Explicit teaching practices involve teachers clearly showing students what to do and how to do it, rather than having students discover that information themselves. Students who experience explicit teaching practices make greater learning gains than students who do not experience these practices.
Explicit reading instruction will support Years 7–12 students to become skilled readers, so that they can access, understand, analyse and evaluate information in order to make meaning across all key learning areas.
Explicit teaching strategies are available for teaching reading in Stages 2–5. They target specific areas in reading and suggest a learning sequence for skill development.
HSC minimum standard resources for reading are available for schools. These classroom ready teaching and learning activities can be used in Stages 5–6 to support students in developing reading skills and achieving the HSC minimum standard.
The Components of reading Years 3–8 professional learning is available and can enhance teacher capacity to deliver explicit reading instruction within their key learning area.
The NSW syllabuses (K–10 and Years 11–12) and the National Literacy Learning Progression provide support in the creation of learning intentions and success criteria for students. Teachers can use these intentions and criteria to provide students with an explicit understanding of what they need to achieve and the steps they must take to get there.
PLAN2 is an online tool designed by the department to support the use of literacy and numeracy learning progressions in all NSW schools. This tool can be used by teachers to collate and organise evidence gathered about student skill progression in the area of reading. This information can be used to identify teaching priorities and the explicit practices required for student learning.
Narrator:
Planning for Literacy and Numeracy (PLAN2) is an online application designed by the NSW Department of Education (DoE).
PLAN2 supports teaching and learning in literacy and numeracy across the curriculum using the National Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions.
PLAN2 allows teachers to analyse observations of student learning made by teachers or DoE online assessments, plan for explicit teaching and learning beginning with NSW syllabus outcomes and to observe and maintain evidence of student learning against the specific literacy and or numeracy observable behaviours represented by the literacy and numeracy learning progressions.
In addition, PLAN2 supports whole and cross school collaboration by allowing teachers to see observations from multiple sources, including those from other teachers in other contexts and from Department of Education assessments which are mapped to PLAN2.
PLAN2 allows teachers to see the mapping of NSW K–10 English and mathematics syllabus outcomes and content points, where available, to the literacy and numeracy progression sub-element levels.
This supports teachers in establishing individual students’ starting points in relation to the syllabus outcomes, identifying the priority skills for explicit teaching and learning, and monitoring every students’ progress towards their achievement of learning outcomes.
To begin using PLAN2, identify your focus in the teaching and learning cycle, select from the available features and enter the required information.
PLAN2 allows teachers to be in control of their analysis, planning or observation focus.
Teachers specify the students or cohorts of students and the specific literacy or numeracy progression indicators which they would like to focus on.
By default, PLAN2 generates the last observations which have been received against the selected indicators, but the observation sources filter allows teachers to take full control and to specify the precise source of observations, as well as the date of observations which they would like to analyse.
They can select from observations made by themselves, by other teachers, or observations made by any of the online assessments mapped to PLAN2.
The PLAN2 observation scale allows teachers to enter observation statuses against progression indicators representing the literacy and numeracy learning being demonstrated by students.
PLAN2 screens are embedded with learning assets to support the use of features and to provide advice on best practice and additional understanding.
PLAN2 is an iterative tool and continues to undergo enhancements.
For latest up to date, step-by-step guides on use of individual features, to find out more about PLAN2 or to request support, visit the ALAN help desk by selecting ‘Help' from the PLAN2 menu.
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The Introduction to the Literacy and Numeracy Progressions professional learning is available for teachers to support explicit teaching practices.
The Universal Resources Hub (staff only) contains a suite of evidence-based reading resources for Stage 1–Stage 5 teachers across all key learning areas. The comprehensive reading strategies are easily adapted and contextualised to classroom needs and include suggestions for tailored and differentiated learning to build and extend reading skills.
Explicit teaching resources:
- Teaching strategies for reading by learning stage
- HSC minimum standard resources – Reading
- Focus on Understanding texts: The components of reading – Blended learning
- NSW syllabuses (K–10 and Years 11–12)
- National Literacy Learning Progression
- PLAN2
- Introduction to the Literacy and Numeracy Progressions
- Universal Resources Hub – Reading and Numeracy (staff only).