Better Start Literacy Approach
Classroom Programme

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to the Better Start Literacy Approach, an integrated classroom literacy approach for fostering oral language, reading and writing success in young children.

For more information about the new professional learning opportunity in 2021 - 2023 for literacy specialists, teachers and teachers aides, click here.

The Better Start Literacy Approach programme includes:

• Structured classroom instruction and small group reading teaching for children’s first two years at school.

  • 30 minute class or large group lessons conducted four times per week (total of 40 lessons per term), focused on target vocabulary and phonological awareness skill building activities. This extends to morphology and orthographic patterns as children progress through the teaching.

  • 10- 15 minutes of small group reading, differentiated by skill and using aligned readers (Ready to Read - Phonics Plus) that follow the BSLA scope and sequence.

• One quality children’s story book per week, with explicit, embedded vocabulary instruction, story retell and story grammar teaching.

• Online monitoring assessments with integrated reporting, to track children’s progress in response to the quality classroom instruction.

• Detailed lesson plans, teaching resources and small group reading books are provided as part of the approach.

• Coaching and mentoring support for teachers.

• Resources and workshop templates to engage with whānau and support literacy and language learning in the home.

• Response to Intervention framework, ensuring all learners are receiving literacy instruction catered to their individual learning needs.

To purchase a set of the early readers aligned to the Better Start Literacy Approach, visit our shop. To view the aligned early readers online, see here.