Welcome to the website for Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy.
This site comprises a number of videos in which the authors of the book discuss the core themes and ideas presented in each chapter.
Video 1: Introduction
Brenton Doecke, Glenn Auld and Muriel Wells
In this video, the editors of Becoming a Teacher of Language and Literacy discuss some of the important ideas behind the book. They explain how each chapter is designed to give you, the reader, a wide range of prompts and readings to stimulate your thinking about issues related to language and literacy education. The editors also share how vignettes or stories from teachers in the field have been incorporated to illustrate the complexities and diversities of teacher practice.
Video 2: Guiding principles
Brenton Doecke, Glenn Auld and Muriel Wells
In this video, the editors outline the four guiding principles that underpin the book:
- Effective literacy teachers engage in ongoing reflective inquiry and dialogue about their practice.
- Literacy is an increasingly complex and contested concept, in part due to developments in technology and globalisation.
- Literacy learners are increasingly diverse in both their backgrounds and interests.
- Literacy pedagogy faces performative and community pressures (especially in the form of mandated literacy testing), requiring teachers to negotiate a number of competing demands.
Video 3: Introducing Chapter 2
Brenton Doecke and Glenn Auld
In this video, Brenton Doecke and Glenn Auld introduce you to Chapter 2 of the book: Engaging with tensions. They discuss the contributions of a number of teachers to this chapter, including the significant contribution of primary school teacher Rachel MacGilp, who writes in this chapter about the tensions she has experienced in her own professional life. The authors acknowledge that working with tensions is the norm but also provide strategies for dealing positively and effectively with these tensions.
Video 4: Professional learning
Muriel Wells
In this video, Muriel Wells discusses Chapters 3 and 4. She explains how teachers may approach their professional learning as reflective practitioners, drawing on the idea of a cycle of change (a concept similar to action research). In Chapter 4, she discusses examples of how teachers can use innovative practices and technologies to personalise their students’ learning.
Video 5: Texts and technologies
Glenn Auld
In this video, Glenn Auld discusses two chapters – Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 – and how these have been informed by sociocultural approaches to literacy and practices around new technologies. In exploring the social practices around texts and technologies, you might like to think about how these ideas may affect your own teaching practice.
Video 6: Introducing Chapter 8
Maria Nicholas
In this video, Maria Nicholas discusses some of the core ideas behind Chapter 8: Planning to teach. This chapter explores the importance of collaboration and reflective practice in contemporary literacy education. The authors stress that you are not on your own: as a teacher, you work within a team, and this can be an excellent way to address the issues and challenges you face in the classroom.