Year One
Communicating with the Year One Team
We look forward to partnering with you in 2020, and welcome your input:
Laura McQueen (Class 1A) mcqueen.laura.j1@edumail.vic.gov.au
Rebecca Tilley (Class 1B) Tilley.Rebecca.J@edumail.vic.gov.au
Literacy in the Year One Classrooms
Can we start by saying that Miss Tilley and Mrs McQueen are so proud of our students! Both classes have settled very well into the routine and structure of the Year One program, and it has been great to see so many of our parents taking an interest in what's happening across our classrooms.
In the area of Spelling and Reading, we have been reviewing language concepts to set a baseline of knowledge for our students. Students are increasingly being exposed to the structures of the English language, as they start to use correct grammatical terms such as grapheme (2,3,4 letter sounds), phoneme, syllable, blend, and so on.
In the area of Writing students have been using personal "writing seeds" which is a technical term for an "idea or experience" which an author writes about. We have a saying that "good writers write about what they know". Therefore, our first piece of published writing has been on our holiday experiences which are proudly on display outside of our classrooms. We are now discussing how to increase the interest of the pieces we write through the use of descriptive language.
In Speaking and Listening, we have been providing many opportunities for students to build their confidence to speak in front of an audience as we conduct regular circle time in class. We have also been continuing to build on our students' self-awareness of how and why "talk moves" promote respectful classroom dialogue.
As the majority of our parents would be aware, our Foundation- Year Two classes utilise a tiered evidence-based approach to Literacy, based upon the whole-class instruction of InitiaLit.
We look forward to meeting with you personally next Monday and Tuesday evening to discuss the progress, and future learning goals for your child.
