Episode Details

In this second part of the series on transitioning upper primary literacy instruction, Jocelyn focuses on essential shifts in reading comprehension and writing approaches for Years 3-6. She advocates moving away from strategy-focused comprehension instruction toward text-focused learning where background knowledge and vocabulary building take precedence, with strategies serving as tools to engage with rich texts rather than skills taught in isolation. 

Jocelyn emphasises that comprehension is domain-specific and best assessed through text-based units where necessary knowledge has been explicitly taught, rather than through benchmark assessments that can't distinguish between inference ability and lack of background knowledge. For writing instruction, she promotes integrating reading and writing within the same lessons and prioritising foundational skills, stating that students must have automatic handwriting, spelling, and fluent sentence production before expecting successful multi-paragraph writing. 

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