Literacy

Reading

This term in Reading, students will continue to build on the skills they use to make sense of information presented to them in a range of mentor texts. Students will receive explicit instruction modelling these skills and have opportunities to independently practise new knowledge on mentor texts.

This term, our mentor texts in reading will be integrated with our Writing focus, which is persuasive writing. Students will be exposed to a range of persuasive texts and will receive explicit instruction on comprehension strategies for these texts. In the independent practice phase of our lessons, students will have opportunities to independently practise new knowledge on mentor texts.

Comprehension strategies that we will focus on this term will include:

Using prior knowledge to preview text features such as title, front covers, and blurbs to make a prediction about the text.
Inferring the mood of a text using cues such as imagery and word choice.
Investigating the perspectives of different characters.
Developing capability to seek out evidence from a text to support our arguments.

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.

They will also begin to plan, write and publish longer persuasive pieces, which will be supported by a weekly “stamina” write, aimed at increasing their confidence and stamina to write for longer periods of time. As a part of this, students will also be exposed to a range of hands-on experiences to build their persuasive capabilities and further inspire their writing.

Students will also continue to improve their ability to produce pieces of writing using technology, including iPads and laptops. Students will complete weekly 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.

Other literacy foci for the term will include:

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.
Reviewing and revisiting word parts such as prefixes and suffixes.
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’.
Instruction on spelling a range of high-frequency words.
Continuing to revise and review the entry and exit points of all capital and lowercase letters to support correct formation.