Literacy

InitiaLit

This term we will continue to use our InitiaLit program; a systematic synthetic approach to phonics.

InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 2)

For Level 1, reviewing skills covered in Term One will be ongoing, as well as learning to:

• Identify split digraphs
• Identify suffixes
• Decode new digraphs and trigraphs such as, /igh/, /ar/, /or/, /ore/

Level 2 will also spend some time reviewing content from Term One, as well as delving deeper into the following:

• Comprehension and Fluency- ensuring students understand what they are reading by exploring a variety of different text types and asking questions, making predictions and reading regularly. 
• Spelling and Grammar- reviewing spelling rules from Term 1, along with continuing to introduce grammatic rules associated with nouns, proper nouns and pronouns. 

Take- home readers will continue this term and are swapped each Monday and Wednesday.

Home Spelling will see a change to its format to ensure that what is being practised at home aligns with our approach at school. We would love to see all students in Level 1/ 2 practise their home spelling at least one night each week, as it really does make a big difference. Look out on Compass for information on our new home spelling approach, at the start of Term 2.

Writing

Our writing program will continue to encompass what students are learning in the InitiaLit Program, assisting them to become well-rounded writers. In writing this term, students will be exploring the following:

Level 1

• Letter Writing
  • How to structure a letter
  • What to include in a letter
• Persuasive Writing
  • How to structure a persuasive piece
  • Exploring purpose behind persuasive writing
• Narrative Writing
  • Revise the structure of a narrative
  • Build on our narrative writing skills
• Handwriting
  • Writing using the dotted thirds
• Spelling
  • Letter-sound relationships
  • Irregular tricky words
  • Morphological knowledge
• Grammar and Punctuation
  • Using full stops and capital letters
  • Sentence structure

Level 2

• Persuasive Writing
  • How to structure a persuasive piece
  • Using paragraphs to organise information
  • Using topic sentences to state the main idea
• Imaginative Writing
  • How to structure an imaginative piece
• Information Report
  • How to structure an Information Report
  • Developing note-taking skills
• Handwriting
  • Writing using the dotted thirds
• Spelling
  • Letter-sound relationships
  • Irregular tricky words
  • Morphological knowledge
• Grammar and Punctuation
  • Identifying verbs, adverbs and noun group phrases