1. At

2. Agenda 5/06/12
 Brief overview of Self-Lit and the
selection process
 Self-Lit units of work
 Spelling, punctuation and homework.
Do they really matter?
 Parent’s role
 Teacher’s role

3. Self-Lit at Willowbank School
 Started as a pilot in 2011
 Designed and tested over 18 years in Nelson
 Access to Educational Psychologist
 Aim: accelerated literacy learning
 First school in NZ to offer it

4. Identifying students
 Teachers nominate students
 Screener tool used
 Team looks at results, place may then be offered.
 Further 2 hours assessment completed (over 2-3
sessions)
 Regular time slot allocated
 Parent’s meeting within first 6 weeks
 Reassessments after 30 weeks

5. I will probably also ask:
 Can they organise their desk/layout of their books/care for their
belongings
 Level of oral language
 History of previous interventions
 Family history of literacy difficulties
 Level of home support
 K.C’s-especially thinking/participating and contributing/managing
self

6. Screener page 1

7. Screener page 2

8. Processing speed.
 Screener gives me clues about processing speed.
 Talking and observing student while working also
gives me clues.
 Group activity

9. Nominate one person-they will get a
task from Jo
 Once I say start your group has 3 minutes to discuss
the following:
What I did over Queen’s Birthday weekend

10. A regular weekly session…
 90 minutes
 3 students, 1 specialist teacher
 Individual workstations
 Reading, writing, talking & website based tasks

11. Self-Lit Practical Teaching Approach
Three Settings
1.Specialist Teacher’s
Classroom
2. The Student’s
Classroom
3. The Home

12. What might it look like:
 Building a brick wall.

13. Reading text.
 Read text twice.
1) Highlight
2) Reread and tick
3) Comprehension
check
4) Write

14. Website tasks
 Each unit has a set of words that the student sees,
hears, types and writes over a period of 3 weeks.
 Aiming for:
acquisition of knowledge-----mastery------automaticity

15. Tasks within a unit include:
 Work on list with teacher
(pen and paper)
 b_ _ght
 Hear it and type it
 Type a sentence with it
 Read a sentence, hold it in memory, type as it disappears

16. Other tasks:
 T reads text to me that includes list words
 I read a (simple) text with list words included
 I read simple text with errors in punctuation and
spelling. I write it correctly.

17. Also:
 Dictation tasks for vowel combination families
 Timed blending strips
 Learning conversations to check developing
metacognition

18. Research tells us…

19. Does spelling matter?

24. Is punctuation important?

25. Oh dear!

26. My job description includes..
 Sharing findings with Willowbank Staff
 Sharing successes with students, their families, senior
management, BoT and schools in our cluster
 Working alongside individual classroom teachers
 Giving feedback to the programme designers in order
to refine and improve the Self-Lit Approach

27. Setting them up for success.
 Weekly 90 minute Self-Lit session
 Regular classroom programme
 Home learning tasks

29. Once a week is not enough!

30. Enviro school? Yes, but…

31. Encouraging good habits…

32. Parents, how can you help?
 Limit distractions
 Negotiate days and times-DON’T BUDGE AFTER
THAT
 Headphones may help (Browser needs to be Firefox)
 Encourage independence but monitor frustration
levels
 Email me for any reason
 Routines and clear expectations-read to/with/by most
days

33. Excuses

34. See me..
 Before school on a Monday or Wednesday
 Every Thursday lunchtime
 Yellow homework box ALWAYS available
 Email me

35. Frustrated

36. Research tells us..
 Frequent, intense practice of new items
helps them “stick” in the memory
 Students need to see, hear and
manipulate sounds and letters many
times (maybe 100s) before they can do
this automatically
 We can make a difference but it will take
time 

37. Teachers, how can you help?
 Explicit teaching of spelling rules, how to use onset & rime and
syllable breaks to spell new words-use workshops and dictation tasks
 Word study-why do we say “brekfist” but we spell it “breakfast”
 Make it as easy as possible-focus on one set of words that follow the
same rule
 Don’t let bad habits slide-it’s not ok to use lower case “i” as a word in
Year 1 but we still see it in Year 6. It is very difficult to untrain the
brain.

38. And..
 Allow time for slow processors-group them with others who need
time so there is a greater chance they can contribute their ideas
 Read to your class EVERY DAY
 Promote reading-expect SSR at home EVERY DAY
 Letter formation is important-”cut” is not the same as “cat”
 Rewrite the whole word if an error is made

39. Resources we already have…
This is on the server

40. From page 3 “…..dyslexia involves an unexpected and persistent
difficulty in learning to read, write and spell that cannot be
identified by other factors.”
Not all Self-Lit students have
dyslexic tendencies.
Other factors may include:
ADHD
Dysfunctional family situations
Delayed start to formal schooling
(eg S.A students)

41. and..
 Resources we own

42. First Steps
 …and Jo!