Transcript Better Literacy and Numeracy: Primary Perspective

Better Literacy and Numeracy for Children and Young
People
Primary Perspective...
• Current Context
• Key Points-Draft Plan
• Good Practice
Literacy and Numeracy for Children and
Young People (Draft 2010)
 Introduction-National Targets
 Improving teachers’ and ECCE practitioners’
professional practice.
 Leadership
 Language, Literacy and Numeracy in Early Childhood
and Primary
 Targeting resources on learners at risk of failure(DEIS/EAL)
 Fostering continuous improvement (Assessment)
 Parents and Communities
Introduction: Centrality of Planning
• Set realistic targets
• Identify the steps needed to reach the targets
• Put in place the necessary support measures to assist
in reaching the targets
• Monitor carefully how the targets are being achieved
• Alter the targets in light of experience
• Maintain a relentless focus on achieving the targets
Pg 11/12
L&N DP pg 12
“We need to adopt this approach not only at
national level but at the level of each school
and classroom. Experience in implementing
the DEIS strategy over the past three years has
demonstrated clearly that whole-school
commitment is essential to achieving change
and improvement and that every teacher is a
key agent of change.”
L& N Draft Plan: Targets
• increase the percentage of primary children
performing at Level 3 and Level 4 (the highest levels) in
the National Assessment of Mathematics and English
Reading by at least 5 per cent at both second class and
sixth class by 2020
• reduce the percentage of children performing at or
below Level 1 (minimum) in the National Assessment
of Mathematics and English Reading by at least 5 per
cent at both second class and sixth class by 2020
Pg 12
L&N DP: Targets
• improve the oral-language competence of
children in early childhood care and education
(ECCE) settings, using baseline data from
assessments to inform the planning of learning
goals
• ensure that each school sets and monitors
progress in achieving demanding but realistic
targets for the improvement of literacy and
numeracy skills of its students
L&N DP: Targets
• · Foster a better culture of reading among
children and young people
• · Promote better attitudes to mathematics
among children and young people.
Section 2: Improving Teachers and ECCE
practitioners professional practice
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Recruiting for ITE
ITE
Support for NQTs
Ongoing CPD
Section 2: Improving Teachers and ECCE
practitioners professional practice
Topics for teacher CPD:
• Explicit teaching of the structure and function
of written and oral language, basic building
blocks of reading,
• curriculum based teaching
• feedback to children
• differentiation
• effective use of assessment
Section 3: Leadership
• Support principals in implementing
robust school self-evaluation, focusing
in particular on improvements in
literacy and numeracy
• Provide leadership development
programmes for aspiring principals
Pg 23
Section 4: Language, literacy and Numeracy in Early
Childhood and Primary
• All teachers to prioritise the development of language,
literacy and numeracy
• Seamless development of literacy and numeracy skills from
early childhood to the end of compulsory education
• Research has show that students experience significant and
unwarranted changes in teaching approaches between
primary and lower secondary education
Pg 25-27
Section 4: Language, literacy and Numeracy in Early
Childhood and Primary
• Restructure the infant curriculum so that it builds seamlessly
on the approaches to teaching and learning advocated in the
Aistear framework
• Ensure that children’s development of language and early
literacy and numeracy skills are adequately assessed and
monitored in early years education
• Review the contents of the L1 curriculum at primary level to
clarify the learning outcomes to be expected of children
• Increase the recommended amount of time to be devoted to
the teaching of literacy and numeracy
Pg 28-30
Section 5: DEIS and EAL
Enabling schools to target improvements in the
literacy achievements of these students has
been one of the key aims in the Department’s
DEIS initiative. Early evidence from
evaluations of DEIS are showing that some
DEIS schools have made great strides in
supporting the development of literacy.
However, others have been less successful.
Section 5: DEIS/EAL
• Continue to support enhanced literacy, numeracy and language
development in DEIS schools
• Develop and implement an oral language development
programme in pre-schools that are linked to DEIS primary
schools
• Improve the targeting of EAL resources
• Improve guidance to schools on best practice in teaching
students for whom English (or Irish) is a second language
• Enable schools to analyse achievement data for EAL students
as part of their overall analysis of student achievement
• Ensure that the literacy and numeracy needs of EAL students
are addressed in initial teacher education and teachers’
continuing professional development
Section 6: Assessment
• Variety of assessment methods
• Using data to set school wide/class goals
(complex challenge)
• Reporting to parents
• Learning outcomes/national standards
• Aggregate data
• Transferring data
Section 6: Use of Assessment
“More than half of sixth-class pupils rated as
good at reading by their parents could display
only the most basic reading skills.”
The ‘National Plan’: 6.5. Assessment: Actions
• Develop national standards of student achievement for
literacy and numeracy to support teachers in generating and
using assessment data on students’ learning
• Support teachers and schools to use the national standards
to assess and report on the literacy and numeracy
achievements of students to parents and boards of
management
• Require all schools to implement standardised tests of
reading and mathematics at fixed points, to report outcomes
to parents and boards of management, and to use the
outcomes to inform school self-evaluation and improvement
The ‘National Plan’: 6.5. Assessment: Actions
• Collect national data on student achievement using
standardised tests, and provide data to schools to
enable them to evaluate the comparative
performance of their students against national
trends and standards
• Use aggregated national data on student
achievement in literacy and numeracy to support
school self-evaluation, school inspection and school
improvement
pg 45
The ‘National Plan’: 7.1 Parents and
Communities
• Launch a national information campaign to build up awareness of
the important role that parents and communities can play in
supporting literacy and numeracy learning
• Provide direct supports to parents to encourage them to support
their children’s language, literacy and numeracy development
• Ensure that parental engagement in children’s learning is
integrated into each school’s teaching and learning strategy and
development plan
• Support existing initiatives to link home, school and community
literacy and numeracy initiatives
pg 49
Current Practices
Developing Equality of Opportunity
in Schools (DEIS) p56
Individual three-year action plan.
An assessment of the school’s current
situation
Locally developed targets under agreed
indicators
Agreement of targets at whole-school level
Template provided for schools
Literacy
Review
Targets
Actions
Monitoring
Evaluation
Numeracy
Attendance
Parental
involvement
Community
links
5 Key Areas
• Literacy
First Steps Writing
First Steps Reading
First Steps Speaking and Listening
Reading Recovery
within the context of the PS English Curriculum
• Numeracy
Ready-Set-Go Maths
Maths Recovery
within the context of the PS Maths Curriculum
• Attendance
• Home school partnership
• Links with local agencies
Good Practice: Literacy/Numeracy
Planning
• Get the picture-Start with the data
• Targets-learning curve
• Identify effective practice within the schoolconsolidate, promote, extend
• Any ‘new interventions’ pilot on a small scale with
advocates, review, extend
• Communicate ‘new interventions’ to stakeholders
• Get feedback from actors and stakeholders (record)
• Affirm
Good Practice: Literacy
• Texts suit reading level of child (instructional
reading level)
• Teach reading comprehension skills
• Collaborative work for students e.g. Literacy
circles
• Teach cross-curricular writing skills
• Station teaching for literacy (emergent reader)
• Guided reading
Good Practice: Numeracy
• Early Maths-concrete material with structured
language practice opportunities
• Station teaching
• Maths games-explain and justify
• Constructivist approach –shared staff
understanding
• Cross curricular
• Maths rich environment
Other Resources
• www.ppds.ie
• http://www.primaryreview.org.uk/
• www.erc.ie