Oz Lit Teacher Blog

What The Research Really Says About Teaching Writing Jun 09, 2025

With so much debate and noise in the world of writing instruction, it’s hard to know what actually works. So when I had the chance to hear from the wo...

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Why Writing Histories Are Important Feb 04, 2024

Every writer has a 'writing history'.

This history is made up of all the positive and negative writing-related experiences we’ve had in our lives.

...
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Why I Don't Model Lessons For Teachers Nov 12, 2023

My husband and I recently commenced Operation Work-Off-The-Croissants.

Historically, these types of operations were running-based, but due to ongoing...

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The Problem With Mentor Texts Oct 29, 2023

Mentor texts are pieces of writing you can hold up as good in-practice examples for students.

They enable you to ‘show’ your students, rather than ‘t...

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5 Steps To Improving Your School's NAPLAN Writing Data Aug 11, 2023

The NAPLAN data is out and ‘paralysis-by-item-analysis’ has begun.

I remember the days of looking at item analysis spreadsheets with hundreds of colu...

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The Critical Key To Improving Student Writing Data Jul 30, 2023

It’s NAPLAN results time.

The time when teachers and leadership teams want to know how to improve their student data in the most efficient and effect...

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How To 'Marie Kondo' Your Assessment Schedule May 23, 2021

When my husband and I moved from Bendigo to Melbourne, I distinctly remember the removalist saying that if there’d been ‘one more box of bloody bo...

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Why 'Less Is More' In Genre Instruction Apr 25, 2021

Being a writer has been a lifelong dream of mine.

From a young age, I’d tell Mum and Dad I was going to be an author, an illustrator and a teach...

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4 Steps For Navigating Towards Literacy Success Feb 28, 2021

My husband and I enjoy rogaining (long distance orienteering that requires a minimum of two people per group).

It’s not just the fact that i...

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A Crucial First Step In Improving Writing Instruction Jan 17, 2021

I love a good inspirational quote.

My childhood gymnastics coach, Mr Palmer, introduced them to me. You couldn’t even go to the bathroom in his ...

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