Podcast and Blog

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss the concept of children actively doing in the classroom.

Video Transcript

Jocelyn here with a Tuesday Tip. This is number four in our series about maintaining high engagement in low variance instruction. And today's tip is about making sure that children have enough to do. In the words of Anita Archer, explicit teaching is about, I do something, you do something. I say something, you say something.

Watching, copying, learning, listening, they, and just doin…

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Hello and welcome to the Structured Literacy Podcast, the podcast where we keep it real about what it's like to shift practice and teach in a way that reflects evidence from research. As much as I'd like to give you a set of general principles about instruction that will work perfectly in every situation in school, I'm afraid it doesn't actually work that way. Yes, there are some considerations and principles about instruction that apply across contexts that w…

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss suffixes and avoiding using shortcuts when teaching students.

Video Transcript

It's Jocelyn here with a Tuesday tip. It's easy to fall into the trap of sharing shortcuts with children about how words are spelled. So perhaps the word raked comes up. Well, you might say, well, we have to add the suffix -ed, but there's already an E there, so just whack a D on the end. Well, that actually doesn't help children understand how that particular convention works.

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Hi there, it's Jocelyn here, and I'm so pleased to welcome you to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, where we talk about teaching, leading and literacy. This podcast is recorded here in Pataway, Burnie, and I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands on which I work and live, the home of the Palawa people. One of the points of contention in adopting a structured approach to teaching literacy is nonsense words. These words, which…

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss function over perfection.

Video Transcript

Hi everyone. It's Tuesday and here's my tip. The goal of word study in the primary school is not to teach a full linguistics course to our students or to teach them every single thing about every word. It is to help them have a functional understanding of how words work so that they can use this knowledge later in their own work.

So when you're deciding how deep do I go in the explanation here? How much do I have…

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Hello and welcome to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast. I'm Jocelyn and I'd like to send some virtual hugs to all Australian teachers who are approaching reporting time. We know that we're busy all year, but reporting is a unique time in the calendar. I recall, year after year, the stack of student work, topped with on-balance judgment sheets, in a neat line across my lounge room floor. I crossed every I and dotted every T to make sure that my …

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss the importance of foundational skills.

Video Transcript

Hey there folks, it's Jocelyn and it's time for a Tuesday tip. Foundational skills are critical if children are going to engage deeply with reading and writing, but it can feel like a struggle to fit it all in, as well as all of that more robust deep learning. My tip today is about having a Absolute laser focus on building foundational skills for students, regardless of age.

If students need phonics,…

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Hi there, welcome to this episode of the Structured Literacy Podcast, it's Jocelyn here coming to you from Tasmania, the home of the Palawa people. At Jocelyn Seamer Education, we believe that every child has the right to be taught with evidence-informed instruction and that every teacher has the right to be supported to make that happen. It's a nice idea to always base instructional decisions on research. It would be wonderful to have certainty in this way,…

In today's Tuesday Tip, I discuss switching from mentor text to stimulus text.

Video Transcript

It's Jocelyn with a Tuesday Tip. We all know that authentic, beautiful texts are fantastic to work with in the classroom. They're not just a nice to have, they are a must have. We often want to use those texts as the jumping off point for writing. And today I want to talk to you about the language we use to describe these texts.

We often refer to them as mentor texts. And the trouble with this…

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Hi there, it's Jocelyn here with the Structured Literacy Podcast. I'm writing and recording this podcast in regional Victoria, where I'm working with three schools over a week and a half of coaching, running, professional learning and modelling in classrooms. I've worked with two of these schools previously and I'm returning to help them evaluate the impact of their actions and set their next goals. One of the things that I love about the schools that I …