ENGLISH

At Diamond Creek Primary School our English program helps students learn to analyse, understand, communicate and build relationships with others and with the world around them. Daily sessions in the areas below aim to develop students English skills from Foundations right through to Grade 6.

Through the focus on reading and viewing involving students understanding, interpreting, critically analysing, reflecting upon, and enjoying written and visual print and non-print texts we aim to promote an enjoyment of reading among the students that builds on comprehension, accuracy, fluency and vocabulary. This is aided through the use of the CAFÉ approach to reading (comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary and other approaches such as the Daily 5, Guided Reading and Rotations and Book Club.

Writing involves students being active in the process of conceiving, planning, composing, editing and publishing a range of texts. The Write to Read program which runs from Foundation right through to Grade 6 builds students spelling understanding and skills. In our Big Write program students are encouraged to share and discuss weekly topics with their families, writing a piece that is then analysed using the ‘VCOP’ strategies for developing Wow words (Vocabulary), Connectors, Openers and Punctuation.

Speaking and Listening refers to the various formal and informal ways that oral language is used to convey and receive meaning. This is achieved through many activities such as Reader’s Theatre, Listening Posts, iPads and Computers and in the senior areas with presentation of projects.

The above areas are covered in daily two hour literacy blocks. All children from Foundation to Grade 6 participate in these blocks. During these blocks the children are arranged into small, flexible groups in which they rotate through hands-on activities, interactive online programs, teacher focus groups (working directly with the teacher) and collaborative learning games.

At DCPS parent participation is an integral and valuable component of our Literacy development program. Parents are welcomed to work with small groups of children under the guidance of the classroom teacher.