Literacy at Dana Street

Foundation

In Foundation, students are consolidating their understanding of the basic code within our phonics lessons, reading words with four phonemes. We are beginning our author study on Pamela Allen, using her texts to develop our comprehension strategies and to inspire us to create our own short texts to express our ideas. Currently we are using the mentor text the “Potato People” which has been very hands on and will lead into some exciting “Potato Olympics”.

1/2 Unit

In Literacy in the 1/2 unit, we are exploring asking thick and thin questions before, during and after reading we are also looking at inferring; looking beyond the text to explore and answer any questions we may have.  In Morphology, we are looking into compound words, synonyms and antonyms and contractions. How to identify these and how we can understand and use these within our Writing. We are also currently writing letters to Australian Olympic Athletes. The students are learning the importance of writing letters and their purpose. Each student has chosen an athlete and is in the process of writing them a letter to wish them well for the upcoming games. The students are looking forward to sending their letters off to their chosen athlete.

3/4 Unit

In the 3/4 area, the students have been busy diving into the Paris Olympics.  The sustainability focus of the Olympics is driving the research for our information reports.  The students are utilising their research skills and paraphrasing their facts as they go.  As part of their research, they will be looking for a sustainable practise that can be utilised at Dana Street.  Our incursions with Resource SMART and Ecolinc have helped frontload students with facts and statistics regarding the environment and how we can reduce our carbon footprint.

The students have also started practising their Reciprocal Reading roles.  Prior to beginning their group work later this term, the students will revise and extend their knowledge of predicting, clarifying, summarising and questioning.

5/6 Unit

In Writing, the students have been using our Writer’s Notebook to research countries that are participating in the Olympics. There has been a broad range of countries being researched which is great. This topic is linked in with the Inquiry topic for the term. The students are beginning to draft information reports on their chosen country using their researched information and paraphrasing their facts.

In Reading, the students are getting excited with their first formal Literature Circle Cycle starting in Week 4. In the next two weeks, the students are completing a mini cycle using Roald Dahl’s text, Matilda. The students are focusing on refining their skills in each of the roles, preparing themselves for the term ahead.