Using the NSW Literacy continuum K-10

The Literacy matrix assists school leaders to determine the level of professional knowledge in literacy and literacy practice across the school. It allows for the plotting of use and understanding of the NSW Literacy continuum K-10, and suggests pathways for professional learning.

You can access the Literacy matrix on the NSW DoE literacy support website¹.

Guidance with whole school planning using the NSW Literacy continuum K-10 is available at Getting started with the Literacy continuum K-10².

PLAN software³ K-10 supports teachers to record, analyse and monitor student progress through the Literacy and Numeracy continuums K-10.

The software is informed by the teaching and learning cycle, the Quality teaching in NSW document and the literacy and numeracy continuums K-10. Visit the support page for the continuums (requires DoE log in).

Download the Quality teaching in NSW document from Quality Teaching Resources⁴.

The Best Start Kindergarten assessment⁵ is a matching of each child’s skills in literacy and numeracy on entry to school. All Kindergarten students in DoE schools are assessed against the Literacy and Numeracy continuum markers.

This assessment provides guidance for teachers, and a starting point for each student’s literacy learning at school. Progress is then mapped using the PLAN software.

Language, Learning and Literacy - L3 Kindergarten (L3K)⁶ is a whole-stage Kindergarten intervention that supports the teachers of students who are at risk of not achieving expected literacy levels by the end of their first year of schooling.

Language, Learning and Literacy - L3 Stage 1⁷ is a whole stage quality teaching initiative that aims to build on students' literacy learning from Language, Learning and Literacy (L3K) in Kindergarten.

New Focus on Reading⁸ 3-6 is a literacy professional learning package for classroom teachers. It builds teachers' knowledge and strategies for the explicit teaching of reading and vocabulary in Stages 2 and 3, and can be extended to Stage 4. It focuses on the skills and strategies students require in order to access the increasingly complex texts they encounter in all subjects in the middle years.

Reading Recovery is a school based intervention offering special help to year 1 students (approximately six years old) to become better readers and writers. Reading Recovery is research-based, with the goal of accelerating literacy learning for those students performing in the lowest 20% of the year. The individual support for students is additional to classroom reading and writing.

This DoE network shares and builds literacy expertise across the secondary curriculum. It provides opportunities for interested teachers to lead literacy and curriculum across and within secondary schools.

During a research lesson in the library the students will work from a selection that includes both short and long texts, visuals, and multi-modal texts, all with context specific vocabulary.

• Jamal will work with a partner to generate questions about the text content. This will allow him to use his speaking and comprehension skills to further develop his reading.

• Harry is a little more independent so he will access a visual and a print text and compare the content.

• Anya will work with an audio-visual text to create a short summary. She then selects a print text to build upon her content knowledge.