Deslie Smith
“Teachers all say they feel like they are doing a better job of teaching literacy since
starting BSLA.”
As a Resource Teacher: Literacy Deslie Smith is always looking for ways to support teachers and their struggling readers.
“I decided to train to be a Better Start Literacy Approach facilitator because it is not only great professional development for me, but it is also an excellent way to strengthen the teaching knowledge and skills of teachers.
“The domino effect of this carries into the early literacy classroom where children are being taught robust foundational skills supported by excellent resources.”
Deslie says the microcredential course was not as time-consuming as she had imagined.
“The LEARN website has tips, examples, videos and readings to help at all stages of BSLA. Face-to- face workshops gave us the opportunity to see components in action.
“Facilitators have UC mentors who can answer questions or point you in the right direction. There is a discussion section on the home page and weekly Zoom meetings that are recorded if they cannot be attended. The UC team is available via email if needed, so there is plenty of support personnel.
“The Resource Kete provided to all facilitators and teachers is excellent. The resources include books, games, picture cards, bingo cards, letter blocks and letter cards in both upper-case and lower-case.”
Deslie says teachers are seeing rapid results in the classroom.
“The children are very quickly developing their phonemic skills along with segmenting and blending the words in the Phonics Plus books. They love these books because they can generally work out unknown words all by themselves now. They look quite proud when they get it!
“The range of supporting planning sheets, teaching resources and interactive games makes the lessons seamless, structured, varied and easily differentiated according to students’ learning needs.
“At the 10 week assessment point children’s scores have moved from 20-40% knowledge to over 80% across all tasks around phonological ability including non word reading and spelling tasks. The progress is accelerated which is exactly what we are aiming for.
“The children love the activities – especially the bingo games and the memory games using the picture or word cards to find the target initial phonemes. The repetition of activities means children can consolidate their learning and help each other at the same time. They love it.”