This year at Depth Stage, each Year 9 and 10 student is being provided with Literacy and Numeracy support in the form of one Literacy and one Numeracy period per cycle. The strategic, explicit teaching of literacy skills is vital to improve the literacy of our young men and support them to achieve success in their learning and in their lives. Our Literacy periods involve your sons working through a program utilising Associate of Melbourne University Dr Professor John Munro’s, High Reliability Literacy Teaching Procedures. Marcellin began a partnership with Dr Munro in 2019 to support the Literacy needs of our students across Depth and Breadth Stage of Polaris. Further information around Dr Munro’s work can be found at: The Effective Teaching of Literacy - Victorian Government website.
Your sons will also be using the online learning system Literacy Planet which students will have access to in March. Feel free to look at the site attached.
Below is an outline of the Numeracy periods at Depth Stage as shared by Laura Fordham, Mathematics Learning Leader.
“At its heart, targeted teaching is based on the collection and use of evidence of each
student’s learning to identify how best to advance each student.”
Numeracy is one of the foundational literacies of the Polaris learning ecosystem. All students at Depth Stage will be allocated one period of Numeracy per cycle. The Mathematics Department aim to improve student learning outcomes in Numeracy and Mathematics through high impact teaching strategies, supported by evidence and a data driven approach. This will be done through the SMART testing platform with a key focus each term. These SMART tests are designed as Specific Mathematics Assessments that Reveal Thinking.
In 2019, the Year 9 Mathematics Team were involved in Catholic Education’s Targeted Teaching in Secondary Mathematics Program. This program provided great insight into the use of these diagnostic tests and a targeted teaching method that enables teachers to develop students’ thinking and eliminate their misconceptions. The involvement in 2019 provided some excellent data and growth in student learning outcomes and as such, will be used as the basis to the Numeracy Program.
The process for each term will be as follows:
- Diagnostic Testing through SMART tests.
- Analysis of student data through SMART tests, MP and PAT testing.
- Targeted Teaching
- Post Testing through SMART tests.