For schools across the nation, Book Week was celebrated through the theme of ‘Symphony of Stories’. For St Joseph’s Primary in Kingswood, they wanted to redefine Book Week and delve into the idea of bringing words to life.
Principal Rochelle Borg explained in their classrooms this year, teachers have been executing explicit teaching around vocabulary helping students unpack words and their meaning.
“Within our classrooms this year, our teachers have been doing some really great explicit teaching around vocabulary, unpacking words, what they mean in context in novels, but also in other contexts across our rich curriculum of different subjects,” Borg said.
St Joseph’s Primary wanted to unpack Book Week and showcase a deeper meaning to the parade. Yes, students dressed as their favourite book character but with an added twist. Students had to dig deeper into those characters and think, what’s a word that would best describe the character, but it doesn’t stop there. St Joseph’s Primary gave students the opportunity to come dressed as a word and unpack the meaning behind it.
“A lot of teachers decided to pick a word and unpack what that word means and develop a costume that showcases that word to bring it to life,” Borg said.
With the new approach, students were encouraged to look beyond the characters’ appearance and instead focus on the personality and values of a character.
“We really wanted to dig deep with the character, thinking about the storyline, and to really deepen their comprehension of texts and novels their reading in class,” she said.
“We really wanted to have lessons now in the classroom following what they’re dressing up as.
“So, in the classrooms, there will be explicit teaching of each of the words they chose, to spark a love of vocabulary and a love of reading for students.”
The school really focused on students expanding their vocabulary in the hopes students will talk and connect to each other, through the medium of literature and words.
“We’re thinking if one student can actually talk about their word and their character in a very deep, meaningful way, it will inspire someone else to say, ‘Oh, I really want to read that novel, and then go and find that in our library’,” Borg said.
The addition of words to the costume, sparks a topic of conversation amongst not only the students but teachers too, bringing a new meaning to the book parade.
“It brings the parade to life, especially for our older students who have been through many parades, I think this gives that next level edge to make it more inclusive for everyone to be involved,” Borg said.
With the goal of Book Week at St Joseph’s Primary School to bring words to life, students were able to dress up as their favourite character or word, and yet still learn a valuable lesson in literacy.
“We know that the more sophisticated vocabulary our children can use, not only in their daily lives, but connecting it with the novels or the books and texts they’re reading and then transfer that into their writing, really enhances their learning and flourishing as a student, and that’s what we want at our school,” Borg said.
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