Issue 18 Friday 8 November 2024
Principal Fiona Keswell
I’d like to start by thanking our amazing P&C and all of the parent volunteers who made our Colour Run a phenomenal success last week! It was a fantastic event, everyone had a great time and it was wonderful to have so many parents along to support us. Our Colour Run raised just over $25 000 which is AMAZING! Thank you so much to our P&C. Thank you to all of our staff who supported in the event and joined in with the fun, especially the staff volunteers/victims who agreed to be slimed!
On Monday it is Remembrance Day. We will be having a small, informal commemoration at school at 10:45am. Please be advised our phone service will be turned off for a short time from 10:40-10:55 on Monday as we pause to reflect and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our great country.
We are fast approaching the end of the year. As the anticipation of the end of the school year and holidays gets closer, we can sometimes see an increase in behaviour incidents, especially in break times. Our students are tiring towards the end of the year and the weather has been very hot and those things combined can sometimes result in decreased patience, resilience and empathy. Our staff do an incredible job every day teaching students about our expectations to be safe, respectful and responsible learners. We teach the skills required to be safe, respectful, responsible and be learners and all students are explicitly taught social skills through targeted weekly lessons. We don’t underestimate the important role of parents who work alongside us to teach children to be safe, respectful and responsible learners. It is a team effort involving our whole school community. Please work with us to remind your children about the expectations we have at school and work with us to best support all students meet those expectations.
As we plan towards 2025, another reminder that if your family is not returning to Carbrook State School next year, to please contact our office as a matter of urgency. If you have not yet enrolled your child for Prep in 2025, please also contact us immediately.
Deputy Principal Kerry-Ann Reese
Reading
Learning to read is a complex process. As reading is not a naturally developing skill, such as walking or talking, all students need to be taught to read words and understand the language of written texts. It takes years of learning and practice to become a skilled reader. Texts we read also become more complex as we get older. This is why we teach reading from Prep to Year 10.
Learning to read is life-changing, with almost everything we do in society involving reading and writing. In Queensland state schools, we teach students the vital components of reading (word reading and language comprehension) in a sequential order. This occurs across all learning areas and year levels, through the Australian Curriculum.
In October 2023, Education Queensland announced a new Reading Commitment to teach reading consistently using an evidence-informed approach. This approach to reading has been shown as the most effective and efficient way to teach all students to read. Updates to the Australian Curriculum closely align with this reading research and present a unique opportunity for Queensland schools to refine how we teach reading.
At Carbrook State School we teach reading every day, in every classroom. This occurs in English and other learning areas as students read and engage with a variety of texts. The evidence-informed approach to reading is identified as the Simple View of Reading.
What is the Simple View of Reading
The Simple View of Reading model provides teachers with a tool to understand how students are progressing with the two key factors in reading success: decoding and language comprehension. This understanding means that individual learners can be better supported in differentiated ways to become successful readers.
Reading is a complex cognitive process. It involves reading accurately and with understanding. The Simple View of Reading, developed by Gough and Tunmer in 1986, takes these two factors into consideration. The model is called the Simple View of Reading not because reading is a simple process, but because the model itself is a simple conceptual representation.
Decoding means accurate word recognition. This involves phonological awareness and phonics. Knowing letter–sound correspondences, the English code, and being able to blend sounds to read words are all essential for accurate word decoding.
Language comprehension means the ability to understand spoken language and refers to oral language and vocabulary. Language comprehension involves understanding the meaning of parts of spoken language, including words, phrases and sentences. Reading comprehension is the product of decoding and language comprehension; decoding is not simply an addition to language comprehension. If one element is missing, reading comprehension cannot occur. The Simple View of Reading ensures decoding and language comprehension are both considered when assessing a student’s ability to comprehend written text. If one element is low, then reading comprehension will also be low. If only one element is well-developed (for example, a student can decode words accurately, but their understanding of language is low), then reading comprehension will be deficient.
At Carbrook State School we are developing a simple view of reading which includes systematic synthetic phonics and word study to strengthen students’ word reading skills. We build students’ language comprehension by reading and discussing texts, as well as teaching background knowledge, vocabulary and other important skills.
Challenges with Learning to Read
It’s important to note that struggles with decoding and language comprehension are not the only possible contributing factors to poor reading comprehension. In recent years, researchers have identified a variety of other causes for reading challenges, including:
Motivation and Engagement: Students who lack motivation generally learn to read much more slowly than those who want to learn. This can play a big role in reading difficulties.
Executive Function Skills: Children who struggle with attention, working memory, and other cognitive skills often struggle with reading. Their decoding and language comprehension skills may be strong, but they’re unable to retain what they’ve read or stay focused on the task at hand.
Background Knowledge: Every child’s experiences are different. Depending on what they’re exposed to in the world around them, their background knowledge can vary widely. Without a good foundation of general knowledge, reading comprehension becomes more difficult.
Tips for Using the Simple View of Reading with Your Child
As kids begin to build their literacy skills, it’s important to provide opportunities to practice both decoding and language comprehension at home. Try activities like these:
Read Aloud : When you read to your child, they build vocabulary and background knowledge as they listen. In their early years, this has an especially big impact on language comprehension development.
As they get a little older, you can use reading time to show them how to pronounce (decode) words, while pointing out punctuation, sentence structure, and other language skills. You can also demonstrate fluency by reading with expression and good pacing.
Read Everything : Don’t limit reading to traditional books. Graphic novels, comic books, news articles, magazines, menus, and even road signs are good opportunities to practice. Develop a habit of reading print with your child whenever you come across it and highlight the importance of it. For example, point out that you need to be able to read road signs to figure out where you’re going. At a restaurant, you need to read the menu so you know what you want to eat.
Ask Literal and Inferential Questions while Reading : Literal questions support basic understanding of the text by referring to basic facts and recall. Example: Where is the ball? Why did he go to the library?
Inferential questions encourage the child to go beyond the literal meaning of the words and fill in parts of the story that are not explicitly stated. Example: Why did the cat run when it heard a noise?
Encouraging a child to think through literal and inferential questions can support a deeper understanding of texts.
Provide Skill-Appropriate Texts : Make sure your child has access to reading materials that are right for their skill level. Provide texts that they can read fairly easily to encourage and engage them. However, be sure to include a mix of reading material that also stretches their skills a bit, so they’re constantly learning something new.
Focus on Phonics Skills : Phonics is a major part of decoding, so the more practice kids get with it, the better. As they learn letter sounds, letter blends, diphthongs and digraphs, prefixes and suffixes, and more phonics concepts, emergent readers beef up their decoding skills and learn to make sense out of written words.
Build a Strong Vocabulary : Remember, being able to sound out words is only one part of the Simple View of Reading. Readers also need to know what those words mean. Kids with bigger vocabularies often enjoy reading more, as they can understand what they’re reading as they go along.
Use Context Clues : Teach your child how to use context clues to make sense of unfamiliar words or complex sentences. This will help boost their language comprehension and keep them engaged when reading material is just a little above their skill level. Context clues can include surrounding words or phrases, signal words, and illustrations or pictures. When you come across a word your child doesn’t know, help them use context clues before simply providing a definition.
Retell Stories : Want to know if your child truly understands what they’re reading? Ask them to retell the text in their own words. Even better, get them to act it out on their own or using puppets or stuffed animals. They can also draw pictures to illustrate the story or retell the events from a different character’s point of view.
Connect Reading to Personal Experiences : Encourage your child to make connections between what they read and their own experiences. This boosts language comprehension and makes reading feel more personal and relevant. Try questions like “Tell me about a time when you felt like this character does,” or “If you were [character], what would you do?”
Positive Behaviour Learning
Check out Carbrook State School's superstar students, receiving Gotchas for following the 4 Be’s in their day to day school life!
Be Responsible
Be Respectful
Be Safe
Be a Learner
iHUB
Library News
Alert! A record number of new library books have been walking out the door in library bags.
What’s in your child’s library bag this week? The most popular loans have been our new collection of graphic novels.
Graphic novels combine written word and images in a comic strip format. Some parents may be concerned that reading a graphic novel is not reading a ‘real book’ and may feel they don’t fit with mainstream literature, but these novels still have rich storylines with deep character plots. When you see reluctant readers picking them up to read, that’s confirmation enough to think these authors may be on the right track.
There are many new graphic novels hitting the shelves this term, like The CLICK series by Kayla Millar where Olive and her besties navigate friendship, family and fun.
Pizza and Taco is another great series that follows the adventures of best friends, Pizza and Taco. Whether Pizza and Taco are making comic books, becoming wrestling pros or throwing the BEST PARTY EVER, they are a perfect choice for beginning readers.
Remember that loans are for 1 week only so everyone has the opportunity to read these fantastic novels.
A huge thank you to all the parents who are helping cover our books in our library. A special thanks to our ever so keen dad, Andrew, who works covering books in the morning and afternoons. If you find that you have a bit of time before school or while you are waiting to pick up your children you are more than welcome to come into the library and cover some books. There is a station all set up ready to go for when you have just those few minutes to spare. The quicker the books are covered the quicker they are ready for borrowing. The children can't wait.
Happy reading.
Community News
SHARKS VOLLEYBALL
