At Harvest Home Primary School, we endeavour to ignite a passion for Reading and Writing, so our students can
be lifelong ‘literate learners’. Literacy is taught through the key knowledge and skills as outlined in the Victorian Curriculum English learning area.
This includes the modes of:
All students are engaged in daily Reading and Writing sessions, which are taught during the daily Literacy Block. Students are also provided with continual opportunities to develop their Speaking and Listening skills (oral language) during this block, as well as in all areas of our teaching and learning program. Teachers work collaboratively in teams to plan comprehensive differentiated programs and lessons that support students to progress along the learning continuum using the Victorian Curriculum’s English and English as an Additional Language (EAL) achievement standards.
Teachers follow the Harvest Home Literacy Workshop model which enables students to engage in worktime that includes
independent reading and substantive talk around texts. All learning communities have a
community library which students use to select books that are of interest to them. Teachers select a range of small group instructional practices that meet the needs of the students. E.g. Guided Reading, strategy groups, language experience, phonics instruction (incorporating the Jolly Phonics program), and reading conferencing.
The Literacy Workshop Model enables a consistent writing process across the school, which involves generating ideas, planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing. Handwriting, Grammar and Spelling are also components of the literacy program which places an emphasis on improving the quality of our students’ writing.
Our Literacy Workshop model has been designed to follow the Gradual Release of Responsibility which supports current best practice in Reading and Writing. A core component of our Literacy Workshop model includes the use of quality mentor texts that exemplifies reading comprehension skills and elements of the writing craft. These mentor texts expose students to a range of text types and topics, including digital and print publications.
