Illiteracy In Oz

[petesbrew]

I'm very interested to know just how many parents actually read to their children these days. How many parents ask their kids what the hell they did at school during the day? In some of the schools I have worked at, that answer is not many. When I ask students what they did on the weekend I am met with a majority of "Played Playstation, went on Facebook or "Watched T.V."

My mum taught me to read simple words and spell and write my own name before I reached school. That's what we've done with our little girl. My dad (who is almost illiterate) taught me to add and made me a multiplication tables chart. I had to learn the ******* things.

Kids need a strong Literacy and Numeracy basis before they reach kindy. They need to be taught at home to value books, to be literate in handling books and using vocabulary. There needs to be dialogue at home.

We see children in year 2 and 3 (without any diagnosis of dyslexia or global development delay etc) who can barely write their own name or count to 20 on a number line. I'm sorry, but that needs to happen at home as well as in the classroom. I die a little when in a year six or five class I have students who don't know what a narrative (fairytale) is and can't add 80 and 20. I fight a tough battle everyday...

As far as discipline goes, I've been spat on, bitten, kicked, punched, assaulted with sticks and rocks,called EVERY name you can imagine. Suspension just gives those involved a break and the student a bit of a holiday. Expulsion (in the public system) can be a long and drawn-out process... I do actually enjoy my job!

edit- spelled stuff wrong

I read to my kids every night. They enjoy it, and it settles them down so I can go and enjoy a beer in peace.
I'm always visiting the library, but I'm picking up more kids books than adults these days as they love flicking through them.
Our daughter is learning how to read in kindy at the moment and it's great watching her skills progress day by day.

 

[Dave70]

Absolutely NOT pointing the finger at anyone but with the declining standards of education basics in Australia I'm sure lots of you have taken note of numerous mis-spellings on posts on AHB over the years?

Whilst I'm sure this trend exists, I'm afraid my note taking skills were blunted by years of public education and TAFE.

Can you please express this trend in the form of a time plot graph.

 

[Maheel]

I'm very interested to know just how many parents actually read to their children these days. How many parents ask their kids what the hell they did at school during the day? In some of the schools I have worked at, that answer is not many. When I ask students what they did on the weekend I am met with a majority of "Played Playstation, went on Facebook or "Watched T.V."

Being both a parent (5YO) and a educator it's interesting that even with the "national curriculum" there are massive differences in what schools are doing across the suburbs.

My 5yo is doing sight words and readers (at home) currently in prep and she can read a simple story and sound out words. (State school) My wife or I read to her every day both the school books or other. If she asks me a question I often pick a sight word from my answer and spell / sound it out after I answer.

Other kids I know in prep are not doing readers or sight words at home. (Both state and private) Most of the kids can do simple maths but I think literacy is more important in the very early years to begin with. Teachers should have the ability to modify and change curriculum as they need but such vast difference seems strange to me.

I do relief work mostly in high schools and personally I think the introduction of laptops into classrooms might be more negative than positive. Normally I spend half a lesson checking that students are not social networking or gaming in the classroom. Very little is actually written down and revised and the pace of the required curriculum even stops what I would call deep learning / understanding of information. There are also so many internal and external distractions in education impacting on actual teaching time, students spend so much time out of normal lessons they are supposed to be in doing "extracurricular" activities.

Just the other day I had a Yr10 class where there were no exercise (hand written) books. At the end of the class they handed back the "project workbook" so that it would ensure it was there for the next lesson. No expectation of doing any homework on the project.... This in my opinion impacts students ability to actually read, write and retain information.

My english and grammar is crap, its something I am constantly working on as well....

Someone made a comment about "silly girls" becoming teachers a few pages ago? You sir are a arse-hat :angry:

 

[Malted]

yeah I was always told not to spell words how they sound. I am like why have silent letters??? why cant ph be f? why do they need silent letters! I dont get it they tell you to spell it out how it sounds but its not spelt how it sounds! lol

eleFant!
Fone!

Yeah let's all go to Thailand! First stop Phuket.

 

[bum]

I do relief work mostly

I could use some relief. You do reduced rates for the brewerhood?

 

[pk.sax]

I disagree entirely with the view expressed ont he use of silent and multi letter sounds.

Their pronounciation is ever slightly and even greatly different from the 1 letter equivalents depending on the word and placement in the word.

The english alphabet is fairly crap at covering the sounds humans emit. The language rules make up for it fantastically as long as people take the effort to actually use the language. Longer words keep falling in disuse and the subtleties keep getting washed out.

for example, fy and phy sound quite different, the fy is typically at the end of the word, its short and overtaken by the y. phy would be a candidate for putting in the beginning or middle of a word, the emphasis (note the ph) is squarely on the ph, the sound is quite literally the middle of p and h, not f.

PS: Primary teachers ARE silly girls

 

[InCider]

I could use some relief. You do reduced rates for the brewerhood?

Are you saying we're lacking in the trouser department bum?

 

[bum]

Homebrewer's droop.

 

[bradsbrew]

But not perhaps my last post on this thread after all.

I note that one of the moderators in his infinite wisdom has moved this thread away from 'All Latest Threads' on the top right-hand side of the main page & struggle to find a reason why?

Interested in knowing the moderator's name & his reason for doing this? <_< Will we ever know? I doubt it very much, but then, life is full of suprises.

TP

Aargh, that be me Pete, me earty. Me changed it to be in the "off topic" thread as that where she belongs ye scoundrel. And (shiver me timbers sentences cannot be starting with and) I be noticing that sending her off to the off topic section has not stopped the chin wagging. This be a brewing forum.

Excuse the pirate voice I am just getting in character for tonights book with the kids. Just as my wife or I do each night. Sight words and spelling are made into learning games in this house. Can't wait for the math learning to kick in. In my opinion being able to solve problems and the need to find the answer is way more important than a simple spelling mistake on a beer forum.

Hang the book has just been changed to Dora.

Ola

Cheers

 

[goomboogo]

Aargh, that be me Pete, me earty. Me changed it to be in the "off topic" thread as that where she belongs ye scoundrel. And (shiver me timbers sentences cannot be starting with and) I be noticing that sending her off to the off topic section has not stopped the chin wagging. This be a brewing forum.

Excuse the pirate voice I am just getting in character for tonights book with the kids. Just as my wife or I do each night. Sight words and spelling are made into learning games in this house. Can't wait for the math learning to kick in. In my opinion being able to solve problems and the need to find the answer is way more important than a simple spelling mistake on a beer forum.

Hang the book has just been changed to Dora.

Ola

Cheers

I thought it must have been September 19 already.

 

[InCider]

I thought it must have been September 19 already.

More like Doda the Exploder.

 

[jyo]

I could use some relief. You do reduced rates for the brewerhood?

I've never done relief but I'm willing to have a go.

Hang the book has just been changed to Dora.

Ola

Cheers

Swiper is such a thieving prick!

Comments above re the National Curriculum. It's currently being released in phases and in WA we are not required to report on it until next year I think. We are currently implementing certain subject areas in stages. There are some similarities to the older Curriculum, so I am told.

All in all, I really like it. Clear structure, clear objectives/pointers for student achievement and easy to follow.

Don't get me started on Outcome Statements.

 

[WarmBeer]

Hang the book has just been changed to Dora.

Ola

Cheers

Who do we ask when we want to know where we're going? Say "map"! Say "map"!

Cross the bubbling kettle. Jump over the pool of vomit. And make our way to the misty fermenter!

 

[bum]

Yumyumyyumyum. Delicioso!

 

[Malted]

More like Doda the Exploder.

 

[InCider]

View attachment 55037

boom-tish :lol:

 

[QldKev]

View attachment 55037

Who else finds Dora hot

 

[WarmBeer]

Who else finds Dora hot

ummm...

 

[.DJ.]

Who else finds Dora hot

ahhhh... No. :blink:

 

[Malted]

Who else finds Dora hot

Nyeah, maybe:


and on another note: