LITERACY

Literacy Update

Update from Julie Grace-Literacy Leader

Our students have made an excellent beginning to their Literacy journeys for 2020.

They are enthusiastically reviewing and practising the Daily 5 in their Reading time and re- familiarising themselves with the CAFE Menu of Comprehension strategies to support their understanding. They are, at present, setting their first learning goals for the year, in reading and writing development.

Students are also engaged in a range of Term One assessments of Reading and Writing and a review of these assessments will help teachers to plan focussed learning experiences. This term. 

Home Reading is commencing in all classes over the next week and this is an opportunity for parents and caregivers to be involved in literacy learning. Our students are encouraged at school, to develop a love of reading, which will stand them in good stead for future studies.

For you, as parents, this means that the reading time at home needs to be non-threatening, with warmth and a positive “can do“ feeling about the whole experience.

Do not compare your child’s progress in reading and reading comprehension with that of another child. Each child learns to read and understand text comprehensively at his or her own pace.

Thank you to all the interested parents who attended the Literacy Support Meeting on Thursday 13th February. These parents have offered to support the literacy learning in classrooms during the year as classroom helpers. If you were unable to attend this meeting but would like to support student learning in the classroom please contact Julie Grace, Literacy Leader.

We will be holding another Literacy Meeting on Wednesday 11th March in Room 3 at 9.00 am on 

“Supporting Students Literacy Development Years 3-6” 

Please feel welcome to attend. This will be a “hands on” session.

Co Teaching in Literacy has commenced in Years 1 and 2 with our Prep students due to join in over the coming weeks. Co Teaching enables the support of an extra teacher in the classrooms so that even more students can benefit from individualised instruction in Literacy. 

SMART Spelling is our explicit and systematic program for the teaching of spelling which was introduced to our school in 2019

All classes teach spelling through the SMART Spelling Approach. 

SMART spelling is based around whole words with an emphasis on meaning and vocabulary development. 

SMART is an acronym for the sequence teachers follow to teach words to students. 

It stands for: 

Say /Meaning /Analyse/ Remember/ Teach

Happy Reading!