Curriculum - Literacy
At North we have some fabulous literacy programs and resources. Check out some of them below.
Talk 4 Writing
North Tom Price Primary School has implemented a whole school literacy program called Talk 4 writing. This year, North Tom Price Primary Staff have all attended the professional development to successfully deliver the program as part of a Pilbara Partnerships for Student Success education package.
Talk 4 Writing is an oral language based program that works on the philosophy that:
“You can’t write it, if you can’t say it and you can’t say it if you haven’t heard it” – Pie Corbett (program developer)
Talk 4 writing can be broken into three parts:
Part 1: Imitation – a strong oral language based component where students learn to retell model texts through picture cues and actions.
Part 2: Innovation – Once a text has been learnt, it is analysed in sections (boxed up) to gain a strong understanding of the important components that make up why the text was written in a specific way. Once students understand that, they are able to innovate the text by changing specific targets and start making the text their own.
Part 3: Invention – Using the structure of the model text and from gaining understanding about why authors write in certain ways, students are then able to start creating texts of their very own.
For this program to be successful, many teachers establish a creative context and an engaging start. This is the HOOK! It can be done in individual classrooms or even as a whole school! The aim is to entice students into being excited about writing. An example of this may look like a bowl of gingerbread batter and a note to go hunting for the gingerbread man. A ‘pretend’ meteorite that lands on the basketball court or a package that gets delivered with something relating to the text to be learnt.
We are excited to see the results of this program and hear the creative conversations leading to exciting pieces of writing.
PLD – Diana Rigg
Our whole school uses the wonderful PLD (Promoting Literacy Development) program from Kindy-through to year 6. The program uses resources which deliver outcomes across 3 core areas; Literacy, Oral Language and Movement & Motor.
This specialised approach, derived from the disciplines of education, speech pathology and occupational therapy, helps teachers develop the whole child so students 3 – 11 years of age reach their academic potential.
We were lucky enough last year to have Diana Rigg come to North Tom Price to provide training and support.
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PLD Resources
After the visit from PLD, we ordered loads of new and updated PLD resources which are utilised well in all classrooms.
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MultiLit
MultiLit is well underway with our fabulous MultiLit team moving full steam ahead! If you would like to learn more about these wonderful programs and how they work here at North – please see Miss Pobjoy.
Cracking the Code
Staff members from the Pre-Primary classrooms, other support staff as well as members from admin attended the ‘Cracking the Code’ PL hosted by the Fremantle Language Development Centre last year. Cracking the Code is a language program that targets pre-literacy development in the areas of phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. This program is now being delivered across our early years’ classrooms.
Words, Grammar & Fun
We are well underway with implementing our fabulous Words, Grammar and Fun program into our Kindy classes – this certainly keeps Miss Courtney busy! Words, Grammar and Fun is a language program that targets early oral language development in the areas of semantics and grammar. Great job Miss Courtney!
Cars and Stars
Is a reading comprehension program used throughout Years 1 to Year 6. The research-based Comprehensive Assessment of Reading Strategies (CARS) Series helps to identify which of the 12 standards-based reading comprehension strategies students might be struggling to understand. Informed by this data, we then provide students with targeted instruction depending on each student’s individual needs. The research-based Strategies to Achieve Reading Success (STARS) series provides explicit direct instruction in the 12 core reading strategies tested in CARS. Each lesson is broken into five parts, providing a gradual release of responsibility and increase in student confidence.
