At Springfield primary School the English Curriculum is built around the Western Australian Curriculum and the three inter-related strands of Language, Literature and Literacy. The strands focus on developing children’s knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking and writing.
In the classroom we implement a wide range of programs and teaching techniques to ensure our children finish primary school as literate students ready to progress on their journey into secondary education. The English curriculum encompasses explicit teaching of skills as well as opportunities for children to demonstrate their learning through diverse written, spoken and multi-modal texts.
Through the use of the PLD Phonological Awareness, Phonics and Spelling program children are explicitly taught the skills to enable them to read and spell accurately, and this is balanced with hands on learning, allowing children the opportunities to apply the skills they are learning.
Children’s writing abilities are extended through Literature Based Units (LBUs). This allows children to focus on a narrative text and provides skill-based activities using the book and its themes. LBUs support the children in very specific language skills and builds coherence, while providing multiple opportunities and repetition of language. Throughout the units, children write and create engaging texts which entertain, persuade and inform.
In the early years of schooling children develop their reading knowledge through the use of decodable readers which support their growing phonic knowledge. Once children can fluently decode and are developing their reading comprehension knowledge they have the opportunity to progress to the Literacy Pro Lexile Reading Program where they have opportunities to borrow levelled texts from the school library which develop their love of reading along with measuring their continued understanding of more complex texts.
A commitment to Home Reading is recognised through the presentation of Reading Certificates for 100 and 200 nights of home reading.
For those children who are finding it difficult to progress with their reading we implement MiniLit, which is a research based, targeted small group intervention, in Year 1 and 2, and for more targeted support the Multi-lit Reading Tutor Program in Year 3-6.