Stages Of Writing

At Montmorency Primary, our teachers understand that effective writing instruction involves students in focussed and scaffolded writing experiences.  Explicit teaching about the process of writing, structural and grammatical features and spelling is incorporated through a range of teaching practices such as modelled writing, shared writing and guided writing. Students practise their writing skills through an ongoing active process that involves four distinct stages: Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing.

 

Planning:

Students determine the purpose for their writing and their target audience. They brainstorm and gather information, thoughts, arguments, words, and phrases that are relevant to the text.

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Drafting:

Students expand their initial plans by connecting their ideas or research into meaningful sentences/paragraphs.

 

Revising & Editing:

Students use the VCOP approach to enhance the detail in their writing. VCOP stands for Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation.

 

Vocabulary: Students are prompted to review their word choice and to substitute ‘bland’ words with ‘wow’ words. Wow words are words that are also known as ambitious vocabulary.

 

Connectives: Students are encouraged to improve their sentence structure by using different connectives (joining words) and sentence types.

 

Openers: Students are supported to use varied openers or ‘sizzling starts’ to ensure their writing holds the attention of their reader throughout the writing piece.

 

Punctuation: Students are reminded to check for missing punctuation and apply it where necessary.

 

​Publishing:

Students choose how to present and share their final draft. This may include typing or rewriting the text with all revisions and edited parts applied.

 

Soundwaves:

The Sound Waves spelling program is implemented across all year levels at Montmorency Primary. Sound Waves is an evidence based systematic synthetic phonics and word study program based on the 43 sounds of Australian English. It uses a sound-to-letter strategy, which acknowledges that sounds (phonemes) can be represented more than one way in written form (graphemes). Students engage in a range of learning opportunities to develop their knowledge of phonemes and graphemes, as well as word origin (etymology) through explicit instruction, individual and small group activities as well as engaging in online learning resources.

 

CAFÉ Reading:

At Montmorency Primary School, our Reading Program is designed to meet the individual learning needs of our students, focusing on key elements of reading, using the CAFÉ Reading Model. The four key components of the CAFÉ reading model include:

 

Comprehension: I understand what I read

​Accuracy: I can read the words

​Fluency: I can read accurately, with expression, and understand what I read

​Expanding Vocabulary: I know, find, and use interesting words.

 

By focusing on each of the four key components of successful reading, and providing strategies to support each goal, the CAFE System is used by teachers to:

• establish and track the strengths and goals of each child

• organize assessment data and use it to inform teaching instruction

• maximize time with students in whole-group, small-group, and one-on-one settings;

• create flexible small groups focused on specific reading needs;

• engage students, fostering ownership and accountability to reach goals; and

• develop a common language to talk about reading development and proficiency.

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In order to immerse students in a wide range of texts, each grade has a classroom library, which is well stocked with books. The classroom libraries have texts catering to all interests and abilities. There is a range of fiction and non-fiction titles. Students are guided in developing the capacity to select ‘Just Right’ books, which are based on their own interest and ability. In addition to daily explicit teaching, each day students independently read books they have selected.

 

Reading Eggs/Eggspress:

In Foundation to Year 2, students use ABC Reading Eggs, an online reading program accessed both at school and home. Years 3 to 6 use ABC Reading Eggspress. These programs incorporate a range of highly engaging online games and activities that enhance and provide practice in reading and comprehension.

 

Numeracy:

The Mathematics curriculum is organised into three strands, Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry, and Statistics and Probability. Teachers at Montmorency  Primary School use the Victorian Curriculum to plan and implement developmentally sequenced lessons that are differentiated and cater for student’s individual learning needs. 

 

Lessons are designed to provide students with a strong grounding in mathematical skills, strategies and understandings that will prepare them for life outside of school. Students are supported and encouraged to take risks in engaging and hands-on learning classroom environments. Every Maths lesson is structured to include a mental maths warm-up activity, teaching instruction with an explicit learning intention, student application and time for reflection at the end. Students apply their learning through problem-solving tasks, open-ended questioning, investigations and a variety of engaging games and activities.

 

Mathletics:

Mathletics provides learners with the chance to put their mathematics skills to use through activities and challenges that are relevant to the learning that takes place in the classroom. All students have school and home access to the Mathletics online resource.

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