At Rawlinson Primary School, the foundations for teaching our Literacy Curriculum is delivered to our students, through high quality programs, where the skills and strategies for Speaking & Listening, Reading & Viewing and Writing are taught specifically, and are integrated throughout other Learning Areas. The teaching and learning of Literacy at Rawlinson Primary School, is supported by creating and sustaining rich and supportive environments in every classroom.
“Promoting Literacy Development” (PLD) is a structured and synthetic program that allows for the delivery of outcomes across 3 core areas – Literacy, Oral Language and Movement & Motor. PLD is implemented into all K-6 classrooms, to develop and support children’s development of phonic concepts, oral language, speaking, reading, writing and spelling – relevant to their year of schooling. PLD in the Kindergarten and Pre-Primary years focusses strongly on these Pre-Literacy skills developing their understanding and skills of phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. PLD in years 1 and 2, moves students into consolidating and building upon their skills, strengthening them through a sequenced and structured spelling program. Years 3 to 6 continues to build upon their skills as well as developing their vocabulary. At Rawlinson Primary School PLD allows the students to be supported in their early literacy development, providing them with a sequenced progression of learning literacy skills.
At Rawlinson Primary School, Talk 4 Writing (T4W) is embedded in all K-2 classrooms to support and nurture oral language development in the Early Years. This then leads to an understanding of text types and aspects of simple texts in their written form, as they progress into years 1 and 2. T4W uses effective teaching strategies of imitation, innovation and invention to support them with either the oral or written development of different texts. T4W in these classrooms, allows for students to have the confidence and practise at orally reciting a text, describing aspects of it (characters, setting, narrative structure, text features), using descriptive language and developing and using full spoken sentences. Students are then encouraged and supported to transfer this knowledge into written form. At Rawlinson Primary School, T4W supports learners using actions and set frameworks for various text types.
In Years 3-6, students shift from ‘Talk 4 Writing’ to ‘Seven Steps to Writing Success’, a writing program that breaks down the process of writing into seven components that enable the students to produce a rich and engaging whole text. Each component/step is explicitly taught and involves brainstorming of ideas and collaboration amongst peers. The modules covered for students are Narrative, Persuasive and Informative writing, with a focus on writing texts that appeal to the audience.