Curriculum

Primary Years Program at GGLPS

GGLPS teaches the Australian curriculum using the Primary Years Program (PYP) of the International Baccalaureate as a framework to impart this. There are many different aspects to the Teaching and Learning program of the school and these are some of the rich learning experiences in which the students are involved.

Beginning to Read

In the last newsletter, I wrote about the skills of reading; decoding, comprehension and fluency. 

To begin to read, students need to practise and experience pre-reading behaviours that grow their understanding of the concept of print.  This concept involves understanding:

• How books work and are organised – such as turning pages, working front to back, print moving from left to right and top to bottom.
• That books contain words and letters.
• That letters are symbols that individually or combined, represent sounds.
• The relationship between spoken and written words.
• Words are separated by spaces.
• There is a difference between words and sentences.
• Punctuation is used to indicate where sentences end.
• Stories have a beginning, middle and end.
• That pictures are used to create meaning and enable retelling.
• Visualising what they are hearing in reading.

Growing the concept of print lays the foundation for students to begin to learn to read. These pre-reading skills develop as children share books with others. South Australia’s well-known children’s author, Mem Fox, recommends that children are read to from 6 months of age. As children are read to and with, they benefit in many ways. Demonstrating and modelling fluent reading benefits children who are learning to read. Reading with children is a time to be cherished and this can be fostered by allowing children to have some choice about when, where and what to read. Children learn how to read with expression, use punctuation to add meaning in tone and inflection and read with appropriate speed. 

As children move into reading, they draw on their pre-reading knowledge and begin to learn letter sounds and names which are the building blocks to reading words. They also need to build their ability to join sounds together to make words, and stretch words apart to hear the sounds within each word. These are some of the skills of phonemic awareness. At GGLPS, we have a strong emphasis on phonemic awareness skills – the skills of hearing, recognising and playing with the sounds in words. This work is done verbally with children listening to, and speaking, words and sounds.

These foundational skills and understandings, support children as they begin to read. Of course, the growth of each of these skills happens at different rates for different children. Teachers work hard to know where each student is in their concept of print and in their phonemic awareness to ensure they are ready to take the next step in the reading journey at the right time for each child. It is such an exciting journey!

Jayne Zadow                                                                                                                                               PYP Coordinator