• +64 21 232 6753
  • alisonshouldbewriting@gmail.com
  • Dunedin, New Zealand

CPa: Inquiry Pedagogy Through a Connected Curriculum [6]

Fleck (2019) poses the following questions that could be a starting point for developing a rich and meaningful, connected curriculum: What are the situations, problems, issues, trends, controversies, and events taking place within our world?   How is the rich idea relevant to real life? What is happening, has happened, and might happen… in our community, region, country, and world? Is…

Book: Evidence Based Primary Teaching

Glazzard, Jonathan & Stones, Samuel. Evidence Based Primary Teaching. 2021; Learning Matters. SAGE Publications. California. ISBN 9781529741932 Pg 1 Chapter 1: Early Years Pedagogy Key Research Child-initiated play, combined with the provision of teacher-initiated group work, is the most effective vehicle for learning. Practitioner intervention in children’s freely chosen play is an effective strategy for providing intellectual challenge. Welsberg et…

Socio group participatory norms

C&PA – Module one Socio group participatory norms Tamariki need to be explicitly taught how to engage productively in the practices outlined above in collaboration with their peers in their learning communities. Developing new social norms for productive collaboration is challenging and takes time. Sharing the responsibility for one another’s learning and having high expectations of each other go hand-in-hand. It is…

Books: Science Themes

Science-themed picture books to encourage children to explore and discover the world around them. From captivating stories of innovation and perseverance to engaging explorations of the natural world.
-Abigail and the birth of the sun
-Who Says Women Can’t Be Computer Programmers?
-New Zealand Wildlife: an adventure with Tana & Gemma
-Riki: The Royal Albatross Chick

Book: Teaching Vocabulary 

Cathy Blanchfield TEACHING VOCABULARY CREATIVELY Imelda Blanchfield Today’s researchers recommend integrating concept development with vocabulary teaching. Templeton and Pikulski (2000) have found that students learn concepts and vocabulary in the following four ways: . Relating known words to concepts. For example, a student learns the word cat and can refer not only to the familiar family pet but also to…

Book: Limitless Mind – Learn, Lead, and Live without barriers

From the moment we enter school as children, we are made to feel as if our brains are fixed entities, capable of learning certain things and not others, influenced exclusively by genetics. This notion follows us into adulthood, where we tend to simply accept these established beliefs about our skillsets (i.e. that we don’t have “a math brain” or that we aren’t “the creative type”). These damaging–and as new science has revealed, false–assumptions have influenced all of us at some time, affecting our confidence and willingness to try new things and limiting our choices, and, ultimately, our futures. Stanford University professor, bestselling author, and acclaimed educator Jo Boaler has spent decades studying the impact of beliefs and bias on education. In Limitless Mind, she explodes these myths and reveals the six keys to unlocking our boundless learning potential. Her research proves that those who achieve at the highest levels do not do so because of a genetic inclination toward any one skill but because of the keys that she reveals in the book. Our brains are not “fixed,” but entirely capable of change, growth, adaptability, and rewiring. Want to be fluent in mathematics? Learn a foreign language? Play the guitar? Write a book? The truth is not only that anyone at any age can learn anything, but the act of learning itself fundamentally changes who we are, and as Boaler argues so elegantly in the pages of this book, what we go on to achieve

Games & Ideas: Maths

Mind Reading Begin this trick by telling your child you can read minds. Ask them to think of any number. Any number will work, but you may want to warn your child that it may be easier for them if she chooses a small or even number. Tell your child to double the number. Add 10. Divide it in half….