Literacy consultant David Hornsby conducted a parent
information night on Tuesday the 28th of July on how parents can
support their children with reading. The focus of the day was on how we can
develop thoughtful literacy with our children.
David spoke about the pivotal role of content knowledge in
the making-meaning process that is reading.
Meaning generated by the reader will be influenced by the background
knowledge they bring to the text. With this key idea in mind, David emphasised
the role parents can play in ‘stirring-up’
their child’s background knowledge around the content of the texts they are
reading. This requires parents talking
about the content of the books your children are reading before, during and
after reading. What do you think this text is about?
What do you know about…? What do
you think you will learn about…? What
did you learn about…? What would you
like to learn more about…? Where can we go to find out more about…?
David also emphasised the importance of teaching phonics,
but always within the meaningful context of a whole text. He spoke emphatically
about the importance of starting with a whole complete text before dealing with
abstract decoding practices such as sounding out words. ‘Meaning
is the way into phonics’.
David spoke passionately about the centrality of the
Literature strand in our national curriculum and the importance of quality
literature for building thoughtful, feeling, literate citizens. ‘We hit them in the heart, before we hit them
in the head’.
David’s presentation was appreciated by all the parents and
staff who attended for the clarity, poise and humour in which it was
delivered.
David is away at the
moment but is happy for the presentation slides he used on the night to be
shared with the community. Once these slides are made available, they will be
posted on your child’s neighbourhood blog.
Tim Aris
Head of Curriculum
No comments:
Post a Comment