TEACHING AND LEARNING

Home Reading

We are excited to introduce our Home Reading Challenge, designed to celebrate a love of books and encourage students to practise reading every night at home. Beginning in Week 7, students who read for 4 nights each week (and have their diary signed) will enter the draw for a prize. Winners will be announced at Assembly, so every student has the opportunity to earn two entries in each draw. 

It is our hope that Home Reading does not add any stress to nighttime routines but provides an opportunity for students to read aloud to you, or their siblings (perhaps while you are cooking dinner). These opportunities to practise reading fluency are extremely important in developing accuracy and comprehension skills, not to mention fostering a love of reading. These skills also help to build a rich vocabulary which then assists in writing.

For families who are unsure on how to best support their children with home reading, we suggest a number of strategies. If your child is practising reading accurately, you may assist with prompts for sounding out the words. If your child is reading accurately, we suggest having a discussion about the book. Asking questions assists students to summarise the story and infer details such as character feelings and traits. Please always feel welcome to touch base with your child’s teacher to discuss specific strategies on how best to support them personally. 

Going forward, students will continue to bring a book home from school daily and are encouraged to write the name of the book in their Reading Diary themselves. We are continuing to change our home readers twice per week in an aim to increase our reading fluency.

Thank you for your continued support with Home Reading.