Education News 

CAFE READING YEAR 2 - 6

The Literacy CAFE System provides teachers with a way to maximize student understanding of the four key components of successful reading through the use of the CAFE Menu. CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary. The CAFE Menu breaks comprehension, accuracy, fluency, and expanding vocabulary into strategies that support each goal. Posted on the classroom wall and built throughout the year, it serves as a visual reminder of whole-class instruction.

 

Classes in the Middle and Senior school participate in a daily reading block where strategies are specifically taught, modeled and practiced. Students work with teachers to set their own goals and develop or further develop their reading ability. 

All students are encouraged to choose 'good fit' books using the I-PICK method (Boushey & Moser, 2014). Students look at a book’s insides and outsides checking that the book meets their individual interests, that they comprehend what they read and know the words. Check that the books your children are bringing home from the library are a 'good fit' book. 

CSPS Junior School

Synthetic Phonics Program

Foundation Literacy at CSPS

Thank you to all those parents who attended the information session concerning the Ready Set Go reading/writing program at CSPS. It was lovely to see so many enthusiastic parents and grandparents wanting to learn how they can help support their children/ grandchildren in their acquisition of reading and writing skills. A great more can be achieved for children if home and school environments compliment one another. If you were unable to attend the sessions and wish to know more, please see any one of the Foundation teachers and we can explain the literacy program to you.

Learning to read and write is a complex process. At CSPS, we teach students literacy through Synthetic Phonics. This involves students learning the skills of blending, segmenting and manipulating sounds. It also involves them learning that specific letters represent specific sounds. Alphabetic knowledge is presented in manageable bits and practiced to the point of automaticity. The skills of blending and segmenting often require much practice to acquire and the opportunity to learn such skills is embedded in our program. 

So far this year, students have been introduced to the sounds represented by 5 letters: s/a/t/i/m. With these “sounds” they have constructed, read and written the words- mat/ sat/ Sam/ is/ it / am/ Tam.

 

They have been learning how to correctly form the letters m/s/a/t/i. Correct handwriting is essential to efficient writing so we take care to explicitly teach correct starting points and correct directionality.

 

We are also exposing students to the skill of blending sounds. Ally the Alligator only speaks in sounds, so she will ask children to touch their n/o/se or f/ee/t or h/ea/d and they must blend the sounds together and touch the relevant body part. You could try this at home….just segment a 3 sounded word into parts and ask your child to blend the sounds to make the word. Can you get the b/oo/k? Look at the c/a/t!

 

Another phonological skill we’ve been teaching involves isolating the beginning sound in a word. Because this skill is aural not visual, you can use any word....e.g. Say: “ What sound can you hear at the start of ffffish?(/f/) Ssssnake?(/s/) Mmmmoustache?(/m/) Stretching out that beginning sound makes it easier for a child to hear and isolate the beginning sound.

Have fun with this! It’s an exciting time, as we teachers know...some fabulous writing was produced this morning and we celebrated with much exuberance. Check out a few of these samples! What a wonderful effort!

 

Kendra Anderson, Junior School Literacy Leader

FOUNDATION NEWS

If any family members are interested in volunteering in the Ready Set Go program please speak to your classroom teacher as we will be putting the roster together shortly with a view to start using our volunteers from next week.

 

We would also like to thank all the CSPS helpers who have (and still are) contacting the new decodable readers that were recently purchased. Without the support of these community members we would not be in a position to have these books ready to send home. Once all books have been catalogued by Mrs Cattanach in the Library then we will start the process of sending books home for additional literacy support. More details to follow soon….

 

Finally, a BIG THANK YOU to our Year 6 leaders who have been invaluable in helping our new Foundation students settle into school life. From spending time in the classroom in Week 1 to supporting PMP and helping students navigate the world of the desktop computer in the Google Studio, our Seniors have been an asset to the Foundation team and a credit to CSPS.

Seesaw in Senior School

This year, the Senior School is embarking on a Flipped Classroom approach to learning, through the use of Seesaw. A flipped Classroom means students complete assigned tasks on Seesaw in preparation for in-class activities. Once at school, students practice applying key concepts often with feedback from the teacher. This is in line with the whole school’s teaching and learning model. 

 

Seesaw is a simple way for teachers and students to record and share what’s happening in the classroom and gives students a place to document their learning. Work will be assigned to students on a Wednesday with the goal of it being completed by Sunday in preparation for the week ahead. 

 

Of course, we still expect children to enjoy reading for thirty minutes a night, five nights a week.

 

To ensure you can join in the celebration of learning with your child, please sign up and link to your child’s account. If you are unsure how to do so, please see your child’s teacher.

Home Learning

Homework/Learning provides students with opportunities to practice skills, review content and deepen understanding of concepts learned. Home learning and practice can also help students to develop self-regulation processes, such as time management and study skills.

The table below describes quality homework practice for the different year levels.

Foundation to Year 4

  • can foster a sense of self-discipline and responsibility and prepare students for upper grades
  • enables the extension of class work by practising skills or gathering of extra information or materials
  • will mainly consist of daily reading to, with, and by parents/carer or older siblings
  • Year 5 to Year 9
  • should include daily independent reading
  • should be coordinated across learning areas in secondary schools to avoid unreasonable workloads for students
  • may extend class work, projects and assignments, essays and research.

Year 1 students will already have been bringing home books. These books are also decodable and 

 

Year 2 to Year 6 - students can and do choose to take home books from the classroom, the library in the Hub or use books from home.  These books will be a variety of read to self, read to someone or listen to someone texts of varying levels and interest.  Reading Eggs also provides a variety of leveled texts for children to read.

 

The Junior School expectation for Term 1 is for the students to read or be read to daily.  The Middle School would like for the students to read daily and get their Reading diary signed.  

 

Mathletics and Reading Eggs also provide opportunities for students to practice skills at home. SeeSaw tasks will also be set at all levels. 

The CSPS Home Learning Policy can be found on the Cranbourne South PS website. 

https://cranbournesouth.vic.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CSPS-Home-Learning-Policy-200818-signed.pdf