Language is the principal medium for learning. By improving their literacy, students become better learners. Developing a whole-college approach to literacy provides an excellent opportunity to create a real learning ethos.
Good literacy skills are a key factor in raising standards across all subjects. All teachers are teachers of literacy.
Literacy is the most important set of skills for young people to develop. Reading, Writing and Oracy are the skills which matter most to employers.
Aims
To boost attainment in all subject areas through building students’ confidence in their oracy, reading and writing;
To raise attainment by including parents in the promotion of literacy1 (eg through TALMOS);
To raise attainment across the Pyramid through liaison with feeder schools2, Library Services, SSAT etc.
To improve students’ life chances through the promotion of reading for pleasure;
To improve students’ writing through the use of the sequence for teaching writing;
To improve students’ understanding of how to progress in writing through improved consistency in the annotation of work across the curriculum;
For departments to plan and deliver excellent speaking and listening for learning;
For departments to explicitly identify literacy objectives in their curriculum planning;
To improve the performance of boys through addressing their specific Literacy needs. Boys need:
time to talk before writing;
a real purpose and audience for writing tasks;
modelling, scaffolding, writing frames and other techniques to support writing;
DARTs (Directed Activities Related to Text);
little or no dictation and copying;
use of grids and other graphic aids;
explicit teaching of planning, note-taking etc.;
emphasis on good presentation (including handwriting);
clear objectives;
clear short-term goals;
well-paced lessons;
seating plans which disrupt the anti-academic boy culture;
to know that you are on their case;
challenge and competition;
plenaries to aid reflective thinking.
Links to Assessment Policy
Improved Literacy skills will help students engage with the Assessment for Learning approach;
Good Literacy encourages reflection and will support students in taking responsibility for their learning;
Good oracy (eg. coaching skills) is particularly helpful in peer assessment;
Improved Literacy skills will help students understand learning objectives and assessment criteria;
Good Literacy skills enable students to negotiate their own targets and evaluate their own work;
Through our shared focus on literacy we will improve our feedback to students, helping them to improve.
Reading
Westwood is a “Reading Connects” College.
Reading for pleasure is key to academic success and future life chances.
At Westwood, we encourage all students to read for pleasure and share their enthusiasm with others.
The key principles of our attitude to reading are:
Students choose what they want to read;
Students discover, and share, the kind of reading material they prefer;
There is no judgement passed about supposed worthiness of reading choices;
We have good resources in place and attractive environments within which to read them;
All staff share their enthusiasm for reading with students;
We help parents to encourage their young people to read3.
Writing
Writing tasks should have a real purpose and audience;
Staff use the sequence for teaching to help students approach writing tasks;
Staff use a range of strategies to help students structure their writing (eg. modelling, scaffolding, writing frames);
Staff build on students’ prior knowledge of “text types” helping them to know what style, register, grammar and vocabulary will be appropriate to the task being undertaken4;
Staff stress the importance of paragraphing in structuring work effectively, teaching a range of ways to link paragraphs;
Staff teach students how to use complex sentences in order to make their writing effective;
All staff emphasise the need for accurate punctuation5;
Staff emphasise the need for accurate spelling and explicitly teach the spelling of subject specific vocabulary6;
Staff understand the importance of clear handwriting for examination success and insist on high standards of presentation;
Drafting of work is used as a way of producing excellent pieces of work, especially where these are externally assessed;
Annotation of literacy aspects of students’ work should be consistent across all departments.
Reflective Writing (learning journals will be piloted with Y12 in 2007-2008)
Learning Journals help students appreciate and take responsibility for their learning;
Students will be given regular opportunities to write reflectively about their learning;
Working with Learning Journals makes students more engaged in their learning;
Learning Journals help students to become more independent learners;
Learning Journals help students to build metacognitive skills (eg. reflection).
Oracy
Students are encouraged to see talk as a key tool for learning;
Students are given opportunities to speak at length in order to “talk their way into understanding”;
We promote “student voice” by giving all students opportunities to speak;
All students should be listened to frequently in order to improve motivation and self-esteem;
All students have regular opportunities to engage in pair work, group activities and teacher-pupil talk.
Students have frequent opportunities to use talk to explore, create, question and revise ideas;
Students develop the clarity and confidence to convey a point of view or information in a varied repertoire of styles;
Talk in lesson is “dialogic” in order to promote learning;
Dialogic talk is collective, reciprocal, cumulative and supportive;
Staff regularly reflect on their own questioning practice;
Westwood’s teachers develop systems to ensure that all students participate in oracy activities;
Staff make use of seating plans to promote student participation and engagement;
Staff use plenaries frequently to encourage reflective talk and to reinforce links between the students’ learning and the assessment objectives.
1 Led by the English Department. More details below.
2 Literacy co-ordinator will liaise with feeder schools and set up paired reading and writing visits.
3 Led by the English Department. Eg. Through use of reading recommendations (which are sent home), reading logs and the discussion of reading for pleasure as a key component of parent-teacher meetings.
4 Led by the English Department through an introductory “text types” unit in Y9.
5 INSET by Literacy Co-ordinator will be planned to share good practice around these aspects of teaching writing.
6 Led by English Department. Each student will be given a personal “vocabulary book”. All departments should use this to help students record correct spellings and meanings of subject specific vocabulary as well as to reinforce correct spellings of problem words.
