Literacy

Reading

So far this year, our students from Year 7 to 9 have read 64,311,573 words!

All our Year 7 to 10 students are reading novels at their ‘lexile level’. Lexile level is a measure used to determine the student’s reading ability level. It allows students to read material at their level of understanding- this is how comprehension skills grow.

Accessing material at each individual’s level helps to build that student’s comprehension skills, skills that importantly transfer to all other learning areas.

Some questions parents can ask their child as they are reading:

• What has happened so far? (Summarising)
• What questions would you like to ask the author about this book? (Questioning)
• What do you think will happen next? (Predicting)
• What emotions is the character feeling? How do you know? (Inferring)
• Do you know someone like this character? (Connecting)

Writing

• Have a discussion with your child about what writing they are doing in their classes. It is important for them to understand what they are writing and why they are writing.

Discuss with your child the importance of reading and the connection it has with their writing. Reading exposes students to general vocabulary, word study and content-specific vocabulary. Through reading, students see a variety of author’s techniques that they can use in their own writing.

Mrs Karen McDougall, Literacy Facilitator