Macquarie University literacy program, MultiLit, has welcomed the Federal Government’s announcement that they will be dedicating more resources to children’s literacy. Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday said that the new focus would see a ‘reading blitz for 1.1 million children’.
MultiLit, which is already used widely in schools, was mentioned specifically by Federal schools minister Peter Garrett in the announcement, as an example of a literacy program that will support the Government in their ‘new focus on reading’.
“I am very pleased that Government has highlighted the importance of childhood literacy and early intervention with this announcement, and that MultiLit has been recognised as a program that is having great success in this area,” said MultiLit founder, Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall of Macquarie University.
MultiLit (“Making Up Lost Time in Literacy”) is a leader in effective literacy instruction in Australasia. Beginning in 1995 as a research initiative at the Macquarie University Special Education Centre, the program has helped thousands of children over the years and continues to expand.
The original MultiLit program is now joined by MiniLit and PreLit, which are early intervention literacy programs aimed at the first few years of schooling and pre-school for children at risk.
In 2010, MultiLit collaborated with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training in the development of an online version of the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program. In 2012 in a collaboration with the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence (NCIE), MultiLit began a trial of the Online Reading Tutor Program with Indigenous students in remote locations in Australia.
“We know from our research and our years of experience that what low-progress readers need is good effective instruction. We are delighted to join the Government in their efforts to bring about fundamental change in the educational prospects for low-progress readers,” says Wheldall. “But the Prime Minister perhaps underestimates the scale of the problem.”
MultiLit, which is already used widely in schools, was mentioned specifically by Federal schools minister Peter Garrett in the announcement, as an example of a literacy program that will support the Government in their ‘new focus on reading’.
“I am very pleased that Government has highlighted the importance of childhood literacy and early intervention with this announcement, and that MultiLit has been recognised as a program that is having great success in this area,” said MultiLit founder, Emeritus Professor Kevin Wheldall of Macquarie University.
MultiLit (“Making Up Lost Time in Literacy”) is a leader in effective literacy instruction in Australasia. Beginning in 1995 as a research initiative at the Macquarie University Special Education Centre, the program has helped thousands of children over the years and continues to expand.
The original MultiLit program is now joined by MiniLit and PreLit, which are early intervention literacy programs aimed at the first few years of schooling and pre-school for children at risk.
In 2010, MultiLit collaborated with the New South Wales Department of Education and Training in the development of an online version of the MultiLit Reading Tutor Program. In 2012 in a collaboration with the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence (NCIE), MultiLit began a trial of the Online Reading Tutor Program with Indigenous students in remote locations in Australia.
“We know from our research and our years of experience that what low-progress readers need is good effective instruction. We are delighted to join the Government in their efforts to bring about fundamental change in the educational prospects for low-progress readers,” says Wheldall. “But the Prime Minister perhaps underestimates the scale of the problem.”
