Winmalee High School

A positive education and positive behaviour for learning school

Telephone02 4754 2822

Emailwinmalee-h.school@det.nsw.edu.au

Literacy

A learning and responding matrix (ALARM)

A learning and responding matrix (ALARM) is a school-wide teaching and learning system that develops students' extended writing skills by detailing the specific steps they should follow when completing assessment tasks. ALARM not only allows for explicit quality teaching and learning but also explicit consistent feedback. Winmalee High School is dedicated to the implementation of ALARM as it facilitates the creation of 21st century thinkers and learners.

The ALARM Literacy Program is supported by Super 6 strategies. 

Super Six Life Savers

The Super 6 strategies; Connect, Predict/Infer, Question, Monitor, Visualise and Summarise/Evaluate are the key strategies used by confident readers. Research has shown that those with strong comprehension skills automatically use these strategies when they came across difficult words or sections. 

The Super 6 skills are a toolkit for learning that all students can employ to improve their reading, understanding and learning in the classroom. Posters in every classroom refer to the Super 6 as “Lifesavers” as they can be applied by students at any time to assist their reading comprehension and learning.

Winmalee High School teachers use these metacognitive strategies in all learning and subject areas. Essentially, students are taught how to use these tools before, during and after reading or approaching new information.

The strategies work well across all KLAs because they actually promote THINKING and LEARNING, not just reading comprehension. For example, research has shown that if we CONNECT, PREDICT and QUESTION as we approach a new topic, we learn much more deeply.

In addition, if students “switch on” while reading and “actively process” text, they will remember the information later. Research consistently highlights the necessity for active processing – just writing down notes will not push the information into long term memories – students need to “make it their own” to remember it. The Super 6 skills promote active processing while reading AND individualised note making after reading – thus they truly support all students in preparing for exams and assessment tasks.