Literacy

Dear Parents, 

In this newsletter, we want to tell you a little bit about what we are doing with literacy at Sunny Heights. 

At Sunshine Heights, we use an approach to teaching reading that is based on research. This is commonly referred to as “The Science of Reading”. The Science of Reading is a large body of research that shows educators the best ways to teach children literacy skills, including how to read. This research includes information from cognitive science, psychology, educational neuroscience as well as studies that have been done in real classrooms. 

According to this research, there are a few key areas that predict strong reading outcomes. They are: the ability to decode words (phonics), being able to read fluently and accurately, and understanding the vocabulary (words) we are reading. 

At Sunny Heights, we will be using assessments that help teachers understand exactly what your child needs to be a successful reader. 

Part of learning to read involves using decodable texts. Decodable texts are phonetically controlled texts that include sounds your child has been taught at school. It’s good to think of decodable texts as training wheels that support children in their beginning stages of reading. As beginning readers learn more and more of the code, they are able to independently read more texts to themselves. In the classroom, students will still be reading rich fiction and non-fiction texts with their teachers to support many facets of their learning.

What you can do to support your child at home:

The best way to support your child with decodable texts is to encourage them to sound out the words they are reading, and avoid telling them to look at the picture. When your child asks you how to spell a word, see if they can figure it out by breaking the word up into its individual sounds. If your child has a strong established knowledge of the code they will be bringing home texts that are not decodable but listening to them read and providing feedback about their fluency and understanding of the text is very important. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to see our new Literacy learning Specialist Leah Myers in 1A.