Literacy in English gives students access to the understanding, knowledge, and skills that they need to participate fully in the social, cultural, political, and economic life of New Zealand and the wider world.
To be successful participants our students need to be effective oral, written, and visual communicators who are able to think critically and in depth.
Our New Zealand English Curriculum is structured around two interconnected strands, each encompassing the oral, written, and visual forms of the language. The strands differentiate between the modes in which students are primarily:
- Making meaning of ideas or information they receive (Listening, Reading, and Viewing);
- Creating meaning for themselves or others (Speaking, Writing, and Presenting).
Literacy Goals at V.A.S:
- To provide high quality and equitable teaching and learning opportunities to enable our students to achieve to the best of their ability in literacy education.
- To enable all students to develop skills and understandings in reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing and presenting, for everyday living and as a foundation for further learning.
Literacy Assessment
Writing Assessment
Teachers take ‘cold’ and ‘warm’ samples of students writing twice a term. A ‘cold’ sample in writing means no teaching has taken place. This gives teachers good formative data of ‘where to next’, for the students. A ‘warm’ sample is taken after a period of teaching, in order to evaluate the student’s progress. These samples form the basis of the ‘best fit’ level that the teacher allocates to your child on the Summative Report.
At Victoria Avenue school we use asTTle as our assessment tool for writing in Years 4 – 6. This involves the teachers looking at:
Deeper Features of the writing:
• Audience / purpose
• Content / ideas
• Structure
• Language
Surface Features of the Writing:
• Spelling
• Punctuation
• Grammar
• Layout
Writing Genres for 2009:
Term 1 & 2:
Year 1 & 2 - Personal experience
Year 3 - Character description
Year 4 - Description
Year 5 & 6 - Description
- Persuade / argue
Term 3 & 4:
Year 1 & 2 – Personal experience
Year 3 - Explanation
Year 4 - Narrative
Year 5 & 6 - Description
- Instruct
Reading Assessment
Information on student achievement in ‘reading’ is collected both formally and informally. Teachers formally collect and record information about what students have learned, and also observe informally what students know and are able to do. What teachers record, see and know about students’ reading will all be used to plan and motivate students to take their next learning steps.
Reading Assessment Tools:
Year 1-2 - PM Reading Assessment
Year 3-6 –Probe - Prose Reading Observation Behaviour and Evaluation of Comprehension
This year we have introduced a new assessment tool, asTTle Reading for Year 4 to 6 students. Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) is an educational resource for assessing Literacy and Numeracy. This assessment tool was developed for the Ministry of Education by the University of Auckland, and enables teachers to track the progress and achievement of both individual students and groups of students against national standards.
Literacy Support Programmes:
At V.A.S we offer a number of programmes for students who need extra
Literacy support.
These include:
- Reading Recovery- provides daily one to one teaching with a specially trained teacher for children making the slowest progress in literacy learning after a year at school. It is supplementary to classroom instruction.
- Rainbow Reading – is a audio-facilitated reading programme consisting of a series of books, at seven colour-coded levels, with accompanying audio support and activities. A programme which improves students' enjoyment, confidence and competence in reading.
- Individual tuition - by the Literacy Leader
- Online Computer Programmes:
- Lexia - is a web-enabled reading programme. Students using Lexia work independently through 5 levels of reading skill development in addition to their regular classroom lessons. This programme is used with students from Year 2 -6.
- Spellodrome – Spelling support programme that is used for Year 3 - 6 students and can be accessed at school and home.
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