Below is a quick snapshot of what has happened in literacy at my site, Hackham East Primary School, over the past 2 years.

In 2011-12, Reception to Year 3 teachers trained in Jolly Phonics and were using this synthetic phonics and grammar program, some were incorporating the Guided Reading approach in their Literacy sessions as well. Year 4-7 classes were looking into Book Clubs or using the Guided Reading approach or trying to make sense as to how the TORCH Reading Comprehension test results or other data could direct their teaching.

Students measured themselves as a reader by what reading level they were on, not on what they could already do and what their next learning steps would be to further develop their reading.

In 2011, our school set up a literacy intervention program for students not meeting reading benchmarks using the WAVE Intervention framework. These students worked in small groups (WAVE 2) or individually (WAVE 3) with an SSO on sight word vocabulary, specific phonemic needs, oral reading and comprehension. This is continuing with nearly 20% of students now accessing Multilit and Minilit as these programs have proven to be effective in raising the reading achievement of students with low literacy levels.