Print-walking

A year 4 classroom teacher uses a locally-developed ‘print-walk’ strategy within a block of English literacy lessons to engage students in learning about pronouns. Students are encouraged to engage in a print-walk search the pronouns in the classroom. The activity is treated as a learning game. The teacher subsequently introduces students to an Aboriginal Dreaming story and encourages her students to relate the story to other texts, to their own experiences and to the world around them.

The school is located on the Innawonga and East Guruma Lands in the mining town of Tom Price, around 1600km from Perth. Twenty per cent of the school’s 330 students are Aboriginal and the school has a diverse student population due to the town’s mining industry. The teacher has worked at the school for four years. The ‘print-walk’ strategy was originally developed for Aboriginal students in remote communities.