Guides: Education Support and Childcare: Literacy

eBooks

English as an Additional Language in Practice: Supporting the Language and Communication Skills in the Early Years (2019) English as an Additional Language in Practice aims to help educators and students to feel more confident in their knowledge and ability to support children who are new to learning English.

Scholarly Articles

Approaches to teaching low literacy refugee-background students. This paper presents an investigation of the approaches to teaching low-literacy refugee-background students reported by 61 teachers in Victorian secondary schools in receipt of targeted funding.
Australian Journal of Language and Literacy The research journal of the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association is directed at Australian and overseas audiences whose research interests range from early childhood to adult literacy education.
Developing a competency-based of language skills and literary abilities in the primary school This study wants to reveal the competency-based development of language skills and literary abilities in the primary school (PS) and the influencing factors.
The Effects of Special Education Support on Young Australian School Students This article, calls into question the effectiveness of special education services for the majority of Australian students with additional needs.
Professional learning in a scaffolded 'multiliteracies book club': Transforming Primary teacher participation This qualitative case study explored how one group of seven public primary schoolteachers from outer metropolitan WA, collaboratively transformed their literacy learning during a scaffolded 'multiliteracies book club'.
Touching the virtual, touching the real: iPads and enabling literacy for students experiencing disability. This paper discusses the potential of iPads for supporting literacy learning in special education.

Websites

ABC - Education ABC Education brings you high-quality educational content to use at home and in the classroom. All our resources are free and mapped to the Australian Curriculum, covering English, Maths, Science, Geography, History, The Arts and Technologies, including STEM.
Auslan Storybooks Enter the magical world of Auslan Storybooks. Here you will see "books" of stories - in Auslan. Deaf and hearing people of all ages who use Auslan can enjoy a wide range of stories.
Autism: Education, Play & Work. "At raisingchildren.net.au, we provide parents and carers with free, reliable, scientifically validated information. This information helps parents and carers keep their children healthy and developing well."
Autism Awareness Australia Educational Resources "Free, credible, evidenced-based resources for people on the autism spectrum."
Autism Spectrum Disorder -- Reading Pockets Information and resources to help children from K-3 who are on the Autism Spectrum.
ClickView - Primary English Resources A collection of English Resources for primary school students, including videos and lesson plans.
Developing lliteracy Suitable for children 0-8 years of age, this page provides information about literacy for those n early life.
Down Syndrome Australia -- Education Toolkit "The Down Syndrome Federation is made up of State and Territory associations providing support, information and resources to people with Down syndrome and their families across the country."
Dyslexia -- Reading Pockets "Learn about the early warning signs for dyslexia, common myths, and how to help children with dyslexia become successful readers."
Dyslexia SPELD Foundation Tip Sheets Some Tip Sheets for educators put together by the DSF.
English for the Australian Curriculum A collection of resources that have been put together to align with the Australian Secondary Curriculum.
Stepping Out Literacy A collection of resources that provides teaching materials literacy. Aimed at students Years 6-10.
FUSE -- English Resources for Primary School Children From FUSE - Education and Training, Victoria State Government.
Learning Potential For school students aged 5-18 years of age, this page contains a massive amount of resources to support child learning.
Learning Resources by Year Level A collection of resources to help students learning in a remote environment. For levels K-12.
Literacy Hub "The Literacy Hub is all about helping young students to develop their skills and knowledge to become confident, creative and enthusiastic learners."
Literacy Matters! The Literacy Matters! portal is for teachers, librarians and researchers to use for advocacy and research purposes on the importance of literacy and reading.
Preschoolers: play & learning Developing literacy and reading activities for children ages 3-5 years.
Primary Connections Linking science and literacy, "Primary Connections offers a suite of units across Foundation to Year 6 that fully align to all strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science."
Reading and Spelling Compiled by the Dyslexia Foundation, this site contains detailed information about how to improve students' ability to read and spell.
Social Stories "Social stories explain social situations to autistic children and help them learn ways of behaving in these situations."
Western Australian Curriculum - English The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of Language, Literature and Literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands.
Written Expression To learn all the skills necessary for written expression, a highly structured, explicit, systematic teaching approach is needed with many opportunities for students to practise and apply learned skills.

Videos

Primary English: Speaking and Listening Activities Three teachers share their great lesson ideas for speaking and listening activities to engage and challenge their pupils.
Early Childhood: Language and Literacy The exploration of writing in an early childhood classroom is based on encouragement while understanding that we are not forcing that development but supporting it.
Early Words This YouTube channel helps families build the skills children need for reading and writing.
Teaching Literacy "This video demonstrates that with a little creativity, learning to read and write can be fun. Whole class and small group activities include shared and guided reading, learning centers, rephrasing, reinforcement, and summarizing."
Vocab in Action "This program takes viewers to visit schools that use smart, fun, and engaging strategies to build students' vocabulary and boost their knowledge of the key words they need to know for the Common Core State Standards"
Speech and Language Strategies Video demonstrating the key strategies used to enable children with severe speech and language difficulties to successfully return to mainstream schooling.
Talk to Write 3: Developing a Story Together "A mixed Year 5 class from Pegasus School in East Oxford and partner school, local top prep school The Dragon, listen to a story. Paired-up pupils then draw story maps of key points in the narrative."

Books

Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy (2014) Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy explores what it means to be a literacy educator in the 21st century.
Live, Love and Learn (2013) Live, Love and Learn, provides an intriguing and highly accessible guide to how young children learn and how you can support their learning.
Language and Literacy for the Early Years (2013) This book discusses language acquisition and development and covers development theory, talking with babies and the factors that affect development.
Literacy, Language and Early Childhood Education (2020) Third edition focuses on language and literacy development in children from birth to age eight, with a particular emphasis on four to eight year olds.
Reading Success in the Early Primary Years (2023) Written by a teacher, for teachers, this book supports teachers to understand the evidence base of reading instruction and how to successfully implement it.

Junior Fiction Books

101 Collective Nouns (2017) A beautifully illustrated picture book featuring 101 full-colour animal illustrations, each with its very own collective noun
Alison Lester's abc starring Alice and Aldo (2006) Affectionate and funny, Alison Lester's ABC gives a vivid picture of a child's daily adventures.
Slinky Malinky, open the door (2012) Slinky Malinki and Stickybeak Syd are partners in crime, around the house when their owners are out one day.
The speedy sloth (2022) THE GREAT RACE was here! The other sloths said it couldn't be done, but Spike didn't care, she was ready to run!
Cranky the crocodile (2009) Crocodiles are scary animals but not so in this picture storybook, told from the viewpoint of a very small croc.

Technology in the Classroom

Assistive Technology Find information and resources about assistive technology that can help kids with language-based learning disabilities become stronger readers and writers
Assistive Technology Resources There are a number of resources freely available to assist with selecting appropriate assistive technology and utilising assistive technology effectively.
Bring the World This video gives educators strategies on how to use technology to connect classrooms across schools, districts and borders.
Dictation and Screen Readers Allowing the use of assistive technology, we can reduce some of the difficulties that students may face when being asked to read and process large amounts of text and when asked to complete written tasks and assessments.
Learning with Interactive Whiteboards This program introduces the interactive whiteboard, explains how it works, and demonstrates specific ways it can be used in the classroom.
Non-Educational Tech This video gives educators strategies on how to adapt and use non-educational technology in their classroom.
Using Microsoft Learning Tools Learning tools are designed to support decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension and writing skills by providing the user with additional user options.
Western Australian Curriculum - Technologies Curriculum information on Technologies: "Technologies can play an important role in transforming, restoring and sustaining societies and natural, managed and constructed environments."