Deborah Prescott

I'm attempting to find journal articles or papers on effective talk between literacy tutors and students. I'm working with students and teachers in the Torres Strait, far north Queensland, Australia so am particularly interested in indigenous contexts. Thanks for any suggestions. Debbie

Thanks for all your excellent suggestions. In South Australia I used music as a focus for literacy which was meant to make classes more appealing and motivating to young people. One of the activities was following along with the words on sheet music. It forced the students to read quite quickly and, although the words were written from left to right, their eyes needed to jump down the page more than the usual amount of space. It was a new sensation that made them comment. I did a lot of reading about accelerated learning that may be a memorising aid that Andrew mentioned and left and right brain activity, rhyming, etc. The evidence all seemed to be anecdotal but there was certainly that appeal for young people to bring in and share their music, write about it, research it and so forth. My presentation topic was Learning Along the Lines of Music at the ACAL conference in Melbourne. That attracted some interest from teachers, too! Debbie

I have a uni student who is trying to find resources to support her question: Can music technology enhance literacy and numeracy? She wants to link it to Bloom's Framework. Does anyone have any ideas on websites or journal articles? Thanks, Debbie

I am currently living on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait between far north Queensland and Papua New Guinea. I just started coordinating the Bachelor of Education (Secondary) for James Cook University here on TI. I taught adult literacy and ESL for 15 years before this. My husband and I lived and worked in various South Pacific countries. I want to be able to help my student teachers as much as I can so I am trying to choose high quality development opportunities for me and for them. I have found forums to be very useful for sharing ideas when we are in a remote and rural place like Thursday Island.