Learning and Teaching 

Learning at Home

We are halfway through our third week of learning from home. Everyone is becoming expert at navigating the Google Classroom and turning in work for the teachers to see. The teachers are adapting their lessons in response to feedback and from what children are turning in. 

 

Google Meets - Reading Groups

This week you will have noticed that we have introduced live small group reading sessions.  When we are usually at school, teachers run these sessions every day with a focus on a specific skill of reading, supporting a small group of students to read a text independently using that skill. This focus can be:

introducing new or technical vocabulary

highlighting the language structures or features of a text

focusing on a strategy that will be useful when reading (sounding out words, self correcting, reading on, using the picture)

teaching fluency

promoting the different levels of comprehension (predicting, inferring, questioning, summarising etc)

We ask that during the Google Meets for reading that the children participate independently. This is an opportunity for teachers to meet with the children and focus on specific needs for that group. Children will be able to show what they know by reading with the teacher and answering questions independently without the assistance of family members. Please be present in the room or living area that the Google Meet is happening in to assist with technical problems if they arise but allow your child to participate independent of you. 

 

So far this week, the children have enjoyed the live aspect of their learning and have participated in reading groups with their teacher. The teachers have loved seeing the children from their class as much as the children have loved seeing their teacher and friends!

 

Some images from our reading Google Meets.

 

Managing Learning Activities

Each day  learning at home can be different. Depending on your child and how they are feeling, you may get all activities completed or maybe none at all. I know that there are days with my daughter, who is in Year 1, that we get minimal assigned tasks completed but other days she is keen to do all her assigned work. As I wrote in last week’s newsletter, be flexible. Talk with your child about the activities and choose which order they would like to complete them in. 

 

There are many things that you can do at home that count as learning. If your child needs a break, these could be alternatives for you to do at home. 

 

Take care of yourself and your family! If you have any questions about the learning, please feel free to contact me via phone or email - dcourtney@cckingsville.catholic.edu.au 

 

Deborah Courtney

Director of Teaching and Learning