14 Jun Congratulations to the 23 Literacy Centre Graduates!
Twenty-three students from Central, South, Kin Kora and West State Schools have broken new ground.
‘Multlit” was introduced to our community in 2001, with the emphasis on enhancing and increasing the literacy skills of students. ‘Multilit,’ is the face-to-face reading tutor program devised by the Macquarie University Special Education Centre.
’MacqLit’ replaced ‘Multilit,” in 2017, to maintain best practice for our students
‘MacqLit’, is the latest fit for purpose, proven Macquarie literacy program for small group instruction. The Teacher-in-Charge and the Teacher Aide prepared for the change with two days of intensive training.
‘MacqLit’ enables two groups of 12 students to be taught intensive literacy skills each day. Parents bring the first group of 12 children to the intensive 6 x 20-minute program beginning at 8.40 am. These 12 students are split into two or three groups of two to six students, who have similar test results.
Each group has 3 x 20 minute separate periods of intense, focused work with a teacher. Also, each student has 20 minutes with a trained reading tutor, 20 minutes of independent study and 20 minutes with the online interactive comprehension program ‘Read Theory’ before returning to their schools at 11.00 am.
The next group arrives by taxi from their schools at 11.30 am, when the same intense teaching is repeated and they return to their schools by taxi at 2.00 pm. All their written work is marked on the day and corrected by the students the following day.
‘MacqLit’ is a fast-paced program, relying heavily on the support of everybody involved to enable the children to extract the maximum benefit. We particularly thank the parents, who shared their time listening to their children read at home. Enthusiastic parents make a huge difference to children’s learning.
Our thanks, to Bruce Hunt from the Rotary Club of Gladstone South, who co-ordinates a once-a-week mentoring program, at 11.00 am on Wednesdays The program gives the youngsters a chance, during their lunch break, to rub shoulders with people they are otherwise unlikely to meet. Mentors gain an insight into the role the “MacqLit” Centre plays in our community.
These are the letters written by the students, together with the results of their time at the “MacqLit” Centre. The results demonstrate the importance of good attendance for great outcomes
The “MacqLit” Centre will be based at Calliope Primary School from July 2017 with the next students from Calliope, Tannum Sands and Benaraby.
Chris Tanner
Gladstone Literacy Centre
