ENGLISH
The study of English is central to the learning and development of all young Australians. It helps create confident communicators, imaginative thinkers and informed citizens. It is through the study of English that individuals learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. The study of English helps young people develop the knowledge and skills needed for education, training and the workplace.
The Victorian English Curriculum 2.0 aims to ensure that students:
Learn to listen to, read, view, speak, write, create and reflect on increasingly complex and sophisticated spoken, written and multimodal texts across a growing range of contexts with accuracy, fluency and purpose.
Appreciate, enjoy and use English language in all its variations and develop a sense of its richness and power to evoke feelings, convey information, form ideas, facilitate interaction with others, entertain, persuade and argue.
Understand how English works in its spoken and written forms.
Develop interest and skill in inquiring into aesthetic aspects of texts and develop an informed appreciation of literature.
English is an integral part of all areas of the curriculum. The three English strands of Language, Literature and Literacy are taught both independently and integrated through other curriculum areas (such as History) throughout the week. We plan for 2 hours of English daily (timetable dependent) as directed by DET. The English Program at VPS aims to develop student’s thinking, speaking, listening, reading and writing skills, knowledge and understandings. Typically, the Literacy session begins with a whole class focus and shared activity, often including the teacher modelling reading and writing skills to the students. (I Do) Following this, students will work in small groups (We Do) where they focus on practising and consolidating before working independently on differentiated tasks (You Do). Lessons conclude with a sharing of student’s learning.
At VPS we incorporate a variety of approaches to ensure our students are receiving the best, evidence based and most current practices in English. The Phonics Plus Program, SMART Spelling, Seven Steps to Writing, 6+1 Writing Traits, explicit teaching of genre, Shared, Group & Choral Reading, Literature Circles, Victorian lesson Plans and use of mentor texts are just some of the highly effective practises implemented at our school.
READING
The teaching of Reading at VPS begins with the explicit teaching of Phonological Awareness skills and Phonics using the DET Scope and Sequence found in the link below.
We align our decodable texts with this scope and sequence and the Phonics Plus sequential lessons. In Foundation – Year 2, we explicitly teach Reading using decodables, Big Books, mentor texts, spelling patterns, high frequency words, whole class and small group work as well as fluency tasks. We offer small group additional support where needed to complement and support the classroom program (dependent on teacher availability). As students develop their decoding skills, we move them on to authentic texts. In Years 3-6, the teaching of Reading incorporates explicit teaching of comprehension skills, development of vocabulary, whole class focus and small group work, Shared, Group & Choral Reading, Literature Circles, Mentor texts and ‘Read Alouds’ along with small group reading support where necessary. Differentiated teaching and learning in both Reading and Writing enables teachers to cater to all levels of development. Home reading is an integral part of our Homework program and develops confidence, builds on skills taught and fosters a love of reading.
WRITING
Our Writing program begins with the Victorian Lesson Plans and is supplemented by explicit teaching of genre and grammar skills. We use the Victorian Lesson Plans across the school, and we also introduce the ‘Seven Steps to Writing’ and “6+1 Writing Traits” from Year 4 onwards. Our teachers model a range of different genres and demonstrate how to generate ideas, use appropriate language and conventions (spelling/punctuation/grammar) required at each level. Students create texts of developing complexity and for a variety of audiences using punctuation grammar and spelling that is explicitly taught at the point of need. They develop their use of language features and literary devices and their ability to edit their own and other texts.
SPEAKING AND LISTENING
Speaking & Listening is integrated across many areas of the curriculum here at VPS. We integrate through Inquiry tasks, Homework activities, Literacy and Numeracy tasks as well as some specialist lessons. Students are exposed to a range of speaking and listening tasks and are encouraged to use new vocabulary and participate in conversations, discussions and presentations in the classrooms.
The strengths of our English Program are its essential features:
A focussed Literacy Session every day incorporating key teaching approaches.
Additional assistance to complement and support the classroom program with structured small group Literacy Support from Prep to Grade Six.
Differentiated teaching and learning that caters to all levels of development in both Reading and Writing.
Focussed Professional Development that provides teachers with the skills and understandings required for effective program implementation. Including the use of up-to-date teaching resources.
Integrated IT resources and programs that are differentiated for all students.
A consistent approach to all Literacy Lessons.
Regular on-going assessment of both reading and writing as outlined in the school’s Assessment Schedule.
Development of strong home-school partnerships to assist Literacy development.
In addition to classroom resources, Take-Home Reading and our range of Big Books, we have an extensive range of literature available to our students in our library. All students access our Library at least once a week.
The English Program at Viewbank Primary ensures all students are exposed to all aspects of English. This includes reading, writing, grammar, punctuation, spelling, handwriting, text genres, comprehension, and speaking & listening. A wide variety of teaching strategies are used in English lessons and differentiating the curriculum allows teachers to tailor the English Curriculum to meet the individual needs of our students. We believe our students need to become competent in both Literacy and Numeracy in the Early Years of schooling and we then build on this in grades 3 – 6 to ensure our students are competent and confident learners.
Link to English 2.0 curriculum
Link to ARC lessons and Phonics Plus