Literacy & Numeracy

In the Australian Curriculum, students become literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use language confidently for learning and communicating in and out of school and for participating effectively in society.

Literacy involves students:

– listening

– speaking

– reading

– viewing

– writing

– creating oral, print, visual and digital texts

– using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts.

 

Literacy is the knowledge and skills students need to:

• access, understand, analyse and evaluate information
• make meaning
• express thoughts and emotions
• present ideas and opinions
• interact with others and participate in activities at school and in their lives beyond school.

Becoming literate is not simply about knowledge and skills. Certain behaviours and dispositions help students to become effective learners who are confident and motivated to use their literacy skills. These include:

• managing their own learning to be self-sufficient
• working harmoniously with others
• being open to ideas and opinions about texts from and about diverse cultures
• returning to tasks to improve and enhance their work
• being prepared to question the meanings and assumptions in texts.

The Literacy continuum has two overarching processes:

• Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
• Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating.

The following areas of knowledge apply to both processes:

• Text knowledge
• Grammar knowledge
• Word knowledge
• Visual knowledge.

 

In the Australian Curriculum, students become numerate as they apply the knowledge, skills and dispositions to use mathematics confidently across other learning areas at school and in their lives.

It involves students recognising and understanding the role of mathematics in the world and having the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully.

Numeracy is embedded across the curriculum, students have opportunities to transfer their mathematical knowledge and skills to contexts outside the mathematics classroom. This helps students recognise the interconnected nature of mathematical knowledge, other learning areas and the wider world, and encourages them to use their mathematical skills broadly.

The key ideas for Numeracy are organised into six interrelated elements:

• Estimating and calculating with whole numbers
• Recognise and using patterns and relationships
• Using fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates
• Using spatial reasoning
• Interpreting statistical information
• Using measurement