This term we will be building on a new variety of themes that we can link to both our reading and writing progressions, as well as other areas of the curriculum.  Students will be reading longer texts and getting used to applying their learning in new contexts.

The Teachers in Years 4-6 are currently engaging in learning about the Better Start Literacy Programme through the University of Canterbury.

The BSLA programme is currently used in Years 1-3 and we are seeing some fantastic results come from students growth in their literacy.

We are very excited to be beginning this journey in Year 6 and look forward to the learning it brings for our students.

PROGRESSIONS:

Week 1 and 2:

IDENTIFYING PERSPECTIVES: 

• Explain how groups of people are constructed or portrayed in texts, providing evidence, and discuss what world views and perspectives are presented or omitted by the text creator, and the effects of these decisions.

MAKING CONNECTIONS & INTERPRETATIONS: 

• Make connections within and between texts, explaining how the ideas in texts connect with their own knowledge, lived experiences, cultural knowledge, values, and practices, considering the interpretations and ideas of others.

VOCABULARY: 

• Understand and use idioms and expressions from their own and others’ cultures.

MAKING CONNECTIONS & INTERPRETATIONS:

•  Make connections within and between texts, explaining how the ideas in texts connect with their own knowledge, lived experiences, cultural knowledge, values, and practices, considering the interpretations and ideas of others.

SUMMARISING & DRAWING CONCLUSIONS:

•  Identify the central theme or main idea of a text, summarise how it is developed through the key details, and draw a supported conclusion.

Week 3-9:

DECODING: 

• Decode multi-syllable words by applying their knowledge of the alphabetic code, morphology, and syllables.

• Develop reading stamina and read longer texts independently.

FLUENCY: 

• Read year-level texts accurately and expressively, reflecting understanding of the text while maintaining a natural pace of reading, at oral fluency rates appropriate for year 6 students.

VOCABULARY:

• Independently infer from context clues and use morphology to understand challenging words.

• Understand and use idioms and expressions from their own and others’ cultures.

TEXT FORMS & GENRE: 

• Compare and contrast different text forms and genres across a topic, including cultural texts from their own and others’ cultures, and discuss how they are written for different audiences.

TEXT STRUCTURE, STYLE & FEATURES:

• Compare and contrast the features and style of texts written for different purposes to explore the use of text, language, and visual features that are purposefully selected.

• Explore how language is used to effect within texts, including the use of figurative and literal language to convey meaning.

COMPREHENSION MONITORING: 

• Monitor and confirm their understanding across a range of texts and sources of information by annotating, rereading, adjusting their reading rate, asking and answering questions, and visualising.

SUMMARISING & DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: 

• Identify the central theme or main idea of a text, summarise how it is developed through the key details, and draw a supported conclusion.

INFERRING USING EVIDENCE:

•  Make inferences using explicit and implicit evidence, justify the inferences using evidence from the text, and compare their inferences with the interpretations of others.

MAKING CONNECTIONS & INTERPRETATIONS: 

• Share opinions about how topics are addressed in texts and how messages are conveyed, providing evidence from the text and their prior knowledge to support their opinions.

DEVELOPING READER IDENTITY:

• Identify their strengths and successes.

Week 1 & 2 Punctuation, sentence types and editing skills.

Students will participate in workshop lessons where they are taught skills then put into practice with short writing exercises

Week 3 & 4: Biographies.

In week 3 & 4, we will be learning about biographies are as well as autobiographies. Students will get to create an autobiography first and then research someone they are interested in to create their own biography!

Week 5 & 6: Language Features and Poetry or creative writing.

Students will explore a range of poetic forms and identify key language features such as similes, metaphors, alliteration, and personification. They will read, analyse, and respond to various poems, discussing how language features create mood, imagery, and meaning. Students will then apply these techniques to plan, draft, and publish their own original poems or creative writing..

Week 7 & 8: Instructional writing.

Students will learn to write instructional tasks in a cohesive manner so that it can be easily followed by another person/audience. This can be done through multiple forms such as how to cook a meal, how to build a piece of furniture, how to assemble an item, how to play a game, etc.

Week 9: Speech planning.

Students will start preparing their speech topics, planning and researching!

PROGRESSIONS: