Literacy

Reading

This term in Reading, our mentor texts will integrate focus for the term, ‘how can we use the Earth’s resources sustainably?’. Students will be exposed to a range of non-fiction texts relating to this topic, with a particular focus on expanding their use of comprehension strategies. 

We will also be integrating our Writing focus for the term into Reading lessons by exposing students to a range of persuasive texts. Particular reading skills and strategies that we will continue to learn include:

• Continuing to develop students' ability to understand the meaning of unknown words and use topic-specific vocabulary in their writing.
• Completing deeper “word investigations” in which students will attend to the phonology, morphology, etymology and orthology of new vocabulary.
• Identifying the main idea or theme of a text, as well as key details which support those ideas.
• Synthesising knowledge of a text to give succinct summaries and determining the importance of information within a text.
• Initiating conversations about a text and posing questions that reflect their curiosities about the topic. 

Writing:

This term, our focus in Writing will be on persuasive writing. Students will explore the structure, characteristics and tools of a persuasive text, and use these to inspire their own writing. They will learn to form an opinion about a topic, and then state reasons for their opinion that are supported by facts and evidence.  This will include planning, writing and publishing a longer-form persuasive piece. 

Students will also continue to improve their ability to produce pieces of writing using technology, including iPads and laptops. Students will complete writing tasks that involve typing up pieces of work on Google Docs or Slides. Students will also utilise the online platform ‘Typing Club’ to support touch-typing fluency.

• Explicit instruction in phonics to improve their knowledge of letter-sound relationships. This will allow them to continue developing their ability to decode increasingly complex words and become more independent readers.
• Developing students' ability to segment words into syllables and recognise the seven different syllable types.
• Beginning work on contraction words, such as don’t, can’t, etc. 
• Instruction in reading and writing consonant digraphs and trigraphs, silent letters and double letters.
• Instruction in handwriting to support the formation of legible, correctly-spaced letters with correct entry and exit points.
• Instruction on spelling a range of memory words. 
• Reviewing previously taught spelling rules such as the 111 rule and consonant+y rule
• Investigating and exploring different word families to learn how different words can be connected by meaning, e.g. different words connected to ‘light’, like ‘lightning’ or ‘lighthouse’.