Mellor 1/2 - English

Writing

This term we will continue to revise and consolidate children’s recount writing from Term 1. Students will also continue to be exposed to Narratives daily with class novels and/or the reading aloud of quality literature to the class. Non-fiction texts are also modeled daily to ensure our programs are comprehensive and balanced. When classes visit the library we encourage children to borrow a Premiers Reading picture book, as well as a non-fiction book to cater for their personal interests.

This term teachers will be focusing on explicitly teaching the text type of Procedure with the purpose being to instruct someone on how to do something. The writing piece includes an aim, materials and numbered steps. The grammatical features include:

·         Verbs usually at the beginning of each instruction. E.g. put, cut, run

·         Words or groups of words that tell us how, when, where, with whom. E.g. until fully blended.

Attached is a more detailed assessment proforma that outlines the learning, writing and grammatical structures our children are striving to achieve. 

 

 

 

How can parents support their child/ren with this at home? Here are some ideas:

¬  Use a recipe book to cook a favourite meal.

¬  Outline the steps when making something or doing an activity and encourage your child to do the same.

¬  Watch a video clip from Youtube of how to do or make something (there are so many to choose from). Bring in your creations to show the class.

¬ Borrow a ‘how to’ book from the library and follow the instructions to create or experiment with something.

¬  When your child is getting organised have a quick conversation about what they might need.

 

 Spelling

Our approach to spelling is based around current research and continues to develop and change to ensure all our students are extending their productive vocabularies. At times spelling knowledge, strategies, patterns and rules are explicitly taught and, integrated across the curriculum and within the context of writing.  High Frequency Words will continue to be sent home for homework, remembering that a child cannot truly spell a word correctly until recalling it in their own writing. The attachment is an information page on how you can support your child with spelling at home from Oxford University Press: What Makes Independent and Successful Spellers? A Guide for Parents.

Phonics and Grammar

Explicit phonics and grammar programs will continue to be used throughout the term to move children along in their speaking, reading and writing.

 

Handwriting

Handwriting continues to be targeted daily to ensure children are forming letters of the alphabet correctly and that handwriting is both legible and fluent when writing.

 

 Target Time

The Mellor 1/2 team have worked in depth at collecting data to inform our literacy blocks and Target Time focus. This term our Target Time will focus will be on sentence structure and writing. Extensive data and analysis has been completed to ensure that each and every child is in a group matching their current developmental needs. These groups will remain fluid and common assessments will be used to monitor each child’s growth.