Literacy

Reading

In Grade 5/6, students are primarily working on improving their comprehension skills and trying to deepen their understanding of texts and the world. We try to improve the speed and accuracy of their fluency when reading and students also build up their stamina for reading over longer periods.

Reading Eggs & Reading Eggspress - A student favourite, this interactive program can offer a range of comprehension activities and a library full of e-books for students to read at home. By completing lessons, students gain confidence and skill in both fluency and comprehension.

Students regularly use this program at school and should know how to use it at home.

CARS & STARS - At PHPS, these are the 12 reading strategies (see image on right) that students practise to improve their comprehension of a text. These strategies help children make meaning and connections between the text, themselves and the world.

Currently, we are trialling the use of CARS & STARS Online to help students develop their understanding of these strategies as this program offers an online version of the lessons normally done in class. Teachers will begin sharing log in details with students soon.

In the meantime, continue to discuss with your child what they are reading and what they do and don't understand about what they read.

Literacy Pro - As students become increasingly fluent readers, we use Literacy Pro to measure student achievement and growth in reading. This test produces a Lexile score, which we use to inform our assessment and teaching of reading. Students can also take quizzes based on appropriately levelled books they have read to build their comprehension.

Writing

In Grade 5/6, students are expected to write using the features of a variety of text types that fall under the genres of imaginative, informative and persuasive. As they become more confident writers, students experiment with these features and begin to develop their own 'voice' within their writing. Students develop an awareness that each writing piece has a different purpose and audience and that their writing choices must reflect those. Additionally, students are challenged to use increasingly ambitious words and phrases in their writing to engage the reader and express precise meaning.

Seven Steps - At PHPS, we follow the Seven Steps approach for writing to teach students how to write engaging and powerful texts. When teaching the Steps, activities are related to relevant, popular texts that students know and/or enjoy.

Handwriting - In Victoria, students develop a legible, fluent handwriting style through the use of practise worksheets and handwriting books, both of which are readily available online.

Punctuation - In Grade 5/6, students are expected to use a range of punctuation marks to aid meaning and add emphasis to their writing. They should be confident using basic punctuation marks and begin to experiment with different types of apostrophes and ways of showing parenthesis in their writing.

Spelling

Grade 5/6 students at Pakenham Hills Primary School develop their ability to spell familiar and unfamiliar words through the use of strategies, such as spelling patterns, bases, origins, prefixes, suffixes and common letter patterns.

Jolly Grammar - We follow the Jolly Grammar spelling lists as these match the weekly grammar activities. Each week students will be given a set of words based on the results of their pretest. They are expected to practise their words during the week (ideally once a day) and will be tested at the end of each week.

Grammar

In Grade 5/6, students build on their prior knowledge of grammatical concepts through the regular revision and application of skills, such as sentence parsing, tense identification, conjugation and analysis of prefixes and suffixes.

Jolly Grammar - Weekly grammar lessons using the Jolly Grammar books form the basis of our instruction.

Page updated

Report abuse