As the country’s national language, English is central to the lives, learning and development of all people living in Australia. Through the study of the subject of English, individuals extend their engagement with the English language and learn to understand, empathise, communicate and build relationships with others and the world around them. The study of the subject English helps create confident communicators, imaginative and critical thinkers, and informed citizens. (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority)
At Roslyn PS, we use a structured literacy approach to teaching the English curriculum. Students engage in practice of the big 6 skills: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics (etymology and morphology), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Our program is designed to teach all students to be independent readers and writers. Strong links are made between reading and writing, and all students develop skills in a wide variety of genres over their primary school years.
We follow a consistent, predictable routine in our daily literacy block. This includes 25 minutes of phonics instruction for the Prep to grade 2s, and 20 minutes of spelling instruction for our grade 3-6s.
Students who are learning the alphabetic code take home decodable readers every day to practise the letters and sounds that they have been taught at school. We use Decodable Readers Australia texts and lessons to teach a synthetic phonics program.
Through our language comprehension and writing experiences, students build knowledge about the world around them. We connect our science and humanities studies, as well as genre-based learning, to our literacy program. For example, students may be learning about the weather and the water cycle, so they will read and respond to texts about the seasons, extreme weather or how we measure weather.
Our senior grades use novel studies to explore language and story. This also provides opportunities to build vocabulary and explore the craft of writing by analysing sentences or noting the ways an author engages the reader.
Home Reading
At school, students read from a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, which are targeted at the individual needs of each child. Children should also read at home each night for a minimum of fifteen minutes. Reading at home is about developing children’s ability to read independently, consolidating what they’re learning at school and fostering a passion for reading.
Parents and carers are asked to read with their child for at least fifteen minutes each weeknight, especially during the early years of primary school. Some days this may involve your child reading to you, and sometimes it might involve you modelling fluent reading to your child by reading to them.
Ways to help your child with reading at home
- Make sure your child is looking at the letters; we don’t use the pictures to read the words, we focus on the letters and the sounds they represent. The pictures help to build comprehension and an understanding of the text.
- Help your child sound out the word if needed, by slowly moving your finger underneath each letter and saying the sound.
- Use the 3 Ps – Pause Prompt Praise. If your child is stuck, pause for 3 seconds, give them a prompt (eg. “say the sounds in the word” or “let’s say the sounds in the word together”, and then praise your child for their effort to work out the words.
- Talk about the text after reading. Ask questions to help your child retell the story, identify key details or events, share their opinion about the text or connect to their own life experiences.