Workshop for Literacy

1. Workshop for Literacy

2. Workshop for Literacy – theory and practical advice Big Write Spelling Progression/Programme Programme

3. What is the Workshop for Literacy? • Not a resource! It’s an approach • placing literacy in meaningful contexts using high quality real books. • Reading aloud every day at all stages. • All literacy work taught through real books – much less reliance on text books

4. Pupil centred, inclusive – same text done with whole class and differentiated Daily opportunities to listen to, share, read and create text Daily opportunities to play/work with sounds and words (written and aural) Explicit meta-cognition – lots of talking about what, how and why they are learning. Core Principles

5. Understanding Vocabulary / meaning Phonological Processing Sounds Visual processing Shapes / Print Semantic Phonological Orthographic Daily opportunities to develop the three core pathways.

6. What does it look like? P1-3 Quality book linked to the pupils’ interests

7. Reading the book • Dirty Dancing Clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9BbUqHrWFI • Book Blessing • Questions in advance • Different activities each day that develop the 3 pathways

8. Jumblebum • Orthographic -practising J, spotting j and J, finding Js in other texts • Phonological -making/finding words that rhyme • Semantic – finding the meaning, • answering questions

9. How can you help at home ? • Reading for enjoyment • Reading aloud to your child every day • Having fun with words - games • Spot rhymes • Spot environmental print • Sing songs • Clap syllables • Don’t give up on picture books too soon • Encourage prediction • Audio books • Lots of praise

10. Workshop for LiteracyPrimary 4-7

11. High Quality Texts • Favourite childhood book? • Engaging • Relevant • Emotional content • Rich vocabulary • Inclusive – decent life lessons

12. Introducing the Book • Hook in – book bag • Read whole chapters without stopping – immersion in text • Grammar, comprehension and Big Write stimulus through text • Whole class lessons differentiated as appropriate • Lots of discussion – high levels of critical analysis encouraged

14. How you can help at home • Read for enjoyment – literacy rich home • Share reading and opinions • Word games – scrabble, boggle, hangman, charades

15. Have fun with words! • http://www.teacherled.com/resources/letterdice/letterdiceload.html

16. Reading Homework • Child will still come home with group text e.g. ORT book or novel • Too easy? Not just the reading aloud. • Listen to reading but ask lots of questions about what has happened, what will happen next, meanings of words, classification of words, emotions. • Make it fun and relaxing.

17. The Big Write • Commercially produced – proven effective • Study the genre daily before attempting the writing • Focus on Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation (VCOP) • Progressive • “Steal” words • Works in conjunction with Workshop for Literacy

18. Stages of Writing • • Orally telling a story • • Making marks • • Drawing a picture and talking about it • • Draw a picture and write a few marks beside it • • Draw a write a few relevant sounds e.g. they may draw a dinosaur and write d • • Blend sounds together and spell some words phonetically and use words from a visual word bank • • Orthographic spelling with punctuation • Writing should never be scribed – value everything your child writes.

19. Spelling Stages • Preliminary spelling(mark making) • Semi-Phonetic- initial sounds and consonant blends eg. bl, -sk • Phonetic – vowel sounds, soft and hard g, • Silent letters, double consonants, • Transitional- plural rules, suffixes, prefixes • Independent- combining rules, phonics and etymology

20. In School • Research has found that children learn to spell better, quicker and more • easily if they are given short but fun activities on a regular basis. Tasks • that are interactive and can be undertaken collaboratively are more • effective than worksheets or memorisation and will lead to pupils • becoming more independent and focused learners. • Sound is taught • Sound is reinforced through a carousel of activities that support the 3 pathways – phonological, orthographic and semantic. • Homework is sent home with a variety of activities that address the 3 pathways • Children are tested weekly

21. Building Blocks • We are giving the children the bricks so that they know how to build the house • We are not teaching them every word but how families of words are created. • Too easy?

22. Fly sky spy shy sigh sight fight flight right bright side slide – teaching was i-e, igh and y. Explain why the y is used at the end of a word The different ways we can make the i sound Teach them that words ending in the i sound are spelt with a y and it can be extended to : comply, imply,supply Defy,deny. Once children know the i sound can be created in the middle of a word with the igh grapheme, they can spell Slight, tight, nightmare, highlight etc When they know yet another way is to create the i sound with the magic e, admire, desire, require, advise etc.

23. Homework • Children will have a list of spelling words • They should write them out using look, say, cover, write and check • They will then have to do one activity that develops one of the pathways – orthographic, phonological • or semantic. Over the weeks they will do a variety of activities that will develop all the pathways • They will be tested weekly • Please do the activity set • Please have fun with the words • Don’t say these are far too easy as that devalues the learning • Encourage children to have a go at all words using the knowledge they • are gradually building up eg. how can you make the i sound.

24. Homework • Educational rationale for homework • 20 minutes a night • Read, read, read • Talk to them • Do different types of activities • Play thinking games • Give them free time • Let them get bored • Encourage independence • Praise • Read some more