CSI Australia Newsletter #2 (June 2009)


Early results show that CSI is making adifference!

One of the first schools internationally to pilot CSI and assess its impact with pre- and post-assessment data was Miramar South School in New Zealand.

Miramar South School found that Year 8 students' skills in literacy and comprehensionrose markedly using CSI, with the majority of students showing strong gains in literacy and comprehension skills over the pilot period.

Fig 1. Increase of Students Reading at or above the National Norm (by ethnic group)


"My students made a staggering leap in their reading ability," says Miramar South School Deputy Principal, Kyran Smith."In six years of teaching this age level I've never worked with a resource that's contributed so much."


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Exciting news! CSI – Comprehension Strategies Instruction has been shortlisted for an international publishing award!
CSI is one of four finalists in the Reading and Language Arts category of the Association of Educational Publisher's Distinguished Achievement Award 2009.
Program author and developer, Neale Pitches, says, "We're helping teachers to break down the comprehension barriers that so many students are facing today. CSI has taken literacy learning into the digital world using technology that teachers find easy to use and engages their students."

The category award winner will be announced in Washington D.C. on June 12.

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Free Australian CSI Texts Available on Website 

There are now more Australian texts available for download from our members area. We have also provided step-by-step instructions on how to download and view the texts. New topics include: global warming and the Great Barrier Reef; Australian paralympian Louise Sauvage; and a croc wrestling grandma! Sign up as a free member today to enjoy CSI's free supplementary texts in conjunction with your CSI CD-ROMs.


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CSI and Authentic Inquiry-based Learning

A big focus in CSI is on "Authentic Inquiry Learning." If your students have questions about something they are reading in CSI, why not take them to other sources to find out more information? Web-based inquiry learning is something to which today's digital learners will strongly relate. 

On the CSI website, we've already started listing weblinks to help you and your students follow up on CSI texts. The weblinks are provided in the CSI Community Forum. To visit the forum, you need to be a member of the website (it's free!). To sign up as a member, click here. 

The forum is a place where you can post questions and comments, receive technical advice, or share your CSI teaching experiences with others.




For further information, or to arrange for your local Lioncrest Educational Consultant to call to show you CSI, please freephone 1800 249 727  

To visit Lioncrest's website, click here


That's it for the second edition of the CSI newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you on the website!

Kind regards

Neale Pitches and the CSI Team

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