When her students’ vocabulary standards started to slip, this teacher took parents into class

Originally published on The Sydney Morning Herald by Lucy Carroll

When teacher Stephanie Salazar saw vocabulary standards slipping in the primary years at her Cherrybrook school she decided to take parents into class.

After months of lockdown triggered mass classroom disruption, Salazar knew it was vital to stop results dipping further. Her solution was to hold “parent masterclasses” in the hall at John Purchase Public School, where she explained to dozens of parents how literacy, reading and vocabulary is taught to their children in the earliest primary years.

Teacher Stephanie Salazar held “parent masterclasses” to explain how literacy, reading and vocabulary is taught to their children in the earliest primary years. CREDIT:OSCAR COLMAN

“Our check-in assessment data was showing that in vocabulary we were falling behind when compared to similar schools; it wasn’t an area we were focusing enough on in our teaching. Spelling practice across our years was also inconsistent,” she says.

“We modelled to parents how we teach reading, what the kids will be reading throughout term, and ran workshops where parents did role play and pretended to be teachers themselves. We explained that having parents model their love of reading makes the biggest difference to students.”

Salazar has been a teacher at John Purchase for nine years and is now an assistant principal at the school where more than 75 per cent of parents have a language background other than English.

Last year she lured 80 parents into a face-to-face vocabulary masterclass, and in 2020 ran a spelling workshop for 100 parents to demonstrate how students are taught phonics and help give them confidence to help their children at home.

“We spoke a lot about what a logophile is, and how to love language. It got parents got excited about learning new words,” Salazar said.

The assistant principal – who originally studied accounting at Macquarie University before switching to education – is one of 12 Australian teachers, two of whom are from NSW, acknowledged in this year’s Commonwealth Bank teaching awards that was run in a partnership with Schools Plus.