What is Literacy?

It shapes our understanding of the world through reading and listening to language

It shapes the way we communicate with the world through speaking and writing

The number of UK adults who are functionally illiterate is estimated at 6 to 8

million (World literacy organisation 2012)

What weak literacy skills look and sound like…

• Reading: students struggle to make meaning from words and to identify the key ideas. They find it hard to skim and scan.

• Listening: Students find it hard to follow instructions as they can’t understand the words used by others.

• Writing: Students have limited use of vocabulary, spelling and punctuation so that their expression is unclear

• Speaking: Students struggle to articulate their ideas clearly.

• The end result if no improvement…no exam success… harder to find jobs

• Students may think focusing on reading and writing skills is restricted to English lessons.

If we all teach literacy to some degree, students skills will develop at a faster rate

The Importance of Literacy in Schools

Once upon a time there was a girl whose Dad couldn’t read and whose Mum wouldn’t read.

• Her Mum taught her how to whistle.

• Her Dad taught her how to punch properly.

Like this...

‘Keep yer thumb on the outside so it won’t get broke.’

She whistled a lot at school and sometimes practised her

punching.

(She knew she was good at that)

By the age of sixteen, her career prospects were as follows:

• Dog whisperer• Being Roger Whittaker’s understudy• Becoming a sub-standard sparrow-weight boxer

None of these appealed because...

• She liked cats• She was a vegetarian• She couldn’t even squash an ant without

bursting into tears.

She had to find a PLAN B

Soooo...

When her Geography teacher

told her alot was “TWO WORDS!!!!!AAAARGH!!!”,

she never got it wrong again.

She paid close attention when her kind Maths teacher told her what QED stood for.

And when her History teacher told her that she

had used a ‘good word’ that made her idea sound

‘very intelligent,’ she tried again...

and again...

Until...

She sounded like all the other students whose parents had taken them to:

• Shakespeare’s latest book-signing• Elocution lessons with Brian Sewell• Pre-natal poetry awareness• Baby Spelling Combat Classes

...and who had played them Mozart whilst they floated, oblivious, in the womb...

She’s all grown up now and she has a message for her patient and

inspirational teachers:

Thank you x

Never underestimate the power your words have to

transform a life.