Literacy and Numeracy Parent Information
UPDATED LITERACY INFORMATION MAY 2022
The main focus in the classroom is Tier Two words
Second year students are currently learning two words per week that will enhance their life skills in the world of business. They are rewarded in school by their teachers for using them in the course of their studies. Why not encourage them to use them at home too?
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vexf3fQEygijYcuPcMOoIGzKzgtfA6UBCYpdK-kVEK4/edit
FREE ACCESS TO BOOKSWITH ENHANCED FEATURES
Your child in Junior Cycle has free access to the Sora app. Sora empowers students to discover and enjoy ebooks and audiobooks from their school, for both leisure and class-assigned reading.
They can get their username and password from their English teacher
https://soraapp.com/library/jcsp
Sora special features include:
1 APP-WIDE HIGH CONTRAST for users with visual impairments
2 DYSLEXIC FONT DISPLAYS designed to make text easier to read for users with dyslexia
3 READING APPEARANCE CUSTOMIZATION adjustments can be made to the text scale, background lighting, and book design (i.e. font style).
4 AUDIOBOOK PLAYBACK SPEED ADJUSTMENTS Some readers find that they can retain more details about a story when they listen instead of read. Sora’s playback speed feature can help listeners customise their read-along and audiobook experience to meet their individual needs.
5 DEFINING WORDS IN AN EBOOK
Using Sora’s define feature readers find the definitions to unknown words, can also see synonyms, translate words into different languages, hear pronunciations, and access search pages for words on Wikipedia or Google straight from the app.
5 NOTES AND HIGHLIGHTS
Sora’s notes and highlights feature allows students to make annotations in both ebooks and audiobooks for required reading. In ebooks, highlights can be placed on anything from single words to multiple paragraphs. In audiobooks, highlights are instead placed on sections of the audio. Once highlights are placed, notes can be added.
https://digitalbookmobile.com/2021/09/24/6-sora-features-to-set-students-up-for-success-this-school-year/
Supporting your child at home
| Literacy |
Numeracy |
| Encourage your child to join the local library such as Naas Library (see Kildare County Library and Arts Service - Naas Library for more details) |
Use your child's interests or hobbies to raise awareness of numeracy e.g. sports (measuring pitch size, league tables, keeping score etc.) |
| Encourage all types of reading and try to provide newspapers, magazines and books for your child to read at home (you might like to provide some material based on their areas of interest or hobbies e.g. football magazines). |
To enhance time-keeping skills. encourage your child to keep a timetable for activities, school, homework etc. |
| Encourage your child to engage in literacy activities such as: word searches, crosswords, online literacy games or literacy apps. |
Encourage numeracy related activities such as Sudoku, online numeracy games, numeracy apps. |
| Encourage your child to use a dictionary or thesaurus whether online or in book format. |
Have a calculator in the home and encourage your child to use it for working out every-day numeracy questions. |
| Childrens Books Ireland – Childrens Books Ireland provides excellent advice for choosing age appropriate books. |
Involve your child in every day number-based decisions e.g. a simple budget sheet for pocket money, grocery shopping budgets etc. |
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Websites such as Have You Got Maths Eyes and www.maths-games.org can be used to find maths games that promote basic numeracy skills. |