Neville Lovett Community School
Literacy Policy INTRODUCTION ‘Pupils should be taught in all subjects to express themselves correctly and appropriately and to read accurately and with understanding. Since standard English, spoken and written, is the predominant language in which knowledge and skills are taught and learnt, pupils should be taught to recognise and use standard English.’ (http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/general-teachingrequirements)
Aim Neville Lovett Community School is committed to developing literacy skills in all of our pupils, in the belief that it will support their learning and raise standards across the curriculum, because: • Reading helps us to learn from sources beyond our immediate experience; • Writing helps us to sustain and order thought; • Language helps us to reflect, revise and evaluate the actions we, or others, take; • Responding to higher order questions encourages the development of thinking skills and enquiry; • Pupils need vocabulary, expression and organisational control to cope with the cognitive demands of all subjects; • Improving literacy and learning can have an impact on pupils’ self-esteem, on motivation and behaviour. It allows them to learn independently. It is empowering.
Implementation at whole-school level Language is the prime medium through which pupils learn and express themselves across the curriculum, and all teachers have a stake in effective literacy.
Roles and Responsibilities • Senior Leadership team: afford high profile to literacy skills; • Head of English Department: liaise with SLT, teaching Staff, literacy coordinator and SENCO with all matters relating to literacy. Provide whole school and department training.
• English teachers: provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding they need to read, write and speak and listen effectively. Identify pupils they teach with additional literacy needs; • Teachers across the curriculum: contribute to pupils’ development of language, since speaking, listening, writing and reading are, to varying degrees, integral to all lessons; • SENCO: Identify and assess pupils with language and literacy difficulties. Liaise with literacy co-ordinator and Head of English. Monitor pupil progress and work with staff to determine future provision. Plan intervention programmes for students with severe literacy difficulties. • Literacy co-ordinator: develops strategies, provides whole school training. Supports departments in the implementation of strategies and encourages departments to learn from each others’ practice by sharing good practice. Reports to Head of English, all matters relating to literacy. • Heads of Year and tutors: identify any pupils who may have been missed through normal procedures. Identify pupils whose poor literacy may be linked to poor behaviour. • Parents: encourage their children to use the range of strategies they have learnt to improve their levels of literacy; • Pupils: take increasing responsibility for recognising their own literacy needs and making improvements;
Reading Neville Lovett Community School staff believes that reading is the key to improved literacy across the curriculum. There are therefore a number of key interventions and enrichment opportunities relating to reading that will be our focus this year.
Cross curricular objectives We aim to give pupils a level of literacy that will enable them to cope with the increasing demands of subjects in terms of specific skills, knowledge and understanding. This applies particularly in the area of reading (including from the screen), as texts become more demanding. We will build on and share existing good practice. We will teach pupils strategies to help them to: read with greater understanding; locate and use information; follow a process or argument; summarise; synthesise and adapt what they learn from their reading. All departments will strive to: • Give time and status to reading in curriculum planning • Review and monitor the reading demands placed upon the students in their subject area, ensuring that reading for understanding is explicitly taught • Review progress in reading demands and skills encountered from Year 7 to Year 11 in their subject areas • Ensure there are resources available to meet the reading skills of all students at appropriate levels • Encourage independent reading and research possibilities
• Encourage the use of the Learning Resource Centre
Speaking and Listening Staff should be aware that there is a direct correlation between weak oracy skills and low attainment this is particularly prevalent in boys. All staff will seek to develop opportunities to include oral opportunities in lessons. We will teach pupils to use language precisely and coherently. Pupils should be able to listen to others, and to respond and build on their ideas and views constructively. We will develop strategies to teach pupils how to participate orally in groups and in the whole class, including: using talk to develop and clarify ideas; identifying the main points to arise from a discussion; listening for a specific purpose; discussion and evaluation. Cross curricular objectives All departments will strive to: • Explicitly place value on oral work as well as written work, recognising that discussions of topics is usually a precursor to any written work • Recognise where spoken outcomes of an activity can replace or have equal status to written outcomes • Ensure students have a range of speaking/listening opportunities in a variety of formats, including individual, paired, group and whole class situations involving formal and informal exploratory discussions, problem solving, debates, formal presentations, etc • Ensure that students’ oral contributions and achievements, formal and informal, are included in the process of teacher assessment, recording and reporting and student self-assessment and target setting • Teach and reinforce subject-specific use of vocabulary
Writing Staff should be aware that writing is usually the final outcome to any programme of study and as a result often becomes the piece of work that students are proud of. We will aim to teach pupils to communicate succinctly and in a standard and corporate format. It is important that we strive for co-ordination across subjects in order to recognise and reinforce pupils’ language skills. Cross curricular objectives All departments will strive to: • From September 2011, use the literacy marking symbols when assessing pupils’ written work. • Ensure students are clear about audience and purpose of texts; • Provide opportunities for a range of writing including sustained writing. • Provide key words
English as an Additional Language Our pupils learning EAL need to hear good examples of spoken English and also to refer to their first language skills to aid new learning in all subjects of the curriculum. The use of their first language enables them to draw on existing subject knowledge and to develop English language skills in context.
Assessment Available data from KS2 should be used to inform planning and to assist us in responding to early pieces of work. The best assessment informs lesson-planning and target-setting and helps us to maintain the pace of learning for our pupils. FFT(D), CATS and KS2 alongside our teacher assessment must be used thoroughly to ensure early identification of literacy needs and to aid planning across all areas of the school. Standardised testing of reading and spelling is completed at beginning of Year 7 and is used to monitor the reading ages of students below level four.
Whole Staff training Staff training needs will be calendared as appropriate through CPD and inset training during inset days. Providers will include Head of English and the Literacy Coordinator. Any Powerpoints of training days and results of follow-up twilight sessions will also be placed here. Intervention strategies Workshops for year 7 parents evening - Why is reading important? How do I encourage my teenager to read? How to prepare my child for secondary school? Enrichment • • • • •
NLS has registered with the ‘Booked Up’ project which will give all of our Y7 pupils a free book in the Autumn term NLS will enter a team for the Times National Spelling Bee in 2012 Positive reading role models are promoted using the ‘Reading Guess Who’ board in A block. The English Department at NLS are to establish a Neville Lovett newspaper (Sep 2011) that is published electronically to staff, parents and pupils. Literacy workshops for parents established to give advice on how they can support reading and how to support boys in reading.
Neville Lovett is committed to raising standards of literacy in all its pupils, through a co-ordinated approach. Every teacher has a role to play in this process.
Appendix 1 Spelling and Punctuation Policy: As a school we recognise that many students experience difficulties with spelling. To promote good spelling habits there are strategies that we should all adopt.
All teachers should adhere to these ideas: Never insert or cross out letters which are misplaced. Write the whole word. It is important for students to see the correct word written as a whole word. If you ask students to self-correct they must write out the correct word in full. A multi-sensory approach is essential. Ask the student to listen to the spelling, visualise the whole word (close eyes and imagine it written down) and then try writing it down. Use LOOK, COVER, WRITE, CHECK method. Encourage the explicit use of comparing similarly spelt words – if a pupil can spell could then they can work out should etc. Suggest and encourage strategies such as mnemonics, syllabification, words within words, word families and familiar letter strings . When marking work concentrate on only THREE ERRORS. Research shows that a mass of corrections is a deterrent to good spelling. Three words learnt firmly are better than ten half learnt. Key words for units should be given and taught. Use interactive strategies. They can be reinforced as a homework but this is only worthwhile if it is checked and acted upon quickly.
Appendix 1 Cont’d… Basic punctuation is essential for all students. Punctuation helps the writer convey their meaning to the reader. Some of our students will be able to punctuate well but we all need to teach the basics of punctuation to students. Every teacher should insist upon: Capital letters at the beginning of sentences Full stops at the end of sentences. Capital letters for proper nouns – ie names, places, festivals, days of the week etc. The use of commas in lists. The correct use of question marks. The correct use of apostrophes for omission (e.g. I’ll, don’t) The correct use of apostrophes for possession (e.g. the boy’s coat) Simple paragraphing to indicate change of idea, time, scene etc.
Be sure that you are providing correct models in any written materials you give to students.
Appendix 3 Literacy Marking – all teaching rooms should display the literacy marking poster and teachers should refer to it when handing marked books back.
Staff version In an attempt to raise literacy standards, all staff at Neville Lovett Community School will use the following symbols and abbreviations when marking pupils’ work. The spelling, punctuation or grammatical error will be text marked and an abbreviation will be put in the margin to indicate what sort of error it is. Staff may choose to focus on one type of error in a piece of work or may focus on one section of text to mark. Pupils should be encouraged to use the same system when proof reading their own work or when they peer assesses another pupil’s work. Text Mark
// ~~~~~~
Abbreviation
Meaning
Sp
Spelling error. Find the correct spelling and write it down
P
Punctuation error. Check full stops/commas. Check capital letters. Check speech marks. Check question marks Paragraph needed Expression lacks clarity or is awkward; rephrasing is required
C Sm ? NP Exp
After marking You might wish to focus on one aspect of literacy that a number of students in the group need to improve. This could take the form of a literacy focus starter. During peer assessment you could ask students to text mark the work for literacy errors, prior to assessing the curriculum learning objective. Students could then be asked to show the class the correct version.