Through the study of English, individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and the world around them.
The English curriculum aims to ensure that students:
- Learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on written and multimodal texts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.
- Develop a sense its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue.
- Understand how Standard Australian English works in its spoken and written forms.
- Develop an informed appreciation of literature.
Readers Workshop and Writers Workshop
Teachers plan and implement effective Literacy lessons using the Readers and Writers Workshop Instructional Model totalling 10 hours of literacy each week.
At Guthrie Street Primary School teachers plan collaboratively and implement effective literacy instruction using a common structure:
Learning Intentions and Success Criteria; a whole class focussed mini-lesson (explicit teaching) followed by the opportunity for students to practise skills and strategies independently or in small groups with the teacher conferring and giving feedback on their learning; finally, a whole class debriefing on the learning that has taken place.
Throughout the year, students and teachers use their Writers Notebook to record ideas, funny incidents, lists, vocabulary and phrases that will provide prompts for their writing.
The Readers Notebook is used to reflect on their reading and to respond to texts, thinking, questioning and summarising.
The Notebooks are personalised, individual records of interests and achievements. They provide an easy, informal way to start thinking about new topics and ideas. Let’s get writing!
Expert Teaching
At Guthrie St Primary, Literacy is foundational to everything we do. We invest heavily in the professional learning of our teachers and as such we consider every teacher at Guthrie St an expert on Literacy.
Smart Spelling and SMART Foundation
At Guthrie Street Primary School, SMART Spelling is an approach that is taught from Years 1 to 6 and SMART Foundation is taught in Foundation. There is a clear scope and sequence that teachers follow.
A typical week of SMART Spelling looks like this:
- Monday: a 20-30 minute lesson to teach the spelling pattern. Children choose the words that they will practise and learn for the week. A copy is kept at school and one is sent home.
- Tuesday: Students spend 10 minutes practising their spelling words.
- Wednesday: Students spend 10 minutes practising their spelling words.
- Thursday: Students spend 10 minutes practising their spelling words.
- Friday: Students complete a spelling test and dictation of their words for the week.