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The Big 6 Literacy Introduction
At South Melbourne Primary School, we know that the act of reading is a highly complex cognitive process made of six different components (otherwise known as the Big 6). These are:
- Oral language
- Phonological awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
Our staff are always deepening their knowledge of the Big 6 and how children best learn to read. Children in Prep - Grade 2 undertake phonics lessons daily. Our reading lessons reflect the Big 6. When students are with their specialist teachers onsite, their teachers meet in year level groups. These are called Professional Learning Teams (PLT). The time in PLT is where our teachers read articles of research related to their focus area (in this case, the Big 6), plan and reflect on lessons that incorporate the Big 6, and closely analyse the results of students within the Big 6.
We believe that student learning is enhanced when everyone is working towards the same goal. We strive to ensure all stakeholders have their finger on the pulse with student progress in the Big 6:
- Teachers monitor student progress in PLT meetings weekly.
- We share the results of each student in key reading assessments and programs with their parent(s) in termly and semesterly reports.
- Our students each have individualised goals for their reading and are involved in conferences with their teacher where they discuss how their reading strengths and goals.
Today we are sharing some of our Big 6 results with the community to give families a big-picture view of how we are progressing.
How are we tracking?
The following results are from our Term 2 testing. There is a lot to celebrate in the results!
| Big 6 | Assessment | Term 2 Result |
|---|---|---|
| Phonics | Alphabet Identification - this is a measure of how many letter names and sounds a student can identify. | 92% of students in Prep were at or above the expected level for Term 2. |
| Vocabulary | High Frequency Word - this is a measure of how many of the most frequently used words a student can read in a timed setting. | 92% of students in Prep - Grade 2 were at or above the expected level for Term 2. |
| Fluency | DIBELS - this is a measure of oral reading rate. | 81% of students in Grades 1 - 6 were at or above the expected level for Term 2. |
| Comprehension | Star Reading - this is a measure of what difficulty of text a student can understand. | 84% of students in Grades 3 - 6 were at or above the expected level for Term 2. |
A large percentage of our students speak English as an additional language. It is a significant achievement for them to be meeting the benchmark of students who speak English as their first language.
If you are wondering how your child is going in these areas, please take another look at their Term 2 Student Dashboard on Compass under the Learning Tasks tab.
During remote learning, you will see a focus on different components of the Big 6 coming through in reading lessons. We hope this article helps introduce you to what these components are and how students are currently tracking within them.