1. Active Literacy in St Margaret’s Primary School and Nursery Class

2. What is meant by literacy?
Within Curriculum for Excellence literacy is defined as: the set of skills which allows an individual to engage fully in society and in learning, through the different forms of language, and the range of texts, which society values and finds useful. 21st Century Literacy Skills

3. Why use Active Literacy?
The Active Literacy Programme aims to enable young people to have greater literacy success with no child being left behind.

4. Why use Active Literacy?
Evaluation of Impact on Learning & Teaching and Attainment
The average reading age of children in the Active Literacy group was 7 months higher than the average reading age of the control group.

5. Features of Active Literacy
Research based
A clear progression from Nursery to S1
All areas of literacy interlinked – talking and listening, spelling and phonics, reading and writing
Learning inside the classroom and beyond
Children supporting and challenging each other (Reciprocal Teaching)
Children actively engaged in their learning

6. Active Literacy Information

7. Phonics and spelling Daily practice
Class, group, paired and individual work
Phonics sounds e.g. a, t, ch, ee, igh, ow.
Spelling common words e.g. at, the, every, where, because
Regular assessment
Active learning
Clear progression

8. Stage 1-3
Say
Make/Break
Blend
Read
Write

9. Elkonin Boxes
One phoneme (sound) in each box sh ee p t r ai n m a t

10. Phoneme Story
Children play ‘Text Detectives’ and search for the focus phoneme in their story or other texts.

11. Stages 4 – 5 - Diacritical Marking
The diacritical marking code
records:
single phonemes
joined phonemes
split phonemes

12. Stages 6 and 7 – S1 and beyond
Strategy Spelling
Building vocabulary
Affixes
Secondary School subject words
Murmur
Separate
February
Can you devise strategies for these?

13. Children devise own strategies

14. Another Strategy

15. Visual Clues

16. More Strategies

17. Reading Daily reading experiences
Class, group, paired and individual work
Clear strategies
Reading a variety of texts for a variety of purposes
Learning to love texts 17

18. What is meant by ‘texts’?
Within Curriculum for Excellence: a text is the medium through which ideas, experiences, opinions and information can be communicated.

19. Reading Skills for Life
Prior knowledge
Metalinguistics
Visualisation
Inference
Main ideas
Summarising/ paraphrasing

20. Reading to Write

21. Writing Class, group, paired and individual work
Daily writing experiences
Writing in a variety of contexts
Writing for a variety of purposes 21

22. Writing Stage One – Preparing to write– the Big Conversation
Stage Two – The writing process
Stage Three – Working together to evaluate, improve and identify next steps
Stage Four – Re-drafting, publishing and celebrating success

23. Writing Genres Not just about narrative Instructions/ procedures
Explanation
Information
Persuasion
Recounts
Discussion/ debate/ argue
When do we use these in real life?

24. What Can I Do to Help My Child?
Talking to your child about their experiences e.g. a trip to the shops
Reading to your child
Reading a range of ‘texts’ – a trip to the local library
Help with reading recipes/ t.v. guides/ newspapers/ magazines
Have fun with spellings (websites)
Crosswords/ wordsearches/ Hangman/ Scrabble
Help writing at home – shopping lists etc

25. Thank you!
Please take a parent information leaflet and feel free to ask any questions.

26. A huge thanks to... Chloe Ashe Mia Wallace Lewis Hudson Alfie Jenkins
Ellie Palmer
Eve Balloch
Shanna Gallie
Brodie Findlay
Holly Keeble
Danielle Romanis
Adrienne McIntyre
Elizabeth Hamilton
Rory Massie
Kai Grandison
Poppy Duncan
Charlotte Grey
Abbie Auchincloss
Mairi Cifelli