The Australian Curriculum defines the general capabilities as ‘a set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that can be developed and applied across the curriculum to help students become successful learners, confident and creative individuals ad informed citizens’.  The Personal and Social Capabilities are …

• self-awareness
• self-management
• social management
• social awareness

In the LTR Learning classroom, all students are responsible for their own learning.  They report to others, they work in pairs and small groups, they give peer feedback on work efforts and are risk-takers.  Therefore, they become confident, enthusiastic, empathetic and independent learners.  Celebration of improvement, no matter how small, is embedded in the classroom culture.  It is encouraging for all in the classroom when the top student is excited as a struggling student succeeds in a task which has proved difficult.  Working together in learning tasks encourages deep interest in each other’s progress.

For more information about the products provided by LTR Learning (Listen, Think, Respond), click on the links.

The Australian Curriculum 8.1 defines the general capabilities as ‘a set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that can be developed and applied across the curriculum to help students become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and informed citizens’.  The Literacy General Capabilities are …

• text knowledge
• grammar knowledge
• word knowledge
• visual knowledge
• comprehending texts
• composing texts

These capabilities develop in the LTR Learning classroom because the teaching is embedded in a variety of text genre.  Phonemic awareness, phonics, grammar, word knowledge and visual knowledge are all learned from texts.  Comprehending and composing texts are a daily component of the LTR Learning classroom across all curriculum areas.

For more information about the products of LTR Learning (Listen, Think, Respond) and how they help teachers to meet the Australian Primary School English Curriculum Standards for Foundation/Reception to Year 2 students, click here … LTR Learning and Curriculum

Why is phonics important?

To be able to hear the sounds of a language and replicate them are the first steps in learning to speak a language.

To become literate, those sounds and speech patterns are linked to a written code (graphemes) which the language uses to produce its literature.

Linking the sounds (phonemes) and the code (graphemes) together is called phonics.  The teaching of phonics begins with the simplest and most regular letter code before moving on to more complicated letter and sound combinations.

This applies to any language which has a written alphabetic code.  The careful listening and replication of pronunciation goes hand in hand with the learning of the code that represents those individual sounds or syllables.  Learning how the code works is fundamental to becoming literate in that language.  If the student of a language does not master these fundamental understandings, then guessing becomes the default position of the learner and confidence and the desire to learn the language are often destroyed.

This is why the LTR Language & Literacy Program is built on the foundation of Phonemic Awareness (hearing the sounds in words and being able to manipulate them), Phonics (recognising the code when reading and writing), Spelling (understanding the structure of words) and Grammar (understanding the structure of sentences). All are fundamental to being able to read, write and spell confidently.

For more information about LTR Learning (Listen, Think, Respond) products and how they meet the Australian Primary School English Curriculum for Foundation/Reception to Year 2 students, view Curriculum and Products.

In 2015, a concerned parent asked this question of a Year 2 teacher using the LTR Language & Literacy Program in her classroom.  He was concerned that his very capable child was not doing as well as possible in weekly tests.

The teacher explained, “In LTR, we do not test for a score, but for information.  Our testing is for the teacher to get information about the gaps in understanding and the student’s ability to rise to a challenge.   We learn what to teach next.  We don’t teach to test.  We test to inform our teaching.”

The LTR Language & Literacy Program provides teachers with many different ways to assess student progress and the mastery of concepts.  The cyclical teaching approach which constantly revisits concepts and builds new learning on what is already known, results in deep learning.  Many of the assessment ideas are embedded in the daily classroom practice.  Weekly tests are designed by the teachers to inform their teaching, to check the mastery of concepts and are deliberately challenging.  The students are not daunted by errors as they understand that mistakes are a natural part of learning anything new.

For more information about the LTR Learning products and the program’s correlation with the Australian Primary School English Curriculum for Foundation/Reception to Year 2 students, click Products and Curriculum.

The Australian Curriculum defines the general capabilities as ‘as set of knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that can be developed and applied across the curriculum to help students become successful learners, confident and creative individuals and informed citizens’.  The Critical and Creative Thinking Capabilities are listed as …

• inquiring – identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas
• generating ideas, possibilities and actions
• reflecting on thinking, actions and processes
• analysing, synthesising and evaluating information

In the LTR Learning classroom, students learn to be curious and observant.  Discussing ideas, possibilities and actions happens every day, all day.  The students learn to think, analyse, conclude, question, form an opinion and justify an opinion.  They learn how to respond effectively in different situations.  Reflecting on thinking, actions and process is a natural part of the LTR Learning program and the students become confident in all aspects of critical and creative thinking from their first year at school.

For more information on the LTR Learning products and how they meet with the Australian Primary School English Curriculum for Foundation/Reception to Year 2 students, see our Products and Curriculum matrix.