At Badger Creek Primary School, our reading approach is based on implementing evidence-based teaching strategies, where whole class literacy instruction ensures students develop and master skills in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Literacy instruction is implemented using the Initialit Program in Foundation to Level 2, through to the ‘Readers Workshop’ model in Levels 3 to 6.
INITIALIT IS:
- A systematic synthetic phonics program, that teaches letter-sounds relationships and how to “blend” those sounds to form words.
- Use of ‘decodable books’ containing words that can be sounded out (decoded) using the phonics skills your child has learned.
- Home reading guidance that encourages students to use phonics skills as the first strategy for working out unfamiliar words.
- Evidence-based screening tools.
Students requiring further support with their literacy needs receive small group instruction through the MiniLit and MultiLit Intervention Programs, which work in conjunction with the sequence of learning provided through InitiaLit.
When writing, it is our belief that you can only write as well as you read. Students across the school study mentor texts – high quality literature – to learn more complex writing skills, such as sentence structure, precise word choice, and grammar. As they move through the school, students build their capacity to write a range of imaginative, informational, and persuasive texts for a variety of authentic audiences, with writing published in both physical and digital formats.
