LEAP
The acronym LEAP stands for Literacy Enrichment Assistance Program. In 2020, LEAP will provide students with explicit instruction, skills and strategies, in small groups to develop and deepen their literacy understandings and provide a focus on students’ point of need.
Mission Statement for the Program
LEAP aims to provide equity and opportunity for all students to achieve and develop their literacy knowledge, skills and strategies. LEAP provides a positive mindset, self-belief and feelings of empowerment. ‘Success for All’.
What a LEAP session looks like
Developing skills in:
• Oral language awareness. This includes understanding words, syllables, rhyme, segment into onset and rime, segmenting first and last sounds, blending sounds, segmenting words and manipulating sounds.
• Sound to letter Knowledge. This is the linking of speech sounds to letter symbols, e.g. the alphabet.
• Reading process. This includes decoding, vocabulary, accuracy and fluency.
• Comprehension. This is includes the ability to predict, visualise, question, think aloud, knowledge of text structure and summarise.
How you can help your child
Be talkative with your child
The acronym LEAP stands for Literacy Enrichment Assistance Program. In 2020, LEAP will provide students with explicit instruction, skills and strategies, in small groups to develop and deepen their literacy understandings and provide a focus on students’ point of need.
Mission Statement for the Program
LEAP aims to provide equity and opportunity for all students to achieve and develop their literacy knowledge, skills and strategies. LEAP provides a positive mindset, self-belief and feelings of empowerment. ‘Success for All’.
What a LEAP session looks like
Developing skills in:
• Oral language awareness. This includes understanding words, syllables, rhyme, segment into onset and rime, segmenting first and last sounds, blending sounds, segmenting words and manipulating sounds.
• Sound to letter Knowledge. This is the linking of speech sounds to letter symbols, e.g. the alphabet.
• Reading process. This includes decoding, vocabulary, accuracy and fluency.
• Comprehension. This is includes the ability to predict, visualise, question, think aloud, knowledge of text structure and summarise.
How you can help your child
Be talkative with your child
Speaking and listening
Oral language is the foundation of learning in the classroom. For children to possess strong oral skills, they need to be able to use words and know what they mean. Guide your child through inquiry based, multi-sensory explorations that repeatedly expose them to unfamiliar words within a context.
How can I help my child with listening and speaking?
• Provide a wide range of experiences and activities, which will motivate your child to share ideas and understandings.
• Help with meaning, e.g. explain the meanings of words. Add information to clarify understanding (summarise or reword).
• Establish a story-time routine and read a wide range of books. Talk about the print and illustrations.
• Read and teach nursery rhymes, finger plays and number rhymes.
• Encourage correct speech by modelling.
Phonological awareness
The ability to ‘tune into’ the sound system of our language (the sounds the letters make). There is a two-way relationship between phonological awareness and learning to read.
At a general level, it involves an awareness that words can:
- Be broken up into beats or syllables (hos-pit-al)
- Rhyme (fan, can, man)
At the sound (phoneme) level, it involves awareness that words can:
- Start with the same sound (never, naughty)
- Be segmented into the first sound (onset) and the rime pattern
- Be formed by blending separate sounds (f-i-sh)
- Be segmented into separate sounds (s-l-i-p)
- Be changed or manipulated by removing, adding or reordering sounds within the word to make a different word (trip without the r says tip)
How can I help my child develop Phonological awareness?
- A mirror will help children explore the way their mouth and tongue moves as they say the sounds. Encourage them to copy sounds and words and talk about how their mouth and tongue moves.
- Take time to emphasise how words are said and provide children with opportunities to practise correct pronunciation of words in an environment that allows mistakes and experimentation.
- Assist children to discover syllables, rhymes and alliteration (words that start with the same sound – a slimy slippery snail).
- Remember, there are two baskets of knowledge – one for sounds and one for letters.
Developing early literacy skills
Read with your child every day. Shared reading demonstrates that reading is a worthwhile experience. Familiarise them with traditional and modern stories.
How can I help my child develop their early literacy skills?
- Orientate your child to the book using a thinking tool ‘I see, I think, I wonder’.
- You can use illustration on the front cover or select an interesting illustration inside the book. Focus on the topic and relate to the child’s experiences.
- Ask: What do you see? What do you think? What do you wonder? Can you retell some of the story?
