Category: Whole-school literacy

Teaching talk

Classroom strategies for the explicit teaching of spoken expression

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When we think about how to develop pupils’ talk in the classroom, it is natural to focus on the ‘opportunities’ we’re providing for pupils to practise speaking. We also know that developing vocabulary and subject knowledge, the raw material for talk, is key. These are essential, of course. But just as we actively and deliberately teach pupils how to write, we can and should also be teaching pupils explicitly how to be effective talkers – not just letting that develop.

And talk is complicated. This excellent schematic from Voice 21 sets out very clearly the multiple dimensions of talk – the physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social and emotional – and the various elements within these.

Talk.PNG

Below are some suggested principles for the explicit teaching of talk and spoken expression, in any subject. Importantly, these approaches can mostly be woven into or made part of existing practice. They are not about extra activities, or extra curriculum: they are about good subject teaching.

Continue reading “Teaching talk” →

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Avoiding a ‘literacy dip’ in Year 7

Some questions for secondary teachers, English teams and school leaders, which may be helpful

Many secondary schools have concerns about how to maintain progress in the core area of literacy from Year 6 to Year 7, perceiving that many students do not make sufficiently-strong progress in Year 7, or that they can even regress in some aspects. These concerns have been fuelled recently by Ofsted’s ‘The Wasted Years’ report. They have also been foregrounded by changes to the Key Stage 2 curriculum and assessment framework, which has left some secondary English teachers feeling de-skilled as Year 7 students arrive throwing semi-colons around with alarming confidence.

Continue reading “Avoiding a ‘literacy dip’ in Year 7” →

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Marking for ‘literacy’ – problems with ‘codes’

Number #4 in an occasional series of short posts about feedback, appearing in no particular order.

In many schools, there is a literacy ‘marking code’ by which all teachers are meant to abide. Typically, spelling errors are marked with an ‘S’, punctuation errors with a ‘P’ and so on. Some of these codes are highly complex; some are simpler. These codes are intended to improve standards in written accuracy across the curriculum by promoting consistent messages, by making corrections instantly recognisable and – importantly – by raising the status (and teachers’ awareness) of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

I would be very interested to hear of examples where these are working well, and why. They may well sometimes succeed. However, in my experience, they often go wrong. These are some of the problems they can present. Continue reading “Marking for ‘literacy’ – problems with ‘codes’” →

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