Literacy

We have a whole school, consistent, evidence based approaches to teaching literacy across our school, Reception to Year 6. 

Our practices align with the ‘science of reading.’ The science of reading refers to a body of evidence that encompasses multi-disciplinary knowledge from education, linguistics, cognitive psychology, special education and neuroscience. The science of reading looks at the essential cognitive processes for competent reading and describes how reading develops in both typical and atypical readers. These studies have revealed a great deal about how we learn to read, what goes wrong when students don’t learn, and the instructional strategies that facilitate the cognitive processes required for reading. (Castles et al 2018; Ehri 2005, 2014; Moats 2020) 

Introduction to the science of reading | Australian Education Research Organisation (edresearch.edu.au) 

The relationship between the 2 components is conceptualised in the Simple View of Reading as: word recognition x language comprehension = reading comprehension

Importantly, the Simple View of Reading states that reading comprehension is a product of word identification ability and language comprehension. If either of these two factors is absent, the student will not demonstrate reading comprehension. (edresearch.edu.au) 

In the Junior Primary classes (Reception, 1 and 2) the focus is on acquiring the skills to crack the code of our alphabet and relate it to the speech sounds in English. There are 44 speech sounds in English and 150 ways to read and spell them! Students must first learn to decode/sound-out words before they can understand the meaning of text, therefore, our emphasis in on ‘cracking the code’ in Junior Primary. 

Explicit and systematic phonics instruction is taught. We have an order or continuum of phonics skills, progressing from simple to complex, which is followed throughout the early years of schooling. Students’ progress through the continuum as they master their skills. In Years 3-6, word study continues with an increased focus on grammar, morphology (parts of the words which hold meaning) and etymology (word origins). 

Phonological awareness is taught explicitly to develop students’ ability to hear the sounds within language. Being able to hear or ‘isolate’ these sounds gives children a foundation for learning to manipulate the sounds of sentences and words as they learn to read and spell and develop their orthographic mapping skills. This is done every day in the junior primary classes and 2-3 times a week in years 3-6. 

Heart words and flash words are explicitly taught from an early age. Heart words are words with a tricky part which students have to learn by heart. The tricky parts are either irregular/rare spelling, or spelling patterns that they have not been taught yet. Flash words are high-frequency words with regular spellings. These words can be easily sounded out (decoded) but students need to know these words in a flash. When possible teachers pair these words with the weekly sound being taught. 

Oral language skills are key to allowing students to learn across all areas of the curriculum. ‘Oral language development comprises children’s ability to use vocabulary and grammatically correct sentences when they speak, as well as receptive language (understanding what others are communicating). Oral language development is considered a biologically primary skill; however, children exposed to more complex oral language in the first 5 years of life will arrive at school with a wider vocabulary and more comprehensive ability than those who have not been so exposed’ (Snow 2021) Enhancing students’ oral language skills and by targeting the other ‘Big 6’ areas of literacy (oral language, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary), we believe that all students will achieve reading success. We actively encourage our parents and caregivers to work in partnership with us to develop their child’s oral language skills and increase their vocabulary by: talking to your child, listening responsively and asking lots of questions; as well as reading aloud together and talking about the book you are reading.

Reading is taught through the explicit teaching of the CAFE strategies (comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanded vocabulary). These strategies are modelled and practised through group, paired or whole class reading. Reading is assessed through reading conferences with students. This is where teachers listen to students read and identify what reading strategies they are using well and which ones are needed to progress. 

Students are working with decodable reading books. These are books or passages that only include words that the students can ‘decode’ (sound out) according to the skills and sounds that they have been taught so far. Students need practise with the phonics skills they are learning, and these books and passages support this. Decodable reading books are sent home for students to practise their growing ‘skills set’ of sounds and reading strategies. Some of the decodable books that your child brings home may look simple, but please understand the strategies and skills your child needs to practise in the books. 

Reciprocal teaching is taught through reading lessons. Explicitly teaching students the roles of predictor, questioner, summariser and clarifier. These strategies and roles are taught to students from Reception. As students progress through their schooling, students are then taught to manage their reading groups and use these roles to support them in understanding and enjoying what is being read in a group. This enables students to have enriched conversations and discussions about what is being read, improving and strengthening their comprehension skills. 

Brightpath writing assessment tools are used to help students and teachers with the metalanguage of writing (more information can be found on the website – www.brightpath.com.au). Using a common language of writing enables students to understand what their next steps are in writing and how they can develop as authors. Moderated writing tasks are designed and delivered by year level groups to ensure consistency of explicit teaching of writing skills needed by students is maintained. Daily opportunities to write and practise skills are essential in the development of students and this is done across the curriculum not just when genres or grammar skills are explicitly taught. Teachers use the ‘writing best advice papers’ to ensure evidence based practices are followed consistently across the school.