2. LITERACY IMPACT! Geoff Barton November 20, 2015 Literacy Across the Curriculum: Maintaining the Momentum

3. LITERACY IMPACT! 1 Where are we with “literacy” & the Strategy? 2 Evaluating your literacy strategy: what impact have you made so far, and how do you know? 3 What are the essentials for colleagues … In reading? In writing? In spelling? In grammatical knowledge? … and how will you achieve it?

4. LITERACY IMPACT! 2 strands … LITERACYYOUR ROLE

5. LITERACY IMPACT! By 3pm you should … Be clearer about your own role Know the priorities for your school Have learnt some useful literacy knowledge Be happier, wiser, and re-invigorated L.O.

6. LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 1: Where the heck are we?

7. LITERACY IMPACT! The story so far …

8. LITERACY IMPACT! An inclusive education system within a culture of high expectations The centrality of literacy and numeracy across the curriculum The infusion of learning skills across the curriculum The promotion of assessment for learning Expanding the teacher ’ s range of teaching strategies and techniques No child left behind Reinforcing the basics Enriching the learning experience Making every child special Making learning an enjoyable experience AIMSAIMS

9. English Review 2000-05

10. October 2005: Key findings English is one of the best taught subjects in both primary and secondary schools.

11. October 2005: Key findings  Standards of writing have improved as a result of guidance from the national strategies. However, although pupils ’ understanding of the features of different text types has improved, some teachers give too little thought to ensuring that pupils fully consider the audience, purpose and content for their writing.  Schools also need to consider how to develop continuity in teaching and assessing writing.

12. 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 quote research which argues that ‘ 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.

13. October 2005: Key findings The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), published in 2003, found that, 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. An NFER reading survey (2003), conducted by Marian Sainsbury, concluded that children ’ s enjoyment of reading had declined significantly in recent years. A Nestl é /MORI report highlighted the existence of a small core of children who do not read at all, described as an ‘ underclass ’ of non-readers, together with cycles of non-reading ‘ where teenagers from families where parents are not readers will almost always be less likely to be enthusiastic readers themselves

14. October 2005: Key findings The role of teaching assistants was described in the report as ‘ increasingly effective ’. Many of them are responsible for teaching the intervention programmes and this work has improved in quality as a result of improvements in their specialist knowledge.

15. October 2005: Key findings The Strategy has improved some teachers ’ understanding of the importance of pupils ’ literacy in developing their subject knowledge and to some effective teaching, especially in writing and the use of subject-specific vocabulary. Despite this, 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.

16. LITERACY IMPACT! From To Departmental strategies Whole-school strategy Departmental development School improvement National launch Local consolidation / embedding Directed training Selected training and support

17. Key principles of Literacy Across the Curriculum Good literacy skills are a key factor in raising standards across all subjects Language is the main medium we use for teaching, learning and developing thinking, so it is at the heart of teaching and learning Literacy is best taught as part of the subject, not as an add-on All teachers need to give explicit attention to the literacy needed in their subject.

18. Literacy skills are taught consistently and systematically across the curriculum Expectation of standards of accuracy and presentation are similar in all classrooms Teachers are equipped to deal with literacy issues in their subject both generically and specifically The same strategies are used across the school: the teaching sequence for writing; active reading strategies; planning speaking and listening for learning Teachers use the same terminology to describe language. Consistency in teaching literacy is achieved when …

19. Senior managers are actively involved in the planning and monitoring Audits and action planning are rigorous Monitoring focuses on a range of approaches, e.g. classroom observation, work scrutiny as well as formal tests Time is given to training, its dissemination and embedding Schools work to identified priorities. Ofsted suggests literacy across the curriculum is good when …

20. LITERACY IMPACT!

21. Literacy strategy: The next phase Self-evaluation: So where are you up to in your school? NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS 035

22. Literacy strategy: The next phase Headteacher Your role Senco Teachers Teaching assistants Governors NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS 0 3 5

23. Literacy strategy: The next phase Key playerProgress ratingPriority Head You SENCO Teachers Teaching assistants Governors

24. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

25. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

26. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

27. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

28. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

29. Literacy strategy: The next phase 035 NO PROGRESS GOOD PROGRESS

30. KS3 IMPACT! What have been the successes in your own school? What do you need to do next?  Talking Point 

31. LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 2: (re)Motivating the key players?

32. Focus relentlessly on T&L “Schools are places where the pupils go to watch the teachers working” (John West-Burnham) “For many years, attendance at school has been required (for children and for teachers) while learning at school has been optional.” (Stoll, Fink & East) ‘Standards are raised ONLY by changes which are put into direct effect by teachers and pupils in classrooms’ Black and Wiliam, ‘Inside the Black Box’

33. Key players Strategy manager Working party Headteacher Governors Teaching assistants Subject leaders Students! Librarian

34. Key players Strategy manager Focus, tailor, customise See as professional development rather than delivery Differentiate training Emphasise monitoring more than initiatives Use pupil surveys for learning & teaching

35. Essential literacy rooted in professional development An example …

36. Headteacher Must be actively involved as head TEACHER Eg monitoring books, breakfast with students, feedback to staff Must be seen in lessons Must be reined in to prioritise

37. Librarian Key part in improving literacy Include in training Part of curriculum meetings Library should embody good practice - eg key words, guidance on retrieving information, visual excitement Active training for students, breaking down subject barriers Get a library commitment from every team Then sample to monitor it

38. Governors Visit library, get in classrooms, talk to students Clearly signal the “literacy” focus Emphasise s/he’s discussing consistency Sample of students and feedback Part of faculty reviews on (say) how we teach writing

39. Working party Maintain or disband? Less doing and more evaluating - questionnaires, looking at handouts, working around rooms, talking to students Asking questions: “What do teachers here do that helps you to understand long texts better?” Work sampling Creating a critical mass

40. Students Tell us how we’re doing Build into school council Small groups work with faculty teams to guide and evaluate Audit rooms for key words, etc

41. Teaching Assistants Make them literacy experts Let them lead training Make their monitoring role explicit Publish their feedback

42. Subject leaders Help them to identify the 3 bits of literacy that will have the biggest impact Prioritise one per term or year Join their meetings at start and end of process Help them to keep it simple Provide models and sample texts Evaluate Build literacy into their team’s performance management

43. LITERACY IMPACT! 1.Don’t call it literacy - call it good learning & teaching, or writing, or reading 2.Build it into lesson observation sheets 3.Build it into performance management 4.Keep it in the public eye 5.Emphasise increased student motivation 6.Talk to your Head about core skills for all teachers

44. LITERACY IMPACT! 7Show before & after models 8Don’t focus on grammar knowledge needed by staff 9Show it’s part of a whole-school strategy 10Celebrate every small-scale success 11Quote students’ feedback 12Make it fun! …. 13 Make it non-negotiable

45. KS3 IMPACT! What have been the successes in your own school? What do you need to do next?  Talking Point 

46. LITERACY IMPACT! SECTION 3: Evaluating and planning (“We should measure what we value, not value what we measure” John MacBeath)

47. Staff …

48. Yes No

50. Student …

51. Book sampling…

55. KS3 IMPACT! What evaluation have you done? What could you do next?  Talking Point 

56. Literacy strategy: The next phase IMPACT!

57. Literacy strategy: The next phase Your Head of History wants to focus on whole-school literacy in a Year 9 project on medicine. How might you help … … in identifying key areas of literacy? … in planning? … in training? … in evaluating impact?

58. LITERACY IMPACT! Literacy Across the Curriculum: Maintaining the Momentum Geoff Barton November 20, 2015

59. LITERACY IMPACT! The 13 most important bits of literacy knowledge needed by effective teachers

60. LITERACY IMPACT! WRITING Teaching sequence Key conventions Connectives Sentence variety

61. LITERACY IMPACT! READING Subject-specific vocabulary Approaches to reading Active research process, not FOFO Using DARTs

62. LITERACY IMPACT! SPELLING Having 4 approachesMnemonics Word webs Rules Starters

63. LITERACY IMPACT! WRITING Teaching sequence Key conventions Connectives Sentence variety

64. LITERACY IMPACT! 1 Know the writing sequence: 1.Establish clear aims 2.Provide examples 3.Explore conventions of the text 4.Define the conventions 5.Demonstrate how it is written 6.Compose together 7.Scaffold first attempts 8.Independent writing 9.Draw out key learning

65. LITERACY IMPACT! 2 Know the dominant text-types for your subject: Purpose: What is its purpose? Who is it for? How will it be used? Text level: Layout? Structure? Sequence? Sentence level: Viewpoint? Prevailing tense? Active/passive? Sentence types and length? Cohesion devices? Word level: Stock words and phrases? Specialist vocabulary? Elaborate or plain vocabulary choices?

66. LITERACY IMPACT! 3 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

67. LITERACY IMPACT! 4 Encourage sentence variety 1.Start with an -ing verb (Reaching 60 these days is..) 2.Start with an -ed verb (Frustrated by ….) 3.Start with an adverb (Well-done chicken leads to …) 4.Start with a preposition (Within the city limits you will …)

68. LITERACY IMPACT! 5 Students must see you writing

69. LITERACY IMPACT! So … What have you done? What are you going to do?

70. LITERACY IMPACT! READING Subject-specific vocabulary Approaches to reading Active research process, not FOFO Using DARTs

71. LITERACY IMPACT! Subject-specific vocabulary: Identifying Playing with context Actively exploring Linking to spelling 6

72. LITERACY IMPACT! Approaches to reading: Scanning Skimming Continuous reading Close reading Research skills, not FOFO 7

73. LITERACY IMPACT! Using DARTs: Cloze Diagram completion Disordered text Prediction 8

74. LITERACY FOR LEARNING CHRONOLOGICAL Versus NON- CHRONOLOGICAL

75. Fiction is more personal. Non-fiction has fewer agents: Holidays were taken at resorts During the 17th century roads became straighter LITERACY FOR LEARNING

76. Children’s fiction tends to be chronological. Fiction becomes easier to read; non- fiction presents difficulties all the way through LITERACY FOR LEARNING

77. Non-fiction texts rely on linguistic signposts - moreover, despite therefore, on the other hand, however. Learners who are unfamiliar with these will not read with the same predictive power as they can with fiction LITERACY FOR LEARNING

78. Non-fiction tends to have more interrupting constructions: The agouti, a nervous 20-inch rodent from South America, can leap twenty feet from a sitting position Asteroids are lumps of rock and metal whose paths round the sun lie mainly between Jupiter and Mars LITERACY FOR LEARNING

79. Fiction uses more active verbs. Non-fiction relies more on the copula (“Oxygen is a gas”) and use of the passive: Some plastics are made by … rather than We make plastics by … LITERACY FOR LEARNING

80. PREDICTION FUN Brian Moore, Cold Heaven

81. The wooden seats of the little pedal boat were angled so that Marie looked up at the sky. There were no clouds. In the vastness above her a gull calligraphed its flight. Marie and Alex pedalled in unison, the revolving paddles making a slapping sound against the waves as the pedal boat treadmilled away from the beach, passing through ranks of bathers to move into the deeper, more solitary waters of the Baie des Anges. Marie slackened her efforts but Alex continued determinedly, steering the pedalo straight out into the Mediterranean. 1

82. ‘ Let ’ s not go too far, ’ she said. ‘ I want to get away from the crowd. I ’ m going to swim. ’ It was like him to have some plan of his own, to translate idleness into activity even in these few days of vacation. She now noted his every fault. It was as though, having decided to leave him, she had withdrawn his credit. She looked back at the sweep of hotels along the Promenade des Anglais. Today was the day she had hoped to tell him. She had planned to announce it at breakfast and leave, first for New York, then on to Los Angeles to join Daniel. But at breakfast she lacked all courage. Now, with half the day gone, she decided to postpone it until tomorrow. 2

83. Far out from shore, the paddles stopped. The pedalo rocked on its twin pontoons as Alex eased himself up from his seat. He handed her his sunglasses. ‘ This should do, ’ he said and, rocking the boat even more, dived into the ultramarine waters. She watched him surface. He called out: ‘ Just follow along, okay? ’ He was not a good swimmer, but thrashed about in an energetic, erratic freestyle. Marie began to pedal again, her hand on the tiller, steering the little boat so that she followed close. Watching him, she knew he could not keep up this pace for long. She saw his flailing arms and for a moment thought of those arms hitting her. He had never hit her. He was not the sort of man who would hit you. He would be hurt, and cold, and possibly vindictive. But he was not violent. 3

84. She heard a motorboat, the sound becoming louder. She looked back but did not see a boat behind her. Then she looked to the right where Alex was swimming and saw a big boat with an outboard motor coming right at them, coming very fast. 4

85. Of course they see us, she thought, alarmed, and then as though she were watching a film, as though this were happening to someone else, she saw there was a man in the motorboat, a young man wearing a green shirt; he was not at the tiller, he was standing in the middle of the boat with his back to her and as she watched he bent down and picked up a child who had fallen on the floorboards. ‘ Hey? ’ she called. ‘ Hey? ’ for he must turn around, the motorboat was coming right at Alex, right at her. But the man in the boat did not hear. He carried the child across to the far side of the boat; the boat was only yards away now. 5

86. ‘ Alex, ’ she called. ‘ Alex, look out. ’ But Alex flailed on and then the prow of the motorboat, slicing up water like a knife, hit Alex with a sickening thump, went over him and smashed into the pontoons of the little pedal boat, upending it, and she found herself in the water, going under, coming up. She looked and saw the motorboat churning off, the pedal boat hanging from its prow like a tangle of branches. She heard the motorboat engine cut to silence, then start up again as the boat veered around in a semicircle and came back to her. Alex? 6

87. She looked: saw his body near her just under the water. She swam toward him, breastroke, it was all she knew. He was floating face down, spread-eagle. She caught hold of his wrist and pulled him towards her. The motorboat came alongside, the man in the green shirt reaching down for her, but, ‘ No, no, ’ she called and tried to push Alex toward him. The man caught Alex by the hair of his head and pulled him up, she pushing, Alex falling back twice into the water, before the man, with a great effort, lifted him like a sack across the side of the boat, tugging and heaving until Alex disappeared into the boat. The man shouted, ‘ Un instant, madame, un instant ’ and reappeared, putting a little steel ladder over the side. She climbed up onto the motorboat as the man went out onto the prow to disentangle the wreckage of the pedalo. 7

88. A small child was sitting at the back of the boat, staring at Alex ’ s body, which lay face-down on the floorboards. She went to Alex and saw blood from a wound, a gash in the side of his head, blood matting his hair. He was breathing but unconscious. She lifted him and cradled him in her arms, his blood trickling onto her breasts. She saw the boat owner ’ s bare legs go past her as he went to the rear of the boat to restart the engine. The child began to bawl but the man leaned over, silenced it with an angry slap, the man turned to her, his face sick with fear. ‘ Nous y serons dans un instant, ’ he shouted, opening the motor to full throttle. She hugged Alex to her, a rivulet of blood dripping off her forearm onto the floorboards as the boat raced to the beach. 8

89. PREDICTION FUN Brian Moore, Cold Heaven

90. It was on a bright day of midwinter, in New York. The little girl who eventually became me, but as yet was neither me nor anybody else in particular, but merely a soft anonymous morsel of humanity – this little girl, who bore my name, was going for a walk with her father. The episode is literally the first thing I can remember about her, and therefore I date the birth of her humanity from that day. Urquhart castle is probably one of the most picturesquely situated castles in the Scottish Highlands. Located 16 miles south-west of Inverness, the castle, one of the largest in Scotland, overlooks much of Loch Ness. Visitors come to stroll through the ruins of the 13th-century castle because Urquhart has earned the reputation of being one of the best spots for sighting Loch Ness’s most famous inhabitant Jake began to dial the number slowly as he had done every evening at six o’clock ever since his father had passed away. For the next fifteen minutes he settled back to listen to what his mother had done that day

91. LITERACY IMPACT! So … What have you done? What are you going to do?

92. LITERACY IMPACT! SPELLING Having 4 approachesMnemonics Word webs Rules Starters

93. Literacy Across the Curriculum Spelling approaches: 9

94. Literacy Across the Curriculum Mnemonics Fun Necessary = never eat chips eat sausage sandwiches and raspberry yoghurt Words within words enviRONment buSINess deFINitely sePARAte Got any others? 10

95. Literacy Across the Curriculum Sign Consign Consignment Consigned Design Designer Designing Designed Designation Designate Redesign Resign Resignation Resigning Resigned Signature Signatory Assign Assignment Assignation Reassign Signal Signalling 11

96. LITERACY IMPACT! 12 RULES: I before e Effect of final ‘e’: hop - hope

97. LITERACY IMPACT! 13

98.  Kick- start learning  Don’t aim for false links with main lesson content  Do aim for coherence across starters  Avoid writing  Emphasise collaboration & problem-solving  Avoid the temptation to extend the activity  No Blue Peter badges

99. www.geoffbarton.co.uk

100. -ible-able

101. www.geoffbarton.co.uk Homophones Sound of MusicKylieBeethoven theirtherethey’re tootwoto prayprey

102. www.geoffbarton.co.uk Homophones FreezeStand adviceadvise practicepractise effectaffect It’sits Hard

103. www.geoffbarton.co.uk Activity I’ll say some sentences containing homophones. You tell me whether it’s list A or list B. Make up sentences – eg “The pilot of the aircraft was really rather plain”) A – stand upB – under table plain Plane weak Week steal Steel main Mane rows Rows fareFair breakBrake sew So due Jewwhether

104. LITERACY IMPACT! So … What have you done? What are you going to do?

105. 1.If it’s a priority, do something 2.Customise and simplify ruthlessly 3.Identify the essential (simple) skills of reading - eg by asking students 4.Build into school systems of training, observation, performance management 5.Don’t forget reading for pleasure: keep it in the public domain So..

106. LITERACY IMPACT! Have a safe journey home Literacy Across the Curriculum: Maintaining the Momentum