Readers Notebook is a special place for children to share their thinking as they Read, View and Listen to texts. Over time it provides a collection of student written text responses including creative responses such as character monologues, writing of songs, illustrations etc – all of these are part of the rich data we can gather on student comprehension.

This workshop reflects Reading content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2 .

The session will include:

• What is comprehension?
• What are we looking for in student text response?
• Engaging and creative ways students can demonstrate and enhance their comprehension.
• Practical examples to trial in your classroom.

This workshop will provide a repertoire of small group teaching ideas that can be taught in both Reading and Writing Workshops and can be harnessed through Inquiry.

This workshop reflects Reading and Writing content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2

The session will include:

• Practical teaching procedures to explicitly teach skills and strategies for Reading, Viewing and Writing with Non-Fiction. Recomposing, Possible Sentences, Data Charts, SQ3R, Anticipation Guides, Structured overviews and more!
• Each procedure provides an assessment context to gather, rich data to inform teaching and planning.

This workshop will focus on Spelling within the Writers Workshop.  If students are to feel empowered as writers, they need to have strategies for spelling unknown words and for proofreading writing.  Students need to build their Spelling knowledge and have a repertoire of spelling strategies if they are to progress as spellers.

This workshop reflects Spelling content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2.

This session will include:

• Brief outline of how we learn to Spell with the three interdependent spelling components of morphology, etymology and phonology unpacked.
• How to explicitly teach children to be strategic spellers.
• Spelling routines that naturally differentiate within a Writers Workshop and that allow students to practice and build confidence as spellers.

Scheduled Conferences with small groups of students can strengthen comprehension. Children can learn to dialogue and explain how a text can trigger their thinking  – they learn, not just from us, but from their peers too!  Conferences can be a rehearsal for written text response and provide a powerful assessment context for comprehension.

This workshop reflects Reading content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2 .

The session will include:

• Comprehension strategies that students need to truly understand to comprehend at a deeper level.
• The structure of an effective Reading Conference.
• Strategies to ensure we are listening to children as they talk about their reading, as opposed to them answering set questions – scaffolds for dialogue will empower children.
• Explicitly teaching and unpacking comprehension as we conference.
• Monitoring independent reading.

It is really hard for children who struggle as Spellers and we know they can become very reluctant writers. This workshop will provide teachers with a repertoire of strategies to help  these children.

It will include Phonological, Graphological, Morphological and Etymological spelling strategies that are easy for children to practice and build their confidence.

This Workshop reflects Spelling content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2 .

The session will include:

• How to identify the needs of different spellers.
• An introduction to how to analyse student spelling.
• Practical strategies for explicit teaching to improve student spelling.
• How to help children learn High Frequency words.

We all feel for those children who struggle with reading and there is no ‘one fix’ for these students. As they progress through school it can be very difficult for them to meet the demands of reading across the curriculum.  This workshop will provide teachers with ways to explicitly teach these children by identifying specific needs and using teaching procedures that will support progress.

This workshop reflects Reading content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2 .

The session will include:

• How to identify needs and differentiate our practice in simple but effective ways.
• Explicit teaching that can target specific needs and build confidence.
• Guided Reading using different approaches that engage students.

Regardless of how you teach writing, we all want our children to be engaged as writers. We want quality thinking, so the writing has real purpose and a clear message. It all starts with slowing down, to allow children time to really think, dialogue and find the spark that will motivate them to move onto paper!

This Workshop reflects Writing content descriptors, Victorian Curriculum English Version 2.

The session will include:

• Purpose of Writing Seeds and how to unpack.
• Building a strong writing culture.
• Getting started with Writers Notebook.
• Practical ways to improve quality of thinking as a means to improve writing.
• Linking Writers Notebook to Inquiry, Reading, Developmental Play, Language Experience.