DIALOGIC LEARNING CONVERSATIONS WITH READERS AND WRITERS

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   Liz Simon     2024    

Are you questioning whether you have time during classroom hours for individual conversations with readers and writers. Reading this book, you will find information that will more than assist you in this endeavour.

Reading Robin Alexander’s, 2017, Towards Dialogic Teaching: rethinking classroom talk, his direction was towards small groups and their talk. I put this into practise in the classroom. Some groups this worked well, others it did not.

I had previously read … Accountable talk in an unaccountable context (Robin Alexander, 2010) and I wondered, am I asking too much of the children … accountable talk in an unaccountable context of small pupil discussion groups.

What came to mind was context accountability - the teacher

forwarding knowledgeable learning during supportive class learning. Shared Reading is the teaching strategy and after the first enjoyable reading, deconstruction of the text with a learning focus in mind. Similarly, Shared Writing, constructing text in front of the children. Planned activities follow, reinforcing the new learning. The context (prior learning) prepares children for accountable equal-type 1-1 conversations.

 

And how children are engaged when meeting and talking with their teacher 1-1 during a designated time of the school day! 

The teachers love it because it happens during independent pleasurable reading and independent writing; this does not add to the workings in the classroom. 

The pedagogy is geared towards supporting and purposely giving children prior knowledge before duologues happen. Initiating and deliberately developing equal team-type relationships. 

 

 This leads to my book Dialogical Learning Conversations with Readers and Writers (there is a section about Reading and a section about Writing. 

 I am offering copies of my complete book, not bound, but in loose-leaf form, to be sent via e-mail to you. To request copies of my book email me: 

liz.simon@laspedagogy.com

 

As well, but not obligatory, send X amount of money to a charity (can be of your choosing). Three I suggest are:

The smithfamily

https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/child/donations

Unicef Australia

unicef.org.au 

Autistic Aspect Donate now. There are other Autistic Associations.

All donations $2 and above are tax deductible in Australia.

Cheers

Liz

 

YOU MIGHT THINK IT IS JUST SPELLING DO YOU KNOW HOW WORDS WORK?

 

You might think it is just Spelling

 Do you know how words work?

 Do you think that Spelling does not matter? After all there are spell checks and predictive texts. BUT…consider, how spelling affects all aspects of literacy, not only writing but including, pronunciation, reading and what is a ‘killer’, a child/person’s self-esteem.

 Can you imagine standing at a desk and an inquirer asks you  to fill in an unfamiliar questionnaire which requires a good grasp of the written English language. The phone is in the car where spell-check is out of reach. How embarrassing the recipient cannot spell that xxx word or even that xxx simple word.

 Let’s consider a child/person’s self-esteem.  

 The questionnaire asks, “Have you found your niche in life”. The recipient does not know the meaning of this word, ‘niche’, therefore he finds it difficult to spell. He has to write the word; he spells it ‘nesh’. Yes! This is the sound of the word but not the correct spelling. Have you ever had a health issue? The  recipient wants to write 'asthma'  and spells it as 'asma'. Writing a note, a female student writes, “My conchense (conscience) won’t let me do that becos it is wrong.

Not learning about words can cause problems ‘opine’ is written in the article you are reading. What does it mean? It is related to opinion but does the reader know that? Has the idea of connections ever been made in the reader’s learning? Lets delve further. Opine is related to opinion. The middle vowel in 'opine' is the long'i' as in the word pine. 'Opinion' is spelt with the short vowel, 'i'. Could it be the silent 'e' at the end of 'opine' that demnds the long 'i'?

 How English has developed has a lot to do with irregular words. Hence the necessity to learn the idiosyncrasies associated with spelling. Yes! Even the best speller has times when the spelling of a word confuses them. But generally they can laugh it off… with an “Oh Dear”.

 

 Help all spellers by reading my book … You might think it is just spelling Do you know how words work?

Cheers, Liz

I am offering copies of my complete book, not bound, but in loose leaf form to be sent via e-mail to you. To request copies of my book, Email me: 

liz.simon@laspedagogy.com

 

You need to forward your email address so I can forward all the pages of the complete book. 

As well, but not obligatory, send X amount of money to a charity (can be of your choosing). Three I suggest are:

The smithfamily

https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/child/donations

 

Unicef Australia

unicef.org.au 

Donate to  Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect)

www.aspect.org.au