03 June 2022

VISUAL LITERACY:


Excitement is heating up for our first ever Worser Bay School Zine. The first publication is a taster prior to a more full edition due out in the second half of the year.


A massive thanks to our teacher, Beth, for her vision, huge energy, talent, experience... and we must mention perseverance and grit! The student zine committee has been engaged and thoughtful, the students contributed in all the variety of ways that makes their hearts sing! Watch this space!


Teaching is all about getting the balance right. The pendulum swings back and forward from totally prescriptive to totally not . Whilst we have the overarching National Curriculum every NZ school designs its local curriculum around place and people. We have to really know our people as for many children they live in a world of instant gratification which we are trying hard to derail here. Some good things still take time! We are like curators of a curriculum- constantly searching for ' hooks' that will engage children - who are both unique and multifaceted!-in their learning.


Beth has been undertaking her own 'Teaching Inquiry' running alongside the zine. This involves noticing and observation, gathering student voice, testing student progress in reading using more formal assessments and the like. It will be great to be able to conclude the project knowing what impact it has had on student achievement and progress... and I think we will be able to do that. Of course working with human beings means it's often not a straight line between cause and effect, it can be more of a wobbly line. And with anecdotal information and some good case studies the line starts to become more certain and a darkish grey - almost black!

John and Beth have put a short (-ish) movie together for you to explain what we mean by visual literacy - and it's quite creative and a visual treat in itself. Sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy - it's 9 minutes long and they clearly had fun. (Carl just couldn't bring himself to edit any further!) Please contact Beth/ John with any questions/ ideas.