Season Two, Episode 5: The choreography of learning

Summary

In this episode of Chalk Dust, Rebecca Birch and Dr Nathaniel Swain are joined by Hannah Pointon, a Year 3/4 teacher at Woodstock School in Hamilton, New Zealand. Hannah shares how her school has moved towards structured literacy, structured maths, explicit teaching, and teaching behaviour as a curriculum in its own right.

Using early-year classroom footage, the episode explores how clear routines transform classroom life: lining up, entering the room, organising materials, whole-class reading, whiteboard responses in maths, and even collecting lunchboxes. Hannah shows how routines that look simple on the surface are deliberately taught, scaffolded, practised, and reinforced until they become calm, independent habits.

Across the conversation, the hosts reflect on the difference between reacting to chaos and proactively teaching the behaviours students need for learning, safety, and belonging. The result is a classroom that feels purposeful, warm, and highly structured — not because students are constrained, but because they know exactly how to succeed.

Mentioned resources and explainers

Structured literacyA systematic approach to teaching reading that gives students explicit instruction in the skills and knowledge needed for reading success.

Structured mathsAn approach to maths teaching that emphasises clear modelling, practice, fluency, and careful sequencing of foundational knowledge.

The Writing RevolutionA writing approach that supports sentence-level and paragraph-level instruction through explicit, carefully sequenced routines.

Teaching behaviour as curriculumThe idea that behaviour should not be assumed; it should be explicitly taught, practised, checked, and reinforced like any academic skill.

Entry routinesHannah’s students line up, enter in order, put shoes away, sit down, and begin handwriting. The routine is scaffolded early in the year so students gradually become independent.

Whole-class readingHannah uses routines such as tracking, echo reading, buddy reading, and self-reading to support fluency, accountability, vocabulary, and comprehension.

TrackersStudents use a piece of paper to follow the line of text as they read. Hannah prefers paper over rulers because it is quieter and supports focused tracking.