Literacy News 

How exciting is it to be able to have the first of our students back on site again?! I know the teachers have been busy planning to welcome students back and support them to feel safe and happy while they are learning. 

You might remember that recently I wrote about learning to write and supporting early writers. I came across some guidelines for supporting students of all ages in their writing journeys quite by chance, and thought I’d share them. They were written by a school principal and offer some simple ideas to get young children writing, as well as some suggestions to help older students with tasks such as editing and proofreading. 

Here are a few snippets that you might find useful:

• Parents and carers are the most significant adults in a child’s life. Model reading and writing and curiosity about language at every opportunity.
• Children get better at writing by writing. They need sustained periods of time to engage in the writing process. This is true for inside the classroom and at home. Having time to revisit a piece of writing is important so encouraging them to write and revisit their writing, sharing it with you will support their development in writing.
• Read aloud to your child well into their teens. Having a novel that is especially selected for shared parent/child reading can keep you connected to your teenager and be an ideal way to discuss themes and sophisticated vocabulary. They can then use these themes and vocabulary or structures in their writing. They might not tell their friends you read to them, but they will love it!
• When looking at writing with your child, it is important not to overwhelm your child with too much to change or ‘fix’. Having them work confidently on the correct spelling of 3-5 words can be more beneficial than attending to every error.

You can read the full list of ideas here.

Hopefully you had a chance to read the wonderful examples of our students’ writing in last week’s newsletter. It showed the rich array of text types and writing purposes that students are exploring at Our Lady’s - from haikus to what good readers go. 

To finish, I thought I’d share this infographic about the changes in language in students’ writing during last year’s lockdowns. It shows how language use is strongly influenced  by the circumstances that we live in and the experiences students are exposed to. But it also shows that through all the challenges from the last two years, students are still learning and using new language...and that family and friends are critically important. 

Cherish these (hopefully) last days at home with your kids, and also know that they are going to love being back learning with their friends.

Kind regards

Annie Facchinetti

Literacy Leader