Literacy Learning at Karrendi Primary School At Karrendi Primary School we provide a balanced literacy program for all students. The literacy program includes a block of 120 minutes a day involving the explicit teaching of reading, writing and oral language. It is expected that the literacy block will be implemented in classrooms from 9:00 to 11:00, or after NIT when teachers have NIT for the first hour of the day. It is also expected that there will be no interruptions to the literacy block. SSOs will be allocated accordingly to help support children during literacy block. Teachers will use the Assess, Plan, Teach cycle to inform their programming. A whole school genre focus will help teachers to link their reading and writing components, allow for collaborative planning in learning teams and professional learning as a whole school.
Culture Staff at Karrendi worked together to develop our beliefs about literacy learning. This diagram illustrates the culture, the pedagogy and the curriculum of Karrendi. Together, these elements work towards improving all student outcomes. Pedagogy Curriculum
Student Learning lies at the centre of our literacy block at Karrendi. Every program developed aims to improve the learning outcomes for all students. We believe that curriculum, pedagogy and culture all impact on student learning. Curriculum: Reading, writing and oral language are at the core of our literacy curriculum and provide a balanced literacy program for all students. Pedagogy: We believe that the pedagogy we use impacts on student learning. At Karrendi we have a strong focus on reading comprehension using higher order thinking skills. A classroom environment focused on learning, assessment for learning, differentiation and a range of teaching strategies are also key pedagogies used at Karrendi. Culture: The culture fostered at our school is essential for the successful programming and implementation of literacy learning. At Karrendi we undertake regular professional learning in literacy practices, we have high expectations of ourselves as effective literacy teachers and of our students as successful literacy learners, we have a whole school focus on literacy with shared directions and understandings and work collaboratively to plan literacy learning.
Teaching Strategies Modelled writing Shared writing Guided writing Independent writing Joint construction Differentiated instruction Use of ICT including Interactive whiteboards Use of a wide range of reading materials and writing prompts Genres Language features Structure Audience and purpose Narrative Recount Persuasive Explanation Information Report Procedure Description Writing At Karrendi Primary School Spelling Phonics Jolly Phonics Vowels and consonants Plurals Morphemic Visual Etymology Using a dictionary and thesaurus Initial and final blends Spelling rules Handwriting Fine motor skills Tracing Pencil grip Formation of letters Posture Word Knowledge Vocabulary Grammar Punctuation Sight Words Using a dictionary and thesaurus Assessment Genre Rubrics ESL Scope and Scales Moderation Backwards planning model First Steps writing Continuum NAPLAN Outcomes Students: understand and use a wide range of genres are engaged write a range of audiences and purposes write for pleasure understand the mechanics of writing transfer their writing skills to other curriculum areas
udena Teaching Strategies Modelled reading Shared reading Guided reading Independent reading Differentiated instruction Explicit Instruction Higher order Thinking Skills Critical Literacy Assessment Assessment for learning Assessment as learning Assessment of learning Running Records PROBE NAPLaN Rubics Self evaluation Moderation First Steps Reading Continuum Big books Guided readers Picture books Information texts Class novel sets Take home readers Films Websites Magazines and comics Rhymes and Poems Resources Comprehension Strategies Making Connections Predicting Questioning Monitoring Visualising Summarising Inferring Reading At Karrendi Primary School The Big Six Deslea Konza Oral Language Phonological Awareness Letter sound relationships Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension Reading Groups 1 hour a day, 4 days a week Supported by leadership and SSOs Smaller groups Groups based on ability levels Teaching informed by assessment Supported by classroom reading program Students: Outcomes are fluent readers use a wide range of comprehension skills read for pleasure understand the mechanics of reading are critical readers
Karrendi Literacy Block The benefits of a whole school literacy block Whole School Level Shared understanding of literacy teaching Coordinated professional development Coordinated intervention and support Use of targets and data to inform planning and teaching
Teacher Level Directed instruction Differentiated instruction Teachers know what they are expected to teach and how to best meet student achievement targets Student Level Students have sufficient time to learn and process information Routine & regularity Achieve success in ability groups The Non- Negotiables 120 minutes Daily (9-11am or around NIT) Involves explicit teaching of Reading and Writing Minimal interruptions SSO support Planning informed by assessment
Gradual Release of Responsibility From Teacher to Student Modelled Teachers explicitly teach & model ( for students) direct instruction modelling with think alouds Guided Teachers scaffold & support ( with students) teacher supervises and assists students small groups specific skills other students work independently Independent Students independently ( by students) students practice the strategy on their own
Components of a literacy block Shared Reading Modelled Reading Whole Class Focus Shared Writing Modelled Writing Handwriting Spelling Guided Reading Independent Reading Small Group Work Guided Writing Independent Writing Whole Class Sharing Oral Language
What your literacy block could look like 9-9.15 Spelling Groups 9.15 9.30 Modelled / Shared Writing 9.30 9.50 Guided / Independent Writing 9.50 10 Sharing Time 10 10.20 Modelled / Shared Reading 10.20 10.50 Guided / Independent Reading 10.50-11 Sharing Time The challenge is to provide a balanced literacy program where the components are connected, meaningful and build on prior learning.
Genre Writing It is important that students skills in tackling different text types are developed in both fiction and non- fiction texts. The purpose, structure and language features of each text need to be explicitly taught. Students should be given opportunities to practice all of the components in modelled and guided writing settings before being expected to construct the text independently. The following page outlines Karrendi s Genre focus for each term.
Reading The Big Six Learning to read is the most important educational outcome of primary education. Reading is a complex process that builds on oral language facility, and encompasses both specific skill development (phonemic and decoding strategies) and the use of comprehension strategies. The precise ways in which these processes combine need to be understood if teachers are to identify their students needs and teach them most effectively. Deslea Konza, Research into Practice; Understanding the Reading Process, 2010. The Big Six is a framework that has been developed to bring together the findings of numerous large scale reviews of research into the effective teaching of reading. It is a valuable framework for helping to identify students needs in each of the six areas of reading and to program effectively for these needs. The Big Six are: Oral language Phonological Awareness Letter- Sound Knowledge Vocabulary Fluency Comprehension
The following is a brief introduction to the Big Six adapted from the DECS publication Research into Practice; Understanding the Reading Process. Oral Language provides the foundation for learning to read and is important for both reading and writing. Children require strong vocabularies to understand the broad range of words in texts; they require strong grammatical skills to understand the complex sentences present in many texts; and they require the ability to reason and infer so that the necessary links between information texts can be made. Phonological Awareness is a broad term that refers to the ability to focus on the sounds of speech and it has a number of different components. It is the realisation that a continuous stream of speech can be separated into individual words, that those words can also be broken up into one or more syllables, and that syllables are made up of separate, single sounds. The most significant of these components for reading development is the awareness of individual sounds or phonemes. Letter- Sound Knowledge. Once children understand that words can be broken up into a series of sounds, they need to learn the relationships between those sounds and letters. An understanding of the relationship between sounds and the letters that represent them (graphemes) is at the heart of reading alphabetic language. Vocabulary is a key component of reading for meaning. If children know the meaning of a word, they are far more likely to be able to read it and make sense of it within a sentence. Fluency occurs when all the skills of learning to read are put into place and occur without overt attention, so that the reader s energy can be focussed on determining the meaning. It is the point where learning to read transforms to reading to learn. Fluency includes reading rate, appropriate phrasing and intonation. Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and is at the pinnacle of the Big Six pyramid. Comprehension will not occur if children do not have adequate understanding of the vocabulary, the relevant background knowledge, familiarity with the semantic and syntactic structures; and the verbal reasoning ability to help read between the lines. Comprehension requires engagement with the text at a deep level, and an array of skills that go far beyond simple word recognition. Deslea Konza, 2010
Oral Language Components of a well rounded oral language program: Language of Social Interaction Language and Literacy Language and Thinking Speech Development First Steps
Assessment Every time you carry out an assessment, it is not a decision point, it is a TEACHING POINT! (Dr. Lorna Earl 2006)