The Big 6 Essential Skills
At Lindisfarne Primary School, we value reading as an essential skill for all lifelong learners. Explicit teaching of the Big 6 essential skills for reading (phonics, phonemic awareness, oral language, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension) are prioritised in all classrooms, with home reading supporting the development and consolidation of decoding and fluency. Students should be accessing levelled texts, chosen at or below their independent reading level, making sure that reading is enjoyable and successful for students and families.
Early Childhood Reading
For students in Prep-Grade 2, home reading provides opportunities to practise decoding through their knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness. Students should be accessing texts that they are able to read independently, this allows them to practise reading with fluency.
Beginning readers need to develop an understanding that words are composed of individual and distinguishable sounds. When students begin reading, their efforts at decoding consume most of their focus.
To support students in developing and consolidating decoding skills, students will be explicitly taught a range of decoding strategies within classrooms. A bookmark of decoding strategies will be provided as an accompanying resource in home reading folders.
LiL and Kinder Reading
We want to encourage and nurture a love of reading in our youngest students. Our Launching into Learning (LiL) and Kinder groups will have opportunities to read and borrow books from the library, listen to books being read and engage in learning experiences based on a range of picture books.
Decodable readers
These reading books contain letter/sound relationships and words that can predominantly be sounded/stretched out. Any words that are not decodable are listed within the inside front cover and are to be identified at the beginning of reading. Decodable readers are a great resource to use with beginning and struggling readers and are available for borrowing for home reading.
Primary Reading
For students in Grades 3-6, home reading provides opportunities to practise fluency through reading aloud. Students in these grades have greater familiarity with words and can read at an increased rate. Fluency is strongly related to increased comprehension.
Students should be encouraged to read aloud to an adult, sibling, pet or even a toy. Adults should be available to correct pronunciation to prompt for fluency and vocabulary building.
Readers Club
Will be available for students to opt into on Tuesday mornings in the library hub from 8:30-8:55am. They will be able to read books aloud in a comfortable environment and have their home reading log signed by an adult.
Home Reading Achievements
Students who achieve reading 100, 200 and 300 nights in a school year will be recognised by receiving a book of their choice. This will be presented to students in their classrooms by the literacy coach.
