‘Literacy is fundamental to all areas of learning, as it unlocks access to the wider curriculum’. http://education.gov.uk/

How we can include Literacy across the school: Talk for Writing – How does discussion develop Literacy skills? Academic Language – Developing ways to give your pupils a specific language they must talk and write in for your subject. Literacy Writing Mats – subject specific mats. PEE – how can this be used/consolidated across school departments? VCOP – specific examples to enable ?

Literacy? Every time we speak, every time we ask a question, every time we direct our pupils to read from a text book, an exam paper or from our interactive whiteboard, and every time we ask them to record or articulate their understanding of the content we’ve taught, whether that’s verbally or in writing, we are teaching them English. And we’re doing it badly or well.

‘Don’t Call It Literacy’ Talk – of the right quality – promotes the development of children’s reasoning, conceptual understanding and comprehension. ‘Don’t Call It Literacy’ Geoff Barton

“You cannot write it, if you cannot say it; you cannot say it if you haven’t heard it.” Pie Corbett

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. Myhill and Fisher

We cannot say it if we are unable to think it. David Didau

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Academic Specific Language? It is sometimes presented as if we need all of our teachers to be experts in teaching spelling and grammar. We don’t. But we do need teachers who are themselves confident communicators, readers and writers and who can then – critically – take the skills they implicitly use and make them explicit to their pupils. ‘Don’t Call It Literacy’ Geoff Barton

Subject Specific Language ‘Thus, as a teacher of History...I have a responsibility to help my pupils not just to know about History, but to speak, read and write like a Historian.’ Geoff Barton ‘If you cannot think in academic language, you cannot speak in academic language either…but if you can say it, you can write it.’ David Didau

Subject Specific Language Teachers need to teach and model the kind of language they expect pupils to use…and explicitly teach the key words of their subject…. …Don’t Call it Literacy

Thinking and Discussing – what is its power? All teaching is about changing the way pupils think.

It is not always about what you know, it is about what you think.

LINK, EXPLORE AND ANALYSE POINT One of the ways…. The writer has…. One technique……  EVIDENCE For instance,….. This can be seen when….. The words ”______” support this by….. EXPLAIN This is important because….. This becomes clear when……    LINK, EXPLORE AND ANALYSE This helps to develop the theme of……. From this, the reader understands…… This links with the earlier idea of….. These words suggest…… The language used here by the writer is significant because...