Literacy Lift Off
A guided reading programme
Literacy Lift Off is an intervention that gives children lots of opportunities to read books at their own level of competency and gradually lift the complexity of what they can do in both reading and writing.
In Term 3 of 2018 – 2019, Literacy lift Off will be aimed towards children from Senior Infants to 1st Class.
What is Literacy Lift Off?
It is essentially a guided reading programme. There are 4 groups in the class and the work is tailored to meet the needs of each individual group.
How are the groups organised?.
We administered a short test to group the children and to pitch the books at the appropriate level for each group. At the end of session we will re administer the test and record the progress made.
How long will the intervention last?
The sessions last for 50 minutes each day, Tuesday to Friday for 6 weeks. The current session will end on the 14th June 2019.
Will other classes be involved?
What do the groups do during LITERACY LIFT OFF?
The Special Education Teacher, SNA and the Class Teacher, will work with the children for a period of 50 minutes. Each group will be engaged in a number of different stations during the session.
They will participate in:
- Oral language activities
- Phonological awareness (sounds in words, rhyme, syllables, segmenting words etc)
- Phonics (blending sounds to make words, learning phonic rules etc)
- Reading a New Book. ( helping children to decode new words, use context clues etc )
Re reading a book that was read the previous day (understanding the story) - ICT/Writing. (The children are helped to write independently)
How can parents help?
Once the book has been read twice in school it is taken home in a special folder. The child then reads the book with their parents. Parents can help with decoding if necessary, but more importantly you can encourage fluent reading as the children are now quite familiar with the book having already read it twice in class.
What types of books are being used?
The type of books being used are known as PM readers. PM readers are a banded reading scheme for primary school children, which are carefully levelled fiction and non-fiction books. They are suitable for guided or independent reading and for reading initiatives such as Literacy Lift Off.
We purchased multiple copies of each book, so that each child could bring home the same reader.