't looked back, and was one of the 2018 Master Literacy Trainers for BASTOW for the Melbourne/Maribyrnong Network.

In this episode, Bobbie joins Sharon and Phil to talk about:

• Victoria’s great Naplan gains
• Top tips for coaching teachers
• How to turn results around in schools
• The ideal coaching/consultancy model to create great change
• Programs vs Professional Development
• Favourite ways of working with principals

And much more!

Enjoy the episode, and let us know thoughts and feedback in our Facebook Group.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.

In this week's episode, literacy expert Sharon Callen talks about how to identify and utilise literature on complex issues to enrich student experiences.

This is important for teachers for a range of reasons.

Helping students to appreciate literary texts and to create their own literary texts enriches their understanding of human experiences and the capacity for language to deepen those experiences.

It builds students’ knowledge about how language can be used for aesthetic ends, to create particular emotional, intellectual or philosophical effects.

Students learn to interpret, appreciate, evaluate and create literary texts such as short stories, novels, poetry, prose, plays, film and multimodal texts, in spoken, print and digital/online forms.

It is important for students to recognise texts as having enduring artistic and cultural value drawn from the world and Australian literature. These include the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, texts from Asia, texts from Australia’s immigrant cultures and texts of the students’ choice.

In this episode, Sharon focuses on picture books for F-3 students, identifying key authors and illustrators with a background in psychology. They unpack complex issues in a relatable way for young readers, and cover categories including:

• Raising Writers
• Coping With Change
• Environmental Empathy
• Creativity

Enjoy the episode, and let us know thoughts and feedback in our Facebook Group.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.

Independent reading is crucial to literacy learning but schools and teachers can still struggle to bring it to its full potential. Mark Macleod joins the show to share his insights.

Mark has been involved with children's publishing for over 25 years as a lecturer, publisher, freelance editor, President of the Children's Book Council and now as an author.

Mark published books for young readers and for adults under his own name imprint at Hodder Headline and was Project Manager of 'My Favourite Book' for ABCTV.

Mark is well known as a television and radio presenter, and has won the CBCA Lady Cutler Award and the Australian Publishers Association Pixie O'Harris Award for distinguished services to children's literature.

Mark joins Sharon to talk about:

• His role in research and practice in literacy and education
• Defining independent reading and why it is important
• Independent reading success stories
• How and when to do it
• How to support special needs students
• How to resource and coordinate independent reading in schools
• And much more!

Enjoy the episode, and let us know thoughts and feedback in our Facebook Group.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.

Many teachers are constantly searching for great information books to fit their mini lessons in English and other learning areas.

Finding the right books is one thing, teachers also want to know how to make these texts a central part of their teaching,

Teachers need to give students access to ‘just right’ information books for independent reading and writing and connect it to reading, writing and word work.

Upper primary school teacher Giselle joins Sharon Callen to share key insights, including:

• What do you search for to find great information books?
• How do students access these books easily in the classroom?
• How can students find ‘just right’ information books?
• What are some successful ways you use these types of books in Mini Lessons?
• How have the books supported the students in independent reading and writing?
• How to explore the three text features of informational texts (see blog https://cuelearning.com.au/explore-the-three-text-features-of-informational-texts/ and podcast episode https://the-teachers-tool-kit-for-literacy.simplecast.com/episodes/reading-like-a-writer-informational-texts)

And much more!

Enjoy the episode, and let us know thoughts and feedback in our Facebook Group.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favourite podcast player.