Assistant Principal Message

Christie Scoble

Literacy Interventions

Literacy and numeracy are the cornerstone of schooling for young people and provide the foundation for success across all key learning areas. Regular reading helps to build vocabulary and improves writing. One thing (given sufficient persistence from the learner) that all researchers agree on is:

The key focus of the Kildare Literacy Team at present is to improve student reading and comprehension through targeted interventions. This term the Kildare Literacy Team has commenced literacy interventions for mini cohorts of Year 7 students. There are interventions happening during Accelerated Reader lessons which will be further consolidated during coaching and class time. There are also a variety of interventions occurring during coaching in response to the Year 7 Reading survey.

Students have been selected for interventions based on their responses to the Year 7 Reading survey, results in Oars comprehension testing and feedback from class teachers. The strategies chosen for the intervention are high impact strategies of tested worth.  As a staff, we will collectively track student progress to measure the impact of these interventions for our students.

Current Interventions

In each Year 7 Accelerated Reader class, two groups of four are participating in the following intervention:

Reluctant Readers

Students who are reluctant readers and struggle with comprehension are being led through an intensive program based on the principles of Reciprocal Reading strategies. This term students are being explicitly taught the strategies of predicting, connecting, clarifying, questioning and summarising. As students become more confident using these strategies, they will commence working in a team to deconstruct a text, consolidating their understanding through peer to peer learning.

Highly Proficient Readers

Students who are already highly proficient readers are being guided through a Cooperative Reading strategy. This strategy functions like a book club where each student reads the same text and then performs a particular role in order to collectively develop a deeper engagement with the text. The Cooperative Reading roles include a Code Breaker, Discussion Manager, Illustrator and Investigator/Text Analyst.

In addition to the targeted interventions above, the literacy team and Kildare staff are also intervening for the following groups of students as a response to the Year 7 Reading Survey:

Students who need help to find something to read

Many students in Year 7 self-identified as needing support in finding engaging books to read. These students have been taken to the Resource Centre during coaching to spend time with a literacy team expert and our librarian Dr Sandra Cox to help them find books they would like to read. Their Homegroup coaches will continue to support these students by showing a regular interest in what the student is currently reading.

Students needing encouragement to read

Many students identified in their survey response that they would like reminders to do their 20 minutes of reading a night. The list of these students has been shared with Homegroup coaches, who will intervene with these students during morning coaching through conversations, reminders and general encouragement. Coaches will also be supporting students to develop better reading habits through monitoring student’s Accelerated Reader targets and working with students to develop Focused Learning Plans to meet their reading targets.

How parents can help?

As you know, students in Year 7 and 8 are only required to do two important things for homework; 20 minutes reading a night and 20 minutes of maths homework. There are some students who are not doing this regular reading. Parents can support their child by encouraging them to read on a daily basis. Consider implementing a routine or a timetable for your child if they are struggling to find the time (or discipline) to read every day. Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you would like to discuss how we can work together to improve your child’s reading.

Christie Scoble | Assistant Principal