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Literacy at RGS
Literacy at RGS Reaching your potential
There is a growing concern at the declining literacy standards of Australian school students with falling NAPLAN results in the headlines. At The Rockhampton Grammar School, we are actively pursuing ways to maximise our students’ literacy capacity thereby allowing them to reach their full potential. The formation of the School Literacy Working Party continues the investigation and implementation of school-wide and targeted literacy plans. RGS teachers continue to value the importance of developing the literacy capacity of every student across the entire curriculum.
LITERACY IS MORE THAN READING AND WRITING
Literacy encompasses a range of practices, which include: reading, writing, speaking, viewing, creating and listening, to support students in their endeavours to achieve their potential and prepare them to be successful communicators. Across the curriculum, literacy capabilities are developed in a progressive way in order for students to comprehend, create and purposely construct meaning that engages thinking skills and promotes further learning. The Literacy Working Party, composed of staff representing all facets of the School, have met regularly from mid-2020, with research occurring into the best practice for enhancing literacy for all students. The Australian Curriculum forms the basis for all discussions and activities. Teaching staff, from Kindy through to Year 12, have engaged in professional development activities utilising resources to assist in determining student literacy levels, understanding how students comprehend amongst other activities and are now receiving weekly literacy building strategies. Book recommendations in the newsletter, written by students and teachers sharing books that they love, is one of the activities of the Literacy Working Party. In the Secondary School, there has been a focus on writing across the curriculum with all students from Years 7 – 10 engaged in a daily Writing Boost for several weeks each term. Along with other literacy activities, the junior boy boarders have been completing a Prep Booklet which includes a daily reflection and summary of learning. Mr Matt Oakes notes that there has been improved recall of subject knowledge and the building of reflective habits that will benefit students as they progress through the Secondary School. Primary students are regularly engaged in literacy within their classrooms. To help support students with reading, an intensive Before School Reading Program is offered in Term 2. With the help of volunteer teachers and Year 11 students, students read each morning. Using a benchmark reading assessment before and after the programme, we have noted the improvement in the reading confidence, fluency and comprehension of participants. Literacy is not just about studying English. We encourage you to speak to your child’s teacher to see how you can help them reach their literacy capacity.
RGS Primary and Year 11 students work together to build on reading skills in Primary’s Before School Reading Programme.
Handwriting does matter!
Is handwriting an old-fashioned skill? Is there any value in teaching children to handwrite in the digital age? While we may no longer teach our children the finer points of penmanship, handwriting remains a vital part of the curriculum and with valid reasons.
Handwriting has been shown to engage memory-forming processes more deeply than typing. Research by educational neuroscientists, James and Englehardt (2012) suggest the process of writing by hand engages the brain in more cognitive processes than typing on a laptop. Learning to handwrite can also help to hone a child’s attention and focusing skills, as the process involves the development of very fine motor skills. In the early years of schooling, there is very strong evidence that learning to handwrite can improve letter recognition and decoding skills, thus improving comprehension levels. Similarly, writing by hand has been shown to improve spelling and written composition, more than typing can. Typing, of course, is a vital skill these days and learning to do it well is an important part of a modern education.
Nevertheless, learning to write by hand provides children with benefits not matched by the keyboard.
GOOD HANDWRITING NEEDS PRACTICE
It is still a skill required for life beyond school
• Students up to Year 3 should be using
QBeginners Font • Students above Year 3 will be learning
QCursive The fonts are available to download at:
https://bit.ly/3Ck1trl
8 steps to improve handwriting:
1. Choose the correct pen, trial pens of different sizes. 2. Loosen your pencil grip. 3. Ensure you have good posture when writing. 4. Write on lined paper. 5. Change the angle of your paper as you write to find the best angle. 6. Slow down and take your time. You will get faster as you practice. 7. Practice daily, take every opportunity to write. 8. Persevere.
The importance of reading
Right now, you are engaging in one of the greatest inventions and achievements of humanity: reading. The benefits of reading are many and varied. Almost always, children who read become better writers. Their vocabulary and memory improve, their use of punctuation improves, and their knowledge of sentence and grammatical structures also improves.
Students who read fiction are exposed to settings, characters, and plot twists – their imagination is piqued. If they read the myriad of non-fiction offerings, they are encouraged to see how the world works, thus broadening their horizons. As the British children’s author, Katherine Rundell eloquently proclaims, “books crowbar the world open for you – every book you read makes your imagination larger.” Therefore, unquestionably, reading, at any age, is to be encouraged. Reading, however, is not just about decoding, it involves far more than that. In fact, as Luke and Freebody (1990) argue, reading involves a number of extraordinary processes: • Breaking the code of the text: the letter – sound relationships • Using texts: understanding the text, for example, novel, recipe or instructional manual • Analysing texts: appreciating that texts influence readers in different ways and are used for different purposes These processes ensure that reading is a rich and advantageous experience for young people all through their schooling and beyond as they navigate the world around them, as well as a curriculum brim-filled with texts to be read.
Whilst being a highly-skilled reader is acknowledged as vital to success in the modern world, that does not make the honing of reading capacity an easy task, particularly, as the competition for student’s attention is fierce from other pastimes and recreational activities. Reading needs to be meaningful to the reader. Reading needs to be valued. One strategy to improve reading capacity is to go beyond ‘just’ books. Young people who read a lot identify themselves as readers; however, often reading is only associated with books. Young people therefore should be encouraged to read from a variety of texts; graphic novels, websites, newspapers, even recipes and instruction manuals provide opportunities to read.
Another method to improve reading capacity is to engage in sustained reading for an extended period. An easy way of achieving this is to set a timer for five or ten minutes. It is amazing how the time quickly passes and reading continues long after the timer has ended. Finally, modelled reading, simply reading aloud to someone, is a great way to engage with reading at home for all ages. As the US educationalist, Doug Lemov argues, “reading aloud breathes life into a text, and when a text comes to life it doesn’t just connect [all] to the act of reading, it connects them to one another. The words come alive; we share a story and the humour or tragedy of its narrative.” Modelled reading ensures that meaningful emphasis is placed on words, meaningful pauses are made by adhering to the punctuation cues and accurate decoding of difficult words is shown in an accessible fashion. Reading to students of any age can be time well spent. So, in the famous words of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, “I’m wondering what to read next.” And so should we all!
Words tell a story in all shapes and forms
From young Primary writers to students preparing to enter their Senior studies, RGS students are being encourage to express their thoughts in writing.
Sample Writing 1 If I had a Fairy Godmother, I would wish for …
A monster truck that has 2 mufflers and a flatback and it has triple tyres that have lumps on them. I also want a house with my Mum’s and my Dad’s favourite things to do. Wyatt (Year 1)
Sample Writing 2
Every day they practiced a lot. On the night of the plan, they were ready. They tiptoed out of the cage, slowly moving towards the door. But then….KABOOM. Olive fell over the guard! He caught them. “Run” shouted Olive. They bolted. Luckily for them, they met a nice zoo keeper. “I’ll distract him while you run,” he said. So the zookeeper went up to the guard and said, “Come quickly, the food is overflowing.” The guard immediately followed him. Meanwhile, Olive and his friends bolted out of the huge metal door. Sasha (Year 4)
Sample Writing 3
Conclusion
The hypothesis was correct as Viva soaked up the most water. The one that soaked up the least water was School paper towel, trial 1, with only 5mL. The one that soaked up the most amount of water was Viva, trial 3, with 20mL. This happened because each brand has a different thickness. The thicker ones soaked up more water than the thin ones. Lara (Year 6)
Sample Writing 4
Hello
I am a particle of glitter, the big chunky kind which is much less annoying than you. I am insoluble and I, unfortunately, cannot dissolve in anything. I never found out how I came to be, but many moons ago I was mixed with water. This is a pretty useless thing to do as I would just sink to the bottom unless shaken up…. Anyway, this mixture just isn’t working. Water and I have decided to separate, just like you and that strange ex-wife of yours. We are going to a party first, which is being held over many small holes. This will cause water to fall through the holes keeping me in the same place separating us. Good riddance, my dearest nemesis. Rini (Year 7)
Sample Writing 5
The stench of rotten leaves annihilated the sweet aroma of petrichor as I approached the mahogany door. I peered at the kaleidoscope of cobwebs, my hands itching to start the spring cleaning. “Please don’t trouble yourself cleaning up the attic, sweetheart. You shouldn’t be doing housework in this condition,” my husband had pleaded, gently placing a kiss on my forehead. The baby was due in two months and the attic still needed to be dusted, decluttered, and decorated. Gloomy days like today were mostly spent cosying up in bed, hot cocoa in one hand, a cliché romance novel in the other. Today, however, I felt like a monarch butterfly that had just burst out of its chrysalis, healthy and in high spirits. Besides, it was far too much work for one man to be doing himself. And I would gladly build the nursery for our daughter. Jolts of euphoria crawled up my veins as I imagined my precious bundle of joy cooing to the jingling melody of twinkling stars. I pictured her first steps, the stumbling and teetering as sunlight illuminates through the vaulted ceiling, the beams meeting on golden arches on her skin. Mahjuba (Year 10)
HELPFUL WEBSITES
Literacy
literacyhub.edu.au/families/literacy-athome.html education.qld.gov.au/parents-and-carers/ community-engagement/parents www.aisnsw.edu.au/learning-from-home/ pedagogy/literacy
Reading
newsela.com/signin www.ziptales.com/ (See your primary teacher for login details) www.sunshineonline.com.au/ (See your primary teacher for login details)
Writing
www.quickanddirtytips.com/grammar-girl www.analyzemywriting.com/about_ us.html www.writeabout.com/ideas/ www.youtube.com/user/ SchoolhouseRockTV1
Environmental Challenge Student investigation
RGS Primary students have taken the lead on researching environmental challenges in a “Grow it, Taste it, Don’t Waste it!” competition. The State-wide competition allowed the students to gain a broader insight into a “real-world problem” and how RGS is playing its role in helping our environment.
Delving into a “real-world problem” inspired RGS Primary students. In Term 3, students in 3/4W entered a Statewide science competition, conducted by the Hermitage Research Facility, titled ‘Grow it, Taste it, Don’t Waste it!’ as part of their unit on living and non-living things and the role they play in the environment. The class entry was not only awarded first place in the Year 3-6 division, they were also awarded the Crawford Fund International Agricultural Science Award trophy. The competition attracted 130 schools from across Queensland with over 3600 students engaged in the project. 3/4W teacher Mrs Sonya Whitehead said students were engaged in the task from the beginning. “Not only because it was a competition, but it was about searching for information regarding a real-world problem,’’ Mrs Whitehead said. “Food shortage is and will remain a problem in the future as our population continues to grow around the world. “Students were amazed at some of the statistics they discovered; like the fact that one third of food produced world-wide gets wasted! The project showed that if we can, we should continually strive to help improve life globally.” RGS students shared the workload as they broke into four groups to address specific components:
1. Experimenting with hydroponics to answer the question – ‘Do plants grow better in soil or in water?’
The students planted six vegetables in soil and the same six vegetables in a hydroponic system they designed and built. They then
Working together on a “real-world” problem to help protect our environment for future generations.
STUDENT INSIGHTS
Planting group “Writing descriptions about how the plants were looking each week required us to be very detailed about each leaf and
stem” – Evie
“We discovered that possums like tomato plants because they stole our hydroponic tomato plant mid-
experiment” – Ruchika
Tasting group “Experimenting with the taste buds on our tongue and the different areas that taste different flavours was really cool”
– Johanna
“Coming up with the tasting test showed us how to conduct a blind test so the results were more
accurate” – Joshua
Spoiling group “Watching the strawberries rot and grow mould on them was quite disgusting, especially the plate that was left in the sun.
It was putrid!” – Grace
– Oliver
News programme group “Going to different areas of the school to interview people on live camera was a little nerve-racking
but fun at the same time” – Kai
“Researching food wastage in the world really astonished us. The whole world needs to work together to help stop wasting food because there are so many starving people in the world and the population is continually
growing” – Kiaan
recorded their observations and the growth of the plants in a journal before presenting a scientific report which included research, analysis of the data and a discussion on how this knowledge could help food shortages in the world.
2. Food tasting experiment “disguising” tastes in jelly.
Each member of the class had to rate each sample according to taste, texture, smell and looks. This blind tasting led them to research which areas of the tongue tastes certain flavours. Their results were then presented as a scientific poster.
3. Experiment on food spoilage
Strawberries were selected as the food of choice and were placed on plates in a number of different areas, including the fridge, kitchen bench, outside in the sun and in the freezer, with observations recorded and presented on a scientific poster.
4. Developed a new idea or concept to help combat global food wastage – a News Bulletin.
This group researched global food wastage – what it is, where in the production chain is the waste greatest and how can we reduce it. Students looked in their own back yard and interviewed the RGS Dining Room staff; the Primary Garden Club which runs a recycling programme; RGS Home Economics teacher Mrs Malone who runs the School’s cooking rooms; and Prep teachers, who the students thought would see a lot of waste. The final video, complete with newsreader, was an amazing achievement!
