Literacy

Literacy Learning in Term 3

Our Literacy block continues to run each day in two focused one-hour sessions: Core Literacy and Applied Literacy, allowing students to build strong foundational skills while also applying their learning in meaningful ways.

In Core Literacy, students develop the essential skills needed for reading and writing. This includes:

• Letter knowledge
• Phonics through the Sounds-Write program
• Phonemic awareness (segmenting, blending and manipulating sounds)
• High-frequency words (reading and spelling common words)
• Phonological awareness (hearing and working with sounds in spoken language)
• Reading decodable texts
• Paired Fluency (reading accurately and at an appropriate pace)

• Handwriting

   

In Applied Literacy, students engage with rich and meaningful texts while developing their writing skills. We explicitly teach sentence structure and vocabulary, and students apply their knowledge across a range of genres. 

Take Home Reading – Year 1/2

Important reminders:

• Take Home Readers should be brought to school every day, as they are used during classroom learning.

• Books will be changed every Monday, except for 1B students who each have an allocated day to change their books recorded in the front of their reading log. 

   

Initial Code Readers - Students working on the Initial Code will bring home:

• Two decodable books each week

   

Extended Code Readers - Students working on the Extended Code will bring home:

• Two Extended Code books
• One non-fiction book
• One free-choice book

Regular reading at home is one of the most valuable ways you can support your child's literacy development. Students reading non-fiction books are encouraged to use their decoding strategies independently. You may like to assist with unfamiliar vocabulary or discuss new concepts and ideas as they arise. These books are a wonderful way to build knowledge while exploring topics that interest your child. Each student has a reading log to record the books they read throughout the week. 

We kindly ask that you:

• Listen to your child read 3–4 times each week.

• Initial their reading log after each reading session.

   

We understand that family schedules can be busy, so reading 3–4 times per week is a great goal. Of course, any additional reading is always encouraged and greatly benefits your child's confidence and fluency.

Thank you for your ongoing support and partnership in developing your child's reading skills. If you have any questions about your child's home reading, please don't hesitate to contact your child's classroom teacher.