Transcript LITERACY FOR LEARNING

ENGLISH NOW!
Geoff Barton
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at www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources
17 July 2015
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The
Literacy
Club
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DOGS MUST
BE CARRIED
ON THE
ESCALATOR
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Please don't
smoke and live
a more healthy
life
PSE Poster
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Sign at Suffolk
hospital:
Criminals operate
in this area
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ICI FIBRES
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Churchdown parish
magazine:
‘would the congregation
please note that the bowl at
the back of the church
labelled ‘for the sick” is for
monetary donations only’
English Review 2000-05
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
 Some teachers give too little thought to
ensuring that pupils fully consider the
audience, purpose and content for their
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: ‘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) 2003: 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.
 NFER 2003: children’s enjoyment of reading had
declined significantly in recent years
 A Nestlé/MORI report : ‘underclass’ of non-readers,
plus 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
Despite the Strategy, 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.
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What’s
the latest
news?
LITERACY LATEST!
What we know about students who
make slow progress …
Characteristics: 2/3 boys. Generally well-behaved. Positive in outlook. “Invisible” to
teachers. Keen to respond but unlikely to think first. Persevere with tasks, especially
with tasks that are routine. Lack self-help strategies. Stoical, patient, resigned.
Reading: they over-rely on a limited range of strategies and lack higher order reading
skills
Writing: struggle to combine different skills simultaneously. Don’t get much chance for
oral rehearsal, guided writing, precise feedback
S&L: don’t see it as a key tool in thinking and writing
Targets: set low-level targets; overstate functional skills; infrequently review progress
With thanks to DfES
LITERACY LATEST!
What we know about Writing …
•
The standard of writing has improved in recent years but still lags 20% behind
reading at all key stages (eg around 60% of students get level 4 at KS2 in writing,
compared to 80% in reading).
•
Writing has improved as a result of the National Strategy.
•
S&L has a big role in writing - it allows students to rehearse ideas and structures
and builds confidence.
•
But S&L has lower status because of assessment weightings.
•
In teaching writing we tend to focus too much on end-products rather than process
(eg frames). We should think more about composition - how ideas are found and
framed, how choices are made, how to decide about the medium, how to draft and
edit.
•
We are still stuck with a narrow range of writing forms and need to emphasise
creativity in non-fiction forms.
•
We need to rediscover the excitement of writing.
With thanks to Professor Richard Andrews,
London Institute of Education
LITERACY LATEST!
What we know about vocabulary …
•
Aged 7: children in the top quartile have 7100 words; children in the lowest have around
3000. The main influence in parents.
•
Using and explaining high-level words is a key to expanding vocabulary. A low vocabulary
has a negative effect throughout schooling.
•
Declining reading comprehension from 8 onwards is largely a result of low vocabulary.
Vocabulary aged 6 accounts for 30% of reading variance aged 16.
•
Catching up becomes very difficult. Children with low vocabularies would have to learn faster
than their peers (4-5 roots words a day) to catch up within 5-6 years.
•
Vocabulary is built via reading to children, getting children to read themselves, engaging in
rich oral language, encouraging reading and talking at home
•
In the classroom it involves: defining and explaining word meanings, arranging frequent
encounters with new words in different contexts, creating a word-rich environment, addressing
vocabulary learning explicitly, selecting appropriate words for systematic
instruction/reinforcement, teaching word-learning strategies
With thanks to DES Research Unit
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Key conventions
Demonstrate writing.
Link to speech
Teach composition
Importance of reading
Sentence variety
Connectives
Know your connectives
Adding: and, also, as well as, moreover, too
Cause & effect: because, so, therefore, thus, consequently
Sequencing: next, then, first, finally, meanwhile, before, after
Qualifying: however, although, unless, except, if, as long as, apart from, yet
Emphasising: above all, in particular, especially, significantly, indeed, notably
Illustrating: for example, such as, for instance, as revealed by, in the case of
Comparing: equally, in the same way, similarly, likewise, as with, like
Contrasting: whereas, instead of, alternatively, otherwise, unlike, on the other
hand
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Read aloud.
Demystify spelling
Teach and display subjectspecific vocabulary
Teach research skills, not
FOFO
Reading needs teaching:
skimming, scanning,
analysis
Use DARTs: prediction,
jumbled texts, pictures
and graphs
Presentation and framing
can make texts more
accessible
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Break tyranny of Q&A
No hands up
Thinking time
Key words / connectives
Rehearsing responses
Reflective
groupings
Get teachers watching
teachers who manage S&L
well
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Improvement happens in the
classroom.
Integration plus explicit
skills
Remember the
“disappeared”
Use student feedback
Post-SATs challenge
Consistency is an equal
opportunities issue
Make Assessment for
Learning happen
ENGLISH NOW!
ENGLISH NOW!
Published by Pearson
English Teacher
Petite, white-haired Miss Cartwright
Knew Shakespeare off by heart,
Or so we pupils thought.
Once in the stalls at the Old Vic
She prompted Lear when he forgot his part.
Ignorant of Scrutiny and Leavis,
She taught Romantic poetry,
Dreamt of gossip with dead poets.
To an amazed sixth form once said:
‘How good to spend a night with Shelley.’
In long war years she fed us plays,
Sophocles to Shaw’s St Joan.
Her reading nights we named our Courting Club,
Yet always through the blacked-out streets
One boy left the girls and saw her home.
When she closed her eyes and chanted
‘Ode to a Nightingale’
We laughed yet honoured her devotion.
We knew the man she should have married
Was killed at Passchendaele.
Brian Cox
From Collected Poems, Carcanet Press 1993.
And finally …
Thanks for listening!
Geoff Barton
Download this presentation at www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources