"No program is perfect. I want structure, but also the freedom to change it to suit myself and my students."
Literacy Hub Persona 2: Experienced Teacher Karina
Age: 40.
Work: Prep-2 Coordinator at an independent P-12 school.
Family: Married with a 10 year old daughter.
Location: Outer urban metropolitan.
Personality
Karina first started using a commercial phonics program 5 years ago in a previous role at a regional school. She received a single day of training to prepare her to teach phonics to students. Thankfully "a number of other amazing teachers" have mentored Karina since that day, so now she makes a point of developing a "coaching culture" in her current role as Prep-2 Co-ordinator.
Karina has seen a range of phonics programs come and go. She finds it frustrating working in schools where "everyone does what they want" because teachers then have to navigate a labyrinth of legacy frameworks, assessment models, terms and resources. This also means students are "re-learning the language around literacy" as they move from year to year.
Karina recognises the critical (and receding) role of parents in supporting early years literacy and makes an effort to engage and educate parents at the start of Term 1.
Her goal now is to boost her school's Prep-2 phonics capability by building a diverse team of literacy professionals. She wants a systematic approach, but it needs to allow for teachers and support staff to adapt what they do to suit their skillset, context and students.
Goals
- To master phonics instruction as part of a wider suite of literacy strategies to draw upon in class.
- To find the right balance between the consistency gained from a prescriptive program and the flexibility needed to maintain teacher judgment and discretion, per child.
- To be part of a skillful team, including peers, parents, librarians, support staff, speech pathologists, occupational therapists and learning specialists.
- The ad hod application of literacy programs across schools.
- The time it takes to sift through programs and resources.
- The time it takes to make in-class resources.
- The difficulty of correlating data across assessment models.
- Early phonological skills are not being developed in early years students like they used to be.
- Provide a structured, systematic but flexible program for use in schools.
- Provide teaching for teachers, on how students learn to read and write.
- Create a lot more in-class materials: videos, flashcards, sight words, activities.
- Provide short, 5-minute activities teachers can run with different student cohorts.
- "What is phonics?" and booklists for parents.