Focus on Learning 

As another term comes to a close, it is a timely reminder to reflect on the superb learning that occurs here at St. Joseph's. 

One of our focus' this semester has been on reading and all it entails; including modelling effective reading skills and strategies, explicitly teaching these skills and strategies, guiding students in learning to read as well as reading to learn, and analysing the data of our students to plan 'next steps'.  Each lesson in reading is presented with a clear Learning Intention and a Success Criteria, enabling students to see the importance of the reading and a clear direction of how to obtain success. 

Here is just a sample of what our students have been learning and practising in class.  

It is also vital that we, as a community, celebrate the achievements of our students in their reading gains. Below is a picture of Sieanna and Reuben, two Stage 1 students who were delighted to read to Mrs Long and Mrs Rheinberger on Monday, proudly showing off their increasing reading abilities! 

As fellow members on this journey, you, as parents and carers also play a significant role in helping our students to continually advance their reading skills. Whether it be modelling a love of reading at home, encouraging independent reading, using home readers with your child (information on this can be found in the week 5 newsletter) or practising high frequency words with younger children, each day presents a unique and important opportunity to be part of your child's journey in learning to read. 

The upcoming two week holiday break, whilst signalling a time for families to rest, also presents opportunities for our families to continue building a love of reading. 

During the holiday break, why not:

• let your children see you enjoying a good book,
• encourage daily reading time,
• indulge in a family read aloud together (the more character voices the better!),
• go on a word hunt to find high frequency words around the house, in town, or at a holiday destination,
• retell a story as a play,
• re-write a story by changing the ending, a character, the setting,
• visit a library,
• set up a reading space in your home,
• shop for a new book as a family,
• Read, Read, Read!