Reading Update

Once again, our incredible staff have come together for the benefit of students, and we were blown away by the resourceful ways teachers are planning for and delivering literacy instruction to our diverse student population. Our classrooms are dynamic spaces so sharing resources and lesson plans provides opportunities to adapt them for individuals in other classes without adding to teacher workload. It takes a village to raise a reader, and the knowledge, skills and experience of long-term teachers mixed in with early career teachers bringing new ideas and best practice fresh from university creates magic in the classroom.

With the Book Week Fair just around the corner excitement around books and reading is in the air with the Classroom Decorated Door competition creating a buzz in each sector while staff and students plan costumes for the parade. Take advantage of this buzz if you have reluctant readers at home – with books from $3 there is a special kind of ownership that happens when children walk through the decorated library display to choose their own, precious story.

Another way to engage reluctant readers is to create stories based on their personal interests. Many neurodiverse students hyper fixate on a particular thing – trains, cars, superheroes and cartoon characters amongst others. Tap into their active imaginations and support them to write short stories with simple, decodable words to illustrate and “read” back to you. Early readers make meaning from the pictures but will often recognise words with repetition.

If you have a teen obsessed with a song or artist, how about researching song lyrics? Each step you take on the literacy pathway with your child supports the formalised lessons in the classroom taking them further in their own journey toward whatever independence looks like for them.

Happy Reading

Jodie Sargeant

Expert Reading Team Leader