Learning and Teaching

Congratulations on 100 Days of Prep

Prep students will be participating in activities all week, focusing on the number one hundred. On Friday they will dress up and celebrate their 100 Days of school.

Reading during Remote learning @ St John’s

Well we never thought we’d be here....we couldn't have planned for a year such as this ....but boy are we doing a fantastic job of staying on track with our Reading program at St John’s!

Ideally, our students would be at school engaging in rich texts, enjoying readers aimed exactly at their level, having in-depth discussions with like minded students about gloriously, glossy stories and answering challenging questions to show their strong understanding about what they have read, or viewed, or listened to….but hang on!...we are still achieving all of this remotely!!!

When we were told we were going into lockdown for a second time, our teachers took a deep breath and surged forward to create activity bundles, seek out Book Club books, explore new online resources and embrace new ways of presenting reading activities via Google Meets, ScreenCastify and online versions of marvellous mentor texts.

Each day, our students are engaged in higher order thinking activities, responding to texts in small focus groups, attending reading intervention, contributing to guided and shared reading sessions, viewing BTN articles, completing individualised task cards, developing oral language skills via Readers’ Theatre and pragmatic language games and ...discussing Learning Intentions, completing Success Criteria, responding to and giving feedback and completing assessments just like they were in the real classroom!

 Tips for Reading at Home:  (even in COVID times!)

"When you open a book with your child, you are opening the world for them."

1. Read with your child every day...no exceptions!
2. Stop and ask questions as you are reading or listening to your child read. What is happening? What may happen next? What do you notice in the pictures? Do you like the characters? What was the author thinking when she wrote this? Which character would you like to be?
3. Give your child strategies to use when stuck on a difficult word         (chunking the sounds, what makes sense?, re-read, read on etc)
4. Encouraging reading different types of books - simple phonetic books (Dr Suess is great!), graphic novels or comic books that your child can read independently as well as higher level books your child can enjoy listening to. Remember your child can comprehend and listen to texts of a much higher level than they can read.
5. Parents often ask " my child wants to read the same book over and over again, is that okay?" YES it is! The idea is for your child to enjoy time with books. Plus by memorising it over time, your child will 'read' it and this is building confidence,  building fluency AND your child will start to recognise words, or build up a good bank of known words.
6. Let your child see you read, even if it is the newspaper...or your iPad!
7. Give your children books about their interests. They are more likely to read if they enjoy the subject!
8. Keep books, magazines and newspapers around your home. Encourage discussion about what they have read at dinner time.
9. Download apps such as "Read me Stories" or “Storybooks online.” Some children will prefer to read if they think they are using technology to do so!!

 Keep it relaxed!

Reading should be an enjoyable experience .....not a chore!!! Don't ask your child to speed up and don't stop them as they are reading.     

 ENJOY!  

Ange Crowe

Reading Coach