1. Cathy Gilbert (Foundation Level )
Glenn Hallett (Level 1 &2)
Rachel Meaden (Level3&4)

2. Reflections about our teaching practice from 2014
Oral Language was given a designated profile in the Junior School at Parkmore Primary in 2014.
CPOL program discussed at leadership level and with whole staff.
Resources shared across F-6
Oral language became a regular agenda item at our Junior collaborative meetings in order to best assess and explicitly teach the students in this area.
Oral language was planned in our planning documents the way we planned for reading and writing.
Our personal recordings led us to reflect on the importance of questioning techniques to promote detailed answers from the students and to reduce “teacher voice”.
All Foundation Level 1 and Level 2 students were assessed using the ICPALER oral language profile (brief) at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year.
An Individual Learning Plan was used with students who scored well below 2.5 on this profile.

3. Strategies to develop the oral language of our students.
Model and explicitly teach oral language.
Speak in full sentences .
Purchasing Big Books.
Link to Inquiry topics and English genres.
Use of Colourful Semantics. PL for the whole staff.
Planning documents to highlight the oral language teaching focus.
Use of assessment tools to collect measurable data.
Focus on teaching grammar through oral language.
Focus on teaching vocabulary as a tool to improve student comprehension.

4. What we observed in 2014
We made some connections between the increase in individual student’s oral language scores and their reading ability.
e.g. one Foundation student scored 2.2 on the initial assessment moving to 3.58 at the end of the year. That child’s RR level 1 moved to level 9 at the end of the year.
Students were more aware of answering in full sentences e.g. I choose this because …..Last weekend we……….. And this could easily be transferred to their writing with the use of Colourful Semantics.

5. Planning for 2015: New team in Junior school.
Collaborative planning and teaching to include a focus on Oral Language
Individual assessments using the oral language tools.
ILPs for some students.
Big Book focus for English
Specific teaching of vocabulary to assist comprehension.
Continued use of Colourful Semantics in writing.
Peer coaching around the teaching of oral language.
Further recordings of targeted teaching techniques and focus.
Recordings be discussed in team meetings.