Bite-sized numeracy and literacy is the new "Mathematics" and "English".

Do you remember making a spaghetti bolognese for your children for dinner only to find yourself hiding chopped veges in the meat mixture?

"They'll never know", you said to yourself, both smugly and righteously at the same time. It was for the best.

Your rationale was simple: many children's palates aren't quite ready for the realness and texture of vegetables served plain. So, why not disguise them as something familiar, pleasant, and safe?

The same goes for literacy and numeracy. Sadly, these two words still sometimes strike fear into the hearts of our tamariki. 

Bite-sized literacy and numeracy is a space where traditional Maths and English get repackaged into real-world, day-to-day thinking — seamless, and very natural.

The idea is, that every curriculum area (or subject) is mathematical or literary in some way, and every teacher (without realising it) is teaching both.

This highlights that cross-curricula possibilities are endless in a collaborative teaching model.

In 2015, Te Amorangi Mātauranga Matua | Tertiary Education Commission published a literacy and numeracy implementation strategy to take place over four years. The idea that Aotearoa New Zealand needed far greater lit/num skills to better participate in the workforce and economy was noted.

More recently, the New Zealand governing party, National, as part of its incoming policy, saw literacy and numeracy as "the basics" that should have at least three hours per day at primary and intermediate level spent across reading, writing and mathematics.

Next term we will take a Professional Development focus on how to embed lit/num into classes.

Here are two useful sites to play around with these holidays. Both offer lots of lit/num opportunities for our online teaching spaces.

Google Earth

Google Earth's interface is browser-based, and works on Chromebooks. Previously it needed to be downloaded and was space-rich. You can use the measurement ruler right at the top.

Example: How far was Odysseus' journey anyway? What about  migration to Aotearoa?

Contexts: Literature, location of Troy/Gallipoli, navigation | matauranga Māori comparisons. ANZAC Day.

Random Word Generator

Warm up your online class with this tool. The Random Word Generator exercises the literacy muscles in any subject. No matter what word is generated, ākonga can respond either verbally or in written form, writing for one minute about the word, in the context of your subject area. Try it out!