LITERACY
Literacy in English gives students access to the understanding, knowledge, and skills that they need to participate fully in the social, cultural, political, and economic life of New Zealand and the wider world.
To be successful participants our students need to be effective oral, written, and visual communicators who are able to think critically and in depth.
Our New Zealand English Curriculum is structured around two interconnected strands, each encompassing the oral, written, and visual forms of the language. The strands differentiate between the modes in which students are primarily:
· Making meaning of ideas or information they receive (Listening, Reading, and Viewing);
· Creating meaning for themselves or others (Speaking, Writing, and Presenting).
Literacy Goals at Churchill Park School:
- to provide high quality and equitable teaching and learning opportunities to enable our students to achieve to the best of their ability in literacy education
- to enable all students to develop skills and understandings in reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting, for everyday living and as a foundation for further learning
- to recognise students as individuals, cater for their individual needs and raise student achievement in literacy
Assessment in Literacy
Writing:
A writing sample is taken with all students in Years 1 to 8 whereby the surface and deeper features are analysed to determine student needs.
At Churchill Park school we use National Exemplars and Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) to help teachers analysis of students’ writing in Years 1 – 8. This involves the teachers looking at:
Deeper Features of the writing:
- Audience / purpose
- Content / ideas
- Structure
- Language
Surface Features of the Writing:
- Spelling
- Punctuation
- Grammar
- Layout
Spelling:
Teachers at all year levels monitor student performance in spelling.
However, this year we introduced the Supplementary Spelling Assessments (SSpA), which are standardised tests to identify strengths and weaknesses in spelling for students in Year 4 to 6. Years 7-8 use a PRETOS test and Year 3 uses the Schonell Test. Juniors are assessed for sound and alphabet knowledge and early phonological skills.
Reading:
Information on student achievement in ‘reading’ is collected both formally and informally. Teachers formally collect and record information about what students have learned, and also observe informally what students know and are able to do. What teachers record, see and know about students’ reading will all be used to plan and motivate students to take their next learning steps.
Reading Assessment Tools:
Year 1-3 - PM Reading Assessment
Year 3-8 - STAR Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading
Year 4-8 - Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) Listening
Year 4-6 – Probe - Prose Reading Observation Behaviour and Evaluation of Comprehension
Year 4-8 – Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle)
Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT):
These are standardised tests developed specifically for use in New Zealand schools. We administer these tests each year.
PAT Listening (Year 4-6): Estimates a student’s current performance in the skill of listening..
PM Benchmark Reading Kit (Year 1-2):
Teachers use the PM Benchmark Kit to assess students’ reading abilities using seen and unseen textsand comprehension questions..
PROBE Prose Reading Observation Behaviour and Evaluation of Comprehension (Year 4-6):
PROBE determines the reading accuracy and comprehension of students Year 3 to Year 6.
e-asTTle Reading (Year 4-6):
e-asTTle Reading is an assessment tool developed for the Ministry of Education by the University of Auckland, and enables teachers to track the progress and achievement of both individual students and groups of students against students from all New Zealand schools in relation to National norms.
STAR Supplementary Test of Achievement in Reading (Year 3)
At Churchill Park school Year 3-8 students are tested on STAR twice a year, Term 1 & 3.
STAR helps teachers to:
• identify those needing extra help
• group children by ability and needs
• diagnose areas of difficulty
• evaluate programmes.
Four subtests of STAR:
• word recognition
• sentence comprehension
• paragraph comprehension
• vocabulary range
Literacy Support Programmes:
At Churchill Park we offer a number of programmes for students who need extra
Literacy support. These include:
- Reading Recovery- provides daily one to one teaching with a specially trained teacher for children making the slowest progress in literacy learning after a year at school. It is supplementary to classroom instruction.
- Rainbow Reading – is a audio-facilitated reading programme consisting of a series of books, at seven colour-coded levels, with accompanying audio support and activities. A programme which improves students' enjoyment, confidence and competence in reading.
- Individual tuition - by the Associate Principal and supported by trained teacher aides.
1. In the Junior school we have also introduced a smart-words programme that supports such things as visual and aural discrimination, eye tracking, memory, and sequencing. This programme also includes caterpillar handwriting a programme to support students to record text accurately so that they are successful with their sounding and recording.
2. Juniors also take part in a PMP programme to build fine and gross motor skills and left and right brain development all skills needed to be a successful communicator.
Online Computer Programmes:
- Lexia (is being trialled at the 4-6 year level))- is a web-enabled reading programme. Students using Lexia work independently through 5 levels of reading skill development in addition to their regular classroom lessons.
Helping with Literacy at Home:
Reading:
Reading to your children
Children are never too old to be read to. Read a variety of texts and chapter books asking questions such as what happened in yesterday’s chapter and what do you think might happen in the next chapter/ Poetry is wonderful for language patterning. Dads please read with your children too as boys especially need to see men as readers and writers.
Learning to read between the lines
Readers who successfully "read between the lines" are able to pick up clues that the author leaves in the text. They also connect their own life experiences to what they are reading.
This type of reading requires that the reader act like a detective. She needs to make logical conclusions about the meaning of the text by using evidence. This evidence can take two forms – clues left by the author and experiences from the reader's own life.
Help develop reading comprehension by reading and discussing what your child reads
One way to help your child can improve his reading comprehension is to read what he is reading yourself. Once you have some knowledge of the texts your child is reading, try opening up a conversation with questions or statement starters like:
• I wonder why...
• Why do you think...?
• What do you think will happen...?
• This reminds me of ...
• What do you think the author means by...?
• This is similar to...
• I'm confused about ...
Questions and statements such as these will stimulate deeper levels of understanding of the reading material and may open the door to some rich conversation between you and your child.
Spelling:
Year 0-2
Find different ways to help your child write their name – chalk, stick in the sand, squeezy water bottles on dry concrete, glue and glitter, play dough, cut out letters from old magazines.
Encourage your child to join in when you write lists, letters, birthday cards give lots of praise
Enjoy your child’s attempts at writing and spelling when you write with your child try to use lower case [not capital letters] except at the beginning of a sentence
Name look at words together when you’re out shopping, on television, or reading together learn songs and rhymes together read books together tell and share stories in English or your home language.
Focus on recording the sounds they hear in a word in sequence. Children need to learn basic sounds and generally as the progress they try to record with the first sound, then they move to the final sound and then the middle sound. Remember vowels are very hard to hear as they learn to differentiate sounds. Also English has many spelling rules that cannot be heard that they will learn over time as they broaden their experiences with texts.
Supporting your child to use correct pronunciation of sounds and words is very important if they are to sound through word correctly.
Talk to your children regularly and spend time answering their questions – oral language is the building block of all literacy learning and students with a wide vocabulary and general knowledge have a wonderful platform on which to base their learning and understanding.
Students work with the Jolly Phonics programme daily.
Year 3-6
Encouraging them to look closely at words and talking to them about words.
Encouraging them to try new words.
Playing word games with them, such as: Hangman, Boggle, Scrabble
Helping your child to use a dictionary.
Encourage your child to read through their own writing and check for errors, building up his image of himself as a speller by praising near misses
Do praise new words that are learned. Encourage them to write to people who will want to know their news
Websites for Parents:
Strategies and suggestions to use at home in all areas of reading development including phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, fluency, comprehension and reading aloud.
Sites for Parents: www.sitesforparents.com
Literacy Matters: www.literacymatters.org
Reading Rockets: www.readingrockets.org
We Read: Literacy and Education for Life: www.weread.org
Family Education: www.familyeducation.com
Reading Success Lab:www.readingsuccesslab.com
Read To Me www.readtome.biz
For additional information with on-line games, stories and printable resources:
Reading Is Fundamental (Creating a Nation of Lifelong Readers): www.rif.org
Scholastic: www.scholastic.com
Public Broadcasting System: www.pbskids.org
Starfall: www.starfall.com
Literactive www.literactive.com
Grade Level Reading Lists/purchase books www.gradelevelreadinglists.org and www.rif.org/readingplanet/gamestation
Kid’s Domain www.kidsdomain.com
Primary Games www.primarygames.com
Read-Write-Thinkwww.readwritethink.org
Making Words www.wordles.com
Chateau Meddybemps Fun and Games www.meddybemps.com/funandgames.html
Brainchildwww.brainchild.com
Headsprout www.headsprout.com
Adrian Bruce Resources www.adrianbruce.com
