Literacy and learning in physical educationwsassets.s3.amazonaws.com/ws/nso/pdf/b3c9d58df8b304d775bc399… · Literacy and learning in physical education. ... framework 10 2 Implementing

Guidance

Curriculum andStandards

Heads of physicaleducationDepartments andteachers ofphysical educationStatus: Recommended

Date of issue: 10-2004

Ref: DfES 0662-2004 G

Key Stage 3National Strategy

Literacy and learningin physical education

Key Stage 3National Strategy

Literacy and learningLiteracy and learning inphysical education

Disclaimer

The Department for Education and Skills wishes to make it clear that the Department andits agents accept no responsibility for the actual content of any materials suggested asinformation sources in this document, whether these are in the form of printed publicationsor on a website.

In these materials icons, logos, software products and websites are used for contextualand practical reasons. Their use should not be interpreted as an endorsement of particularcompanies or their products.

The websites referred to in these materials existed at the time of going to print. Tutorsshould check all website references carefully to see if they have changed and substituteother references where appropriate.

© Crown copyright 2004DfES 0662-2004

2 Literacy and learning in physical educationKey Stage 3 National Strategy

Contents

Introduction 5

1 Introduction to literacy and learning 7

A framework for literacy and learning 7

Understanding the framework 10

The three main areas of the framework 10

2 Implementing literacy and learning in physical education 13

The role of the subject leader 13

Reviewing schemes of work 13

Developing the department 13

Monitoring and evaluation 15

3 Explaining and exemplifying the objectives 17

4 Observing effective literacy teaching 44

Prompts for subject leaders 44

5 Contents of the Literacy and learning DVD 47

1 Leading cross-curricular change: literacy 47

2 Literacy and learning: key teaching approaches 47

3 Key teaching approaches index 48





Introduction

This CD-ROM is for subject leaders to help them implement literacy and learning in theirsubject area as part of a whole-school initiative designed to improve teaching and learningand raise standards.

Section 1 introduces the ideas behind the literacy and learning initiative and contains theframework of cross-curricular objectives that is at its heart.

Section 2 outlines ways of working with teachers in the department in order to implementthe scheme.

Section 3 explains and exemplifies the cross-curricular objectives in the context of physicaleducation.

Section 4 contains prompts to assist in the monitoring and evaluation of literacy teaching.

Section 5 is an index of material on the Literacy and learning DVD.







Introduction to literacy and learning

Most subject departments have already made good progress in making aspects of literacypart of their teaching. The literacy and learning initiative seeks to take the process a stepfurther by:

■ connecting the work of separate departments so that more impact is made onpupils;

■ linking literacy explicitly to learning, which is the core business of every teacher.

It does this through setting up a framework of cross-curricular objectives and requiringdifferent subjects to incorporate some of the most appropriate objectives into theirteaching (see pages 8 and 9).

A framework for literacy and learning

The relationship between good learning and good literacy is complex. On the one hand,literacy skills give pupils access to some very important modes of learning. On the otherhand, exercising literacy skills constructively in the context of learning will boost the level ofthose skills. The framework for literacy and learning is a tool to help schools developliteracy and learning across all departments in a systematic way. It is based on objectivestaken from the Framework for teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9 (DfEE 0019/2001).

The framework identifies three main areas for development:

■ Learning through talk.

■ Learning from text.

■ Learning through writing.

The framework is based on the following assumptions:

■ Literacy skills need to be taught systematically and consistently.

■ Pupils should be given regular opportunities to consolidate their literacy skills byusing them purposefully in order to learn.

■ All teachers in a school must share the responsibility for developing literacy andlearning ‘hand in hand’.

■ Certain subject areas are better placed to develop certain literacy skills thanothers.

1



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1

2

3

4

5

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8

9

Understanding the framework

Each area of the framework divides into three strands:

Learning through talk Using talk to clarify and present ideas

Active listening to understand

Talking and thinking together

Learning from text Developing research and study skills

Reading for meaning

Understanding how texts work

Learning through writing Using writing as a tool for thought

Structuring and organising writing

Developing clear and appropriate expression

Each strand has a single objective for each of Years 7, 8 and 9 (see the framework tableon page 8). These objectives should be a focus for teaching across the curriculum in eachgiven year and should be linked into departmental schemes of work. The responsibility forteaching the different strands is shared out among the subject areas. See the ‘literacyskills pie’ on page 9, which shows a suggested way of sharing out the objectives.

Of course, all the strands are potentially relevant to learning in all subject areas but the piemodel has the advantage of defining which subject areas are best placed to developcertain skills. Also, while ensuring that skills are not taught by one department in isolation,it reduces the overall load for departments because they are not expected to incorporateall of the objectives into their teaching plans. The objectives for physical education areexplained and exemplified in section 3 of this text.

It is important to say that both the framework of cross-curricular objectives and the‘literacy skills pie’ are offered as suggested models. Through a thorough process of self-review, schools could identify their own sets of objectives or literacy targets linked toidentified weaknesses in each year group, and allocate the teaching of these to separatedepartments. If your school has decided to modify the framework, your literacycoordinator will consult with you on those changes, as it is important that all departmentswork consistently to the same model so that all objectives are covered and are reinforcedfor pupils in a number of subjects across the curriculum.

The three main areas of the framework

Learning through talk

‘As pupils use talk purposefully in their learning, they become more competentcommunicators, more aware of, and knowledgeable about, the medium they areusing.’

Hilary Kemeny, Ed., Learning together through talk, Key Stages 3 and 4, Hodderand Stoughton, 1993



Speaking and listening (talk) takes place in classrooms in a range of contexts and for arange of purposes. Sometimes the emphasis is on presentation. Here, one or more peopleare the presenters and the role of the others is to listen and perhaps respond at an agreedtime. At other times, there is an expectation that there will be a constant interchangebetween speakers and listeners, such as when groups of pupils are discussing thesolution to a problem which they have been set.

Talk can contribute to learning in three main ways:

■ Through purposeful speaking and listening, pupils come to understand newinformation by connecting it with what they already know.

■ The process of striving to express ideas in words, or striving to grasp the spokenideas of another, helps to clarify and confirm understanding.

■ Talking together in discussion is an interactive process, which allows an individual’sunderstanding to be extended, challenged and enriched.

Learning from text

‘When reading for learning, the actual process can be thought of as comprisingfive phases: decoding, making sense of what is said, comparing this with whatone knows already, making judgements about this material and, finally, revisingone’s ideas. … But all too often the process stops at the second phase …’

Lunzer and Gardner, Learning from the written word, Longman, 1984

Because of advances in technology, today’s pupils have greater access to more text inmore forms than ever before. Moreover, recent international surveys have shown Englishpupils to be amongst the best readers in the world. Yet, paradoxically, teachers’expectations of the extent to which pupils can learn from text are sometimes low. This canlead to:

■ a reluctance to ask pupils to read;

■ an increase in workload as teachers seek to mediate all new information to theirpupils in other ways;

■ a decrease in the ability and willingness of pupils to engage independently withtext.

A consistent approach to promoting active and independent reading will, however, bringbenefits to all subject areas as pupils begin to learn more effectively from text by:

■ developing strategies for identifying texts that contain relevant information, andthen using that information for a purpose;

■ close reading of text for understanding – not merely decoding but making sense ofwhat is written and connecting it with what is known already;

■ understanding the overall purposes and structures of texts.

Learning through writing

‘… it (writing) gives us time and opportunity for reflection. The words are not goneas soon as spoken, but are before us on the page for consideration, and thisenables us to deal with more complex ideas and the relationships between them.’

Andrew Wilkinson, The writing of writing, OUP, 1986



Whenever writing takes place, there is always a purpose and an intended reader.Sometimes we write for ourselves and, in this case:

■ writing helps in the capture and development of thoughts and ideas, because itleaves a record that can be returned to, considered and modified.

At other times, we write with the intention of communicating to others, which contributesto learning because:

■ communicating in writing clarifies, confirms, even transforms understandingthrough a complex process of:

– linking ideas and pieces of information and organising them logically;

– ‘wrestling’ with words to form clear, meaningful sentences.

Recording is an important purpose for writing, but high-quality writing tasks will bedesigned to have a learning outcome as well. A consistent approach to teaching writingacross the school will boost the quality of both pupils’ learning and writing.



Implementing literacy and learning in physical education

The aims of the literacy and learning initiative are to:

■ raise standards of literacy across the school;

■ improve the quality of learning across the school;

■ extend, sustain or revive previous work on literacy across the curriculum.

The role of the subject leader

Literacy and learning is a whole-school improvement initiative. Once the scheme has beenintroduced to the school’s staff, it must be taken forward in subject departments. The roleof the subject leader or head of department is crucial and includes:

■ reviewing schemes of work to incorporate the literacy objectives;

■ contributing to the professional development of members of the department byidentifying relevant training and/or facilitating coaching arrangements to ensurethat subject teachers have a good understanding of the objectives and areconfident about teaching them;

■ participating in monitoring and evaluation activity.

Subject leaders can best fulfil these roles in partnership with senior leaders, the schoolliteracy coordinator and departmental colleagues.

Reviewing schemes of work

The literacy and learning framework should not have any implications for the content of thedepartment’s scheme of work, but it may well have implications relating to teachingapproaches. The main aim of the review is, therefore, to identify areas of work that lendthemselves to the incorporation of a literacy objective alongside the subject objectives.The aim is to improve learning in the subject and literacy ‘hand in hand’. It would behelpful to approach the review in four steps:

1 Identify the objectives assigned to your subject by using the framework and the‘literacy skills pie’.

2 Become familiar with these objectives by looking at the exemplification in section 3 ofthis text.

3 Identify areas of the scheme of work where the objectives fit best.

4 Identify any changes of teaching approach that may be required for the aim ofimproving learning and developing literacy. Section 3 of this Literacy and learning CD-ROM includes ideas for a range of teaching approaches linked to the objectives.

Developing the department

During the process of identifying objectives and reviewing schemes of work – a processthat will undoubtedly involve consultation with members of the department – aspects ofliteracy teaching may be identified as problematic for some or all colleagues. It may be thatcertain objectives are not well understood, or that individual teachers are not confidentwith particular teaching approaches. It may be that inexperienced colleagues requiretraining on an aspect of literacy, or that more-experienced colleagues feel they need anupdate. Whatever the situation, the subject leader should identify the training needs in thedepartment. Ultimately, the impact on pupils’ literacy and learning in the subject willdepend on the quality of the teaching, so it is important that provision is made to ensure

2



that all colleagues have the opportunity to fill any gaps in their professional knowledge andunderstanding.

The Literacy and learning pack provides a wealth of training resources that can be used tosupport the professional development either of the whole department or of particularindividuals within it. The table below lists these resources showing where they can befound and how they may best be of use.

Resource Where to find it Recommended uses

Literacy and learning DVD

Contains video examples of literacy teaching (see page 48 of this CD-ROM for a full index)



The school has one copywhich will be with eitherthe Key Stage 3 Strategymanager or the literacycoordinator.

The DVD may contain anexample of teaching whichthe whole departmentcould discuss, or,alternatively, it could beviewed by one or twocolleagues for whom it isparticularly relevant.

Literacy and learning inphysical educationCD-ROM

Contains the full textincluding exemplificationof all relevant objectives.

Also contains text andvideo of Literacy inphysical education (forschool-based use andself-study) which covers:

■ planning forpurposeful speakingand listening;

■ approaches toactive reading;

■ teaching writingsystematically.

Literacy in physicaleducation (for in-schooluse and self-study) is auseful resource for anyteachers who were unableto benefit from the literacyin physical educationtraining provided recentlyby LEAs.

For example, it canprovide material for adepartmental meeting witha focus on active readingstrategies.

It is particularly useful forindividual teachers to useas a study aid to fill aparticular knowledge gap.

The Literacy and learningin physical educationbooklet.

Guidance for subjectleaders – an abridgedversion of this text.

In the Literacy andlearning resource pack.

There are also other resources and strategies which subject leaders can use to supportthe professional development of their departmental colleagues. A full index of Key Stage 3Strategy resources relating to literacy is available in Appendix 3 of Literacy and learning:Guidance for senior leaders. Many of these publications are already in school or they canbe ordered from DfES Publications or downloaded from the Key Stage 3 Strategy website(www.standards.dfes.gov.uk).

Although publications are very useful for updating knowledge and understanding, researchsuggests that it is important for teachers to receive support when applying any newteaching approaches in their lessons. Subject leaders may be able to offer help in thisrespect by demonstrating aspects of teaching, by team teaching, or by observing teachingand giving feedback. LEA consultants and colleagues in school may be able to offersupport of this type as well. Another strategy is coaching, where pairs of teachers worktogether to improve an aspect of practice. This is described in the Key Stage 3 Strategypublication called Sustaining improvement, a suite of modules on Coaching, Runningnetworks and Building capacity (DfES 0565–2003 G).

Monitoring and evaluation

Improvements in pupils’ learning and their literacy skills will only be secured and sustainedif subject leaders monitor and evaluate the planning and teaching in their department.Senior leaders also have a role to play in monitoring and evaluating the impact of thewhole-school initiative, so the two processes should be coordinated.

The particular role of the subject leader is to:

■ monitor that any changes incorporated into the department’s planning are beingimplemented in classrooms;

■ judge the effectiveness of the implementation in both planning and teaching;

■ offer support to bring about improvement, where appropriate.

An aid to judging the effectiveness of the teaching of cross-curricular literacy objectivescan be found in section 4 of this text. This is a series of prompts, which help to focus theprocess of observation and feedback.

The Literacy and learning in physical education CD-ROM provides helpful materials forsupporting colleagues. Other useful sources of ideas are:

■ the Literacy and learning DVD which is in school (see section 5 of this text);

■ other material previously published by the Key Stage 3 Strategy (see the guide inAppendix 3 of Literacy and learning: Guidance for senior leaders);

■ Sustaining improvement, a suite of modules on Coaching, Running networks andBuilding capacity (DfES 0565–2003 G).





Explaining and exemplifying the objectives

This section of the text contains an entry for each cross-curricular literacy objective that isassigned to physical education.

The cross-curricular objectives exemplified for PE are:

Learning through talk Using talk to clarify and present ideasActive listening to understandTalking and thinking together

Learning through writing Using writing as a tool for thought

Each entry has three sections:

■ About this objective – which explains in general terms what is meant.

■ What to teach – which explains key points that will need to be taught if theobjective is to be met.

■ Teaching approaches – where the teaching of the objective is exemplified withideas that can be applied directly to classroom teaching.

The objectives are organised by Year and by aspect.

Learning through talkYear 7






3





Year 7

Learning through talk: using talk to clarify and present ideas

Year 7 objective: Use talk as a tool for clarifying ideas, e.g. by articulatingproblems or asking pertinent questions.

About this objective

This objective develops the use of talk as a tool for developing thinking. It is likely to betaught in the context of problem solving, planning a project or discussing an issue. Itneeds to be taught in a range of contexts and is clearly a cross-curricular objective. Theobjective requires pupils to listen closely and contribute effectively to talk through buildingupon, questioning and challenging the points made by others.

What to teach

■ How to begin by defining the task, e.g. ‘Right, so what have we got to do?’.Specific difficulties should be outlined before and during the task, e.g. ‘We don’tunderstand how we should …’. This would be particularly relevant when planningsequences in the gym or moves in a sport.

■ That talk will be more tentative and less formal than a presentation, but pupilsneed to listen actively to the views of others and reflect on what has been saidbefore responding. They will need to be taught to be sensitive and open to newways of thinking and not be influenced by preconceived ideas, especially whenthere is an expert in the group, perhaps one who plays a sport outside school.

■ Pupils may need to be reminded about how to take turns, how to ensure that theirresponses are appropriately timed, and how to avoid being personal whenresponding.

■ That questions such as ‘What do you think we should do about …?’ and ‘Whatdid you think s/he meant when s/he said …?’ are useful to arrive at a commonunderstanding of stimulus material such as the criteria for a sequence.

■ That sentence starters such as ‘Another way of looking at it …’, ‘I understandwhat you are saying, but could it be that …?’ and ‘Yes, but on the other hand …’will introduce an opposing point of view without causing offence.

■ Useful prompts which support a point of view, such as ‘That’s brilliant!’, ‘That’sright’ and ‘Of course that’s what we could do.’.

■ How to bring ideas together and prioritise, e.g. ‘Isn’t the main thing we need towork on that …?’, ‘Right, we’ve agreed that …’, ‘Now we need to …’.

Teaching approaches

■ Ensure that there are opportunities to explore ideas through talk. Tasks need to beopen-ended, such as ‘Today we are managing Leeds United, what should we doto our game to improve our chances of rejoining the Premiership?’ or ‘This musicsounds … What feelings are suggested to you?’. Less-confident pupils may needsupport through suggestions you offer.

■ In whole-class discussion, periodically sum up the discussion so far. Model notingkey points on the board or a flip chart and suggest ways forward, e.g. ‘So wethink that formation would help us to …’. Intervene to ask specific questions tomove the discussion on and model how to challenge and seek clarification, e.g.‘So that move suggests strength, where did you get the idea from?’.



Y7

■ Set pupils a problem to solve (e.g. the best ways to warm up for football, netballand aerobics), and explain why it is the best way. On completion of the task, askone group to feed back on how their talk helped them to come up with an answer.

■ Ask pupils to plan a gym sequence involving balances and movement. Discuss thekind of talk that they will need to use to arrive at a consensus. Listen to thegroups and intervene about the kinds of talk they are using, as well as the sportcontent.



Y7

Year 7

Learning through talk: active listening to understand

Year 7 objective: Listen for and recall the main points of a talk, reading ortelevision programme, reflecting on what has been heard to ask searchingquestions, make comments or challenge the views expressed.


This objective requires sustained listening and response in a variety of contexts. Theobjective is a good cross-curricular focus, requiring pupils to develop listening skills usingcommon techniques. It links closely with note-making skills and the ability to retain orrecord relevant information. Providing note-making grids can support pupils by giving moredetailed prompts for those who need them. The Literacy across the curriculum (DfEE0235/2001) training file provides strategies to support note-making (module 8: Listeningand module 9: Making notes).

What to teach

■ How to recognise the main organisational features of different types of spokentext. For example, an explanation of how to do something or instructions whichalso justify the actions needed. There may be specific phrases which signal to thelistener that a key point is about to be made, e.g. ‘Another point is …’,‘Furthermore …’, ‘So …’, ‘To sum up …’. Knowledge of these oral markers willhelp pupils to recognise when key points are about to be made.

■ How to prepare in advance for a listening task, e.g. preparing questions that youwant the answers to, anticipating key points or identifying a specific piece ofinformation to listen out for. This would help pupils to listen for key advice onimprovement from a training video.

■ How to use a range of note-making skills to record relevant information, tips, ideasand questions for later use. Note making is not just about recording key points; itshould be used to record evaluations and changes to activities.

Teaching approaches

■ Near the start of the year, ask pairs of pupils to think about why listening isimportant in PE. It would help for this to be a whole-school activity, completed bymost subjects. If that is not possible, ensure that it is a whole-department task.Provide a simple two-column handout for them to gather ideas. For example:

Advantages Disadvantages

Listening well

Not listening well

Discuss this with the whole class before asking pupils to produce a poster entitledWhy it is important to listen well. Matters like safety and ensuring that instructionsare carried out appropriately will be important in PE. Ensure that the posterbecomes the same in all PE areas, or all classrooms if it is a whole-school priority.

■ Before important listening work, work with the class on analysing theorganisational features of the type of materials which pupils will encounter.

■ If it is a talk by you, a pupil or a guest speaker (e.g. on the importance to health ofregular exercise), ask the class to think about how the speaker might have



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organised their notes (e.g. what the main headings might be, such ascardiovascular health and psychological well-being). Ask what the implicationswould be for listeners.

■ If you are about to read an editorial or opinion piece (e.g. on the role of politics insport), explain how it is organised, such as an introduction followed by points forand then points against. However, the for and against points may alternate,signalled by ‘Another point of view is …’, ‘Others might say …’; or pupils mayneed to listen for ‘yet’, ‘however’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘whereas’ at regularintervals to signify the introduction of an opposing point of view. The text mayconclude with the author’s point of view or a summary of both sides.

■ If you are about to watch a series of short programmes on diet and exercise,explain to the class that each has the same formula, or that the specificprogramme has three sections and then explain what they are.

■ Build in follow-up tasks that depend on focused listening. Explain to pupils whatthey should do while listening and what they have to do afterwards with theinformation obtained. Present the task on a handout as you would a writing task.Here are some examples of possible follow-up tasks:

– In pairs, pupils should give a presentation of the key points to explain why dietand exercise are important to long-term health.

– After gathering information on exercise possibilities and facilities in the area,pupils should then present this information to another class, who should takenotes and draw up advice based on what they have just heard.

– Pupils could take over the training session or activities for the lesson and deliverpre-planned instructions and guidance. They should then carry out the activityand comment in the plenary on the effectiveness of the guidance.

– As a starter to a group activity (e.g. practising a skill such as dribbling in footballor hockey), ask a member of each group to come to you to make notes on whatis required during the activity, to be relayed back to their group. Observe whatthe group does to monitor the effectiveness of their instructions.



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Year 7

Learning through talk: talking and thinking together

Year 7 objective: Identify and report the main points emerging from discussion,e.g. to agree a course of action including responsibilities and deadlines.


This objective requires pupils to report the main points from discussion in a variety ofways, e.g. to another group, to the teacher or to the class. Speaking frames or sentence-starter oral prompts could be given to support pupils in structuring their report back.Pupils will probably need to make notes of key points as an aide-memoire. Teachermodelling or note-making frames may provide useful support. Teachers could also usepupils primed for the task to model reporting back key points for the rest of the class.

What to teach

Identifying main points

■ Essential when setting open, sequential activities with success criteria, whichpupils will plan themselves:

– Adjectives to convey importance, e.g. main, key, significant, important, crucial.

– Adverbs to convey intensity of feeling, e.g. strongly, firmly, fervently, surely.

– Adverbials at the start of sentences to gain attention or establish control, e.g.‘Right …’, ‘So …’.

– Connectives to signal opposing views, e.g. but, conversely, alternatively.

– Connectives to summarise views, e.g. therefore, so.

– Connectives to indicate a sequence of ideas, e.g. firstly, secondly, thirdly, next,then, also.

Reporting main points

■ Essential when justifying moves and evaluating the success of a planned activity:

– Orientating the audience by giving the context of the discussion, e.g. ‘Our groupwas discussing …’.

– Itemising the main points using the first person plural, e.g. ‘First of all we agreedthat …’ and giving reasons, e.g. ‘This was because …’.

– Signalling movement to the next point, using an introductory sentence stem orconnective, e.g. ‘Our second point was …’, ‘Secondly …’, ‘Next …’.

– Concluding the report clearly, e.g. ‘Thus, our view is …’ or ‘Therefore, we felt …’.

– How to make brief notes to support oral feedback.



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Language associated with roles adopted

Phases of Chairperson Group membersdiscussion

Initiate discussion ‘Right, we need to ‘I think we need to … decide …’ because …’

Generate ideas ‘Does anyone have any ‘What about …?’ideas about …?’

Express support for ‘Go on …’, ‘Yes, I agree others because …’, ‘What then …?’

Discuss different ‘I feel strongly because …’, viewpoints ‘But don’t you think we need

to … because …?’, ‘But surely we also want to include …?’, ‘What about Jane’s alternative?’, ‘But surely that was more important because …?’

Check understanding ‘Do you see what I mean?’

Identify main ideas ‘Right, we need to agree on ‘Surely one of our main the main points … Would points was …?’ anyone like to suggest …?’ ‘Several people felt

strongly that …’

Establish ‘Okay, so we need to ‘I would like to …’responsibilities and decide who is going to do deadlines what …’

‘Right, who would like to …?’

‘John, do you think you could get that done by …?’

‘Right, let’s summarise our decisions … Shall I sum up what we’ve agreed?’

‘The group decided that …’ ‘Let’s run through the main points we’ve agreed …’

Teaching approaches

■ Teach identifying and feeding back whole-group discussion after a classdiscussion of, for example, the best way to run a long distance race, or suggestedimprovements based on a video of a group performing a dance sequence. Drawattention explicitly on how to summarise and report back succinctly. Particularlywhen pupils have not had much experience of this, provide a proforma withheadings (e.g. main points, actions, responsibilities) for support. One suchproforma for evaluating a gym sequence can be found in the Extending literacyacross the curriculum (DfES: 0047/2002), Sequence 6, Literacy in PE.



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■ Show pupils videos of post-match discussion programmes and ask them tosummarise the main points of the argument. Take feedback to arrive at a classsummary. Ask pupils to justify their chosen points.

■ Listen to, for example, John McEnroe’s between-match or post-match comments,and ask pupils to note his criticisms and advice. Ask pupils to decide how theycould implement his advice in their next session.



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Year 7

Learning through writing: using writing as a tool for thought

Year 7 objective: Use writing to explore and develop ideas, e.g. journals,brainstorming techniques and mental-mapping activities.


This objective recognises that:

■ writing can record ideas so that they are not forgotten and can be returned to forreference, further thought and development;

■ the process of recording a thought in writing often clarifies or strengthens it, oreven exposes it as less coherent than it seemed when first thought or spoken.

This kind of writing is not generally meant to communicate to a wider audience; it is morelikely to be part of notes, jottings or plans that could underpin another piece of writing, aspoken presentation, the solution to a problem or a practical task. It may, however, not bewritten for just the writer to read if, for example, it is in the context of a group task. Thepurpose of writing like this is to capture ideas and possibilities and to develop them byclustering, making links, deciding on sequences, ranking for importance, and makingsome additions and deletions. The ideas are also captured so that they can be questionedand evaluated.

What to teach

■ That sometimes writing must be ephemeral and exploratory. If workbooks orjournals are always seen as neat books, with crossings out as wrong, it will bedifficult to cultivate writing to explore and develop ideas.

■ A range of techniques for jotting down ideas for further work and evaluation,especially for moves or dance sequences, so pupils can begin to select those thatsuit them and the task best.

■ Any agreed notation (e.g. for dance), so that ideas can be understood by anyone.

■ How to use ‘brainstorms’, mind-maps and other ways of capturing thoughts andideas, and how to change and cluster these ideas to develop them further.

■ How to modify notes in the light of discussion and experience.

■ Encourage pupils to suggest formats for jotting down ideas, and share theseapproaches with the rest of the class.

■ How to use part of the exercise book as a journal, and how to write regularly torecord, question and reflect on their learning and performance.

Teaching approaches

■ Encourage pupils to brainstorm what they know about a topic to be studied, e.g.rules for football or how to throw a javelin both properly and safely. KWL gridswould be useful when research might be involved, e.g. about the sports involvedin the original Olympic games, or the effects of exercise on the cardiovascularsystem.

■ As pupils discuss a topic (e.g. how to warm up for three different activities), askthem to record the group’s preliminary thinking and then share and amend thatthinking as the discussion progresses. You could conclude with one groupdisplaying their thinking on a whiteboard and share making changes to the notesin the plenary.



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■ Ask pupils to record moves for a set piece on a whiteboard prior to trying themout. Then ask them to record their evaluation of the move and what they might donext time to improve.

■ As preparation for, for example, a gym or dance sequence, ask pupils to recordthe moves and direction of travel diagrammatically. Tell them to record changes asthey practise and refine the sequence. Ask them to record reasons for theirchanges, e.g. ‘Mark wasn’t tall enough to hold Peter so we …’.



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Year 8


Year 8 objective: Provide an explanation or commentary which links words withactions or images, e.g. a sports commentary or talking to a sequence of images.


This objective focuses on the way that the spoken word is often linked to actions orimages in a range of contexts. For example:

■ the demonstration of a practical skill where the commentary is designed to explainand inform;

■ a documentary film where the voiceover communicates the meaning in parallelwith the visual images;

■ communicating information to an audience using pictures or slides;

■ speaking stimulated by a series of still images, as in telling the story or explainingthe process portrayed by a series of pictures in a book.

Pupils need to develop their ability to explain in words the actions which they are takingwhen involved in practical activities, in order to demonstrate their understanding and theirability to reflect on and evaluate their work. There is also an important link with mediaobjectives, as it is important for pupils to be able to read images and comment on them.Linking words with visual images is also an effective way of making a presentation to anaudience. This objective builds on the Year 7 objectives, because explaining andcommenting develop the skills of summarising and reporting. It involves pupilsunderstanding the ways in which words can support and explain pictures, summarise thecontent and/or interpret pictures to influence the audience.

What to teach

■ How to provide a spoken commentary on a sequence of your own actions, inorder to inform, explain, or evaluate.

■ How to make a commentary coherent by considering the sequence of points andhow they can be linked.

■ How to consider the needs of the audience (e.g. their likely prior knowledge), sothat the commentary will be clear and informative.

■ How to use short clear sentences for maximum effect, and at what point to saythem when the image is moving.

■ How to match tone of voice to the images and the purpose of the commentary,e.g. sympathetic or enthusiastic.

■ How, when demonstrating an activity or making a presentation, to use gesture andfacial expression to enhance the impact of the spoken commentary.

Teaching approaches

■ Show pupils how to provide a commentary on a particular action or movement byexplaining what is happening, and why, in the context of demonstrating it. Makeuse of opportunities to ask pupils to do the same, perhaps working in pairs or, inthe case of able pupils, showing the whole class.

■ When looking at some visual material with pupils, for example, a poster showinghow to stretch muscles, ask pupils to explain what the pictures are telling them to



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do. Pupils could then try to demonstrate a stretch and make evaluativecomments.

■ Use a piece of video where an expert is adding to the commentary (e.g. athletics)and discuss what the expert adds to the general commentary. Ask pupils to giveexpert commentary on something which they or you have videoed that evaluatesperformance and offers advice for improvement to an activity.

■ Ask groups of pupils to video themselves during the development of a skill ordance sequence, and invite them to plan and provide a spoken commentary toaccompany it which shows the development and their ultimate success. Theyshould match their tone of voice to their relative successes and difficulties. Aselection of these can be shown for class evaluation both of the PE and of thequality of the commentary.



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Year 8


Year 8 objective: Listen for a specific purpose, paying sustained attention andselecting for comment or question that which is relevant to the agreed focus.


This objective requires pupils to listen with a purpose, selecting relevant information. ByYear 9, pupils are being asked to listen for implied meaning. In Year 8 they are expected tolisten for a detailed understanding of content, and to focus on specific areas for comment.Focused, sustained listening is a skill that many pupils need to develop. The objective is agood cross-curricular focus, requiring pupils to develop listening skills in a range ofcontexts, using common techniques. It links closely with note-making skills and the abilityto retain or record relevant information. Note-making grids can support pupils by providingmore detailed prompts for those who need them.

What to teach

■ How we listen in different ways for different purposes. When listening to thefootball results on the car radio, we may be very focused – waiting for a mentionof a particular team’s results. Listening to friends talking about what they did at theweekend will be different – picking up the general drift of what several people did.Pupils also need to know that in school lessons they should listen in different waysfor different purposes, such as listening carefully in order to carry out a follow-uptask, e.g. a PE activity.

■ How to spot the clues which indicate that relevant information is about to beprovided for recording. A television programme, for example, may be divided intosub-sections with helpful captions. A formal radio news programme may have apause between each news item. A well-prepared speaker in a debate may signalmovement from point to point with phrases like ‘Another argument for banningdrugs in sport is …’.

■ How to listen for and select relevant information, making use of key words andphrases.

■ How to use note-making skills to record key points quickly and efficiently. Forexample:

– use bullet points or leave a space between points;

– use abbreviations;

– note key words and phrases;

– underline important points;

– use diagrams and flow charts.

■ How to comment on or question the material they are listening to.

Teaching approaches

■ Encourage good listening with warm-up games, where pupils have to respond bylistening carefully to instructions, e.g. Simon says.

■ Before an important listening task, ensure that pupils know exactly what theyshould be focusing on, what they should be doing while listening, and what theywill do with the information afterwards. Note the task on the whiteboard, an OHTor task sheet.



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■ Revise note-making skills, such as the use of abbreviation and diagrams, byteaching important skills on the whiteboard or an OHT.

■ Show pupils examples of different types of notes for PE, such as diagrams andpictures. Ask them to identify when each type would be useful. Demonstrate theiruse and ask pupils to use different techniques to report on their activities. Look atsome pupil examples on a mini whiteboard, and give feedback on how to notemore effectively.

■ During listening about, for example, the use of drugs in sport, stop theprogramme, reading or talk and ask for oral comments and questions. Give acouple of minutes for pair talk and noting of points, then take comments. This willhelp you monitor understanding and allow pupils to give their views or seekclarification. Do the same at the end.

■ Encourage explicit pupil comment or questioning by providing a grid. For example:

Key points What I think

Key points Questions

To focus pupils’ attention on thinking, reflecting and questioning, considerproviding the key points for the left-hand column and focusing pupils on theircomments for the right-hand one.



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Year 8


Year 8 objective: Use talk to question, hypothesise, speculate, evaluate, solveproblems and develop thinking about complex issues and ideas.


This objective develops the use of talk as a tool for developing thinking. It needs to betaught in a range of contexts and lends itself additionally to cross-curricular work. Teachermodelling or other examples of this use of talk support pupils to understand how theprocess works. Pupils need both specific support with linguistic structures for hypothesisand speculation and also help with managing their contributions to group work.

What to teach

Questioning

■ How to use questions to open up a discussion, such as ‘What about …?’ (offeringa suggestion) or ‘So what do you think, Sam?’ (drawing in someone else).

■ How to use questions to probe/challenge, e.g. ‘And what about …?’, ‘What if …?’, ‘Do you agree, irrespective of …?’, ‘So why do you think that …?’,‘After what Sara has just said, do you still believe …?’, ‘Do you really feel that …?’, ‘What about the opposing view that …?’.

Hypothesis and speculation

■ How to use talk in a tentative way. Explore the use of:

– adverbials, e.g. ‘Probably …’, ‘Possibly …’, ‘Maybe …’, ‘Perhaps …’,‘Presumably …’;

– modal verbs (can, may, might, should, will), e.g. ‘It may be …’, ‘Should we …?’,‘Could we …?’;

– other tentative/speculative verbs, e.g. ‘I think …’, ‘This suggests …’, ‘I wonder …’, ‘I guess …’, ‘I suppose …’, ‘I doubt …’;

– questions, e.g. ‘What if …?’ or ‘What about …?’.

Evaluation

■ How to offer statements of opinion, judgement, likes and dislikes, e.g. ‘In myopinion …’, ‘It seems …’, ‘I think …’, ‘I would rather …’.

■ How to use:

– comparative/contrasting connectives, e.g. compared with, similarly, likewise,alternatively, whereas, on the other hand, despite;

– causal connectives, e.g. because, therefore, so, in that case, still, even though,as a result, consequently;

– adjectives (including comparative and superlative forms), e.g. better, best, morethan, most;

– verbs to indicate value judgements, e.g. prefer, would rather, like/dislike.



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Solving problems and thinking about complex issues and ideas

■ How to use the language of co-operation and negotiation, e.g. ‘Should we …?’,‘Would it be a good idea if …?’, ‘I propose that …’.

■ How using absolutes, such as never or always, can close down opportunities fornegotiation and compromise.

■ How to use summative comments to offer a solution, e.g. ‘Well, I think we should …’, ‘What about if we …’, ‘Therefore …’, ‘Consequently …’, ‘As acompromise …’.

■ How to express multifaceted, or more complex, views, e.g. ‘I don’t like it, butI can understand why …’ or ‘Although I wouldn’t, I can see why some people

would …’.

■ How to echo each other’s ideas in giving a response, e.g. ‘So you think that …’, ‘Does that mean …?’.

■ How to develop others’ ideas, e.g. ‘Yes, we could …’ or ‘What about if we then …?’.

■ The effect of affirming or positive body language to encourage discussion, such as nodding, eye contact (but not solidly staring at someone), seating position (forexample, leaning forward slightly, with ‘open’ body, body turned towards thespeaker), arms should not be crossed, voices level.

■ The value of verbal ‘fillers’, such as ‘mmm’, ‘yes’, while nodding to keep thediscussion going.

Teaching approaches

■ Set group tasks which encourage pupils to talk together, either to decide the bestway of completing the task, e.g. ‘What if we tried it like this …?’ or to evaluate thetask afterwards.

■ Generate ground rules to encourage speculative talk when, for example, pupils areacting as coaches and need to plan and then improve the performance of theirgroup or team. Ask pupils to generate sentence stems for different aspects, suchas the language of co-operation, e.g. ‘I hear what you are saying …’, ‘I agreeunder some circumstances …’, ‘Yes, it does depend on …’, ‘That’s a good idea –it’s something I hadn’t thought of’. Place these on display with any other wordbanks or sentence stems generated.

■ Initiate exploratory or hypothetical talk yourself by using tentative language, ratherthan by asking questions. Begin a discussion by wondering out loud, or offering ahypothetical statement of your own, e.g. ‘If I can’t be bothered to warm up, whatmight happen?’.

■ Explore examples of complex issues or ideas, such as whether too much exercisecan be bad for you, preferably using stimulus materials such as a class text, avideo extract, or newspaper articles.

■ Watch a television programme that has panellists exemplifying speculating, suchas Football Focus. Discuss features of language used and note the process bywhich participants worked towards a consensus or agreed to differ. Jot featuresdown to form a checklist to use for evaluating work.



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Year 8


Year 8 objective: Use writing for thinking and learning by recording ideas as theydevelop to aid reflection and problem solving.


This objective builds on the Year 7 objective: use writing to explore and develop ideas. Itfocuses on two important qualities of writing:

■ Writing can record ideas so that they are not forgotten and can be returned to forreference, further thought and development.

■ The process of recording a thought in writing often clarifies or strengthens it, oreven exposes it as less coherent than it seemed when first thought or spoken.

This kind of writing is not generally meant to communicate to a wider audience; it is morelikely to be part of notes, jottings or plans that could underpin another piece of writing, aspoken presentation, the solution to a problem or a practical task. It may, however, not bewritten for just the writer to read if, for example, it is in the context of a group task. Thepurpose of writing like this is to capture ideas and possibilities and to develop them byclustering, making links, deciding on sequences, ranking for importance, and makingsome additions and deletions. The ideas are also captured so that they can be questionedand evaluated.

What to teach

■ The contexts in which this kind of writing is useful, e.g. planning sequences ornoting key coaching points.

■ A range of styles/formats for this kind of writing, e.g. bullet points, stick men,arrows for direction of play. Demonstrate to pupils that it is important for them torepresent their ideas in the form best suited to the way they think, unless there isan agreed school or national/worldwide notation for the sport.

■ How to work with a set of initial ideas on paper to develop them further, such asby clustering or prioritising them, e.g. the criteria for a sequence, how thattranslates into possible moves, then the moves in an appropriate order, thenevaluations and changes.

Ask pupils to suggest appropriate formats before they begin to record their thinkingindependently.

Teaching approaches

■ Organise pupils in group discussions about, for example, an evaluation of acompleted activity. One member of the group should record the thinking. Duringthe plenary, ask one group to give feed back, take comments from the othergroups and show how to amend the notes if needed.

■ Offer pupils a mind-map of ideas about the role of diet in improved performanceand ask them, in pairs, to prioritise the ideas. During class feedback, ask them tojustify their prioritisation and ask the rest of the class to evaluate their work.

■ When discussing drugs and their use in sport, invite pupils to record the variouskinds of everyday drugs and how these might affect performance. Encouragethem to record when drugs might be helpful to an athlete and when not, and howrelative this might be, e.g. antihistamines to a hay fever sufferer when fatigue mightoffset the effects of redressing the histamine reaction. Invite amendments fromwhole-class discussion.



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Year 9


Year 9 objective: Use standard English to explain, explore or justify an idea.


The use of standard English should be related to purpose and audience. It is important tobe clearly understood when conveying ideas to an audience. Pupils need to practiseexplaining ideas in formal contexts and need to move beyond tentative, exploratory talkinto more incisive comments. Pupils should be aware of differences between spoken andwritten standard English. Although in formal spoken English full sentences are not alwaysused, pupils may make use of more formal devices, such as subordinate clauses, passivevoice and connectives, to show the relationship between ideas. At word level, vocabularyneeds to be understood by all, with both vagueness and jargon avoided. Pupils might self-correct as they speak, to ensure that the use of standard English is maintained.

What to teach

■ That there are choices to be made about use of standard English in both writtenand oral work.

■ The importance of spoken standard English; some people have very strong viewsand expectations about its use and some situations, such as assemblies or jobinterviews, demand it. Attitudes may change over time but it is empowering tohave a good grasp of when standard English is appropriate and to developconfident use of its features as part of a spoken-language repertoire.

■ That the use of standard English is determined by audience, purpose and context,and that it can vary in its degree of formality. Consider looking at the use ofstandard English and colloquial language in, for example, Football focus or pre-and post-match discussion.

■ The specific features of standard English and how it differs from dialectalvariations, e.g. subject/verb agreement, past tense, adverbs, negatives, pronouns,prepositions.

■ When standard English is likely to be required in the classroom, e.g. preparedpresentations, whole-class discussion. Point out when very formal standardEnglish may be inappropriate, e.g. planning a warm up in pairs.

■ That standard English can be spoken in any accent.

Explain

■ How to start by orientating listeners, including a logical sequence of points whichneeds signalling to the audience, e.g. ‘In this evaluation, I am going to ...’, ‘First ofall, I would like to ...’, ‘Now I am going to explain how ...’, ‘Finally ....’.

■ How to use the first person and present tense to explain ideas about texts orissues, e.g. ‘I think that the Tour de France will always be tainted by drugsbecause …’.

■ How to illuminate points by examples or evidence, e.g. ‘An example of this can beseen in the final sequence when ...’, ‘In Spain, for instance, play tends to be …,whereas in England …’.

■ How to elaborate or clarify, e.g. ‘You can perfect this skill by ...’ or ‘This techniqueis used again in the second part of the talk, when the speaker ...’.



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■ How to monitor audience understanding by questions during or after theexplanation, e.g. ‘Does everyone understand what I mean by ... ?’, ‘Before Iconclude, are there any questions ...?’.

Explore

■ How to signal tentativeness by incorporating tentative words or phrases such as‘Perhaps …’, ‘Maybe we could have a moment of stillness there’, ‘It may bepossible to ...’.

■ How to establish an exploratory tone at the outset by a statement of intent, e.g. ‘I would like to consider what would happen if we tried a short corner ...’.

■ How to link ideas to ensure that listeners follow the speaker’s thinking, e.g.‘Another issue raised by the article is that footballers, in particular, are overpaid ...’,‘An alternative view is that sportsmen and women are not overpaid because …’.

■ How to explore the implications of ideas through constructions such as ‘If ... then’,e.g. ‘If Farzana can’t hold Martha, then it is likely that we’ll have to ...’.

■ How to use formal orienting phrases, such as ‘I shall now explain why I ...’ or‘Support for my view is provided by that bit of video when …’.

■ How to introduce specific evidence by using phrases such as For instance, e.g.‘For instance, take the moment when Tom failed to get the ball in ...’, and to justifyan idea with reasons using because.

■ Different factors may be itemised, e.g. ‘Firstly ...’, ‘Another reason is ...’, ‘Finally ...’.

Teaching approaches

■ Use a two-column grid to itemise and compare the key differences betweenspoken standard and non-standard English. Include points related to grammar,e.g. adverbs (‘I want to move on quickly’ versus ‘I want to move on quick’) andvocabulary (‘All this stuff about whether cricket is becoming less popular ...’ versus‘There are many points of view about the decline of cricket …’).

■ Use a role play to explore the impact of inappropriate language in formal contexts,e.g. the use of slang by the speaker presenting the case for the London Olympics.

■ Invite discussion about the use of swearing in sport, especially on the field.Consider its possible contribution to aggression in sport. You would set thisagainst the highly emotional nature of sport.

■ Specify expectations about the use of standard English and the degree of formalityrequired when setting oral tasks. Discuss, agree and record key features. Remindthe class as they carry out the task.

■ During oral work, praise good use of standard English and commentconstructively on how less-appropriate language could be improved, e.g. whendiscussing group tactics.



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Year 9


Year 9 objective: Identify the underlying themes, implications and issues raised bya talk, reading or programme.


Pupils should be able to listen carefully, to select particular information for comment, andto identify how messages are conveyed. They need to interpret what they hear,recognising what is implied and detecting bias. This involves being aware of audience andpurpose, recognising connotations at word level, stylistic conventions at sentence level,and organisational implications at text level. While some pupils will recognise implicationsand issues immediately, others need support to explore beyond the surface. The objectiveis likely to be taught alongside other objectives clustered around persuasive texts, bothspoken and written.

What to teach

■ Listening for different purposes to:

– identify the main points made in, for example, guidance for improvements;

– understand the main points and formulate own responses, for example, ownviews or questions when observing peers to evaluate performance;

– identify key points and recognise how they are being made, explicitly or not, e.g.imperative instructions, such as ‘Do this, then do that’, as opposed to thosewhich are more discursive and invite audience participation in decision making,such as ‘We could try this because …’;

– identify what significant issues are raised and why.

■ What is meant by theme. In a talk, it means an idea or topic which is expandedupon, for example a pupil speaker may explore the theme of friendship and loyaltyamong club supporters.

■ What is meant by implication – something that is not directly stated but suggestedor hinted at. Listeners need to hear between the lines. A particular meaning maybe implied by:

– a rhetorical question, e.g. ‘Would you like to live next door to a premier leaguefootball club?’;

– an invitation to the listeners to work out something for themselves, e.g. ‘Thinkabout it’;

– emphasis given to a particular word or phrase, e.g. ‘Yes, it seems like aconvincing argument’;

– apparent denial, e.g. ‘I wouldn’t go so far as to say he was an out-and-out liar’.

Teaching approaches

■ Focus pupils’ attention on the idea that writers, speakers and programme makershave a specific purpose which readers, listeners or viewers need to recognise toavoid being hoodwinked. Provide a list of different examples and ask pupils, inpairs, to suggest the purpose of each one. For example:

– a newspaper editorial on a sporting issue;

– a sports bulletin in the main news;

– a discussion prior to and after an event or match;



Y9

– a supporter’s newsletter;

– a public information bulletin on radio or TV, e.g. about drugs in sport.

Discuss why it is important to recognise the purpose and what might happen ifyou don’t.

■ Explain listening tasks precisely. Provide guidance on what pupils should do whilelistening and what will happen afterwards, e.g. listening to a coach from anoutside club offering pupils advice on how to improve. Provide a handout whichwill help them to complete the task effectively, for example, a two-column gridheaded Point and What I will do.

■ If the focus of the listening task is to identify themes, e.g. how a lack of physicalactivity affects everyday life, explain before you start what sort of material the classwill be trying to identify. Pause at appropriate stages during the talk, reading orprogramme to monitor understanding and teach the noting of key points andsupporting evidence. Afterwards, ask questions about notes and evidence.



Y9

Year 9


Year 9 objective: Discuss and evaluate conflicting evidence to arrive at aconsidered viewpoint.


Through discussion of conflicting evidence, pupils should become more aware that viewscan be diametrically opposed or simply differ slightly on certain points. They need to clarifytheir understanding of what is being said, be attentive to details and read between thelines to identify any subtext. In evaluating evidence, pupils should consider bias, flawedarguments, inaccuracy and extreme views. They also need to be aware of how their ownopinions or assumed stance influences the consensus that they reach. They need todevelop their ability to work together to avoid polarisation in the group. Contributors willoften respond directly to what has just been said, acknowledging the views of others. Inreaching a considered viewpoint, pupils will justify and modify details of their own views.They could be required to explain their considered viewpoint to others.

What to teach

■ How to give evidence, reasons and illustrations to support views, such as ‘Forexample …’, ‘To support this …’, ‘Evidence demonstrates that …’, ‘Researchproves that …’, ‘The facts show …’.

■ How to recognise when anecdote is useful or when it is used to reinforceprejudice.

■ How to use adverbs to temper one’s views, such as sometimes, often, always,occasionally.

■ How to make interjections, accompanied by a shift in views, e.g. ‘Oh, I see …’or ‘Oh, I understand now …’.

■ How to offer statements of opinion or judgement, such as ‘In my opinion …’, ‘I think …’, ‘I believe …’, ‘I prefer …’, ‘I would rather …’.

■ How to evaluate evidence using:

– comparative/contrasting connectives, e.g. compared with, similarly, likewise,alternatively, whereas, on the other hand, despite;

– causal connectives, e.g. because, therefore, so, in that case, still, even though,as a result, consequently;

– verbs to indicate judgements, e.g. believe, think, prefer, would rather, trust.

Teaching approaches

■ Through discussion with pupils, clarify the process involved in reaching aconsidered viewpoint, e.g. in group or whole-class evaluations. For example:

– discuss the evidence;

– ask questions to clarify understanding;

– when evaluating the views of others, be aware of bias, inaccuracies, flawedreasoning, extreme views;

– be aware of own bias and views;

– be willing to modify views in the light of new evidence or good argument;

– aim to be objective when discussing the merits of different situations orarguments.



Y9

■ Give pupils a controversial statement to discuss. Allow thinking time and someinitial discussion, then give pupils additional prepared statements/questions, oncards, to add to the discussion. Pupils should use these cards to extend or modifytheir views. For example, initial card: ‘It is always wrong to take drugs as asportsman’. Additional cards: ‘What about if someone takes drugs to control acold or hayfever?’, ‘What if the drug taking is temporary (short-term), for a specificreason, such as rebuilding strength after illness?’.

■ Watch a video such as a discussion about England or Britain’s chances in a majorcompetition, and stop the video to discuss the evidence at various points in theprogramme. Alternatively, prepare your own video which evaluates the classperformance in a recent activity. Ask pupils, in groups, to discuss what is said,decide on their own view and then give their group’s decision on the evidence.



Y9

Year 9


Year 9 objective: Record, develop and evaluate ideas through writing, e.g. essays,journals.


This objective builds on the Year 8 objective: use writing for thinking and learning …. It refers to writing that has the development of learning as its core purpose, thusdistinguishing itself from writing to demonstrate learning in a specific context, e.g. forsummative assessment. Writing set in the context of this objective will have as its mainpurpose the development and securing of understanding. This can be done by askingpupils to:

■ collect information together in a certain way;

■ devise questions;

■ explain;

■ reflect on and evaluate material;

■ transform material by representing it in a different way;

■ express feelings about a topic or issue;

■ speculate on possibilities;

■ analyse and comment.

As such, this kind of writing can take many forms. Journals and learning logs lendthemselves well to questions, reflections, evaluations, speculations and the expression offeelings. Reports and essays are well suited to the collation of information, commentaryand analysis. Pupils can be asked to transform materials by being asked to produceinstructions, letters, newspaper reports, leaflets and a whole range of text forms.

Writing of this kind may have an element of recording (e.g. for future revision) but this willnot be its main purpose.

What to teach

Pupils will need, above all, to understand the underlying purpose of this type of writing.They will also need to be taught:

■ the language of questioning, reflecting, evaluating, speculating, analysing andcommenting;

■ the conventions of the forms of writing required of them, e.g. detailed planningand/or coaching notes, evaluations and how to improve, reports, posters andflyers;

■ subject-specific vocabulary and spelling.

Teaching approaches

■ When setting a task, ensure that pupils know what they should write and how,who it is for, and how this will affect the choices they make.

■ As part of their development in the sport for the term or half term, before theystart, ask pupils to record what they know already and would like to be able to dobetter. As they progress, ask them to record their improvements and set targetsfor what to do next, to help them evaluate their performance. This could be thestart of a sports journal for the year.



Y9

■ As part of the regular bleep tests which you may carry out, ask pupils to evaluatetheir performance after the first one and suggest what further training during theiractivities might help their cardiovascular condition. They should evaluate theirimproving performance, record whether their training activities helped, give theirfeelings about them and set new training goals.

■ As part of match preparation, ask pupils to discuss and agree a game plan.Recap sentence structures such as: ‘What if …?’, ‘If … then …’, ‘Were this tohappen, then …’, ‘What would happen if …?’. Ensure that they conclude with adecision, so they can evaluate that decision after the event.

■ As part of their improvement, ask pupils to use an expert commentary to recordtips to try. They should then comment on the effectiveness of those tips in action.They could write a new expert commentary based on their performance.



Y9

Bibliography

Literacy in physical education files on this CD-ROM address managing talk for learningand how and why we talk in PE.

■ There is video exemplification of pupils using subject-specific vocabulary andresponding to and developing questioning.

■ There is also an example of the language of coaching and evaluation in a gymlesson.

Module 7: Managing group talk, in the Literacy across the curriculum (DfEE 0235/2001)folder suggests further ways of organising groups for quality, productive talk. Module 8gives further ideas for listening activities.



Y9

Observing effective literacy teaching

Prompts for subject leaders

Learning through talk

■ Did the lesson exploit opportunities for pupils to learn through talk, or were theremissed opportunities?

■ Did the teacher make clear the intended outcome for any speaking and listeningactivity and set clear time targets to encourage pace and application?

Where pupils were asked to use talk to clarify and present ideas:

■ did their response suggest that the teacher needed to model the kind ofpresentation required?

■ was an appropriate context created for the activity? For example, was theresufficient thinking time? Did less-confident pupils have the chance to talk with apartner before presenting to a wider audience?

■ did the teacher give clear feedback to pupils, not only on the content of theirpresentation but also on the effectiveness of the communication? Did thefeedback include clear advice on how to improve?

■ did the teacher promote the use of standard English as the form of languageappropriate for presentations in class?

Where pupils were required to listen for a sustained period:

■ was the subject matter and style of presentation well matched to the pupils?

■ was sufficient consideration given to the range of ability in the pupil group?

■ was the talk/programme contextualised for pupils in such a way as to activatetheir prior knowledge?

■ were they clear in advance about what they were listening for and how they mighthave to respond to what they had heard?

■ was the listening scaffolded in any way, for instance, with a structured note sheetor some prompt questions?

Where pupils were required to talk together in pairs or groups:

■ was the grouping of the pupils appropriate for the task and its purpose?

■ were they clear about the expectations for their behaviour during the activity or didthey need the support of some ‘ground-rules’?

■ were they clear about the type of speaking and listening required of them duringthe activity, e.g. speculating, evaluating, sharing ideas to solve a problem? Did thisneed clarifying or demonstrating by the teacher?

■ were they clear about the particular roles they needed to fulfil in the pair/group,e.g. chairing, reporting, recording? Was there evidence that this needed clarifyingor demonstrating by the teacher?

■ were any reporting back activities organised to maximise participation whileavoiding tedious repetition?

■ were the groups supported by the teacher to ensure that most, if not all, reacheda satisfactory outcome in the time allowed?

4



Learning from text

■ Did the lesson exploit opportunities for pupils to learn from text, or was thereevidence of the ‘retreat from the written word’?

■ did the teacher always read for the class or was there an expectation that pupilscould and should engage with text for themselves?

■ Were texts well chosen, both in terms of content and reading difficulty? Did theteacher take account of the fact that more-challenging texts can be used in thecontext of shared reading than when pupils are asked to read independently?

■ Where a textbook was used, were pupils familiar with its conventions (e.g. pagelayout, symbols, structure), or did this need to be clarified for them?

Where pupils were required to undertake research:

■ did they demonstrate a range of appropriate reading strategies for the task (e.g.skimming, scanning), or did they need reminding of these?

■ did they have effective ways of recording information to fulfil the purpose of thetask, or did they need guidance/support with making notes?

Where pupils were required to read closely for meaning:

■ were they given a way into the text that would encourage close reading and helpthem overcome initial difficulties?

■ was the activity set up to encourage active reading and inference and deduction,e.g. through the use of techniques such as sequencing, annotation, cloze?

■ when questions were set on the text, were they likely to promote understanding orjust the simple retrieval of information?

■ were less-able or less-willing readers supported in the task?

■ were they encouraged to question the text and consider it in relation to its degreeof objectivity and the writer’s intentions?

Where pupils were reading a text as an example for their own writing:

■ did the teacher help them to identify the features of the text that allowed it to fulfilits purpose, e.g. its structure and use of language?

■ did the teacher encourage the use of the correct terms when referring to thesefeatures, e.g. topic sentence?

■ did the teacher exploit effective strategies such as annotation during sharedreading in order to show pupils how a particular type of text works?


■ Did the teacher clearly establish both the purpose and intended readership of thewriting?

■ Was enough done to ensure that the pupils had something to say in their writing?

■ Were pupils clear about what writing strategies were appropriate for the task, e.g.collaboration with a partner, drafting, proofreading?

■ Did pupils have access to reference materials to support their writing?

■ Did the teacher use steps from the teaching sequence for writing as appropriate?(see Literacy and learning: Guidancefor senior leaders Appendix 4, page 45)

■ was there evidence that pupils receive clear feedback on their strengths and onways to improve, both during and after writing?



Where pupils were using writing to capture and develop thoughts and ideas:

■ did they use an approach to writing that suited this purpose, allowing foradaptation, reflection and evaluation?

■ did they have a repertoire of formats for this kind of writing, or did they need moresupport from the teacher through demonstration?

■ were they able to use the outcomes of this kind of writing to support a furthertask, e.g. a spoken presentation or a more-formal piece of writing?

Where pupils were required to write a longer piece:

■ did they know how to organise that particular type of writing or did this need to betaught explicitly, e.g. using the teaching sequence for writing?

■ did the teacher make explicit reference to paragraphs and how they can belinked?

■ were they supported with the process of selecting, prioritising and orderingmaterial when they needed to incorporate information from a range of sources?

■ were there strategies for supporting weaker writers with the task, e.g. a writingframe?

When helping pupils to develop clear and appropriate expression:

■ did the teacher use strategies to encourage pupils to reflect on the clarity of theirwriting and alter it as necessary?

■ were they encouraged to rehearse sentences orally before writing?

■ were they encouraged to think about and engage in the choices which a writermust make in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure, e.g. through sharedwriting?

■ were the constraints for making choices as a writer made explicit, e.g. theappropriate degree of formality?



Contents of the Literacy and learning DVD

1 Leading cross-curricular change: literacy

The DVD features a 13-minute film shot in 2004 at Haybridge School in Worcestershirewhich is meant to stimulate discussion about implementing literacy as a whole-schoolinitiative, and can be used in the context of a meeting of subject leaders. In the film, thedeputy head and other staff from the school reflect on the process by which they havealready made progress in implementing literacy across the curriculum and consider howthe literacy and learning materials will allow them to continue the process of embeddingand sustaining literacy as a focus for whole-school improvement. The film includes briefvisits to three lessons: science, art and religious education.

2 Literacy and learning: key teaching approaches

Included on the DVD along with Leading cross-curricular change: literacy are examples ofkey teaching approaches for speaking and listening, reading and writing. The approachesare:

■ teacher modelling;

■ small-group discussion;

■ active-reading strategies;

■ shared reading;

■ guided reading;

■ shared writing;

■ guided writing.

Subject-specific examples of most of these approaches are contained on this CD-ROM,but this additional material can be useful to subject leaders to inform their work as:

■ evaluators of teaching and learning;

■ curriculum leaders.

These examples can be shared with other staff in training sessions or in the context ofprofessional development generally. It is meant for use where subject leaders wish topromote a particular teaching approach with an individual teacher or more widely withinthe department or faculty.

Shared and guided reading and writing are exemplified here only in the context of English,where they are best known, but these approaches can be useful in all subjects.

Shared reading is important because it allows the teacher to work with the whole classon a text that would be too challenging for independent work. Enlarging the text using anOHP or data projector allows the use of a range of interactive strategies to involve pupilsdirectly, and is more powerful than using individual copies because the attention of thepupils can be focused by the teacher on particular parts of the text. Shared reading makes‘the invisible process of reading, visible’.

Shared writing is a teacher-led activity that engages the whole class in the act of writing.Working at the whiteboard or OHP, the teacher firstly demonstrates the process ofcomposition, explaining out loud why certain choices are being made. Next, pupilscontribute their ideas for continuing the writing, which are sifted and refined before beingwritten up by the teacher. Shared writing shows pupils the kinds of choices which writers

5



have to make, and allows them to take part in the enjoyable process of compositionwithout the additional burden of spelling and handwriting.

Guided work (reading and writing) is where the teacher works for about 20 minutes witha selected group of around six pupils, while the others work independently. It is a powerfulway of teaching to the specific needs of an identified group within the class and is a wayof building a bridge between teacher-led and independent work.

3 Key teaching approaches index

Literacy and Literacy and Teaching Example on DVDlearning aspect learning strand approach

Learning through Using talk to clarify Teacher modelling Sequence 1 talk and present ideas English

Pupil Sequence 1 presentations English

Talking and Small-group Sequence 2thinking together discussion science

Learning from text Developing Active-reading Sequence 3 research and strategies sciencestudy skills

Reading for Guided reading Sequence 4meaning English

Understanding Shared reading Sequence 5how texts work English

Learning through Using writing as a Teacher modelling Sequence 6writing tool for thought history

Small-group Sequence 7discussion mathematics

Structuring and Shared writing Sequence 8organising writing English

Developing clear Guided writing Sequence 9and appropriate Englishexpression



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