Manaiakalani Secondary Connects - English - Literacy

Today I joined a Google Hangout meeting for the Manaiaklani Secondary Connects with a focus on English and Literacy. 

As an intermediate school teacher, I am very keen to learn about what is taught in college so I am able to prepare my students for their upcoming college years. 

Aaron Wilson's presentation supported what I have been trying to implement in my practice with T Shape Literacy. 

T Shape literacy I feel is often mentioned in professional discussions but not often explored in deep details (deep diving). I am glad I joined the Secondary Connects today because Aaron shared some very important insights to support my understanding. 

Aaron shared during observations, the WFRC observed a lot of time was spent focussing on a single text which came at an opportunity cost for the students. He discussed a lot of time was invested in one text when the students could be getting exposure to many texts relating to the topic. 

This is something I have been implementing in my teaching. The use of different multimodal texts for students to read and make meaning from. What I learnt today was inclusion of Challenge Texts where students points of views are challenged by another text. 

T Shaped Literacy is often referred to as the Wide and Deep reading approach. The students read a wide range of texts with a deep focus. Aaron discussed today that the narrow focus is drilling deep into a specific aspect of the texts. I have been reflecting about this statement from Aaron. Often when we have a lot of texts, we as teachers want to cover all the ideas in the texts. With time management in the classroom, often this leads to surface level discussions just to cover all the texts. 

Below are the benefits of T Shaped Literacy from Aaron's presentation today.

Definitely added to my kete today. These connect meetings are very valuable. Moving forward, I will now analyse my implementation and modify using what I have learnt today.