First words must mean something to a child. First words must have an intense meaning for a child. They must be part of his being

Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1963)

2009 has been targeted by Education authorities as a year to improve literacy, numeracy And science outcomes for students in Australian schools.

Early years educators have incorporated a variety of strategies and tools to teach children how to read. One of the most powerful strategies to engage readers, especially reluctant readers is to provide students with purposeful and meaningful texts to support and challenge their literacy skills.

E-books are a multiliteracy tool, that allows the creator to develop and master many traditional literacy skills such as editing, sequencing whilst exploring a variety of genres including recount, retell, repetitive and instructional texts.

These texts give all learners the opportunity to be involved in creating text. E-books give meaning and ownership to the text created and uses the power of being featured in a story to solidify the contextual learning.

Are you one of these teachers?

• Early years educators who are interested in exploring ways to motivate and excite children’s reading.
• Early years educators interested in creating and developing a comprehensive range of text that is child based and created in a play based learning atmosphere.
• Early years educators who are interested in actively engaging children in the creation of their own interactive text.
• Early years educators who are excited about the extensive possibilities of teaching multiliteracy’s in the 21st Century.

How the workshop will look

Day 1

• Discovering and exploring the power of using E-books to captivate the childrens’ interest in reading.
• Looking at examples of E-books.
• Investigating the type of text participants wish to explore.
• Developing interactive e-book.

HOMEWORK
Participants will reflect on their learnings and identify a meaningful context to extend their digital learning journey for day 2.

Day 2 (1 week after the initial day)

• Participants will continue on their negotiated digital journey through identified needs and interests from day 1
• Explore various tools and programs for creating digital stories
• Showcase and celebrate digital creations.

Where and When

• ******NEW DATES ***** July 24th and July 27th at Williamstown Primary, Cecil Street, Melbourne
• Hobart: 25th and 28th of September
• Launceston: 1st and 2nd of October.
• Sydney: 21 and 22 September.

We are investigating running these workshops in Sydney on the 21st and 22nd of September and in Brisbane on the 14th and 21st of August. At this stage we have not confirmed venues, if your school would be happy to host these days your school will receive a free participant to attend the 2 day workshop. Contact me on lynda.page@ansn.edu.au if your school is interested in hosting the workshops on these set dates.

* every registered participant receives a free 2Simple software (software program for early readers and writers) valued at $88.

Download the flyer and registration form below.

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develop_readers_03.pdf	3.48 MB