Literacy News
Mrs Chelsea McKeown - Literacy Coordinator
InitiaLit and SpellEx
InitiaLit is a whole class literacy tool, developed by an organisation called MultiLit. It is an evidence-based Literacy program which explicitly teaches students to read, write and spell by actively teaching the relationships between sounds and letters. Students are introduced to sounds and letters in a sequential order which builds in complexity and allows students to grow their knowledge of words. It is a three year program, covering the first three years of school (Kindergarten to Year 2).
In 2023, the literacy tool was implemented in Kindergarten and Year One. The students engage in daily lessons in reading and spelling, as well as rich language instruction using quality children’s literature. The teachers are regularly monitoring students progress, reviewing teaching practise and making changes to cater for student needs in the classroom. The students are also using decodable readers to help practise their skills in reading.
This year in Year 2, the students have begun to engage in the new Year 2 InitiaLit tool where the focus now moves into learning about various reading comprehension strategies, grammatical concepts as well as spelling. The students will continue to explore a wide range of spelling rules to help them make the correct choice when writing.
Year 3 have also started a new spelling program called SpellEx. It is a whole-class spelling program that uses explicit, language based instruction to teach spelling to children and help them better understand the English language in a more complex way.
Below are a few fact sheets for you to read about the resource and later on in the year we will be holding an information session for parents about Reading.
Kindergarten Parent Fact Sheet
Chelsea McKeown
Coordinator 2 (Literacy)