Remedial and Support Teachers' Association
of Queensland

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Integrating literacy information for appraisement purposes

From DAVID WATERWORTH (Support Teacher Appraisement for the six Brisbane Districts of Geebung, Bayside, Corinda, Mt Gravatt, Murrumba Downs and Stafford)

David writes:

Hi everyone - I hope that all is progressing well as schools take up the challenges of more effective teaching and learning. I also hope that the following information which has been taken out of the Appraisement Kit produced by Learning Difficulties, Education Queensland will be of value to you:

1. Please note that the referral for appraisement form should be filled in from the beginning of the process. The form has four sections. Each section needs to be actioned as necessary - see Appraisement Handbook p 16 (Purple covered book). Some schools appear to be leaving the filling in of the form till the end of the process. This may lead them open to litigation if the process is not followed correctly.

2. Some STLDs appear to be having serial appraisement meetings - where they meet with each participant one at a time and get them to sign the form as they go. This defeats the whole purpose of having a meeting. Please see Appraisement Handbook p 43 for the core participants of the Appraisement meeting.

The Appraisement process has been designed to incorporate best practice, produce better learning outcomes for our target population, and protect us from litigation. It needs to be followed correctly. Remember - this year Appraisement is mandatory.

3. I have attached a brief PowerPoint presentation to refresh your memories about the process. This could be used for ten minutes at a staff meeting - it may have been some time since staff were in serviced. Many thanks to Glenda Hornby who produced it.

4. I have attached two RARs one for reading (MS Word) and the other for writing (MS Word) which I wrote last week in conjunction with an STLD. These are offered because people have been asking me for samples. They are not set us a paradigms of perfect practice, but may contain ideas which are of use to you. Please use judiciously.

Refer to the Literacy Task Manual pp 68 ff & the Numeracy Task Manual pp68 ff for further comments on completing RARs.

5. Lastly - an idea from Gaynor Couchman - when recording the comprehension from the oral retell - use two colours of biro to mark the recall guide at the bottom of the page - eg red for details remembered without prompting, blue for details remembered after being questioned.

Keep up the good work - thank you for your professionalism and your willingness to share.