“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!"

The Literacy Programme at

Bradbury School

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 Changing

Increased emphasis on:

• Promoting integrated language development

Decreased emphasis on:

• Teaching language as isolated strands

• A literature-based approach to learning language

• Reading for meaning

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

• 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 Changing

Increased emphasis on:• Focusing on meaning when

reading and writing

Decreased emphasis on:

• 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

• Focusing primarily on accuracy when reading and writing• 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

• Viewing and Presenting

LITERACY STRAND

Listening and SpeakingStudents 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 STRAND

Viewing and PresentingViewing is receptive - Presenting is expressive

Students learn to:

• Appreciate that the world is full of visual language that conveys meaning

• Understand how images and language interact to convey meaning

• Interpret and respond to text

• Use texts for different purposes

• Use visual texts to enrich their own storytelling or presentations

LITERACY IN ACTIONLiteracy at Bradbury School

Literacy Literacy Year 1Year 1

Speaking & ListeningSpeaking & Listening

ReadingReading

WritingWriting

Oral languageOral language Speaking and ListeningSpeaking and Listening

Oral language encompasses all aspects of Speaking and Listening. These are skills that are essential for ongoing language development. Some examples in the classroom are:

• Role play• Drama• Circle time• Listening activities• Following instructions• Communication using different languages

Can you read this?Can you read this?READINGREADING

Reading DevelopmentReading Development• Learning to read is a very complex

process• All children are different and their

reading development varies

•We use a variety of phonic programmes to reinforce single phonemes and blends

•This is done using repetition, through a variety of matching, rhyming, listening and treasure hunt games etc.

PhonicsPhonics

In the classroom…In the classroom…• Shared Reading

– Whole class participation– Big books or Interactive Whiteboard– Modelled reading

• Guided Reading– Small groups– High frequency words and unit-related vocabulary– Teaching reading strategies – Decoding and comprehension

• Independent Reading– Quiet reading– Buddy reading

A Variety Of TextsA Variety Of Texts• Students read and re-read a range of

texts eg, non-fiction, poems, songs, big books, fairy tales, picture books

• Children are encouraged to respond to texts in a variety of ways eg. drawing, painting, retelling, role play and writing

Contextual UnderstandingContextual Understanding• Students use language experience to talk

about texts – Has anything that happens in the story ever

happened to you?– Is the family in the book like yours?

• Share opinions– Is this book true? Could this really happen?

• Look at the ways people or characters are represented.

Nurturing A Community Of Nurturing A Community Of ReadersReaders

• Create a supportive classroom where everyone is valued for their efforts

• Foster an enjoyment of reading through discussion and sharing

• Encourage students to take risks

• Encourage students to select their own reading materials according to interest or purpose

How To Support Early How To Support Early ReadersReaders

• Read with your child every day – home readers

• Practice sounds and/or high frequency words as they come home

• Expose your child to a wide variety of texts

• Encourage children to use decoding skills to attempt independent reading

• Encourage your child to talk about books and their reading with other members of the family

Writing is fun!Writing is fun!

Every child is a writer. We need to foster an atmosphere where any mark making is valued as writing.

Role Play WritingRole Play Writing • Children will experiment with marks to represent

written language

• Children are beginning to understand that writing is used to convey meaning or messages

• As their understanding about sound-symbol relationships has not yet developed their writing is not readable

• It is important to know what they have written by asking them to read their writing to you

Example of Role Play writingExample of Role Play writing

Emergent Writing PhaseEmergent 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 Example of Emergent Writing PhaseWriting Phase

Early 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 Example of Early Writing PhasePhase

•

What does this look like at What does this look like at school?school?

• Encourage the children to sound out unfamiliar vocabulary

• Opportunities to write daily • Teacher modelled writing / Guided writing• Value their writing. Children must see

themselves as writers. As teachers our main concern is that we create an atmosphere where children enjoy writing and know they are successful.

HandwritingHandwriting• Begins with patterns for hand movements

to introduce pre-cursive writing:

• Introduce individual letters through modelling:

• Explicitly taught letter joins:

• Why do you teach children cursive at such an early age?

• Will my child have to write using cursive all the time?

• Will this slow my child’s writing process?

Commonly asked questions:

How can you help at home? How can you help at home? • Shopping lists• Diary/journal• Draw a picture, ask them to write about it • Postcards to friends• Note to Mummy or Daddy to take to work

for them to read in the day • Labels around the house• Writing birthday cards• Correct pencil grip• Always value what they have written,

even if you can’t read it!

Have FunHave Fun• Remember to enjoy the experience

of reading and writing in these first few years of school

• The partnership between home and school is extremely important