Literacy is a major priority at Monmia Primary School. Explicit teaching of Reading and Viewing, Writing, Speaking and Listening are taught for a minimum of 10 hours per week. Literacy is also an important part of all curriculum areas, as each area has their own specific vocabulary.

At Monmia Primary School, we understand the value of a rich curriculum and exemplary teaching, and their impact on student learning.  Through ongoing, professional learning, staff are continuously improving their literacy knowledge, skills and strategies to ensure their teaching is explicit and successful in growing each and every student. 

English lesson plans are aligned to the Big 6, the English Curriculum 2.0 and the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. This includes the Little Learners Love Literacy Program which uses a systematic synthetic phonics approach to teach reading. Teachers plan and work together in professional learning communities.

So what is the ‘Big 6’?

The essential elements of reading are the ‘Big 6’, each of which form part of a structured literacy approach:

• Oral language – knowing and using spoken words to express knowledge, ideas and emotions
• Phonemic awareness –which is the knowledge of sounds (phonemes)
• Phonics – knowing the sound (phoneme) and letter (grapheme) relationships
• Fluency – reading accurately and at an appropriate rate with expression
• Vocabulary – understanding words in isolation and in context
• Comprehension – making meaning from text which includes developing knowledge of grammar.

These are the foundational skills that have a reciprocal relationship and are all necessary to enable students to independently read and respond to increasingly complex fiction and non-fiction texts.

A range of Literacy Assessment is used across the year to understand the strengths of each student, and to identify where to next for each student. Teachers confer regularly with students in Reading and Viewing and Writing, setting goals and making decisions on how best to achieve them. Teachers ensure Learning Intentions and Success Criteria is clearly visible for all sessions to make the learning explicit.

Monmia Primary Schools delivers a comprehensive literacy program delivering a one hour reading workshop and one hour writing workshop each day in all classrooms. Mini lessons commence each session with an explicit focus. Comprehension strategies form the basis for major focuses during mini lessons in the reading block.  Phonics is taught daily for 30 minutes in all F-2 classes. Students participate in daily Independent reading where each child uses their individualised book box to select a 'Just Right' book to read independently. Teachers hold individual conferences and develop learning goals with the student. It is an expectation that students read daily at home and take home a "Just Right' book to read each night. 

The writing process consisting of planning, composing, editing, revising and publishing forms the basis of the writing workshop. Students learn how to write a variety of genres from Foundation to Year Six. Student work is celebrated once published for others to read. Developing vocabulary, conducting spelling investigations and the explicit teaching of punctuation and grammar is also a focus of the writing workshop. 

Monmia Primary School believes in celebrating Literacy, involving the community in Education Week, Literacy/Numeracy and Book Week.  Families are invited to attend special events in the school and share the exciting learning and fun.

Resources

VTLM 2.0 (PDF) 

6 Comprehension Strategies
Writing prompts