Parent/carer information

Hi, I'm Kath and my daughter Isabella is in year 8.

The way in which Isabella has developed skills

like reading and spelling has happened step by step.

She's gone from reading a picture book, to then a short story

and before we know it she's on to poetry and Shakespeare.

And obviously, this all happens gradually and over a long period of time,

but the way in which she develops those comprehension and reading skills

usually happens in a certain order.

In the learning progressions, these skills are set out in the order that most

students acquire them.

The progressions for literacy and numeracy are available

for anyone to view on the Australian Curriculum website.

The learning progressions give me an idea of how literacy develops.

For example, one of the sections talks about identifying relevant details or

finding specific details in texts.

Just the other day Isabella was reading an article on the internet after school

and we'd seen an item on TV about some endangered animals that were

threatened by floodwaters.

And I asked Isabella if there had been any developments in terms of rescuing

them?

Before she answered, I could see her skim read the text, looking for the specific

information she needed to answer the question.

It really wasn't that long ago that she needed a lot of help sorting through

unnecessary information to actually find the specific information needed.

So I can see just in her everyday activities like watching TV or or reading an

article online,

that she is starting to identify relevant details or find specific details in text,

and that's something I can encourage in our everyday family life.

I also think it will help as she moves through high school

and has a lot more homework from a lot more subjects.

The learning progressions were developed for use in schools

and as teachers become more familiar with the progressions,

they may be useful in parent/teacher conversations.

So if a teacher now tells me that Isabella is pretty good at forming opinions

on the things she's learning at school, like voting or protecting rainforest,

but that she still needs help organising her thoughts

or backing up her opinions with evidence, then this gives me a lot

more information to work with to understand her literacy learning.

In a sense, it helps take some of the mystery out of literacy development.

For example, I can refer to the progressions and see where certain skills might

be located.

I can look back a few levels and see some of the sorts of skills

that Isabella's already mastered.

But I can also look forward in the levels and see the sorts of skills

she might be developing over the next few months.

So in a few months time, if I ask Isabella what she thinks of the Government's

efforts

to protect endangered species, then I can see from the answer that she gives

that she's developing well in her literacy learning.

Hi, I'm David and my son Harry's in Year 1.

David has been using the National Literacy and Numeracy Learning Progressions on the Australian Curriculum website

to understand more about his son's numeracy development.

I used to think about numeracy as just counting,

but the learning progressions have helped me to understand

that there are many other numeracy skills my some will be developing,

even in his first couple of years of school.

For example, I now know who be measuring and sorting and recognising patterns.

When I glance through the early levels of the numeracy progressions,

I could recognise things my son does in everyday life,

which I wouldn't have previously linked to numeracy.

Like estimating how many times he would need to fill his water bottle to fill out the dog's water bowl.

Parents may use the progressions to get a snapshot of their child's progress in numeracy.

Once they develop some familiarity with them, they may see some opportunities

to support their child's numeracy development, utilising fun, everyday opportunities.

Sometimes Harry tells me about what he's been doing in school

by talking about the shapes of buildings or following directions to navigate his way around the playground.

I can now see how these activities are involved in his numeracy development.

Because the sub-elements in the progressions mention things

like positioning and locating and understanding geometric properties.

Harry and I love building with Lego

and I can see many of the things that we do with Lego, like estimating

numbers of bricks or choosing bricks with a particular shape and angle,

these things are all helping with these numeracy skills.

The points in the numeracy progression give me a sense of my son's level.

I can scroll through to the next level

to understand the sorts of things he'll be learning next.

Like using the words left and right to describe where something is.

So when we're driving to soccer,

I might ask him, is the red car on our left or our right?

Which leg do you mostly kick with? Or how many players are in your team?

Just things like that.

The progressions have made me more aware of opportunities for quick and simple games,

we can all do in our everyday family life to support Harry's numeracy development.

How does my child learn to spell?

How does my child learn to write?

How does my child learn listening skills?

How does my child learn speaking skills?

How does my child learn to read and understand texts?

How does my child learn additive strategies?

How does my child learn multiplicative strategies?

How does my child learn to use percentages?

How does my child learn to use money?

How does my child learn to measure?

How does my child learn to interpret and represent data?

Parents and carers can use the learning progressions to understand their child’s level of literacy and numeracy, and the next steps in their learning.

Parents and carers can use the learning progressions to help their child with homework tasks by identifying the kinds of literacy and numeracy skills their child is using. Children frequently use literacy and numeracy in everyday life; for example, to read instructions for a toy or add up scores in a game. By scanning the progressions, parents and carers can identify the literacy and numeracy skills their children are using.

For example, a parent/carer working with a child in the early years of school might read a story to their child, who then repeats parts of the story. A scan through the “Understanding texts” sub-element of the Literacy learning progression would give them a snapshot of how their child is doing with comprehension and vocabulary.

A parent/carer of a child in later primary school years might be helping their child to develop a savings plan to buy a new game. The parent/carer and child might agree on ways that the child could earn money and how much they would need to save over a number of weeks. In some weeks, the child might earn a bit extra and then adjust the amount they need to earn for the remaining weeks. Looking at the “Additive strategies” and ”Multiplicative strategies” sub-elements of the Numeracy learning progression could help the parent/carer get a sense of the types of numeracy skills their child would be using to complete their savings plan.