Literacy Program

From Term 3 2023 we have some changes taking place in our LITERACY PROGRAM.  

At Immanuel Gawler, we are committed to continual improvement and looking at what we can do to improve outcomes for our students.  Over the past year we have been focusing on literacy improvement, looking into the growing body of research on how children learn to read to identify and implement evidence-based practices.

Earlier this year we extended the phonological awareness routines used in junior primary to all year levels in the school.  These routines focus on students identifying sounds they hear in words and being able to isolate and manipulate these sounds.

This term we are introducing phonics routines across the school, using the PLAYBERRY LASER PROGRAM (see attachment).  These routines will focus on identifying letters used to make different sounds, identifying parts of words and their meanings and aspects of vocabulary, grammatical rules and learning words which don’t fit conventional letter patterns.

The routines being introduced will improve reading and spelling instruction across the school by:

• Ensuring/consolidating/improving a structured approach to teaching phonics
• Providing greater consistency across the school in the way content is sequenced and presented
• Changing the structure of phonics learning so that concepts, rules, words and sounds are introduced, revised and assessed on a continuous basis, rather than relying on weekly spelling list

The introduction of these routines will involve some changes to learning at home in year levels across the school.

• While there will be rules and sounds which will be a focus in class each week, students won’t be receiving lists of spelling words to learn at home for a weekly spelling test
• New rules and sounds will be introduced and revised on a continuous basis, with ongoing informal assessment and periodic formal assessments
• There may be phonics-based or weekly focus texts sent home to allow students to consolidate their knowledge of sounds or rules and to help build reading fluency
• There may be lists of words to help students practise focus sounds or rules at home (as distinct from a weekly spelling list to be tested)
• There may be lists of irregular words (heart words) for students to practise at home (these are words which don’t conform to regular sound patterns)

The changes referred to and the Playberry Laser phonics program, represent only a part of our literacy program.  Literacy instruction will also focus on reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, oral language and writing.  These areas are also being reviewed as part of our literacy improvement focus.  We will keep you updated on changes that may take place in these areas as they happen.

The attached document provides some more detailed information about the Playberry Laser phonology program we are introducing.  If you have any questions about these changes or our literacy program in general, please feel free to contact me or talk to your child’s teacher.