Literacy

At Wangaratta Primary School we have a consistent approach in the way we teach reading and writing.  Ongoing Professional Development endeavors to keep staff up to date with current literacy practices.  We have the philosophy that everyone is a teacher of literacy regardless of what subject is being taught.  We aim for instruction to stimulate, teach and extend the literacy skills and strategies used by students.  We attempt to instil positive attitudes in students so that they become effective readers, writers, communicators and lifelong learners.  

In reading, students are immersed in a variety of comprehension strategies.  Such strategies include predicting, inferring, determining importance, monitoring comprehension, questioning, visualising, extending vocabulary and accuracy. These are taught in a variety of ways including guided reading, reciprocal reading and literacy circles.  All students at Wangaratta Primary School have their own Reader’s Notebook where they are able to respond and record their thoughts, feelings and wonderings about the texts they read.  This enables teachers to gauge what students comprehend and is a useful tool to provide effective feedback. In reading, they are encouraged to leave 'Tracks' of their thinking to deepen their comprehension. 

Writer’s  Notebooks are a major focus at Wangaratta Primary School.  Students are encouraged to explore and experiment in a variety of genres.  Students are made aware of the writing process including planning and drafting, revising, editing and publishing.  To lift the quality of student work, students are also taught the 6 Traits of writing.  These include ideas, organisation, word choice, sentence fluency, voice and conventions.  During writing sessions, students are given opportunities to practice the use of grammar in their writing and spelling forms part of the editing process.