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The aim of my talk is to give a brief overview of how literacy is

taught and applied in schools As CTK’s intake is drawn from around 200 schools, this is an important context for our own strategies and policies on literacy at CTK

This a method of teaching reading which first teaches the letter sounds and then builds up to blending these sounds together to achieve full pronunciation of whole words.

It is a de-contextualised, bottom up approach

Synthetic phonics (UK) or blended phonics (US), also known as inductive phonics

Briefly, on primary schoolsEnglish is mostly called “Literacy” and Maths, “Numeracy” in Primary schools. • Phonics/synthetic phonics for

early years (phonemes/graphemes –decoding-testing)

• The Big Talk/Writing (VCOP: vocabulary, connectives, openers and punctuation)

• Genre Pedagogy/Functional Grammar

St Mary’s Primary School, Swanley, Kent

Year 5 Timetable from St Mary’s Primary School, Swanley, Kent

Improving literacy in secondary schools: a shared responsibility

Age range : 11-18Published: April 2013

“‘Literacy’, is more than the mechanics of reading, writing, speaking and listening. “

“The National Curriculum demands that connections be made between each strand and across subjects, which calls for thought and understanding, for recall, selection and analysis of ideas and information, and for coherent, considered and convincing communication in speech and in writing.” (Ofsted)

“All pupils should be encouraged to:

• ‘make extended, independent contributions that develop ideas in depth’

• ‘make purposeful presentations that allow them to speak with authority on significant subjects

• engage with texts that challenge preconceptions and develop understanding beyond the personal and immediate

• experiment with language and explore different ways of discovering and shaping their own meanings

• use writing as a means of reflecting on and exploring a range of views and perspectives on the world.” (Ofsted)

For Ofsted “best practice” is where teachers have devised an approach to literacy which best suits pupils and the communities which they serve.

Today, I will briefly focus on two case studies from the seven cited in Ofsted survey on secondary schools as they seemed most relevant for us at CTK.

1. The City Academy, Hackney 11-182. Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys 11-18

The City Academy, Hackney 11-18 The key, according to the principal, is that systems, including those for literacy, must be simple, straightforward and consistently applied.

Assistant Principal, Shaun McGuigan:“My policy, which initially consisted of five core priorities and was later reduced to three, is neither wordy nor abstract. Instead, it consists of three simple expectations in terms of teaching and learning, which we called our literacy strands:• Always insist on full sentences.• Talk, model, write.• Are you checking your work?”

• Students are expected to respond in full sentences and in Standard English; teachers also model this, to challenge poor oracy, and to provide students with the language necessary for a high-level response.

• Before setting their students to write, teachers model the process of writing: the thinking, the planning, the drafting and the editing.

• All students carry a green pen for proofreading their own and their peers’ work. They also use them for applying levels descriptors in their comments. There is an equally explicit and shared expectation that pupils’ writing is carefully structured, using paragraphs, capital letters and full stops.

Literacy is at the centre of this school’s curriculum

Shaun McGuigan: “I always focus on these basics: • how to model writing• how to promote excellent oracy• how to ensure students take responsibility for their

own literacy• and how to make literacy an interactive part of all

lessons”.

Other significant literacy focuses at City Academy:

• Teachers are expected to include a literacy objective in lesson plans.

• There is a strong focus on reading within the school. The academy expanded their library with an extra floor to contain their extra books.

The City Academy, Hackney 11-18

• Their straightforward approach ensures that all staff and students are clear about their responsibilities

• There is consistent application of the policy across the school. This is then monitored through lesson observation and book checks

Reading is a key element in the academy’s approach to literacy. There is an expectation that pupils will read individually each day for 20 minutes. This is monitored by the librarians through discussion and the students’ book logs.

Reading is not confined to English lessons. Reading sessions occur across subjects.

Continuing Professional Development - CPDHackney City’s English department leads and has “ownership” of literacy across the school. They provide three insets a year. They also get one other department to lead inset during the year:

• The policy is not an end in itself. Its successful implementation is coupled with a programme of CPD that is both comprehensive and constant.

• They work hard to get staff to “buy into and apply” their literacy strategies.

These bullet points identify two common features across Ofsted’s case study schools.

Case Study 2Woolwich Polytechnic School for Boys 11-18 : Developing literacy skills for those with English as an additional language Pupils in this ethnically and culturally diverse school arrive with lower-than-average prior attainment. Many have limited English skills. The proportion of pupils from minority ethnic groups is more than four times higher than the national average.

Assessment, confidence-building and immersionThe school sees confidence-building and immersion in the school culture as twin priorities for those arriving in Year 7 with a very limited knowledge of English.

Jason and Simi from Woolwich Polytechnic High School for Boys film their live reports for News hour ...

Teachers are aware of the language demands faced by pupils, which are added to the complexity of the subject content

• Teachers in all departments are acutely aware of the demands made on pupils having to learn the language in which they are now being taught as well as having to grasp the essentials of what they are being taught in each subject.

• It is understood that pupils may be reluctant to speak, read or write in some subjects but not in others, depending on how familiar they are with the lesson content or how comfortable they feel in the class or group.

Still, complex texts are perfect for extending students knowledge of academic language and disciplinary, subject knowledge.

Applying literacy through speaking and listening:• teachers plan ‘talk’ into all lessons, ensuring that it

engages all pupils, is purposeful and structured and that individual contributions are monitored and developed

• encourage pupils to draw on their own experiences and to use their own language if they are struggling to convey an idea or feeling in English

• give pupils time to rehearse their contributions, so that they are less anxious

• systematically introduce key vocabulary and phrases• model good speaking and listening, demonstrating

high expectations.

When asking pupils to write, teachers:• provide a structure pupils can use when planning their

own writing• introduce the task with discussion of key words and

phrases, ensuring that pupils build up a reservoir of relevant vocabulary

• model the activity, inviting pupils to discuss how the teacher’s model meets the task’s objectives or how it might be improved

• reassure pupils in the very early stages of English acquisition that they may write in their own language and then, with help, discuss in English what they were trying to communicate.

Other literacy strategiesMany of the pupils at the school are bilingual, fluent orally but often less secure in their writing. Their progress is monitored through Raising Attainment Plan (RAP) meetings. For these pupils, the emphasis is on targeted intervention to support and develop literacy skills identified as relatively weak across the curriculum or in one or two subjects. Intervention groups focus on a specific area, for example, consolidating and extending writing.

Activities often include:• work on sentence structure and punctuation• for many C/D borderline GCSE pupils, learning how to match the

verb form both with the subject and with the prevailing tense being used in a passage.

Links with pupils’ homes and community

All at the school recognise that language development at home is as important as at school. Regular meetings are held with the major ethnic groups of parents – Nigerian, Somali and Nepalese –and specific needs and methods of support are discussed. This helps to break down language barriers and to provide continuation of learning outside school, even where English is not spoken in the pupil’s home. There are members of staff from all the school’s key ethnic groups who can speak native languages and understand the cultural backgrounds of pupils’ families.

Ofsted’s 10 Principles of Good Practice, based on the seven case study schools.

1. Setting literacy issues firmly within the teaching and learning debate

“Literacy initiatives are less likely to be successful where literacy is seen as something separate from normal mainstream teaching and learning”.

2. There are no quick fixes

“How long does it take to effect any significant change in literacy practice? In the successful schools visited, literacy had become a permanent feature of their development planning.

There was no attempt to address literacy through a one-off training day for staff and the display of key words around classrooms.”

3. The active support of head teacher and senior leaders for cross curricular literacy learning.

“While this may be an obvious point, it remains an important one. This report illustrates the importance of active leadership by head teachers and other senior leaders in making the case for literacy. In the survey schools, head teachers cared about literacy and ensured that it remained a constant topic of discussion. “

4. Use of specialist knowledge to support individual teachers and departments

“It is clear that literacy should be a whole-school initiative that goes beyond the scope of the English Department and Languages Depts. These subject teachers can support teachers who lack confidence with their own use of English by giving help with grammar.”

5. Making the case for literacy in all subjects: showing ‘what’s in it for us?’

• The link between literacy and more effective learning in every subject area needs to be established clearly and explicitly

• The starting point for all teachers should be: ‘What literacy skills do students in my subject need and what approaches to language learning will help me to be an effective teacher of my subject?’

6. In successful schools, good use is made of specialists from English and other subjects to support the development of effective strategies.

• It is important to ensure that these specialists are committed to cross-curricular literacy.

• Equally important is to provide time and resources for close collaboration with other teachers in the development of practical strategies and schemes of work.

7. Learning from each other and sharing good practice across the curriculum“What was consistent was the intention to identify good practice across all areas and disseminate it.All teachers are likely to be enthused by hearing about something that works in another subject area – especially if it’s not English. The use of literacy advocates or specialists in different departments can work well in some schools.”

8. Embedding good practice in schemes of work and development planning“Teachers need collectively to know about the good practice going on in their own school and to recognise how this might be translated into equally effective literacy-boosting activities in their own subject area. Such cross-fertilisation can and should provide the basis for whole-school development planning for literacy to be implemented consistently across all subjects, with each subject maintaining its individual character.”

9. There is full use of the library and librarian

The librarian had an important role in developing reading.

Many of the imaginative programmes to encourage reading are inspired by librarians.

10. There’s no one way to get it right

“All of the case studies showed how different schools established successful cross-curricular literacy initiatives, sharing some common principles but each approached the challenge in a way that grew out of its particular context.”

Other Literacy Practices used for 11-18s

Direct Instruction (systematic or explicit instruction)It is skills-oriented, and the teaching practices it implies are teacher-directed. It emphasises the use of small-group, face-to-face instruction by teachers and aides using carefully articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken down into small units, sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly. Barak Rosenshine and Robert Stevens (1986)

Direct Instruction

These teaching functions included teaching in small steps with student practice after each step, guiding students during initial practice, and ensuring that all students experienced a high level of successful practice.

Excellent Futures Curriculum

• As part of the EFC (Excellent Futures Curriculum) pupils in Years7 and 8 learn a range of core skills, such as being creative, managing time, showing initiative, understanding and using the skills for writing and problem-solving, as they work through 12 themes.

• In EFC, students are taught through project based learning (PBL).

Here is a link to a blog where I place links, resources and presentations for teaching academic language. http://academicliteracy.wordpress.com/

I have sent you an email of this presentation together with four strategies for using the Tier 2 and 3 words that we are focusing on each term.

For listening and for giving your time and attention today.