David Hornsby Parent Information Night
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