There must be a better way - The case against the New Zealand Literacy Strategy and some examples of how we can help students who fall by the wayside

Abstract

Literate cultural capital is a phrase used to describe the literacy knowledge and skills children have on school entry (Prochnow, Tunmer & Arrow, 2015; Tunmer & Nicholson, 2011). Literacy knowledge and skills include oral language, vocabulary, an awareness of how books operate, letter name knowledge, letter sound knowledge, phonological awareness, and invented spelling (Prochnow, Tunmer & Arrow, 2015). Children who commence school with a good level of literate cultural capital are advantaged and are more likely to develop age-appropriate reading skills as they progress through school compared to children who commence school with little literate cultural capital.