Practicum problems

I am trying to organize my second and final practicum for Term 2 2008. I had wanted to go to Belmore Boys High School but it is proving difficult to contact people there after numerous phone calls and emails. I have therefore submitted another application this time for Mosman High School, Kingsgrove High School and Marrickville High School. I hope I hear from the practicum office soon about this problem.
On this issue I have been re-reading some of my assessments from the last practicum and taking on board some of the issue mentioned by practicum supervisors. One in particular was on classroom management practices. I intend to review the material about this from the course last year so I have some techniques under my belt. I am continually watching teachers for tips, trick and tactics in this matter!

On other matters, have done my first posting to the forums for Literacies for Learning using some of the information I have been exploring for the Harvard Online Education Course - Teaching for Learning. I will post my answers here so I can look back on them at the end of course to see if I still agree or not!

We were asked:
1. What do you see as being meant by being literate?
2. How do you think literacy is developed?
3. What is the role of literacy in learning?

What is Literacy?
Since beginning the Harvard Online Teaching and Learning Course (available at
I have been thinking a lot about the term 'understanding' and why it should be of central importance for teaching. Literacy is part of this concept of understanding as to be literate means being able to interpret, explore, analyze, communicate, represent, reciprocate, question, repeat and instruct. A literate person could be said to be one who may do all of these things with given information.

How is literacy developed?
Literacy can be developed by exposure to different forms of communication, e.g. speech, written words & images. Such exposure would involve direct instruction, modelling, practice through repetition, and personal exploration of meaning.

Role of Literacy
The role of literacy in learning is central because it is the basis of understanding. Understanding might refer to the way in which knowledge is received and understood and then applied to different situations. It can develop through application of concepts to real life situations, by learning from others via demonstrations or explanations, through experimentation and from repeated application of concepts or techniques in different situations at different times. In order to work through this series of steps, one must be able to decipher codes and communicate information. This is where literacy comes in.

More soon