Students who have been receiving support in primary school with concerns with learning difficulties and require intensive support will be taught in classes with a variety of programs to help with Literacy and Numeracy.
Also available to these students on one line of the timetable is a course dedicated to supporting students in completing assessment for other subject areas and to receive extra tutoring in small groups.
Two programs used in these classes will be:
Metalinguistics
Metalinguistics is an intensive language program that some students will participate in this program over a three week block. Language aspects targeted in the program include vowel/consonant recognition; phonetic awareness (understanding that words are made up of particular sounds); phoneme identification/segmentation (words can be broken down into individual sounds) and syllable identification/spelling. The skills and knowledge taught in this program will help students with learning difficulties across the curriculum with reading and spelling.
Fast Forward Program
Fast Forward is a high-interest, low-readability, levelled intervention program aimed at middle years students who need a high level of support to improve their literacy achievement. The program focuses on developing the literacy skills of these students by providing them with high interest books at their appropriate reading level. Running records will be kept for all students in the support groups.
Literacy
At Harristown State High School, we believe students need multiliteracies to participate in a rapidly changing world. They need to be code breakers, text analysers, text meaning makers and text users. Literacy has three general purposes: Material – negotiate the physical world Social – to interact with other people Personal – to develop a sense of self.
Literacy is essential for learning, therefore literacy development is integral to teaching. The staff and school community attempT to make literacies the focal point of teaching and learning at this school. It also reflects their ongoing commitment to developing the literacy skills and practices of the students.
The outcomes for Harristown State High School are:
The learning of processes by students will facilitate the transfer of learning from one subject area to another and support the development of whole school approaches to teaching and learning.
Consistent use of terminology in literacy throughout the school will promote transfer of knowledge by students from one discipline area to another.
Use of the library as a centre of educational excellence should develop research capabilities of the students and also their attitudes to reading for pleasure.
Students will be made aware of the technologising of literacy and understand the role of critical literacy in evaluating texts. They will develop skills in such evaluation.
Incorporation and implementation of a common literacy strategy in all curriculum area work programs with embedded CCEs, graphic organizers and genres.
Spelling
It is expected that in all classes across the school, students will be given a list of words in all subject areas to study each week.
Years 8 and 9 classes - 3 words per week per subject class.
Years 10-12 - 5 words per week per subject class.
CHIMP – Learn to Spell Words with CHIMP
CH
CHUNKS
Break it up into chunks.
Write it down.
I
INVESTIGATE
Study the word.
Highlight the tricky part.
Think of a way to remember it.
M
MEMORY SCREEN
Cover
Close your eyes.
Put the word on your memory screen. Spell it forwards.
Spell in backwards.
Check. Repeat if needed.
P
PRACTISE
Courtesy of Jan Roberts (Literacy Consulant)
Trace over the word and say the letter names as you go.
Write 3 times and say the word aloud as you write it.
Comprehension
Reading Comprehension is greatly enhanced if students know before they start reading:
why they are reading,
which strategies they should use (skimming, scanning, etc),
subject specific vocabulary – students understanding and able to use spelling specific to the subject area increases the ability of students to read texts effectively and,
what they should do with the material they have read eg make notes for future reference, gather material to reshape it for another purpose.
At HSHS we use Top Level Structure which encompasses four patterns to organise experiences and knowledge:
Comparison / Contrast Cause / Effect Problem / Solution Description (listening)
They help students to: Link present and past experience Enrich and expand our understanding of concepts Identify personally with ideas Make decisions Plan strategically Solve problems Appreciate critically aspects of our world.
