Kindy curriculum shake-up to get kids reading

A shake-up of the kindergarten-to-year 2 syllabus will see children issued with reading speed targets to bolster ­literacy skills, while teachers will be schooled on how best to instruct on spelling.

A shake-up of the kindergarten-to-year 2 syllabus will see children issued with reading speed targets to bolster ­literacy skills, while teachers will be schooled on how best to instruct on spelling.

Proposed teaching guidelines to be released for public consultation today provide teachers with specific guides on how aspects of the new NSW curriculum should be taught.

That includes specific — and sometimes novel — advice on how to help kids with their handwriting.

One suggestion to bolster a students handwriting skills include “using shaving cream to finger write” while another suggests teaching sewing to improve fine motor skills.

It says “Spelling teaching episodes should: occur multiple times each week” as well as be integrated with other lessons.

The guidelines provide templates for students to set reading goals. It states students should be reading at 60 words per minute by the end of year 1, at 100 words per minute by Year 2 and 120 words per minute by Year 6.

The proposed guide could be in use by 2023. Picture: Istock

It tells teachers should prioritise reading fluency because it is substantially harder to lift reading fluency rates if a child misses out in the early years of primary school.

“Fluency is a component of reading that is difficult for older students to improve on. Early intervention is more efficient and effective than later attempts,” it says.

The guidelines also have a large focus on assisting students who do come from a non-English speaking family alongside Indigenous students.

“(Be) aware of culturally specific terms and words from Aboriginal languages, which should not be ‘corrected’ when used contextually, eg Blak, brudda, tidda, gammon,” the guidelines state.

It encourages teachers to have fun with words but says teachers “should consider implications for students for whom English is an additional language or dialect when selecting jokes, rhymes or riddles. Idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms may be challenging for these students.”

The maths syllabus covers key problems students have. “It is not unusual for students to be uncertain of what number follows 109,” the guidelines state.

The new guide will be open to consultation until August 23 and due to be taught to schools from 2023.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the guidelines gave greater priority to the foundational areas of learning in the early years — and would be particularly useful to early career teachers.

“The new curriculum removes any ambiguity for teachers and comes with explicit teaching advice,” she said.

“The teaching advice also includes examples to support the development of language and vocabulary. This will be particularly helpful for early-career teachers.”