Literacy News 

HOME READING

We often forget that practice is a key part of learning. If you have ever played a team sport, you probably haven’t thought to question the role of practice in building your game skills, but have you ever stopped to think about how important practice is for building reading skills? That’s what our Home Reading program is all about.

 

In Prep to Year 2, students in the classroom work at what we call an ‘instructional level’. They use texts that are chosen carefully by the teachers to extend their skills and knowledge in particular areas that are critical to becoming good readers – a little bit hard, but not too hard. 

 

Home readers, however, perform a very different function. Their purpose is to give students the chance to practise reading. The texts students choose from to bring home should therefore be read easily and enjoyed by students. The idea here is not that parents will teach their children to read, but that they will support them by listening to their reading and by engaging in stories with them, predicting what might happen next, discussing characters or events in the text or sharing opinions about what was read. In Prep, we often send home ‘language experience’ readers, which are made with students in class and contain high frequency language that students have been exposed to in reading and writing time. 

 

In years 3 – 6 the emphasis is similarly on practising reading at home. Students begin to have greater choice in their reading and are supported to choose ‘good fit’ books. A good fit book is one that may have some unfamiliar words, but not so many that it is too difficult for the student to read independently. Most importantly, good fit books should be on a topic or text type that students are interested in and will engage with. 

 

At any year level, comprehension is an important focus. With younger children, talk about the cover picture before you begin. Occasionally, stop, and have your child predict what will happen next. Once or twice, as you read the book together, ask "who" and "what”. Having your child retell the story is a difficult but necessary skill for all students. The more practice they get, the easier it becomes. Talk, talk, talk about books. 

 

We thank you for your ongoing support of home reading. With the hectic pace of modern life, it can be difficult to find those 15 or so minutes to spend listening to your child read each night, but the time you invest will help make your children champion readers in years to come.

 

Warm regards

 

Annie Facchinetti

Literacy Leader and Teaching & Learning Leader