At Nova Pioneer, we believe that a strong foundation in reading and phonics is essential for students to become confident, lifelong learners. Our comprehensive approach ensures that students not only learn to read but also develop a deep understanding of language that will serve them throughout their academic journey and beyond.
What is Guided Reading?
Guided reading is a cornerstone of our literacy instruction. This small-group instructional approach allows teachers to support each reader’s development by engaging them with texts that are appropriately challenging. During guided reading sessions, students read a text selected at their instructional level, and the teacher provides targeted instruction to help them build strategic reading skills. These sessions are crucial for developing the “in-the-head” networks of strategies that enable students to process increasingly complex texts. Through guided reading, students engage with every aspect of the reading process, which empowers them to apply these skills across all areas of learning.
Our Guided Reading Programme: Reading A-Z
At Nova Pioneer, our Guided Reading Programme utilises the Reading A-Z platform, which offers an extensive library of over a thousand texts across 29 reading levels. This programme ensures that our students in Grades R-5 receive weekly guided reading instruction tailored to their individual needs. The diverse range of texts includes multiple genres and covers a variety of school subjects, making reading both educational and engaging.
Reading A-Z also provides resources to support foundational reading skills, vocabulary, grammar, and writing, ensuring that students are well-rounded in their literacy development. This differentiated approach allows teachers to meet students where they are, providing the right level of challenge to help them progress confidently.
Blended Support: RAZ-Kids
To further support reading development, all Nova Pioneer students in Grades R-5 have access to RAZ-Kids. This award-winning platform offers a vast collection of leveled eBooks that students can access both during school hours and at home. With hundreds of eBooks available at 29 different reading levels, RAZ-Kids makes it easy for students to find content that matches their reading ability. This blended approach encourages continuous practice and reinforces the skills learned during guided reading sessions.
Phonics and Grammar Instruction: Jolly Phonics and Jolly Grammar
Phonics and grammar are critical components of our literacy instruction. We use the Jolly Phonics programme, a fun and multi-sensory method that teaches children to read and write from an early age. Instead of focusing on the alphabet, Jolly Phonics emphasises the 42 letter sounds that serve as the building blocks for decoding the English language. Students learn to blend these sounds to read words and to segment them when writing.
The Jolly Phonics programme covers five key skills that are essential for mastering phonics:
- Learning the letter sounds
- Learning letter formation
- Blending sounds for reading
- Segmenting sounds for spelling
- Recognising tricky words
As students progress, they are introduced to alternative spellings and continue to build on their phonics foundation with Jolly Grammar. This programme extends phonics instruction to include spelling, grammar, and punctuation concepts, all taught in a systematic and multi-sensory way. Through Jolly Grammar, students learn age-appropriate definitions and gradually build on them each year, deepening their understanding of how language works. This knowledge enables them to write clearly and expressively, laying the groundwork for effective communication.
At Nova Pioneer, our approach to reading and phonics is designed to build confident, capable readers and writers. By combining guided reading, differentiated resources, and comprehensive phonics instruction, we equip our students with the tools they need to succeed in all areas of learning. We are committed to nurturing a love of reading and providing the foundation for lifelong literacy success.
