Getting real about reading
A YKNR look at the changes to the Australian curriculum
The year got real all of a sudden, didn’t it? By now most Australian kids are back at school, as are their teachers, and parents and carers are getting their heads around the deluge of notes and emails that accompany the start of term one.
One thing that’s new for most of us this year is the change in the way that reading will be taught in Australian schools. You might have read a bit about it in the media, and received information from the school about it, but what does it really mean?
As a starting point, we asked YKNR’s resident guru (ie, award-winning teacher-librarian) Megan Daley a few salient questions.
What do the changes look like in the classroom?
“In a nutshell, those predictable* texts that many of us, including myself, learnt to read with are GONE, replaced by decodable texts and authentic texts,” says Megan.
“Phonic decoding is used as a first strategy for word reading, alongside phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension,” Megan continues. “This way of teaching reading is that we systematically and explicitly teach the alphabetic code in a set sequence, enabling students to blend sounds to read words.”
When students repeatedly decode words using letter-sound relationships, those words are committed to long-term memory through a process called orthographic mapping, which contributes to fluent reading.
Why have things changed?
“Informed by rigorous research in the fields of education, neuroscience, linguistics and cognitive psychology, education systems and educators are now able to understand that, unlike speaking and listening, which are in most cases naturally acquired as part of human development, the skills of reading and writing require explicit, instruction,” says Megan.
“The way we teach reading and the body of research based evidence behind this shift, is referred to as the Science of Reading. We now know that Learning to read requires direct, explicit, sequenced teaching of skills and knowledge, conscious effort from the reader, and support where possible from the home environment and community surrounding the child.”
What does it mean for parents?
“Ultimately, the purpose of reading it to make meaning from text – so comprehension is a key goal and parents and caregivers are key in providing a literacy-rich home environment, as a protective factor in, ‘creating a reader’,’ says Megan.
Beyond that, she says, ‘the decodable readers that come home have been taught at school and the ‘home reader’ is an opportunity to rehearse skills and develop fluency. They can be a resource for parents and caregivers to use as a spelling guide through practicing dictation as there is a beautiful reciprocity between reading and spelling.’
Of course, three questions only scratches the surface of a big topic like this, which is why Allison and Megan have devoted our very first podcast episode of the year to discussing reading in 2025.
We look at the questions above, but also what a decodable reader actually is, how to foster a love of literature as your kids are developing literacy, what happens if your child is in grade one or two and things are changing, and the challenges that educators are facing in making the switch.
Hit the button below to listen to the full conversation in episode 188 of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast.
*NB: Predictable texts are designed to encourage beginner readers to memorise whole words and sentences and use picture clues to ‘read’ unknown words.
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. Her debut picture book THE BEEHIVE is out now! More about Megan here.
This school year our children span from Year Four to Year 12 (eek) and we’re across four different sub-schools, three different choirs, four different sports departments and three tuckshops – despite them all actually being at the same school !
I have spent much of the last week spreadsheeting Term One and stressing about the amount on said spreadsheets. The Beekeeper is super organised but working in agriculture is ‘fraught’ to say the least so we exist on the cusp of both highly organised and incredibly chaotic. The Beekeeper describes his work schedule as complete whiplash – he is so dependent on the weather, flowering plants, honey flows, behaviour of bees, temperament of bees…and these things change at lightning speed. Just this week he was meant to be away moving bees from point A to point B for three nights and then BOOM – heatwave and all plans we had in place changed. Le sigh…good thing it’s a noble profession!
I’ve been greatly enjoying a smattering of grown up books over the Christmas break, including a series I found by Nikki Motram, which are rural crime from the POV of a child safety officer named Dana Gibson. Really enjoying them!
Fave First Chapters (YKNR Summer Series) episodes
I’ve asked my kids which of the YKNR podcast First Chapters summer series episodes they have enjoyed the most and here are their thoughts (click the link to listen).
The 16 Year Old: Raelke Grimmer reads ‘White Noise’
The 13 Year Old: A. L. Tait reads 'The First Summer of Callie McGee'
The 11 Year Old: Yxavel Magno Diño reads ‘The Serpent Rider’
The 9 Year Old: Adam Wallace reads ‘18,000 Holes In The Universe’
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
Well, we’re back in full swing now, aren’t we? I think in our last instalment we discussed eating only cheese and chocolate to fuel some holiday writing. I’m happy to say I managed to finish not just the first draft of the huge, unwieldy manuscript I was working on, but completed a couple drafts over the ‘holiday’ (there was no holiday – my holiday is scheduled for June and by that point I am going to need it!).
Weighing in at 120,000 words, this manuscript is quite the monster. Now that it’s securely caged, I must go and poke at the monster, which will only make it angry, while attempting, somehow, to tame it. Wish me luck with that one. It is, however, a big relief to have a solid draft down. As they say, you can’t edit a blank page.
So what’s next? Well, apart from drafting and re-drafting and re-re-drafting (a manuscript is never really finished until it goes to print), I’m running down to Sydney for some meetings and getting ready for a big announcement, which I’m very excited about. More on that soonish!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
As you’ll have noticed in the Facebook community rules, we are super-strict here at YKNR about our no self-promo policy. At the same time, we also really value the contribution our author and illustrator members make to the group. Because of this, a few times during the year we like to run a special post where our author and illustrator members can say hello and tell us about their books. It’s always great to see what everyone is up to and to check out some titles you might have missed …
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
Having finished 2024 with a flourish, handing in the structural edit for a middle-grade novel that’s due to come out in July 2024 (more soon!), I have inexplicably started 2025 with the deadline for another middle-grade manuscript, due end of April.
So, I’ve started with a bang, and a fair amount of head scratching as I figure it all out.
On top of that, I’ve suddenly reached the ‘empty nest’ stage of parenting, with Book Boy Jr now starting university and living his best life in Sydney.
I am here to tell you that when people tell you it happens overnight, it really does (particularly when you live in the country like we do…).
The Builder and I are looking at each other – and old, cute photos of our children (including this video of Book Boy Jr, which is shaping up to be my most popular Instagram reel ever) – wondering where the years went and how we seem to have blinked and missed it.
Lucky I’m busy, right?
FEBRUARY BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we give away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner** is chosen from our full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are SIX books in the FEBRUARY prize pack.
The FEBRUARY bookmail giveaway winner is … Ramya Deepak Kamur, Vic.
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want a chance to win next month? All you have to do is subscribe.
Thanks for joining us again for another exciting year of Your Kid’s Next Read – we’ve got such a lot happening this year and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Allison T, Allison R and Megan
**Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.