Literacy at JHPS - John Henry Primary School

CAFE & DAILY 5 – What is it?

At JHPS, students learn about reading using the CAFE model. This stands for:

Comprehension – I understand what I read.

Accuracy – I can read the words.

Fluency – I can read accurately, with expression and understand what I re

ad.

Expand Vocabulary – I know, find and use interesting words.

Students set goals in these different areas to help improve their reading skills. Each of these areas forms the basis for explicit teaching and teacher focus groups.

Daily 5

VCOP

At John Henry Primary School, we utilise VCOP as an initiative to help improve students writing. VCOP is an acronym for

V – Vocabulary: Vinnie Vocabulary helps us to use WOW Words.

C – Connectives: Connie Connective helps us to use words like puzzle pieces joining sentences and ideas together.

O – Openers: Ollie Opener helps us to use words like doors to open our sentences to engage our reader.

P – Punctuation: Let’s help Penny Punctuation climb down the Punctuation Pyramid to helps us add expression and emphasis for our readers!

Each of these elements and how to use them is explicitly taught during literacy sessions throughout the year.

Spelling – Words Their Way

At JHPS our spelling program consists of Words Their Way. This is a teacher-directed, student-centred approach to vocabulary growth and spelling development. Students engage in a variety of sound, pattern and meaning activities, sorting pictures and words. Words Their Way caters for differentiated learning in the classroom, rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

Jolly Phonics

Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centered approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. With actions for each of the 42 letter sounds, the multi-sensory method is very motivating for children and teachers, who can see their students achieve. The letter sounds are split into seven groups as shown below.
The sounds are taught in a specific order (not alphabetically). This enables children to begin building words as early as possible. Using a synthetic phonics approach, Jolly Phonics teaches children the five key skills for reading and writing. The programme continues through school enabling the teaching of essential grammar, spelling and punctuation skills.
We can already see how this amazing program is helping our students learn and use the letter sounds. Students are excited for Jolly Phonics lessons and love learning a new sound each day. Students particularly like the songs and actions.

The five skills taught in Jolly Phonics
1. Learning the letter sounds
Children are taught the 42 main letter sounds. This includes alphabet sounds as well as digraphs such as sh, th, ai and ue.
2. Learning letter formation
Using different multi-sensory methods, children learn how to form and write the letters.
3. Blending
Children are taught how to blend the sounds together to read and write new words.
4. Identifying the sounds in words (Segmenting)
Listening for the sounds in words gives children the best start for improving spelling.
5. Tricky words
Tricky words have irregular spellings and children learn these separately.