A kickstart for schools wanting revolutionise their teaching of reading and spelling

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Full day workshop

 

To book this workshop please contact Bill Hansberry

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Downloads

• 1 Glossary per person

• 1 Pop Quiz score sheet per 4 people

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“Participating in a Bill Hansberry training day is always great value! His ability to entertain and engage while teaching such worthwhile content is commendable. At times, my cheeks hurt from laughing so much! Bill included lots of interactive activities to keep us all involved and ‘on our toes’ – a little quiz at different times of the day brought in some competitiveness amongst the staff, which gauged who had been listening the most attentively!  

Zoe Spearman, Year 4 Teacher.

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Before we ask teachers to change the very DNA of how they teach literacy, we need to provide a compelling 'why'! This is what this day is all about. This 6.5 hour workshop has been used by highly successful South Australia schools to begin the knowledge-building journey for the implementation of evidence based teaching of literacy. The highly engaging format, mixed with an ongoing team-based 'quiz-night' and Bill's wicked humour makes this a training you'll remember!

 

 

MORNING SESSION 9am-11am

 

Why what’s happening in Australia is not teachers’ fault

• Teacher training – how it came to lack so much

• The culture of education and its aversion to science and research

 

The teaching of reading over the last 30 years – a sordid affair

Developing an understanding of how reading instruction became such a hot mess in Australia so teachers know how to talk to one another and parents about why change is necessary.

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• How we lost our way with teaching literacy in Australia 

• Whole word / Whole Language / Balanced literacy – made perfect sense before science got in the way!

• Smith and Goodman's 3-Cueing word recognition theory – disproven, debunked, still everywhere and still doing a lot of damage to readers​

• Replacing 3-cueing based reading assessment – easy, free and scientific

• 3 National enquires into the teaching of reading all said the same things, so what has stopped the necessary changes?​

 

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MIDDLE SESSION 11.20am-1pm

 

 

The Big 5 of reading with a focus on the first 2!

 

• Phonological awareness for all if we’re serious about kids’ learning to read.

• Structured, Synthetic Phonics – not analytic, not in context

  • What structured, synthetic, phonics and how it's different to polished turd (analytic/in context) phonics .

• Fluency – the facts

  • What’s a sight word – not what you though eh!

  • Orthographic mapping – when reading finally becomes reading practice

• Vocabulary – the facts

  • Word Cracking Morphology – getting great bang for buck in vocabulary

• Comprehension – the end game

  • Scarborough’s reading rope

 

Gough and Tunmer’s ‘Simple View of Reading’

Incredibly respected in the research and explained simply – because it’s simple!

 

Syllable Types – heaps important

• why they should be taught to all kids

 

 

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"Bill's manner...using humour, created a fun learning environment. With Years of knowledge and ongoing expertise Bill used current literature and studies to support his work. As a staff we move forward as a Professional Learning Community ready to tackle our Literacy program with great guidance from Bill."

Luke Buchanan, Wellbeing Coordinator

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"Bill is an engaging and knowledgeable presenter. He kept us entertained for the day whilst effectively delivering evidence-based strategies to help students learn to read."  Lisa Pugliese, Reception Teacher

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"He is an expert in his field and he is a very supportive presenter who helps staff to embrace the Science of Reading and feel comfortable with changes happening in education when teaching Literacy. His presentation was full of fun, enjoyment and energy and helped us to reflect on our practice with a positive mindset." 

Deanna Smith, Reception Teacher.