Using the NSW Literacy continuum K-10

In Australia, the Melbourne Declaration provides the broad goals of education:  

Australia values the central role of education in building a democratic, equitable and just society—a society that is prosperous, cohesive and culturally diverse, and that values Australia’s Indigenous cultures as a key part of the nation’s history, present and future.
Melbourne Declaration¹

Within these goals, the value of literacy is prioritised in the Australian Curriculum, being described as the intrinsic and interdependent relationship between social context, meaning and language.

As a concept and a practice, literacy is a horizon rather than a destination. We are never literate enough. Nor is literacy ever finished or complete. Literacy is fluid, slippery, multiple, and context-dependent… literacy is made flesh as it is embodied and enacted with real people and in real contexts, thus producing real outcomes and real contexts in the worlds we live in. Literacy, as ever, matters.
Miller and Schultz, in English in Australia, Vol 49 No 3 2014 p.78

Literacy is not language specific and nor is literacy the same as the study of a language which is a different academic field.

For support and advice about planning for the study of the subject English, please refer to the NSW DoE Implementing new curriculum website.²

The following resources provide the basis for quality literacy teaching and learning in all subjects K-12 in NSW DoE schools.

Literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate meaning through
reading and writing, listening and speaking, viewing and representing.
Policy statement 1.1.1 NSW Literacy K–12 Policy, 2007

This definition appears to be a simple one. However, we know that literacy is not a simple issue. The complexity in this definition lies in two of these two elements of literacy itself - the purposes for literacy, and the modes of communication used.

Explore this definition in Activities 1a and 1b below.

Activity 1a Purposes for literacy

Activity 1b Modes of communication

Activity 2 Literacy in the syllabuses

Literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate meaning through
reading and writing, listening and speaking, viewing and representing.
Policy statement 1.1.1 NSW Literacy K–12 Policy, 2007

It is clear that the modes of communication are used differently in each subject. This difference is because of the varied ways that students are required to understand and evaluate meaning.

It is precisely this that makes the literacy of each subject unique. As Professor Peter Freebody describes it, literacy is ‘put to work’ differently in each subject.

Therefore, literacy needs to be explicitly taught within the context of each subject. The responsibility of teachers to do this is clearly articulated in the NSW literacy policy:

Teachers K-12, across all key learning areas, are responsible for the teaching and learning of literacy skills, knowledge and understandings.
Policy statement 1.2.6 NSW Literacy K-12 Policy, 2007

Literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate meaning through
reading and writing, listening and speaking, viewing and representing.
Policy statement 1.1.1 NSW Literacy K–12 Policy, 2007