At Ashdale Primary School we have a whole school approach to literacy learning with various programs embedded into our literacy blocks.
Literacy Blocks are used to provide a balanced program for reading instruction to be taught and modelled explicitly.
The English curriculum is built around three interrelated strands of Language, Literature and literacy. Together these strands focus on developing student’s knowledge, understanding and skills in reading and viewing, writing and speaking and listening.
Reading
Reading is a fundamental skill your child will use for the rest of their life. Reading is supported in every classroom through, teaching and learning opportunities, home reading, guided reading, special events such as book week, and our library.
Reading for just 5 minutes a day exposes a child to 282,000 words per year, increasing a child’s vocabulary and ability to achieve at school. At Ashdale we develop and encourage reading through several programs.
Reading Buddy Academy
If you are interested in your Year 1/2 child attending our Reading Buddy Academy please come along one morning or contact Sonja Topping in the library (sonja.topping@education.wa.edu.au).
Support-a-Reader Program
Guided Reading
Guided reading is an instructional approach that involves teachers working with a small group of students who demonstrates similar reading behaviours and can all read similar levels of texts. The teacher coaches the students as they use problem-solving strategies to read the text with the goal to independent reading.
Home Reading
Home reading occurs from Pre Primary - Year 3. Decodables are used in the early years of reading to development of phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary and fluency.
Never stop reading
Never Stop reading is a reading initiative to promote reading aloud throughout primary school to your children. Building a love of reading in your child by reading aloud at home strengthens their language, vocabulary and comprehension skills, and improves their social skills and confidence as you listen to them read. The quality time you will also spend with your child raises their mood and sense of wellbeing and creates those special moments you and they will always cherish. Build a love of reading in your child and give them the best start for a life of learning and discovery.
Speaking and listening
Speaking and listening is an important part of early reading and writing skills. Children with good vocabulary, articulation and grammar knowledge are more likely to interpret what they read and write.
Library
Our library is full of a wide range of quality fiction and non-fiction books. Kindy - Year 2 students can borrow two books and Year 3 - 6 students can borrow three books on their designated library day. The library is open to students and their families from 8.15am to 3.15pm Monday - Thursday. On Friday it is open from 8.15am but not open for after school borrowing. The library is also opened every lunch to spend time with friends reading and playing quiet games. For more information see our Library page.
Class Libraries
The classroom library is a sought-after place that students can explore and spend time in. The books include Australian books, books by international authors, different genres and different reading levels. Students are still figuring out their reading tastes, so it’s important to provide them with as much variety as possible to help them discover new favourites.
Printing
The writing font for Ashdale Primary School is New South Wales Foundation font. It is important in the early years for children learn and develop correct formation skills as they embark on writing letters and words, that will continue throughout their lives.
Phonics Program
Letters and sounds is a synthetic phonics program used at Ashdale Primary school for all students from kindergarten to year 2. The program aims to build children’s speaking and listening skills, as well as preparing children for learning to read by developing their phonic knowledge and skills. It sets out a detailed and systematic program for teaching phonics skills starting at age of five, with the aim of them becoming fluent readers by age of seven. There are six overlapping phases within letters and sounds. Students are tracked using a letters and sounds tracking booklet as they progress through the phases.
Talk for Writing (T4W) Kindy-Year 2
T4W is a unique process that uses spoken activities and actions to develop writing skills. Quality writing is created by first expanding and developing student's oral language skills and then teaching the necessary steps for exceptional sentence, paragraph and text construction. This approach also offers students with learning and language difficulties an opportunity to develop stronger writing skills.
Seven Steps Writing Program Years 3-6
Seven steps is a writing program that creates engaging classrooms where students learn to love writing and become lifelong communicators. Developed by an Australian author and using both author and curriculum – based techniques it develops skills and strengths in students and applies to all form of writing, narrative, persuasive and informative texts.
Mini lit and Pre lit Intervention Programs
Mini lit and Pre lit are evidence based effective early intervention literacy programs. These programs are a systematic explicit model of teaching reading skills to a small target group of students.
