P-6 Literacy

Staff signing The Primary Reading Pledge: `https://auspeld.org.au/2020/08/06/primary-reading-pledge/

The ultimate goal of all reading instruction is for students to understand what they read. The model of ‘The Simple View of Reading’ demonstrates that reading comprehension occurs only when students have both Decoding/Word Recognition skills and Language Comprehension skills. Children need the essential skills to get the words off the page, as well as, knowledge, vocabulary, and a good understanding of how our language works in order to comprehend what they read. We must provide instruction that will help students achieve these goals.

At Myrtleford P12 College, we focus on:

• Code emphasis in early grades. This means that Grades P-2 especially will focus on acquiring the skills to crack the code of our alphabet 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, we will emphasise synthetic phonics instruction in the early grades.

• Explicit and systematic phonics and morphology instruction. We will have a sequence of phonics skills, progressing from simple to complex, which will be followed throughout the early grades. Students will progress through the continuum as they master skills. In older primary grades, word study will continue with the addition of more complex grammar and morphology knowledge (learning about word parts such as Greek and Latin roots).

• Phonemic awareness. Developing phonemic awareness is the ability to identify the individual sounds in words by listening and manipulating those sounds orally. While this skill will be emphasised in Grades P-2, we will make sure all students at MP12 have this necessary foundation. Older students may need to practise these skills until they have adequately developed this fundamental reading skill. This is an area that the research has indicated is hugely important!

• Decodable readers. Our early readers will be working with decodable texts. These are word lists, books or passages that only include words that the students can ‘decode’ (sound-out) according to the skills they have been taught thus far. Our students need practice with the phonics skills they are learning, and these books and passages provide multiple exposures for students to practise and develop their skill.

• Diagnostic Assessments. Your child will not be assigned a PM Benchmark reading level, such as 5, or 15, or 25 (or any level 1-30) as in the past. Students will be assessed on the Oral Reading Fluency rate for their grade level. These nationally normed one-minute assessments give us a great indication of how easy or difficult reading is for your child. From there, we will give diagnostic assessments in word reading and nonsense word reading to find out which areas in the continuum of phonics skills they need help with. Further, students will be given Spelling assessments that indicate which phonics patterns they are able to apply in their writing, as well as, be assessed on Phonemic Awareness so we can make sure they have these crucial foundational skills. As students become proficient word readers, comprehension is a natural outcome. Comprehension will also be checked with timely three-minute assessments. If your child shows a weakness in any area, they will be progress monitored and given interventions to help them become stronger in their area of weakness.

• Early intervention. If we see any signs that your child may be struggling with the foundational skills of reading, we will not take a ‘wait and see’ approach; but will immediately implement interventions and monitor their progress. The best solution to the problem of reading failure is early identification and intervention. Identified students will be supported with further targeted instruction with small group settings using, 'Cracking the ABC Code' program.

• Knowledge Building and Vocabulary. Research has indicated that reading comprehension is closely connected to the background knowledge we have on a topic we’re reading about and by understanding the vocabulary contained in the text. Our students will have the opportunity to build a broad knowledge base of history, science, and the arts. Students will have access to complex text, often read aloud by their teacher, and in the process, gain more complex vocabulary. The research tells us that building oral language skills, background knowledge and vocabulary, contributes significantly to reading comprehension and should be taught beginning in the earliest grades.

We know a great deal about how the brain develops as we learn to read and what instructional practices are most effective for all children. We are committed to best practice, being guided by scientific research to ensure that we deliver on the promise of literacy for every MP12 student.