Welcome to Term 4

We're Back!!  I hope you had a restful break because Term 4 is here and we are working hard already!

I am assessing all Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 for the first two weeks of this term.  All the scores are added to the existing information from Semester 1 and previous assessments, to monitor growth.  Standardised tests are used which means the scores are compared to other similar aged children in NSW.  

A busy term lies ahead of us and we need to ensure all learning time is productive and the children are focused, well rested and well fed.  

Having children arrive on time at school gives them the best start to the day.  That way they don't miss the important setup of a lesson where we discuss what they will be learning in that lesson.

We're nearly there!  Let's work together to give the children the best opportunity possible.

Kind regards,

Darine Groch

Minilit, Multilit and MacqLit

Dear Parents,
We are soldiering ahead with the use of three Literacy programs from Macquarie University:  Minilit for the younger students, Multilit for use with individual students and MacqLit, a group based program, aimed at students in the lower to middle primary years.
The programs cover a wide range of skills:  letter-sound recognition, sound manipulation, word formation, syllabification, fluency of reading, speed of reading, dictation, sentence formation and comprehension to name a few.
Children's progress is constantly measured and they see how successful they are as the lessons progress and the difficulty increases.
We are pleased to be able to offer these programs within the school and are delighted with the progress students are making!
Darine Groch

All About Occupational Therapy (OT) in Schools

OTs are health professionals, trained in behavioural and neurological sciences.

OTs in schools focus on activities that children engage in at school. They assist children to develop the skills to gain and maintain independence.  

They facilitate children’s independent engagement in school roles, activities and routines.  These include children as students, players and self-carers.

The role of being a student requires such things as the ability to:  stay seated, attend, wait, turn take, transition between activities and self-regulate

The domains targeted by OTs are:

·       Learning to learn (engagement and attention)

·       Activities of daily living

·       Play

·       Gross motor

·       Fine motor

·       Handwriting

       If we look at the Pyramid of Learning, we see that all areas of the pyramid need to be covered before reaching the top where academic learning takes place.  OT’s assist with helping underpin most of this pyramid if strengthening is required.

Darine Groch

Welcome to Term 3

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Term 3!  

We have many programs running to assist children with their learning:  Minilit, MacqLit, Multilit, IDL spelling, reading and typing, as well as Kewala Typequick.

The aim is to continue to provide help where it is needed to allow children to reach their potential in all subject areas.

Here's to another hard-working term!

Darine Groch

Some notes from a Literacy Talk at Cammeray this week

Oral language is the key to Literacy.  It is central to learning. 

Rich oral language around books further enhances these skills.

John Hattie (Professor of Education at Melbourne University) says that for good fluency children need to read books the way they speak.  When children concentrate on decoding they lose fluency.  Books need to be given at their level with no pain or boredom.  When children read accurately they solidify their skills.  Accuracy is considered reading at least 98% of words on a page correctly.

We understand a book in 2 ways:  by comprehension ie. understanding what the text says, and secondly by using critical thinking skills to dig deeper into the text.

He sees the 3 keys to reading as practice, success and enjoyment (feeling an emotion). 

Just some small points but gentle reminders at the same time.

Happy Reading

Spelling

Dear Parents,

A regular activity with children when spelling at school is the MASUTA process.  It’s an acronym for Meaning Analysing Synthesis Using Testing Applying.

With the teacher, children discuss a word’s meaning and use it in a sentence to display understanding.  They look at whether it has a prefix or suffix and if it does, the base word (morphology). They discuss its origins (etymology) and talk about other words in that family.

Then, using the Thrass chart, syllables are clapped, to check whether there is one vowel per syllable.  The word is segmented into phonemes (sounds), and the difficult grapheme (writing choice) identified.  Discussion would continue about digraphs, trigraphs and even quadgraphs.

Children write the word, often using a coloured pencil to identify their tricky grapheme. 

Part of this is the “I do, we do (together with the teacher) and finally the you do (children on their own) process.”

As you can see, spelling is not just copying letters but a much more involved study.

IDL Typing Reading Spelling

I'm very excited about a new program we are providing at Bayview to assist students with their typing, reading and spelling!

IDL is a multisensory touch typing software program that improves reading and spelling.  It has been designed to use sight, touch and voice to make links between visual, auditory and tactile pathways so spelling and reading can improve.  It is individually tailored to each student and monitored by a teacher or teacher’s aide. 

Students work on the program for 20-30 minutes four times a week.  Each lesson is tightly structured to provide comprehensive and specific teaching in sequenced modules with passages, spelling, grammar and punctuation exercises.  Each learning focus is introduced, demonstrated, practised and consolidated before progressing to the next focus.  Previous learning is continually reinforced throughout the program. 

Evidence based research suggests that students who participate in the program increase reading speed, listening comprehension and improve their writing.  It also helps students with confidence levels and transferring skills into the classroom learning environment.

Welcome to Term 2

Dear Parents,

For the first two weeks of Term 2 I will be assessing all children in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 in the area of Literacy. There are three areas of focus:  phonological knowledge, high frequency word recognition and in Years 1 and 2, speed of reading.

A baseline of information is evaluated, built upon, and then reassessed throughout the year to monitor progress.  

It's an enjoyable task (other than the paperwork!!) as I get to spend time with each child on an individual basis.  It's also a fresh pair of eyes viewing how each child does the same task, as it's not only the results which are important, but also the process.  

Darine Groch

Occupational Therapy Ideas for Homework

Here are some ways to support your child at home if they are having OT:

• Remember the pyramid of learning - don't just concentrate on the academics but the foundations of learning
• Play with your child - let them guide the play
• With homework allow 'movement breaks' (short breaks such as trampoline, jumping on the spot, climbing) rather than insisting the task is completed before a break.
• First plan the homework ' talk about a plan of attack with your child: pan, plan, plan, then begin. Make sure your child knows when and where the end is (especially boys) and work out short, achievable goals.
• Do homework in different body positions - sitting, standing at a vertical surface, lying on the floor on tummy (short bursts) with elbows bent and symmetrical.
• Some children need to fiddle to concentrate - so let them, but not to distraction.
• Hand strengthening is important for handwriting improvement.
• Be aware of child's sensory processing - 'calm, alert state for learning' is optimal.

Taken from an article in LDC (Learning Difficulties Coalition) Newsletter

Bibliotherapy: How Books can Help Your Child

It is well known that children benefit academically from reading books. Schools require children to build

reading skills very early on. However, even beyond the academic reasons for reading books, children can also experience other amazing benefits. The benefits can be experienced when children read books to themselves as well as when others read books to them.

3 BENEFITS OF BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

1. Improves children’s ability to manage potentially stressful life events

Some children’s books are written specifically about experiences that children might find difficult, such as going to the dentist or having divorced parents. Reading these types of books to children can help them to feel more comfortable with the situation and can prepare them for what they are experiencing or what they will experience.

2. Increases feelings recognition and management

As children develop, they learn about emotions (their own and other people’s). In order to grown into a healthy, well-balanced adult, children must learn how to recognize what emotions they have, what emotions others have, how emotions are experienced, and what to do about them or how to behave in response to an emotion. To do this, books can teach important skills that will help them learn appropriate behaviours for different emotions as well as to be more aware and accepting of feelings in general.

3. Enhances relationships

When parents read books to their children, the bond between them increases. Reading allows for a time when both parent and child can relax, connect with one another, and be in a moment in which they do not have to worry about the demands of everyday life. Reading can also enhance a relationship between siblings. For instance, an older sibling can read to their younger sibling which can create a positive bond between them.

Reading with your Child

Dear Parents,

Please read this great article by Multilit, from Macquarie University, about reading with your child.

You can support your child in learning to read by reading with your child every day.

Here are some helpful hints.

1.Set the scene.  Before you read the story, tell your child the title of the book and a bit about it. Try to relate it to your child’s own experience, if you can. If it is about dogs, talk about a dog they know. You can also discuss what might happen in the story.

2. Read the book.  Read the story in a lively way with lots of expression. If you come across unfamiliar words, stop and tell your child what they mean. This improves your child’s vocabulary and helps them to understand the whole story. During the week, you might also like to remind your child of some of the new words from the story book and relate them to your everyday life.

3. Recalling the story.  After reading the book, ask your child questions about the story. For example, “What happened at the beginning of the story?” or “What happened at the end of the story?”. If they can’t remember, tell them. You might also want to try asking different types of questions that require more than a yes or no answer. For example, “Why do you think the little green dragon was so sad?” These sorts of questions help to develop your child’s language skills.

You don’t need to read a different book for every session; in fact, rereading the same book several times allows the child to become familiar with the story and helps them to learn new vocabulary.

Finally, being patient and enthusiastic will make reading together a much more positive experience for both you and your child. Have fun!

VOCABULARY

Some facts about Vocabulary from a talk given at Roseville College

• Vocabulary begins with oral language.  
• 5-6 year olds know between 2500-500 words when they start school.
• Students learn about 3000-4000 words per year.
• The more words you learn the easier it becomes to learn more words.  Networking in the brain improves and connects with other things. It becomes about making connections with the known.
• Vocabulary size is important: evidence shows the more words you know the more successful you are in life.

There are 3 layers to vocabulary instruction:

1. Encoding - introducing new words
2. Storage - practice makes permanent it;s important to encourage children to speak the words
3. Retrieval - reviewing for automaticity

The more we read and talk to children about their reading the better their learning.
Pictures are important as they display word consciousness

New words need to be 'played around with' multiple times to be internalised and committed to memory.

Wordsmiths (creators of words in history) - Shakespeare, Dr Seuss, Lewis Carroll

So go on, get talking and get reading and have some fun!

Minilit

Learning Support will be a little different for some of the younger children this year as they take part in a Minilit program.  Minilit stands for Meeting Initial Needs in Literacy.   It was developed at Macquarie University and has its roots in scientific research and development.

Minilit incorporates the key elements of early reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development and text comprehension.

Hopefully this intensive small group instruction will strengthen the children’s early reading skills and help them on their path to becoming confident readers. 
Darine Groch

Welcome!

Dear Parents,

Welcome to 2017 at St Luke's Bayview Campus!

I love this picture as it reminds me that a year at school is about all about growth: educational, physical and most importantly, emotional and social growth.

As the Learning Support teacher I have met all the new children from Years 1 to 6 and spent some time getting to know them and working with them in Literacy and Numeracy.

In my regular timetable I will work with children in class, in groups, one on one, in my room - a variety of ways based on the needs of the child and the activity undertaken.  

I look forward to meeting you next Friday night at the Parent Welcome Night.

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one learnt in school."  Albert Einstein