English study is mandatory in NSW from Kindergarten to Year 12.
Literacy At SSPS
Reading in K-2
At Strathfield South PS, we know that reading is a complex cognitive process. It requires our brains to make new connections between the parts that were designed to enable us to develop oral language and process visual information. Learning to read requires explicit teaching in order for our brains to make those new connections.
All our teachers at Strathfield South PS have a thorough understanding of how the complex cognitive process of reading develops, and how the many components work together as students read increasingly complex texts skilfully, strategically and critically. Reading is required for success in every subject area and so every teacher has a responsibility to develop the general and subject, or discipline-specific, reading skills of their students.
We integrate phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension in explicit ways to achieve student outcomes.
Information adapted from the Effective Reading - Kindergarten to Year 2 guide. To learn more about reading, click on the link.
Comprehension in 3-6
Comprehension is an active process that involves the reader understanding and interpreting what is read. It is heavily dependent on a student’s language comprehension skills and their ability to apply their background knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, knowledge about texts, understanding of language structures and reasoning skills to a text.
The Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tunmer, 1986) suggests that reading comprehension is the product of two sets of skills: decoding and linguistic comprehension. Here at Strathfield South Public, we ensure that our students are equipped with the skills to be able to confidently and accurately comprehend both literal and inferred meaning in texts, to set them up for success. Text knowledge, language structure and verbal reasoning work together with phonological awareness, phonic knowledge, vocabulary and fluency to enable skilled reading comprehension.
To learn more about Improving Reading Comprehension in Years 3-8 follow this link.
Students learn about the English language through written, spoken and visual texts of increasing complexity as they progress through their schooling.
An understanding of the English language is central to how we communicate and essential for intellectual, social and emotional development.
The study of English should develop a love of literature and learning and be challenging and enjoyable. It develops skills to enable students to experiment with ideas and expression, to become active, independent and lifelong learners, to work with each other and to reflect on their learning.