Leading Teacher Update

Hello!

My name is Binh Hoang and this is my second year at Fairfield Primary School. Working alongside Sophie, our Numeracy Learning Specialist, I am the Literacy Learning Specialist. We work closely with Nicole, the Assistant Principal, on curriculum-related elements of school. My work includes supporting teachers with teaching and assessing literacy skills, leading professional learning and whole school moderation, and maintaining high-quality literacy resources. I also teach 1D on Monday, Thursday and Friday.

Being a Learning Specialist, I have the privilege of seeing wonderful practices happening daily in different year levels in different classes. Our teachers have been working hard to create literacy rich classrooms to instil our students’ love of reading and writing. Independent reading time is one of my favourite moments when the children are immersed in their own adventures and imaginations. 

This year, Paul has started a book club with the leadership team, and one of the readings that has resonated with me the most is about the three broad purposes of education:

Preparation

Socialisation

Autonomy

(Robinson, 2022)

We teach young minds how to read and write to prepare them for their future, to socialise and to be autonomous people. To achieve this, in the Foundation and Year 1 classes, we use an evidence-based synthetic phonics program, Little Learners Love Literacy, to teach our young readers phonemic awareness, the alphabetic code (phonics), vocabulary and linking the teaching of reading, spelling and writing. From Year 2 onwards, spelling is embedded in our daily literacy blocks to consolidate and extend the codes that students have learned in Foundation and Year 1.

Differentiated explicit reading groups (in the junior year levels) and literature circles (in the senior year levels) are also an important part of our literacy routines. They provide rich opportunities for teachers to instruct, model and guide our students towards independent and fluent reading. 

A literacy rich environment doesn’t have to stop at school. The following is a resource for ideas about how to read with or read to your child/children at home.

Until next time, come and say “Hi” or “Xin Chao” if  you see me delivering books at the start or at the end of the school day!

~ Binh Hoang, Literacy Learning Specialist