SHARP News Archive
Being SHARP in the Deep South
Brian (co-author of SharpReading) was recently the keynote speaker at the Southland Literacy Symposium in Invercargill. His session was titled "Time to Teach", majoring on teacher overload and the impact it is having on what we teach and the way we teach it....
"We are being asked to cover more content and skills than ever before and as a result we are asking the impossible of our teachers and students. Inadvertently, we are strangling the learning process because we have no time left for learning to naturally occur."
...with a few very practical examples of how we avoid this with SharpReading.
Yesterday we received feedback from the symposium organisers. This is just a small selection of the comments made by attending teachers.
Made me question and reflect on my teaching practice. Excited about guided reading next week!!
Very thought-provoking and “real”. Back to a common sense manageable approach.
Awesome presentation, so, so, so true Brian. I'm changing my programme on Monday. You have confirmed what I've always believed in. :-)
Thank you Brian for such clarity on what is important for the kids (and us!) and showing us how to achieve it. I can do that on Monday. No extra prep needed. Just a new clarity about what I'm doing and how. THANK YOU!
Great insight into how to work smarter. The time flew! I wanted more! I have ideas and tools to take back to my classroom programme.
I think we'll have to keep him on.
SharpReading makes it to Berlin
Tuesday 1 May 2018
After working in International Schools in Asia for the last 7 years, this was our first chance to run a workshop in a bilingual government school in Europe.
While Brian was at home in Christchurch working on our soon to be released "SharpPhonics", Hilton had the opportunity to work with the staff at Charles Dickens Grundschule (Primary School) and several other neighbouring schools in Berlin. Teachers attending were very enthusiastic about this opportunity to do some PD in reading coming out of a native English speaking country as most (if not all) of their PD is in German.
Some great people! We had a lot of laughs and tackled some interesting, if not uncommon, issues.
Charles Dickens Primary School
Very cool Playground Clock
Hilton negotiates the Berlin subway with 30 minutes to spare before a 9am start. You have no idea how stressful that is!
"Thank you Hilton for the inspiring workshop in Berlin two weeks ago. Everyday I am practising with the students and I`m more and more mindful about how much I still try to do the thinking for them !!!!!!!"
Michelle Thiemert, Teacher, Charles Dickens School, Berlin.
We would love to develop the European connection further in Berlin and further afield in the not too distant future. October (the beginning of the new school year) is a possibility. Contact us if you are interested!
SharpReading Getting Results
February 2018
Thank you to Ashburton Intermediate for sharing their results from 2017. Congratulations on making a significant difference!
"To evaluate the effectiveness of the programme, the current Year 7 students (2017) are being tracked over 2 years. The STAR Reading Test* has been chosen to measure progress. The entry data is based on Year 7 Stanines and the end of year data is based on Year 8 Stanines. As you can see the movement shown is significant! We are VERY excited about the progress we have made so far."