Assistant Principal's 

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Reading in Years 1 and 2

As mentioned during this week at the parent information session and also shared via Compass, Years 1 and 2 commenced Reading Groups this week. All children will be bringing home a Reading Log recording sheet in their homework books. Parents are asked to date and sign these after their child has completed their nightly reading. 

Below are some of the slides from the presentation on Wednesday.

Why has the teaching of Reading changed?

Reading was taught through the disproven

whole language model with;

• Focus on meaning over mechanics: The primary emphasis was on understanding and constructing meaning, addressed in context rather than through direct, separate instruction ( visuals )
• Limited decoding skills taught   https://fivefromfive.com.au/phonics-teaching/the-three-cueing-system/ 
• Phonics experiences minimal across Australian schools
• Reading Recovery countless evidence pieces that the program had no long term positive impact https://open.spotify.com/show/0tcUMXBFMGMe8w79MM5QCI
• SFX moved to research based phonics program in 2018. We were an early adopter in this space.

There are two skills involved in reading:

1. The ability to “lift the words off the page” (decode)
2. The ability to understand (comprehension)

• Being able to “lift the words off the page” requires children to understand the relationships between sounds and letters (the alphabetic code)
• Being able to comprehend requires children to understand the meanings of words and how words work together
• Reading is a complex skill, that takes time to master