Literacy

At Yinnar Primary School we understand how fundamental literacy skills are to support all areas of learning and use evidence-based approaches to ensure all students succeed.

We believe that consistency, structure and routines play a significant role in us continually striving to improve literacy outcomes for our learners, and that explicit or ‘direct’ instruction is the most effective teaching method, especially for the fundamental code-based components of reading ­- phonemic awareness and phonics. We ensure that students have a clear understanding of why they are learning something, how it connects to what they already know, what is expected of them, and how to do it.

Reading

The Simple View of Reading is used to inform our whole school literacy reading approach.

The Simple View of Reading is that learning to read requires two abilities – correctly identifying words (decoding) and understanding their meaning (comprehension). An extensive body of research on reading instruction shows that there are five essential skills for reading, and that a high-quality literacy program should include all components.

• Phonemic Awareness: The ability to identify and manipulate the distinct individual sounds in spoken words.
• Phonics: The ability to decode (sound out) words using knowledge of letter-sound relationships.
• Fluency: Reading with speed, accuracy and expression.
• Vocabulary: Knowing the meaning of a wide variety of words and the structure of written language.
• Comprehension: Understanding the meaning and intent of the text.

The Reading Rope is a visual representation of the many strands woven into skilled reading.

Writing

We expect all of our students to become capable writers, and believe that writing enables students to communicate in a variety of ways for different purposes. We link writing opportunities across the curriculum and provide point of need feedback. Through explicit teaching, modelling and independent practice, students will learn to combine a number of skills to become successful writers.

English Units

At Yinnar Primary School we know knowledge builds on knowledge. We believe that knowledge of content and of the vocabulary acquired through learning about content are fundamental to successful reading comprehension. We place background knowledge and vocabulary, along with fluent decoding, at the centre of developing reading comprehension. Background knowledge helps students make connections with new information and helps them understand concepts presented in the texts they read or listen to.