The Literacy Programme at Bradbury School

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the

more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!"

Beliefs and Values in Literacy• Literacy is fundamental to

learning, thinking and communication, and permeates the whole curriculum

• Literacy is the major connecting element across the curriculum– Applied across subject areas– Applied throughout the

transdisciplinary programme of inquiry

Good Learning Practice• Literature is an integral part of the

curriculum• Books are read to be

– Enjoyed– Discussed– Analysed– Compared – Contrasted

• Students learn how to – understand, interpret and respond to

ideas, attitudes and feelings – think critically– make predictions and inferences

Good Learning Practice• Writing is a significant activity

in classes of all ages

• When learning to write, students are encouraged to– focus on meaning rather than

accuracy– enjoy the writing process

The Role of Literacy in the POI

• Literacy is taught through the relevant, realistic context of the units of inquiry

• Literacy instruction supports students’ inquiries and the sharing of their learning

How Literacy Practices are ChangingIncreased emphasis on:• Promoting integrated language

development

Decreased emphasis on:• Teaching language as isolated strands

• A literature-based approach to learning language

• A teaching approach that sees making mistakes in language as inevitable and necessary for learning• Reading for meaning

• Reading selected according to interest level

• Making culturally diverse reading material available

• Using skill-drill texts and workbooks to learn language

• A teaching approach that focuses on encouraging students not to make mistakes in language

• Decoding only for accuracy• Reading selected according to

decoding level

• Having only monocultural reading materials available

How Literacy Practices are ChangingIncreased emphasis on:• Focusing on meaning when reading

and writing

Decreased emphasis on:• Focusing primarily on accuracy when

reading and writing

• Encouraging appropriate cooperative discussion in the classroom• Writing as a process

• Developing a range of independent spelling strategies

• Using language for creative problem solving and information processing• A range of appropriate assessment methods such as conferencing, miscue analysis, and writing sample analysis

• Enforcing silent, individual work in the classroom

• Writing only as a product

• A dependence on the teacher as the only source of correct spelling

• Using language for rote learning

• Standardized reading and writing assessments

Knowledge and Skills in LanguageThe learning process involves• Learning Language

– As students listen to and use language with others in their everyday lives

• Learning About Language– As students try to understand how

language works

• Learning Through Language– As students use language as a tool to think

about, or reflect on a theme, concept or issue

LITERACY STRANDS

• Listening and Speaking• Reading• Writing

LITERACY STRAND

Listening and Speaking

Students learn to:• Listen and respond to a range of texts,

and to the ideas and opinions of others

• Improve fluency and accuracy when speaking

• Ask and answer questions; relate and retell; persuade; talk about needs, feelings, ideas or opinions; contribute to discussions

• Recognize that oral language needs to be appropriate to the audience and to the purpose

LITERACY STRAND

Reading and WritingStudents learn to:• Read and write for enjoyment,

instruction and information

• Recognize and appreciate the variety of literary styles, genres and structures; poetry, plays and stories; creative, informative, instructional, persuasive and reflective text

• Understand and apply a variety of structures, strategies and literary techniques– Spelling, grammar, prediction, plot,

character, punctuation, voice

LITERACY AT BRADBURY SCHOOL

Literacy in Action

LITERACY IN YEAR 3 AND YEAR 4

Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing

Aims

How your child will continue to develop their skills in:

• Speaking and Listening• Reading• Writing

Speaking and Listening

Oral language encompasses all aspects of Speaking and Listening. These are skills that are essential for ongoing language development.

Learners show an understanding of the wide range of purposes of language.

We communicate to:• Instruct

• Inform

• Entertain

• Reassure

What Speaking and Listening Looks Like in the Classroom

• Think/Pair/Share

• Debate Horseshoe

• Conscience Alley

• Sharing Time

• Circle Time

• Show and Tell

• Role Play

• Hot Seating

• Questioning/Responding

• Readers Theatre

• Giving and receiving feedback

• Group roles – reporter, recorder

• Body language

• Following Instructions

Reading and Writing Development

• Learning to read and write is a very complex process

• All children are different and their reading and writing development varies

Reading Strategies

• Meaning, structure and visual cues

• Cross-checking• Self-correction

• Skipping• Chunking• Predicting words• Fluency

Comprehension Strategies

• Activating prior knowledge

• Questioning• Summarising• Synthesising

• Visualising• Making

connections• Inferring• Vocabulary

extension• Monitoring

comprehension

What reading looks like in the classroom

• Guided Reading• Readers Theatre• Shared Reading• Reading

Response• Reading Games

• Big Books• Buddy/Paired

Reading• Acting Out• Cloze• Read and Create

How to support reading at home

• Read with your child - early readers benefit from hearing good readers and this is an opportunity to share and discuss information presented in texts

• Give encouragement and praise whenever your child chooses to read

• Talk about characters, settings, plots and events in texts• Encourage your child to read a wide variety of texts• Encourage your child to express their opinion about texts, to

justify their reactions• Encourage your child to try different ways to work out a word

they don’t know• Discuss how the meaning of an unknown word was worked out• Ask questions about the text your child is reading (see

handout)

Emergent Writing Phase• Children are aware that speech can be written

down

• They rely on familiar topics to write about such as greeting cards, lists and letters

• Children will demonstrate one-to-one correspondence by representing most spoken words in their written text

Example of Emergent Writing Phase

Early Writing Phase • Children will produce a small range of texts that

exhibit some of the conventions of writing eg, retells, reports and weekend news

• At this stage your child will have a small bank of high frequency words that they spell correctly eg, and, they, come, have

• When writing unknown words they rely on phonic knowledge

Example of Early Writing Phase

Transitional Writing Phase • Transitional writers show increasing control over the

conventions of writing such as punctuation, spelling and text organisation

• They consider audience and purpose when selecting ideas and information to be included in texts

• They compose a range of texts including explanations, narratives, brochures and electronic presentations

• Writing shows evidence of a bank of known words that are spelt correctly

• Transitional writers are moving away from a heavy reliance on sounding out and are beginning to integrate visual and meaning-based strategies to spell unknown words

Transitional Writing Samples

What writing looks like in the classroom

• Modeled Writing• Guided Writing• Independent Writing• Deconstructing Texts• Revising, Editing• Using Word Sources – Dictionaries/Charts

How can you help at home? • Provide opportunities for your child to write at

home e.g. e-mails, invitations, shopping list, diary• Writing competitions• Scrapbooks• Support spelling attempts and praise their

willingness to “have a go”. Help with spelling journals

• Read with your child. Reading aloud helps with vocabulary

• Talk about how the different ways texts are organized, e.g. recipes, comics, newspapers, stories