Reading is one of our school’s learning priorities as it is an essential skill for learning in all other curriculum areas. Reading is taught alongside writing as part oof our English curriculum and also fostered in all other learning areas. Undurba State School’s Balanced Reading Program is a structured program across prep to year 6 which encourages reading ability, comprehension, fluency and a love of reading. All classes engage in modelled, shared and guided reading lessons as part of timetabled Focussed Reading Every Day (FRED) time.
At Undurba, students in years 4-6 participate in Literacy Pro, a reading engagement tool used encourage home reading and comprehension success.
Classroom teachers monitor and engage with their class on a regular basis, sharing successes.
Million words club
The Million Words Club was created to celebrate the success of students who are engaged in the reading process, showing a love of reading. The number of words set to reach each celebration is often difficult for many students to achieve, being that it is celebrating high academic achievement. All classroom teachers are encouraged to develop their own system of reading celebrations in their classroom and share with others. Doing so often encourages a number of students to achieve the Bronze Award (250 000 words read) by years end, which is a significant achievement.
Million words club awards
Bronze Award — 250,000 words read
Silver Award — 500,000 words read
Gold Award — 750,000 words read
Platinum — 1,000,000 words read
Each level is awarded a certificate and badge at our celebration assemblies at the end of each term.
In the lower school our focus is on reading mileage. As Dr. Seuss so eloquently put it…
Read, read, read
The more you read,
The more you know.
The more you know,
The more you grow.
Every student has a reading log to complete after each read and they are encouraged to use this as part of their home reading program.
All classroom teachers encourage reading during the day, modelling good reading habits themselves and each follows their own unique class celebrations.
Paw-some awards have been created to acknowledge reading growth throughout the years, starting with learning all 52 upper and lower case letters at the beginning of Prep, to the reading mileage award, celebrated by the student in each class who has tracked the highest number of books read. These awards are handed out at our special reading celebration parades in term 1 and term 3.