Whole School Literacy Developments

As part of my Assistant Headteacher role I am responsible for whole school literacy. As is the case in most schools this a tough nut to crack. I decided that some simple common approaches would be a good starting point. I created the the 'Failsworth School Literacy Key', a one stop document that could be used as a reference point for elements of literacy, such as homophones, connectives etc. This was particularly useful for teachers outside the English department. After trialling this in a range of subject areas I decided to role it out whole school. There are now double sided, laminated A3 copies in all classrooms to encourage the development of literacy. 
This was no quick fix by any means but was a good starting point. 

RSA Ken Robinson- Changing Education Paradigms

This RSA Animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award.

The Guide to Outstanding Marking and Feedback

Marking and Feedback is the key to the consolidation of knowledge and learning. Here is a really quick guide to how to effectively mark and feedback on students work.

The Guide to Outstanding Marking and Feedback

Sharing Good Practice

This comes from Phil Winstanley, KS3 Co-ordinator, Humanities.

To model extended writing.

WHAT: Using student answers to model extended writing responses. Students in pairs award levels to the answers and explain why they have reached their judgments.

WITH: Year 7 students to introduce and develop extended writing.

HOW: Students have completed a card sort and understand the social and economic impact of the Railways. I have allowed them to start and begin to develop their extended writing. The activity is introduced as part of reflection time and self-assessing the work done so far. Students have a copy of the level criteria.

IMPACT: It strengthens students understanding of peer and self-assessment.

Students enjoy the activity and it improves the quality of student responses.

It encourages high order questioning – What now needs to be done to achieve Level 6? How should the student continue to develop their response?

Literacy Resources

Really Useful Literacy Resources

There is an abundance of amazing online resources to support literacy development in the classroom. As we continue to address literacy accross the curriculum, the blog will become a central hub for us all to share ideas and resources with each other. Here are a ideas that can be used in any subject to explore language and vocabulary. One of my favourites is WORDLE which allows you to create visual 'word clouds' on any topic/theme/combination of words. It makes a fantastic activity/homework/display tool that encourages thought and exploration of language: Here is the link and some examples:

Wordle

Examples of sentence starters to use when analysing language/presentational devices.