InitiaLit comes alive at SCA

St Clare of Assisi has been on the CE Catalyst journey. Over the past 3 years we have worked with several highly experienced Educational Consultants including Dr Lorrainne Hammond and Toni Hatten Roberts. Last Friday we welcomed Jordan O’Sullivan back to SCA to continue to work with our Staff embedding High Impact Teaching Practice and Explicit Direct Instruction. 

Centered on improving learning outcomes, our High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) approach is based on the Science of Learning and Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and will help us realise our goal of “high impact teaching practice is visible in every classroom”.

Mr O’Sullivan supported out staff in providing feedback on a number of teaching strategies and was able to demonstrate lessons and share his knowledge on the Science of Learning and Reading with all of us.

Part of the implementation of the CE Catalyst Program is to introduce targeted programs that continue to provide opportunities for our students to be the best they can possibly be in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy. 

This week our Staff from K-2 began the InitiaLit Program. InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundation to become successful readers and writers. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 2).

InitiaLit–Foundation focuses on two main components:

1. Phonics, to systematically and explicitly teach the basic alphabetic code in a set sequence. In addition to learning letter-sound correspondences and how these are applied to reading and spelling, children will be introduced to common morphemes and simple grammatical concepts.
2. Vocabulary, oral language and listening comprehension through quality children’s literature. Detailed lessons, including writing tasks, are provided for each of the storybook titles selected for use with the program.

Our students in Kinder are really enjoying the time to identify the letters and sounds this week.

InitiaLit–1 continues on from InitiaLit–Foundation in providing an explicit and effective model for teaching reading, spelling and related skills to children in their second year of school. As in InitiaLit–F, InitiaLit– Year 1 focuses on the two main components of:

1. Phonics, to systematically and explicitly teach the basic and advanced alphabetic code in a set sequence. In addition to learning letter-sound correspondences and how these are applied to reading and spelling, children will be introduced to common morphemes and simple grammatical concepts.
2. Vocabulary, oral language and listening comprehension through quality children’s literature. Detailed lessons, including writing tasks, are provided for each of the storybook titles selected for use with the program.

By Year 2, most children will be well on their way to reading independence. The program builds on the skills taught in InitiaLit–F and InitiaLit–1, with the focus shifting now to consolidating children’s reading and spelling skills, working specifically on reading comprehension, fluency, spelling and vocabulary.

 

InitiaLit– Year 2 has four main components:

 

1. This component reviews phoneme-grapheme correspondences and spelling concepts taught in InitiaLit–1 and teaches the remainder of the advanced alphabetic code systematically and explicitly. Children will also learn new spelling rules and morphological concepts.

1. Reading comprehension and fluency. In this component, children will be taught comprehension strategies explicitly and how to apply them to different types of text. They will also be given regular opportunities to work on reading fluency through echo, choral and paired reading.
2. Grammar. Children will be explicitly taught key grammatical features and how to apply them to a writing task.
3. Vocabulary, oral language and comprehension through children’s literature. Detailed lessons are provided for each of the 15 storybook titles selected for use with the program, including detailed writing tasks. Two novel studies are included for use towards the end of the year.

How can parents and carers can support the program?

For young readers, one of the most effective ways parents and carers can offer additional support at home is by spending as little as 10 minutes each day on supported book reading. In addition to sharing a wide range of books, in which you explore together the joy of reading – delving into imaginary worlds, exploring playful language, and investigating special topics of interest. Over the coming weeks your child will take home sequential decodable readers. These are books designed specifically to offer plenty of opportunity for children just starting to read to develop decoding and fluency skills. If you have any questions, your child’s teacher is the most valuable resource.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know.
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.”

 - Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

 

Jo Reed
Assistant Principal