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Explore the importance of literacy across all subjects, key findings, strategies for improvement, and essential skills for teachers. Enhance student learning through a comprehensive literacy approach.
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LITERACY IMPACT! Literacy Across the Curriculum: Maintaining the Momentum Geoff Barton January 5, 2020 All resources can be downloaded at www.geoffbarton.co.uk
LITERACY IMPACT! • 1 Where are we with “literacy” & the Strategy? • 2 Evaluating your literacy strategy: what impact have you made so far, and how do you know? • 3 What are the essentials for colleagues … • In reading? • In writing? • In spelling? • In grammatical knowledge? … and how will you achieve it?
LITERACY IMPACT! 2 strands … LITERACY YOUR ROLE
L.O. LITERACY IMPACT! • By 3pm you should … • Be clearer about your own role • Know the priorities for your school • Have learnt some useful literacy knowledge • Be happier, wiser, and re-invigorated
LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 1: Where the heck are we?
LITERACY IMPACT! The story so far …
LITERACY IMPACT! AIMS • An inclusive education system within a culture of high expectations • The centrality of literacy and numeracy across the curriculum • The infusion of learning skills across the curriculum • The promotion of assessment for learning • Expanding the teacher’s range of teaching strategies and techniques • No child left behind • Reinforcing the basics • Enriching the learning experience • Making every child special • Making learning an enjoyable experience
October 2005: Key findings English is one of the best taught subjects in both primary and secondary schools.
October 2005: Key findings • Standards of writing have improved as a result of guidance from the national strategies. However, although pupils’ understanding of the features of different text types has improved, some teachers give too little thought to ensuring that pupils fully consider the audience, purpose and content for their writing. • Schools also need to consider how to develop continuity in teaching and assessing writing.
October 2005: Key findings • Schools do not always seem to understand the importance of pupils’ talk in developing both reading and writing. • Myhill and Fisher quote research which argues that ‘spoken language forms a constraint, a ceiling not only on the ability to comprehend but also on the ability to write, beyond which literacy cannot progress’. Too many teachers appear to have forgotten that speech ‘supports and propels writing forward’. • Pupils do not improve writing solely by doing more of it; good quality writing benefits from focused discussion that gives pupils a chance to talk through ideas before writing and to respond to friends’ suggestions.
October 2005: Key findings • The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), published in 2003, found that, although the reading skills of 10 year old pupils in England compared well with those of pupils in other countries, they read less frequently for pleasure and were less interested in reading than those elsewhere. • An NFER reading survey (2003), conducted by Marian Sainsbury, concluded that children’s enjoyment of reading had declined significantly in recent years. • A Nestlé/MORI report highlighted the existence of a small core of children who do not read at all, described as an ‘underclass’ of non-readers, together with cycles of non-reading ‘where teenagers from families where parents are not readers will almost always be less likely to be enthusiastic readers themselves
October 2005: Key findings • The role of teaching assistants was described in the report as ‘increasingly effective’. Many of them are responsible for teaching the intervention programmes and this work has improved in quality as a result of improvements in their specialist knowledge.
October 2005: Key findings • The Strategy has improved some teachers’ understanding of the importance of pupils’ literacy in developing their subject knowledge and to some effective teaching, especially in writing and the use of subject-specific vocabulary. Despite this, weaknesses remain, including: • the stalling of developments as senior management teams focus on other initiatives • lack of robust measures to evaluate the impact of developments across a range of subjects • a focus on writing at the expense of reading, speaking and listening.
LITERACY IMPACT! From To Departmental strategies Whole-school strategy Departmental development School improvement National launch Local consolidation / embedding Directed training Selected training and support
Key principles of Literacy Across the Curriculum • Good literacy skills are a key factor in raising standards across all subjects • Language is the main medium we use for teaching, learning and developing thinking, so it is at the heart of teaching and learning • Literacy is best taught as part of the subject, not as an add-on • All teachers need to give explicit attention to the literacy needed in their subject.
Consistency in teaching literacy is achieved when … • Literacy skills are taught consistently and systematically across the curriculum • Expectation of standards of accuracy and presentation are similar in all classrooms • Teachers are equipped to deal with literacy issues in their subject both generically and specifically • The same strategies are used across the school: the teaching sequence for writing; active reading strategies; planning speaking and listening for learning • Teachers use the same terminology to describe language.
Ofsted suggests literacy across the curriculum is good when … • Senior managers are actively involved in the planning and monitoring • Audits and action planning are rigorous • Monitoring focuses on a range of approaches, e.g. classroom observation, work scrutiny as well as formal tests • Time is given to training, its dissemination and embedding • Schools work to identified priorities.
Literacy strategy: The next phase Self-evaluation: So where are you up to in your school? 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase Headteacher Your role Senco Teachers Teaching assistants Governors 3 0 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
Literacy strategy: The next phase 0 3 5 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS
KS3 IMPACT! Talking Point • What have been the successes in your own school? • What do you need to do next?
LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 2: (re)Motivating the key players?
Focus relentlessly on T&L ‘Standards are raised ONLY by changes which are put into direct effect by teachers and pupils in classrooms’ Black and Wiliam, ‘Inside the Black Box’ “Schools are places where the pupils go to watch the teachers working” (John West-Burnham) “For many years, attendance at school has been required (for children and for teachers) while learning at school has been optional.” (Stoll, Fink & East)
Key players Librarian Strategy manager Working party Headteacher Governors Teaching assistants Subject leaders Students!
Key players Strategy manager Focus, tailor, customise See as professional development rather than delivery Differentiate training Emphasise monitoring more than initiatives Use pupil surveys for learning & teaching
Essential literacy rooted in professional development An example …
Headteacher Must be actively involved as head TEACHER Eg monitoring books, breakfast with students, feedback to staff Must be seen in lessons Must be reined in to prioritise
Librarian Key part in improving literacy Include in training Part of curriculum meetings Library should embody good practice - eg key words, guidance on retrieving information, visual excitement Active training for students, breaking down subject barriers Get a library commitment from every team Then sample to monitor it
Governors Visit library, get in classrooms, talk to students Clearly signal the “literacy” focus Emphasise s/he’s discussing consistency Sample of students and feedback Part of faculty reviews on (say) how we teach writing
Working party Maintain or disband? Less doing and more evaluating - questionnaires, looking at handouts, working around rooms, talking to students Asking questions: “What do teachers here do that helps you to understand long texts better?” Work sampling Creating a critical mass
Students Tell us how we’re doing Build into school council Small groups work with faculty teams to guide and evaluate Audit rooms for key words, etc
Teaching Assistants Make them literacy experts Let them lead training Make their monitoring role explicit Publish their feedback
Subject leaders Help them to identify the 3 bits of literacy that will have the biggest impact Prioritise one per term or year Join their meetings at start and end of process Help them to keep it simple Provide models and sample texts Evaluate Build literacy into their team’s performance management
LITERACY IMPACT! Don’t call it literacy - call it good learning & teaching, or writing, or reading Build it into lesson observation sheets Build it into performance management Keep it in the public eye Emphasise increased student motivation Talk to your Head about core skills for all teachers
LITERACY IMPACT! 7 Show before & after models 8 Don’t focus on grammar knowledge needed by staff 9 Show it’s part of a whole-school strategy 10 Celebrate every small-scale success 11 Quote students’ feedback 12 Make it fun! …. 13 Make it non-negotiable
KS3 IMPACT! Talking Point • What have been the successes in your own school? • What do you need to do next?
LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 3: Evaluating and planning (“We should measure what we value, not value what we measure” John MacBeath)
