Literacy

Literacy

At Ferntree Gully North Primary School, we are committed to providing our students with an engaging, evidence-based approach to literacy learning. Our approach is consistent across all year levels, aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, and supported by the Ferntree Gully North Instructional Model.

Our aim is to develop confident and capable readers, writers, speakers, and listeners. Students are explicitly taught a range of strategies that they can draw upon to support and extend their own learning.

Reading and Viewing

Students are supported to become strategic and reflective readers. Students are explicitly taught a broad range of effective reading strategies to help them read within, about, and beyond the text.

Students participate in a range of literacy activities including:

• Individual and group reading conferences
• Guided reading sessions
• Explicitly modelled lessons
• Collaborative group and partner work
• Independent reading tasks

They are encouraged to practise strategies using their own ‘Good-Fit’ books and are given time to reflect on their progress and set personalised reading goals.

Students also have weekly opportunities to choose from a wide selection of texts in both the school library and classroom libraries. Regular reading at home is strongly encouraged, as it reinforces learning and supports the achievement of personal reading goals.

Writing

We use a wide range of strategies to develop writing skills including Big Write and VCOP. The program is centred on the idea of developing the writer’s voice through fun, fast-paced oral language activities. It helps students build confidence and control as they learn to express themselves with increasing sophistication and clarity.

Our framework rapidly and effectively improves writing skills by focusing on the four key elements of VCOP:

• V – Vocabulary
• C – Connectives:
• O – Openers
• P – Punctuation

Each of these elements and how to use them is explicitly taught during literacy sessions throughout the year.

Phonics Instruction

Beginning in Foundation, students are taught through an explicit phonics-based approach. They learn the relationship between letters and sounds, including common sound patterns. These foundational skills are essential for developing proficiency in reading, spelling, writing, speaking, and listening.

Speaking and Listening

Speaking and listening are explicitly taught across all areas of the curriculum. Students learn to use oral language in both formal and informal contexts to convey and receive meaning.

They are taught to:

• Understand how to adapt their language for different audiences and purposes
• Use appropriate tone, volume, and body language
• Engage in oral language games and structured discussions

These skills support students to become articulate communicators who can confidently express their ideas and respond thoughtfully to others.

The importance of home: 

As part of preparation for the Big Write, students will be given a ‘home talk’ task. The idea behind the Big Write is that ‘if the children can’t say it, they can’t write it’. We need to encourage the development of language and listening skills in order to develop children’s writing ability. ‘Home talk’ for the Big Write promotes development of vocabulary and consolidates understanding of the topic. Your child will come home with a new topic each fortnight, which will arrive on a specified day during the week, dependent on other school activities taking place. This will inform you of the topic to discuss with your child in order to help them with the content of their writing the following day. 

How can you help your child - Home Talk  

• Encourage as many family members as possible to be involved in the home talk task. A great time to do this is around the dinner table. 
• Switch off the T.V! Try to ensure this is dedicated talking and listening time. 
• Ask others participating in the conversation why they think a certain way about the topic. 
• Ask your child to give their opinion and explain why. 
• When giving an opinion, encourage and use the word ‘because’ to explain why. 
• Link the topic of discussion to something you remember from when you were a child and say why things might be different now. Project forward to how things could be different in the future. 
• Encourage your child to write notes or draw a picture that will spark their memory on the back of the ‘home talk’ prompt. It could be some words they wish to use or some ideas for character names. Please try to encourage your child to do this by themselves.