At St Dominic’s Primary School, we believe that to be thoughtful, informed, active and effective participants in the community, students need to be able to speak, listen, read and write confidently and competently. Through the study of English at our school, students will learn to build relationships with others and reinforce their understanding of the world beyond the classroom.
We aim to develop in students the ability to think about texts; discussing, analysing and critiquing language and literature, understanding how language varies according to its purpose and audience. Skills are explicitly taught to build their capacity to think beyond the texts they encounter; skills include forming predictions, deepening and adjusting their understandings and making purposeful links to their personal experiences, world knowledge and other texts.
At St Dominic’s, English is founded on the Victorian Curriculum. Strategies across independent, group and whole class settings are used to assist us in developing our learning and the knowledge, understanding and skills developed in literacy lessons are used and linked across the other key learning areas of the curriculum. Assessment tools used in literacy are:
- Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System (BAS)
- Progressive Achievement Test in Reading (PATR)
- School Entry Alphabetic and Phonological Awareness Readiness Test (SEAPART)
- Sutherland Phonological Awareness Test-Revised (SPAT-R)
- Letter/Sound Recognition Assessment (Carnine et. al.)
- Record of Oral Language (ROL)
- Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT)
Some teaching resources used are:
- SMART Spelling (Michelle Hutchison)
- Fountas & Pinnell: The Literacy Continuum
- Magic Words 100-300
- Classroom libraries
To encourage the practise and sharing of reading skills developed at school, students are given weekly opportunities to attend the Library and select several books that meet their interests. Daily home reading is expected and monitored for all students, with teachers providing a variety of appropriately levelled ‘Take Home Readers’ to our families.
