Workshop
2 – The English Senior Secondary Teaching and Learning Guidelines – Robyn
Holding
Perhaps you have never heard of the
SSTLG?? Neither had I until the other
week when Robyn mentioned them on the English
Online listserve. I decided I had better come to her workshop and find out
what it’s all about. In the meantime I had a quick look at them on tki. You can
find the English SSTLG on Te Kete Ipurangi here.
So now, here I am and Robyn says there is
so much in the guidelines that it will make our heads spin….
Purpose
of the Guidelines
Basically to tease out the relationship
between the ‘front end’ of the NZ Curriculum document and the English
Achievement Objectives – the why and how of what we teach in our English
classrooms.
According to Robyn, SSTLG will be really
useful for staff teaching out of field or for overseas trained staff who are
familiar with the ‘front end’ of the NZ Curriculum document or have a good
knowledge of another Education system, but need to know what the NZC is going to
look like in the English classroom, with some examples (snapshots).
Rationale
for Studying English
How
do we answer the student who asks, “Why do we study English, Miss?”
My answers are:
- · We use English every day
- · We talk about the big questions
- · We want to tell our stories
- · We learn about life from others’ stories
- · It’s fun!
Our group’s final five:
- · Understand the world – big ideas
- · Experience new things safely
- · Express our ideas, thoughts, feelings
- · Develop communication and critical thinking skills
- · It’s fun, magical!
Ideas from other groups:
- · So we are not easily manipulated (not suckers!)
- · To understand the relationship between medium and message
- · To understand myself and my place in the world
- · To broaden our horizons and therefore our tolerance of difference.
- · To foster creativity, expression and joy.
And
- · To develop competency in the world through understanding and using English.
- · To develop compassion and understanding
- · To develop a sense of identity and follow your own interests
- · To develop critical thinking – in all areas of life
- · To have a good laugh (or cry)
This exercise made clear why the nine
people who did this for the SSTLG had trouble agreeing on the rationale which
ended up in the guide! You can find this
here.
Key
Concepts
Also in the SSTLG are the key concepts
in English, identified by English lecturers and teachers around the country,
(drumroll):
·
Identity
·
Communication
·
Story
·
Meaning
English
Achievement Objectives – the Strands
There is also a really good diagram which
tries to explain/portray/analyse and otherwise show the English strands – see here. I am going to copy this and put it up in my
classroom!
Pedagogy
The most important section of the SSTLG is
the section which focusses on pedagogy. This includes teacher stories (snapshots) showing how they have done things
in their teaching. I can’t give you the
link because we were seeing the beta version and it’s not up on the site yet.
But it does look good.
Thanks, Robyn!
So I have an idea what the English SSTLG
are all about now. I am thinking that:
·
They will be a great resource
for HODs who need to support someone teaching in the English curriculum area
for the first time;
·
They will be an excellent place
to start for someone who was familiar with the old English in the NZ Curriculum
document (the old ‘blue book’) but has been out of teaching for a while and
needs to get up to speed with the changes implemented in the new NZC;
·
For existing English staff who
have been living the implementation of NZC as it has happened, they will serve
as a good reminder and resource, particularly for the Effective Pedagogy
section (when it’s up) and teaching as inquiry. We could also be thinking about
contributing our own learning stories and examples of pedagogy for the
snapshots.
As an example of useful things spotted on
the English SSTLG, here’s a PD
resource you could use in your department meeting, showing the differences in
progression in the Ideas aspect between
Levels 6, 7 and 8 of the English curriculum, using Barack Obama’s ‘Yes, we can’
election victory speech.
Thanks, Robyn!
