Learning and Teaching
Dear Parents ,
There has been a lot of discussion in the media regarding reading across Victoria. Last Friday in the Age there was an article, “The big change coming to the way Catholic school kids are taught”. Last Thursday Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic School launched their “Vision for Instruction”, saying that evidence supports explicit instruction as the best way of teaching students. Explicit instruction promotes direct teaching, breaking down new concepts into smaller steps and modeling each step before progression. The method is underpinned by the scientific understanding of how students learn.
At St Joseph’s we use the Mulitlit Program (which is the company of the program), including Initialit from Prep to Year 2 - for the past 6 years, SpellEx along with our Intervention Programs Minilit and Minilit Sage, Reading Tutor and Word Attack which supports explicit instruction which was referenced in the article mentioned above.
Here is what Initalit is all about:
•The InitiaLit program uses a sound-by-sound synthetic phonics approach to teach reading. Children are taught the relationships between letters and sounds in a sequential and systematic way, starting with easier skills and working up to more complex skills, and are shown how to put sounds together (blend) to read words, and how to break words into sounds (segment) to assist with spelling words. (This addresses the decoding skill referred to earlier.) This is opposed to having children guess or try to work out the alphabetic code themselves, by looking at lots of books.
•The InitiaLit program also includes rich vocabulary instruction, and develops children’s language and comprehension skills. This is done by using quality literature (children’s storybooks). These storybooks are also used as springboards for creative and writing activities. (This addresses the language comprehension skill referred to earlier.)
•Like any skill that we learn (playing soccer, learning a musical instrument), practice makes perfect! Reading and writing are very complex skills, and it will take several years for children to develop into proficient readers and writers, so InitiaLit ensures lots of opportunities for practice are provided. A large variety of activities are included in InitiaLit, for reading, handwriting, spelling and writing, some done as a whole class, and others in small groups or independently.
How can I help with my child’s reading at home?
Take the time to listen to your child read regularly. They may like to choose their own book, or they may have brought a book home from school. Even if your child can read well, it is still appropriate and pleasurable to read to your child. This is a way of exposing your child to books that they may find difficult to read themselves. Provide a mix of non-fiction and fiction books to enjoy together. Discuss the story, pointing out any new words that may enrich their vocabulary.
Have a great week
Kind regards
Megan Barber