Literacy

Literacy: Foundations For Learning.

Literacy underpins the school curriculum by developing students’ abilities to communicate verbally and non-verbally, access written information as well as reading for pleasure. The acquisition of these skills is vital to students’ development across the curriculum and to function independently and successfully in the wider world. The development of these fundamental skills supports learning and achievement across the curriculum and it is the responsibility of teachers and support staff from all subjects and Key Stages to ensure that students are able to access the right of literacy.

Sound literacy skills are essential for progress across the curriculum and to enable students to function effectively in adult life.

Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. Students who cannot read, write, and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary school and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects. As the stats below suggest reading is a super power which needs to be enhanced!
• The average GCSE paper has a reading age of 15 years and 7 months…
• The average GCSE student has a reading age of 13 years…
• In Year 3 students read an average of 36 books a year…
• By Year 10 this is an average of 5 books a year…

Below are the various strategies we are implementing.

Termly Focus 2022-23

This year students will be using the literacy mat before undertaking written work. Please encourage your child to use this when undertaking written activities.

Termly Focus 2021-22

Term 1 2021-2022

Capital letters

Term 2 2021-2022

Homophones

Term 3 2021-2022

Apostrophes

Reciprocal Reading

The process:
It is done in 4 stages and students will often work in groups or pairs, but this can also be done independently.
1.Prediction:
During the prediction stage the learner must anticipate what happens next. The prediction is based on prior knowledge, the structure of the text, headings, content and illustrations.
Purpose: The prediction stage provides learners with a motivation to continue reading, as they often wish to determine if their initial prediction was correct. Prediction encourages learners to think ahead.
Once the prediction has been done the learner then reads the material and follows the next 3 stages
2.Questioning
The questioning stage provides the learner with an opportunity to explore the meaning of the text. The learner is encouraged to identify the key components of the text and generate questions. Before a learner can successfully generate a question, they must first find the relevant information within the text.
Purpose:
The question stage helps the learner to monitor their own comprehension; it is a means of self-checking. This stage also reinforces summarising strategies.
3. Clarifying
As part of the clarification stage learners are encouraged to identify areas of difficulty, such as unfamiliar vocabulary, unfamiliar text structure or new and difficult concepts.
Purpose:
During the clarification stage learners are encouraged to fix areas of deficit and then re-read the text to restore meaning. The clarification stage is particularly useful for learners who have a history of problems with comprehension, as these learners often have difficulty in making the text flow and thus lose meaning.
4. Summarising
Once the text/ chapter/poem/question has been read the learner then produces a summary of it.
Purpose:
The summarising stage encourages the learner to identify and integrate important information presented within the
text.