English & Mathematics
English
At Newcomb PS our English Instructional Model follows an evidenced based, structured literacy approach. Highly explicit and systematic teaching of all-important components of literacy are emphasised.
During reading, we incorporate the five essential skills for reading. This means that a typical lesson will have explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, reading fluency practice and a mini lesson focusing on vocabulary and comprehension.
Our reading instruction approach is based on Scarborough’s Reading Rope. This consists of lower and upper strands. The word-recognition strands (phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition of familiar words) work together as the reader becomes accurate, fluent, and increasingly automatic with repetition and practice. Concurrently, the language-comprehension strands (background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge) reinforce one another and then weave together with the word-recognition strands to produce a skilled reader.
Students in Foundation to Grade 2 are explicitly taught the ‘Sounds-Write’ initial and extended codes. Sounds-Write is a quality first phonics program. Its purpose is to provide a comprehensive system with which to teach reading, spelling and writing. It is a very highly structured, multi-sensory, incremental and code-oriented, instructional approach to teaching children to read and spell. All classroom teachers at Newcomb PS are trained to deliver this program.
Our Grade 3 to 6 students are explicitly taught to spell through Spelling Mastery. Spelling Mastery provides structured lessons to effectively and efficiently teach the spelling skills students need to become proficient readers and writers.
Writing lessons follow a framework of carefully sequenced instruction, building from sentence level to text level writing. All classroom teachers are trained in The Writing Revolution which provides strategies to build the vocabulary and language skills necessary for future success in writing. A typical lesson will see students given explicit instruction to create sentences as the building blocks for all writing. Writing lessons are embedded in the curriculum through our core knowledge topics, picture book and novel studies. Students are also explicitly taught to plan and revise their writing.
We use DIBELS Data System to complete benchmark screening and progress monitoring for word reading fluency, oral reading fluency and comprehension. The student performance results become powerful reports to make data-driven, timely decisions and improve student outcomes.
Mathematics
At Newcomb PS our Mathematics Instructional Model follows a framework of Let’s Learn, Let’s Do, Let’s Practice.
Each math lesson begins with fact fluency to strengthen students' skills and fluency in math operations. New skills are explicitly taught and students practise math facts on a daily basis, promoting consistent and regular engagement. During the review section of our math lesson teachers check for understanding where students use mini whiteboards to record answers.
New concepts are explicitly taught before the students continue with guided and then independent practice. We have a three-stage learning process where students learn through physical manipulation of concrete objects, followed by learning through pictorial representations of the concrete manipulations, and ending with solving problems using abstract notation.
At Newcomb we have developed a scope and sequence to teach mathematics that reflects the needs and diversity of our learners. This guaranteed and viable curriculum includes resources from The Victorian Curriculum, Ochre Education and Pr1me Mathematics.
We use the Maths Online Interview and mCLASS as tools for assessing the mathematical knowledge of students. Teachers record formative assessment in tracking books, record weekly fluency results and conduct post-assessment tasks.