Mellor 1/2 - English

Writing

This term we continue exposing children to a broad range of text types, striving to consolidate- recounts, procedures and descriptive texts. Our focus for this term will be on Information Reports. We will be reading, writing and creating a variety of Information Reports during our literacy blocks. Teachers are sure our students will be sharing some new and interesting facts about all types of things with their families.

Students will also continue to be exposed to Narratives daily with class novels and/or the reading aloud of quality literature to the class. Non-fiction texts are also modelled daily to ensure our programs are comprehensive and balanced. When classes visit the library we encourage children to borrow a Premiers Reading picture book, as well as a non-fiction book to cater for their personal interests.

Phonics and Grammar

Explicit phonics and grammar programs will continue to be used this term to move children along in their speaking, reading and writing. Handwriting will be targeted to ensure children are forming their letters of the alphabet correctly and/or handwriting is both legible and fluent when writing. In spelling, we will continue to explicitly teach spelling strategies to help student attack words and attack their vocabularies. 

Target Time

Over the past few weeks Mellor students have been focusing on writing sentences during Target Time. These sessions have been targeted at consolidating the children’s understanding of how to write a sentence, focusing on structure, grammar and writing features. Also consolidating their understandings and extending students to strive toward writing more complex sentences. Half way through the term students will be re-grouped and our Target Time will focus on spelling using the Words their Way program.

Reading

Students will continue taking readers home in which they are fluent and confident. Readers should not be challenging as they are or practicing.  The Learning Intention is for children to practice their reading and further develop their fluency. The ultimate goal of reading is to understand what one is reading using a variety of comprehension and reading strategies to decode tricky words and understand the content or story. Helping your child make personal connections during and after reading to not only their own experiences but to other books they read is invaluable. Identifying new vocabulary is crucial during home reading and enjoying quality picture books and novels together helps with the long-term goal of creating lifelong, avid readers.  Encourage your child to activate their prior knowledge during reading and link it to what they already know. Please note, this is especially important when reading Non -Fiction texts which we have an array of in our selection. Children need to be encouraged to read a variety of personal interest books/text/magazines/websites to increase their general knowledge and to learn how to read different texts. 

During our Literacy Blocks children will be involved with small group work such as Guided Reading to learn new skills around the “Literacy Big 6. “Comprehension strategies and decoding skills will be explicitly taught during this time. Oral language will continue to be a priority with targeted presentations and news talks throughout the term. While individual teachers will have their own methods of organising their English programs, the learning intentions and success criteria in all areas will be the same conceptually and with much analysis and discussion around the Australian Curriculum.