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.

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

We also believe in explicitly teaching Learned Words. These words are high-frequency words (words that appear most often in text). They are irregular and do not follow common spelling rules. The goal is for these words to be read ‘on sight’ using visual memory.

We use decodable texts to support beginning readers. Decodable texts are carefully sequenced to progressively incorporate words that are consistent with the letters and corresponding sounds that have been taught to the reader.

At Yinnar Primary School we expect all of our students to become capable writers. We 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 during individual and group conferences. Through explicit teaching, modelling and independent practice, students will learn to combine a number of skills to become successful writers.

• Spelling: Students learn to spell Learned Words and use phonics, syllabication and morphology to spell words with regular spelling patterns.
• Handwriting: Students learn to form the uppercase and lowercase letters correctly and develop a fluent handwriting style.
• Purpose and audience: Students learn to write different text types for different purposes. They learn how to use language and vocabulary to make an impact on the reader.
• Punctuation and grammar: Students learn how to write and punctuate sentences and paragraphs correctly.
• Process: Students learn how to do their very best writing by planning, drafting, revising and editing, and publishing.