I was lucky enough to attend and present at the recent New Zealand Literacy Association 42nd National Conference which was held in Christchurch, New Zealand on 29 September – 2 October 2019
This was a stimulating and very well organised and run conference which covered far more than its title (The Arts as a Bridge to Literacy) would suggest. In short, it generated knowledge-building and motivation around both reading, writing and literacy across the curriculum. It consisted of six plenary sessions and a range of 35 workshops, about a third of which made explicit links with The Arts.
Of the plenary sessions, I was particularly excited by:
- Dr Steven Payne’s passion and argument for ‘read to’ (or ‘reading aloud’ as he called it) as a means of both motivating a love of reading and maximising aspects of reading instruction. I was particularly interested in his ideas on the pre- and post-reading that teachers can undertake. Steven was an amazing presenter.
- Dr Viv Aitken’s exploration of dramatic inquiry as a way into speaking, listening, moving, reading, writing and critical thinking within purposeful and meaningful contexts. I was particularly interested in the concept of enabling students to explore multiple perspectives on complex issues through drama and how she illustrated this through classroom practice.
- Mary Chamberlain’s take on the importance of curriculum reform and the need to build a local curriculum.
I was also lucky enough to have attended Sheena Cameron and Druinie Perera’s workshop on practical mechanisms for extending independent reading by students, and even luckier to have had a lovely evening out (in a gorgeous Japanese restaurant) with both Sheena and Louise Dempsey.
One of the other highlights of the conference for me though was being able to support two young teachers (Ashley Triana from Clayton Park School in Manurewa, and Kezia Vargis from Good Shepherd School in central Auckland) as they presented their respective findings on what they and others had done to generate greater than expected progress by under-achieving students as writers through strategic adoption of an inquiry approach. Ashley’s work was part of a national Teaching and Learning Research Initiative and Kezia’s work was part of a Teacher-Led Initiative Funding project. I have been lucky enough to have been involved in both of these projects. Supporting these two young teachers gave me faith that there is another generation of high quality and committed literacy researchers and facilitators coming through.
If you attending the conference and would like a copy of my presentation “On Being an Effective Teacher of Writing” – please drop me a note and I will respond.
Find out more about the New Zealand Literacy Association on their website
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