Learning & Teaching

Thank you 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and staff who have been busy contacting all the new Little Learners Love Literacy decodable books. They have all done an amazing job and this process is nearly finished. So thank you very much! 

Decodable Books 

The research has progressed over the last 5 years to support that children need explicit exposure to sounds and spelling rules to be able to decode and sound out words independently. 

We are now taking the next phase of our phonics journey, with the introduction of decodable books/readers. These decodable books correlate to what is explicitly being taught in class. This new approach involves constantly assessing their (the student’s) knowledge and targeting their reading to the results of the assessment and ensuring they have all the prior knowledge that enables them to become fluent readers. 

The books previously used were predictive texts where students needed to use visuals to read unknown words.

What are decodable books? 

The decodable books that we will be using come from the program ‘Little Learners Love Literacy’. Decodable books require children to read words by sounding out, using the letters and sounds that they have been taught. The Little Learners Love Literacy decodable books are carefully written to ensure that they follow the sequence that is being taught in class. Children experience success from the start by sounding out and blending words in the books using the sounds that they’ve learnt so far. 

‘Little Learners Love Literacy’ Stages 

The Little Learners program is carefully sequenced in seven stages to teach children the 44 sounds of the English language and the principles of the alphabetic code (that each speech sound can be represented by different groups of letters, such as the sound /ī/ as in I, sky, pie, ice, cycle, and that a letter (or group of letters) can represent different sounds, such as the letter ‘y’ in yes, gym, funny, sky). There are five Pip and Tim books for every stage in the Little Learners Love Literacy program, to provide opportunities for your child to apply the letter–sound correspondences taught at each stage in the classroom.

Heart Words 

Heart Words are introduced at each stage. Heart Words are words that children need to ‘learn by heart’, as they cannot decode them yet. Heart words such as ‘the’ and ‘said’ are needed to create a sentence and a story. Many Heart Words will become decodable later in the program when children have learnt more of the alphabetic code. Each book includes a ‘How to enjoy this book’ section, where you can find Heart Words, speed sounds, a vocabulary check, as well as some comprehension questions and ideas for discussion. 

Top Tips for reading at home 

• Before your child starts reading each book, go to the back two pages. Encourage your child to point to the letters and say the sounds, then ask them to read the Heart Words. 
• Encourage your child to sound out to read unknown words when they get stuck. 
• Make sure your child tracks their finger underneath the words as they read. 
• Remember that this is the beginning of your child’s learning to read journey and, just as when they were learning to walk, your child will need support to build confidence.   

Home Reading in Term 2 and beyond  

Over the course of the next few weeks some students will start to bring home decodable books to read independently each night. Students will have the same book for the whole week. The classroom teacher will decide what day students will be changing their home reader. For students who have passed the Little Learners Love Literacy Stages they will continue to take home an interest based book, this will most likely be a book of their choice from the School Library, such as a chapter book.