Literacy
InitiaLit
This term we will continue to use our InitiaLit program; a systematic synthetic approach to phonics.
Level 1
For Level 1, reviewing skills covered in Term Three will be ongoing, as well as learning
the following graphemes and phonemes:
| Graphemes & Phonemes | Tricky Words |
|---|---|
| ‘c’ saying /s/ (ce, ci, cy) | always, animal, open |
| ‘g’ saying /j/ (ge, gi, gy) | other, another, water |
| _dge (bridge), _ge (cage) | walk, talk, know |
| _tch (catch), _ch (lunch) | laugh, people, every |
| Prefx ‘un’ Prefx |
Level 2
Level 2 will finish off the 3 years of Initilit phonics instruction with a full term of reviewing content. Areas of misunderstanding will be identified, and previous lessons revisited.
Other content covered during the reading focus will be:
Grammar- reviewing nouns (proper and common) pronouns, verbs, adjectives,
prepositions and adverbs.
Comprehension -- We will continue to use predictions and questioning prior to reading texts. Whilst reading we will continue to explore inferencing, finding the main idea and summarising.
Independent Read Time - reading to self and reading to a partner/teacher to improve fluency and expression.
Writing
Our writing program will continue to use mentor texts over a series of 10 lessons to teach fundamental writing skills such as handwriting, spelling, text type, language orientation, grammar, pattern writing and author's purpose.
Mentor texts are pieces of text we can hold up as examples of good writing. A mentor text could be a single sentence or an entire book. It could be something written by the teacher, a student, a published author or someone else entirely.
Mentor texts shows the students what quality writing looks like rather than telling them.
Level 1/2
- Migaloo Level 1(info reports)
- The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs Level 2 (Fiction/Persuasive)
- Finding Our Heart (Indigenous)
- Welcome to Country (Indigenous)
- The Most Magnificent Thing (Humanities /Procedure)
- The Imagineer (Humanities/ Procedure)
- The Walk of the Whales
Home Learning
Take- home readers will continue this term and are swapped each Monday and Wednesday. Students will then bring home a free choice book on a Friday. The aim of having a reader for more than one night is to read it a few times. This helps to develop student's fluency.
Tricky word Spelling will also continue this term. We would love to see all students in Level 1/ 2 practise their personalised tricky word spelling at least one night each week, as it really does make a big difference.