NAPLAN tests for Years 7 and 9 will be held Tuesday 14 - Friday 24 May 2019

NAPLAN is made up of tests in four areas:

Reading
Writing
Language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation)
Numeracy

The Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment(OLNA) commences next week in all WA secondary schools. The assessment is designed to enable students to successfully meet the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) requirement of demonstrating the minimum standard of literacy and numeracy.

The Clarkson CHS Literacy Support website below provides our Year 10 students with access to mock OLNA tests and examples of effective writing.  Practise lots this weekend!
 
https://sites.google.com/view/lscchs/olna

Joanne Davies was Second in Charge of Learning Area of English and HaSS, intermittently Acting Head of Department at Clarkson Community High School in 2018. She started her journey at Clarkson as a student in 2002 and graduated in 2007. She wrote this article for Education Today magazine, which was published February 2019.

Hattie is renowned for his philosophy on ‘Visible Teaching and Learning’. He states that ‘accomplishing the maximum impact on student learning depends on teams of teachers working together, with excellent leaders or coaches, agreeing on worth-while outcomes, setting high expectations, knowing the students’ starting and desired success in learning, seeking evidence continually about their impact on all students, modifying their teaching in light of this  evaluation, and joining in the success of  truly making a difference to student out-comes.’ (Hattie, 2012). The Visible Teaching and Learning theory is grounded upon an analysis of hundreds of meta-analyses determining the effect size of numerous influences on student achievement.

Hattie, in collaboration with Klauz Zierer, defined and articulated 10 approaches to thinking that educators can adopt to maximise student outcomes (Hattie & Zierer, 2018).

John Young, Principal of Clarkson Community High School, has seen the difference visible learning makes. At Clarkson the faculty and staff are continuously propounding the question, how can we accelerate student learning? Our response to this query… an amalgamation of our research, shared beliefs, teaching and learning pedagogies and the use of data to inform instruction at a whole-school level, and at a classroom level. Young explains that “it is our belief that implementing Invitational Learning theory throughout every facet of our school has provided us with the best framework for success in re-culturing, re-structuring and re-timing of Clarkson Community High School” (2016).

To read the rest of this article please click here.

By Tom Jones, English and HaSS Head of Learning Area

Feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement – if you get it right. In 2019, alongside the 10 Mindframes, Clarkson CHS are embedding the thinking and practice from John Hattie and Shirley Clarke’s 2018 publication Visible Learning Feedback.The PowerPoint below offers a summary of each chapter from the text.
Visible Learning Feedback PowerPoint
 
In a February professional learning workshop, we explored the elements of a powerful school wide feedback culture and challenged ourselves to apply the elements to our practice in 2019. The workshop (See below) also served as an opportunity to observe and employ high impact instructional strategies led by Level 3 Classroom Teachers, Acting Deputy Principal Louise Hall and Head of Learning Area Thomas Jones.
Visible Learning Feedback: Building a Feedback Culture
 
In a recent Term One general staff meeting, teachers examined how they can enhance how they give effective student feedback. The main  section of the workshop examined how comments and grading impact learning. We present the workshop’s PowerPoint below.
Visible Learning Feedback: Post Lesson Feedback

In Week 4, our Year 7- 9 low literacy learners commence the WordFlyers programme to support their literacy development and their performance in May’s NAPLAN examination.
WordFlyers is a comprehensive online literacy program which brings students’ literacy skills up to standard in grammar, reading, comprehension, punctuation, vocabulary and writing.

The differentiated activities allow students to work at their ability, with a review level designed to bring struggling students up to standard.

https://wordflyers.com.au/

The Bell Shakespeare Theatre Company visited Clarkson CHS in Week Six to run a Macbeth Masterclass with our Year 10 students who are studying the play.

Caitlin Beresford-Ord, Arts Educator from Bell Shakespeare, had students explore Macbeth’s characters, events and themes through performance, acting games and costume.