ENGLISH NOW!

ENGLISH NOW!

Geoff Barton

Download this presentationat www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources

21 April 2023

ENGLISH NOW!

ENGLISH NOW!

The Literacy

Club

ENGLISH NOW!

DOGS MUST BE CARRIED

ON THE ESCALATOR

Please don't smoke and live a more healthy life

ENGLISH NOW!

PSE Poster

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Sign at Suffolk hospital:

Criminals operate in this area

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ICI FIBRES

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 NOW!

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.

ENGLISH NOW!!

What’s the latest

news?

LITERACY LATEST!

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

What we know about students who make slow progress …

With thanks to DfES

LITERACY LATEST!

• 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.

What we know about Writing …

With thanks to Professor Richard Andrews, London Institute of Education

LITERACY LATEST!

• 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

What we know about vocabulary …

With thanks to DES Research Unit

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Key conventions

Link to speech

Sentence variety

Connectives

Importance of reading

Teach composition

Demonstrate writing.

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

ENGLISH NOW!!

Reading needs teaching: skimming, scanning, analysis

Use DARTs: prediction, jumbled texts, pictures and graphs

Presentation and framing can make texts more accessible

Teach research skills, not FOFO

Teach and display subject-specific vocabulary

Read aloud.

Demystify spelling

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Break tyranny of Q&A No hands up

Thinking time

Get teachers watching teachers who manage S&L well

Reflective groupings

Rehearsing responses

Key words / connectives

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Post-SATs challenge

Consistency is an equal opportunities issue

Make Assessment for Learning happen

Use student feedback

Integration plus explicit skills

Improvement happens in the classroom.

Remember the “disappeared”

ENGLISH NOW!

ENGLISH NOW!

Published by Pearson

English Teacher

Petite, white-haired Miss CartwrightKnew Shakespeare off by heart,Or so we pupils thought.Once in the stalls at the Old VicShe 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 streetsOne 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 marriedWas killed at Passchendaele.

Brian CoxFrom Collected Poems, Carcanet Press 1993.

English Teacher

Petite, white-haired Miss CartwrightKnew Shakespeare off by heart,Or so we pupils thought.Once in the stalls at the Old VicShe 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 streetsOne 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 marriedWas killed at Passchendaele.

Brian CoxFrom Collected Poems, Carcanet Press 1993.

And finally …

Thanks for listening!

Geoff Barton

Download this presentation Download this presentation atat www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher_resources