Teachers from St Bernard’s Primary School, Batemans Bay, have been implementing instructional teaching practices to improve the literacy outcomes of students from Kindergarten to Year 6.

Using programs such as ‘Spelling Mastery’ and ‘Let’s Decode’, teachers have been delivering evidence-based reading and spelling instruction to help their students learn specific language skills and grow their understanding of phonics and spelling.

After participating in training with Associate Professor, Dr Lorraine Hammond, St Bernard’s staff have been collaborating and sharing resources to ensure all classrooms are working from the same knowledge base.

Teachers have been using a specific technique to check for student understanding, known as the TAPPLE method.

TAPPLE requires teachers to:

1. Teach first.
2. Ask a question.
3. Pause, then pair-share.
4. Pick a non-volunteer.
5. Listen.
6. Effective feedback.

This method, combined with a Daily Review process (the high impact practice of retrieving previously learned content), has seen students at St Bernard’s further develop their literacy skills.

Kindergarten teacher, Sarah Davis, planned an interactive noun lesson that involved using tone and connecting body gestures to the definition of nouns to aid students’ memory and recall. She used the TAPPLE method to teach the concept first, then asked her students to name the nouns without instruction.

Similarly, Year two teacher, Jane Hardman, used the TAPPLE method to teach compound words. She instructed her students to sound out sentences before testing them individually on the definition of compound words.

Principal Johanna Wain, said the teaching approach has already delivered improved learning outcomes and active participation - with a noticeable uplift in student engagement.

“Both teachers and leaders have benefited from this program and are highly motivated to continue implementing high impact teaching strategies in all classrooms,” she said.