Date and time

Tuesday 20 June 2023, 9.00 am to 12.00 pm

Delivery mode

Online – a Zoom link will be provided 24 hours prior to the event

Audience

Upper Primary Teacher, Secondary Teacher, School Leader, Teacher looking to improve reading in all subject areas

Description

This session is based on the book Practical Reading Strategies and explores effective activities for teaching reading. Practical Reading Strategies outlines 6 research-based strategies effective readers use to make meaning from texts.

This session will go through all six of the strategies: Making Connections, Visualising, Questioning, Inferring, Summarising, and Synthesising.

The session includes practical and engaging activities which not only improve results but also help to shift to a positive culture of reading in classrooms and schools.

“Leon has been an invaluable asset in supporting our team in challenging preconceived assumptions about the way to approach teaching texts in an English classroom and increasing capacity and efficacy in aspiring for a more student-focused and skills-based method. His manner is approachable and engaging, and through providing a balance between theory and practical strategies, all teachers feel empowered to make change in their pedagogy." Clare Mackie – Haileybury Head of English and Victorian Academy Master Teacher of English.

Key takeaways

• strategies for making connections to encourage students to engage with texts personally, and improve comprehension

• understanding of how visualising can help to break down complex and academic texts

• questioning techniques to encourage students to take control and interrogate texts

• awareness of how inferring enables students to read between the lines and decode increasingly complex texts

• summarising strategies to take students beyond simple paraphrasing and towards evaluation

• understanding of how synthesising pulls it all together, and allows students to make meaning from texts.

Presenter information

Leon Furze        

Leon Furze is a PhD student, experienced educator, consultant and educational writer. He is author of ‘Practical Reading Strategies’ and 'Practical Writing Strategies', and a VCE assessor. Leon provides professional learning and strategic planning for curriculum, literacy, and digital technologies.

Leon has taught English, Literature and Digital Technologies in Australia and the UK for over fifteen years, and was formerly Director of Learning and Teaching at Monivae College Hamilton. In 2016 he completed his Master of Education at the University of Melbourne, focusing on how Professional Learning can mitigate the risk of burnout in teachers.

His PhD is focused on Artificial Intelligence in education, and particularly the impact large language models like GPT will have on writing.

Link(s) to relevant VRQA Standards 

• Curriculum and Student Learning – Student learning outcomes
• The minimum standards for schools offering a senior secondary course – Student learning outcomes