LITERACY

All students at Holy Family School have a structured two hour block of literacy education on a daily basis.  This incorporates reading, writing, Smart Spelling and speaking and listening.

During Term One all students in Prep to 2 participate in Early Years Literacy Testing and teachers collect and analyse student achievement and data information. They use this to set goals for improvement, refocus teaching and learning, direct resources and report on each learners' progress.

This term in Prep, we start learning to read with a focus on concepts about print, the difference between letters and words, rhyming words and oral language structures. Through the use of big books and picture books, the students will begin to practise asking questions, making predictions and sharing their understanding of the events in a text. 

We explore concepts about print including book orientation, title, text direction and punctuation.  We track words from left to right and match pictures with words.  We learn to generate rhymes such as cat and mat / dog and log. We also introduce the students to the 100 most commonly used words (common sight words). 

In Writing, the students use personal experiences to begin writing recounts through illustration and role play.  They begin to understand that writing conveys a message. We encourage students to ‘have a go’ and develop their confidence to attempt writing tasks. The students will learn about letter/sound relationships when recording their ideas. 

In Handwriting we focus on sitting position, pencil grip, starting position and correct letter formation. We concentrate on fine motor skills such as threading beads, lacing activities and cutting to improve pencil grip and scissor control.

Oral language activities are based on many opportunities to speak with and listen to others.  The Preps will learn about:

·      ‘What does a good speaker do?’  We focus on making eye contact, volume, body language, speed and sharing a variety of ideas. 

·      ‘What does a good listener do?’  We focus on making eye contact, not talking, body language and asking related questions. 

·     We also teach the students about following instructions, asking questions and constructing grammatically correct sentences.