LITERACY NEWS

Book week and Literacy week are coming up at the end of this month, where we celebrate all things reading and literacy.

We are fortunate enough to have published author and LNSC alumni, Maggie Jankuloska visiting the school to do a creative writing workshop with our students during Book Week this year. Maggie has recently released her very first novel, ‘The Rat Catcher’s Apprentice’ and we wish her nothing but success in her writing career.

For Literacy Week this year, we will be celebrating by encouraging students to participate in lunchtime literacy activities, including games, viewing a film and getting creative with book covers and bookmarks. On Friday September 2nd the school will host a costume day for all to participate in. Students are encouraged to dress as their favourite character from a text (any text – books, movies, TV, anime, comics, etc.) and enjoy a parade and celebrations throughout the day.

We kindly remind parents, guardians and students that their costume of choice needs to be school appropriate. Lalor North can’t wait to celebrate Literacy and Book Week with you all!

Image: https://maggiejankuloskawriter.wordpress.com/manuscripts/

HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR LITERACY AT HOME

For parents and guardians wondering what they can do to help boost their child’s literacy outside of the classroom, here are some helpful starting points:

Let your child see YOU reading. This is called modelling behaviour. When we normalise reading as a hobby or an enjoyable activity, children are more likely to repeat this behaviour themselves. The more we can encourage students to read, the better their vocabulary becomes, their imagination grows, and their writing and spelling skills improve. Reading is such an integral skill to help boost literacy, but like any skill, it needs to be practised regularly.
Encourage any kind of reading around the house – this can be reading the subtitles off the TV, reading blogs, fan-fiction or news articles online, reading a comic or magazine, etc. Reading doesn’t have to always be sitting down with a novel. We don’t all have the time for that, but any kind of reading still helps students grow and develop their understanding of texts.
Ask your child questions about what they have read or watched. Questioning your child on what they have read or viewed helps to consolidate their understanding of the text and encourages them to be able to retain the information for longer. A great way to learn is to teach, so by getting your child to teach you about the text they’re interested in helps them learn more about it themselves.

USEFUL RESOURCES FOR PARENTS/GUARDIANS

While many of the resources available to parents and guardians are marketed at primary aged students, the general principles can be applied to students of any age:

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/Pages/litparents.aspx
https://improvingliteracy.org/brief/supporting-your-childs-literacy-development-home
https://raisingchildren.net.au/teens/school-education-work
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-19/five-ways-to-transform-your-teenager-into-an-avid-bookworm/9458276

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