Anita Heiss Reads Bidhi Galing

Presented by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee

A special online reading event to support our children's literacy skills and celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day 

'Be a Proud Voice for Country'

On Wednesday 4 September CCSP was excited to host families from our Catholic schools across NSW and the ACT in an online event with Anita Heiss, who read her book Bidhi Galing.

Thank you so much to all who joined us online on the night! It was such a pleasure to have you attend.

Watch the Video

The video is available to watch here until midnight on 18 September. The video starts with an introduction by Jason Allan, the Chair of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee. Enjoy!

Children - and their mums and dads! - loved Bidhi Galing (Big Rain), which tells the story of the Great Flood of Gundagai in 1852 and the Wiradyuri heroes Yarri and Jacky Jacky who paddled bark canoes through raging floodwaters, risking their lives to save countless others.

Thanks for the wonderful feedback! Here are just a few of the great comments we received:

‘Thank you so much for last night. My daughter and myself really enjoyed listening to Anita read her book.’

‘Thank you for organising using the book reading.’

‘My grandson loves this story.’

‘Thank you, we had a great time joining in tonight! My son was delighted to receive a copy of Anita’s book.’

This was a lovely opportunity to sit down after dinner with children and be read a book by one of Australia's favourite authors!

Dr Anita Heiss appeared by arrangement with Claxton Speakers International.

Some Happy Faces from this Event

About Anita Heiss

Anita Heiss is a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales, but was born in Gadigal country and has spent much of her life on Dharawal land near La Perouse. She is one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors publishing across genres including non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction, and children’s novels.

Helping Your Child with Reading at Home

The ‘Pause, Prompt, Praise’ method is research-based and effective.

When your child is a beginning reader and has difficulty reading a word, the following has been shown to be the best way to help them:

1.PAUSE for around 3-5 seconds—this is important because children can often work it out if given the time. They read more slowly than we do and need time to think. If we jump in too quickly, not only do we make them reliant on us to help them, but we undermine their self-confidence.

2.PROMPT if the child cannot read the word, we can offer them a phonic (pronounced “fonic”) prompt.

• 1. The first prompt should be a phonic prompt: “What’s the first sound in that word?”
  2. If they still can’t get it, sound the word for them with a slight pause between each sound (e.g., f…r…o…g). Encourage your child to sound out and then blend all through the word.
  3. You could also identify the first sound and encourage them to sound out the rest or break the word into its syllables. It may be useful to cover the word and reveal it slowly, looking at the sounds or the sections of the word.
  4. If they still have difficulty, tell them the word—and move on.

3.PRAISE is an important part of reading and you should give specific praise when they have corrected an error or read the word correctly after a prompt. Praise should be specific, e.g: “You figured that out by yourself” or “You worked that out with only a little bit of help. ”

For older students who might misread a word and continue, wait until they get to the end of the sentence before stopping them. Sometimes the reader will realise their mistake because it doesn’t make sense—and then self-correct—but they often need to get to the end of the sentence to realise this. We want readers to be able to read for meaning, and it’s an important skill for them to develop. If we immediately stop and correct them again, we undermine the development of this process.

If they read on into the next sentence you may then want to ask them:

1. “Did that make sense? “If they think it made sense, then ask them to read the sentence again. Sometimes they get it correct because they read more carefully this time.
2. If they have misread a word for the second time, go back to the word and ask them to have a close look at it. If they recognise their mistake, read the sentence again with the correct word.
3. If they cannot read the word, help them to break it up using the strategies above.
4. If they still have trouble, provide the word and move on—but make a note of the word and have a look at it later on. Talk about the meaning of the word, perhaps it’s a new word for them, there’s an unfamiliar part of the word, or they don’t know how to pronounce it.

Adopted from “Five from Five” website.

www.fivefromfive.com.au