At Anakie Primary School we follow evidence-based approaches to Literacy that are aligned with the Science of Reading. These approaches include: UFLI Foundation, Heggerty, Spelling Mastery, Teach Like a Champion, The Writing Revolution, the exploration of the morphology and etymology of words, the building of core knowledge and development of a rich and robust vocabulary through text study. We explore our vocabulary through both our literacy and HaSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) units, which correlate with each other to ensure that students are exposed to concepts throughout each term.
In Years F-2 we have 30 minutes daily explicit UFLI Foundations lessons, which is a systematic-synthetic phonics approach to the teaching and learning of decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling/writing), as well as phonological and phonemic awareness activities. We teach 'Heart Words' in conjunction with this, which are irregular or high-frequency words that students must learn before the specific sound concept has been taught (Eg. my, was). Students are supported with their UFLI lessons through decodable texts, which they take home weekly to reinforce concepts learnt at school.
The Year 3 -6 classes engage in daily Spelling Mastery sessions, which focuses on the etymology and morphology of words. Vocabulary and reading comprehension instruction are embedded within a knowledge-rich, text-based curriculum across all year levels at Anakie. We focus on the five keys to reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension.
Writing instruction is further embedded within a knowledge-rich curriculum. Students write about what they learn and read across subjects. Within these sessions we focus on the keys to writing: transcriptual (spelling and handwriting), text generation (knowledge of vocabulary, sentence structure, text structure, audience and purpose, idea generation), executive functioning (attention, organisation, planning, revising) and working memory (holding on to and manipulating information while planning and executing a writing task).
Families can check out the wonderful selections of books that we have available in the library via this link: https://anakieps.softlinkhosti.... In 2024, as well as our MARC Van borrowing, students will be provided with opportunities to borrow from the school library.