Curriculum

Literacy

Creating a Literacy Rich Classroom 

 

Literacy is taught through the Contemporary Learning Experience and Gradual Release of Responsibility instructional model. It follows the Victorian Curriculum standards and includes a comprehensive exploration into the teaching and learning of: 

 

– Reading and Viewing  

– Writing 

– Speaking and Listening 

– Word Study and Spelling 

Our amazing teachers work collaboratively to plan and teach a targeted Literacy program to meet the needs of each individual student. Utilising a variety of assessments and expertly analysing the data sets, teachers ensure learners continue to progress in all aspects of their literacy learning.   

 

Reader’s Workshop

 

Through the Reader’s Workshop, teachers establish clear instructional norms and encourage learners to see themselves as readers. Students explore a variety of meaningful texts through targeted mini-lessons and self-select reading materials from a wide range of options in the classroom library. Classroom libraries are regularly updated with new and exciting texts, providing access to a diverse range of literature to encourage, motivate and develop students’ reading habits. Reader’s Notebooks are used to capture their thinking, as they build on their understanding of the reading process and engage in rich substantive talk about books read to them or books they read independently. Surrounded by co-constructed anchor charts displaying comprehension strategies that deepen our understanding of reading, learners participate in a range of activities such as Book Clubs, Reciprocal Teaching, Literacy Circles, Collaborative learning, focus groups, conferences, and independent work. 

Writer’s Workshop

 

Again, following the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, students and teachers engage in the study of writing across many genres. Through workshops, students are explicitly taught strategies to apply in writing, explore authors craft and have many opportunities to practice their skills. Students create and share texts, finding authentic purposes and audiences.  

 An important component of the Writing Workshop approach is the Writer’s Notebook which provides a tool learners use to record observations, feelings, memories, opinions, wonderings and many more things. The notebook serves to encourage writers to value writing, with a safe place to collect ideas and inspiration.  

 Students across the school are exposed to the 6 traits of writing: Ideas, Organisation, Voice, Word Choice, Sentences Fluency and Conventions, providing a shared vision and vocabulary for the qualities of ‘good’ writing. The traits embrace and complement both the Writer’s and Readers Workshops by showing learners how writers use the traits in a variety of genres.  

Spelling

 

Our spelling approach encompasses four crucial spelling strategies. We incorporate opportunities for students to develop their word-consciousness through immersion into Phonology, Morphology, Orthography and Etymology. Learners are introduced to all four strategies across their schooling, participating in engaging activities and investigations into the English language.