Literacy and Numeracy
CHECK OUT OUR BUSY STUDENTS DURING REMOTE LEARNING
All students across the school have been busy learning about different areas of mathematics. It is fantastic hearing about the wonderful learning and experiences students are participating it. They are showing a Growth Mindset to overcome hurdles and become the best mathematical learners they can be.
Click on the link below to read some excellent students responses.
A big thank you to Hugo, Josh, Kiara, Grace, Mitch, Lily and Monet for their reflections.
Encouraging Independence in Spelling
When our students are engaged in the writing process, there may the constant question may be 'How do I spell ...?' Encouraging independence in spelling takes time and lots of Pausing, Prompting, Praising and Patience.
Spelling is a process supported by oral language, reading and writing. The more we are exposed to words through various text types, the greater our vocabulary range and understanding about the way that words work.
The English language is very complex, thus learning to spell is a complex process. Students need to draw on four types of word knowledge to help them with the process.
- Phonological knowledge - this is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds, syllables and rhymes in spoken words.
- Orthographical knowledge - this is the awareness that letters or group of letters are used to represent individual sounds. These are called graphemes and there are various types
- single letter graphemes (b as in banana)
- double letter graphemes (ee as in feet)
- double consonant graphemes (bb as in bubble)
- digraphs - 2 different letters representing one phoneme (sh as in sheep)
- consonant clusters (gl as in glow)
- trigraphs - 3 different letters representing one phoneme (dge as in judge)
3. Morphemic knowledge - this is the understanding that the smallest parts of words carry lots of meaning. Free morphemes are words like 'friend' in 'unfriendly'. Bound morphemes change the meanings of words. Examples of these are prefixes (re-, dis-) and suffixes (-able, -les, -ly). Some suffixes change the number (dish/dishes) or tense (play/plays/played).
4. Etymological knowledge - this is an understanding of the origins of words to help unpack their meaning (eg. Greek word 'graph'='write' as in autograph, graphics).
www.education.vic.gov.au - Spelling
As parents, we can act as role models to our children, showing them our attempts at words and even using a dictionary to help us. Becoming an efficient speller takes time, lots of repetition and the ability to have a go.
I hope that the next few weeks of Remote Learning provide you with joy, success, learning and lots of quality time with your children.
Premiers' Reading Challenge
Log books by Wednesday 9th September
This is the final call for all participants in the Premiers' Reading Challenge to log their books. They will need to be verified by Thursday 10th September so that certificates can be issued. To date, our students have read an astounding 594 books! Well done everyone!
Mrs Cathy Dimitrakopoulos
cathy.dimitrakopoulos@sjvermont.catholic.edu.au