Literacy across the
curriculumLindsay Maughan
Intervention Lead and Specialist
Leader of Education (SLE)
@UKLiteracy
To explore how and why supporting literacy
improves the quality of teaching and learning
Understand
how poor
literacy can be
a barrier to
learning
Aim:
Know the
three literacy
strands
Explore some
strategies that
can ‘scaffold’
learning
Rising standards at KS2
79% achieved at least level 4 in reading,
writing and arithmetic
76% reached at least level 4 in the new
spelling, punctuation and grammar test
86% reached at least level 4 in maths
Literacy: a few facts
1 in 6 people in the UK struggle with literacy. This means their
literacy is below the level of an 11 year old.
92% of the British public say literacy is vital to the economy, and
essential for getting a good job.
14% of children and young people from lower income homes rarely
or never read books for pleasure.
Parents are the most important reading role models for their
children.
Children and young people who engage in technology based
texts, such as blogs, enjoy writing more and have more positive
attitudes towards writing.
Source: Geoff Barton, ‘Don’t Call it Literacy!”
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more
refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the
desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he
thought it was time to present the present.
The Matthew Effect
“While good readers gain new skills very rapidly, and quickly move from
learning to read to reading to learn, poor readers become increasingly
frustrated with the act of reading, and try to avoid reading where
possible.”
“Students who begin with high verbal aptitudes find themselves in
verbally enriched social environments and have a double advantage”
“Good readers may choose friends who also read avidly while poor
readers seek friends with whom they share other enjoyments”
The Matthew EffectDaniel Rigney
Age 7
John (top quartile)
7100 words
Jennifer (lowest quartile)
3000 words!
Age 16: 1 in 12 have a working vocabulary of 800 words!
Unconfident Confident
?
Repetition
Reinforcement
Rigour
Who is most responsible for supporting
students in their development of literacy?
Teaching Standards:
“demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for
promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy and the correct use
of standard English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject”
Ofsted:
“When evaluating the achievement of pupils, inspectors consider
how well...pupils develop a range of skills, including reading,
writing, communication and mathematical skills, and how well they
apply these across the curriculum”
Case study: class context
Y10 class
20 students
16 F/ 4 M
10 Ever 6
7 SEN
6 students with literacy difficulties – ranging from mild to
severe incl. 1 with dyslexia
1 student with an eyesight impairment
76% have an average KS2 point score of 21 or below. This
means they were working at an average ks2 level 3 at age 11
Some issues that may arise in the
classroom
Students may be:
Unable to read information you
give them
Unable to independently
research
Unable to access the curriculum
Unable to articulate themselves
Unable to sustain attention and
focus in the lesson
Poor behaviour
Lack of motivation
Lack of drive and
ambition
Poor attainment – low
levels of progress
Literacy: what’s in it for
departments?
Reasons why
departments should
support literacy
Most important
Leastimportant
Speaking and listening
Teacher talk/ student
talk
Often assumed to be
‘natural’, but is not for
many
Oral frameworks
needed
Different types of talk
Explaining
Instructing
Questioning
Describing
Analysing
Evaluating
Speculating
and
hypothesising
Why talk?
Asking questions
Summarising ideas
Justifying responses
Challenging responses
Building on, clarifying, modifying
others’ ideas
Analysing and
evaluating ideas
Questioning
Bad questions
Lots of closed question
A ‘scattergun’ approach
Don’t involve the whole
class
First answer will be
accepted
Good questions
May be pre-planned
Will focus on the why and
how not the what
Will build in ‘thinking time’
and ‘oral rehearsal’
Idea from @TeacherToolkit
How do geographers talk?
Think about people who represent the public
face of geography.
– programmes about the natural world
– weather forecasters
– geography teachers
– documentaries about geographical issues
– serious travel programmes
How do geographers talk?
How do geographers talk?
specialist vocabulary
semi-formal
factual, explanatory
enthusiasm, passion and respect for other
places and perspectives
Oral frames
Develop sentence
openers that are
specific to your
subject/topic.
Embed in talk first
10 tips to develop talk in the classroom1. Never accept the 1st answer
2. Never accept a 1 word answer
3. Encourage students to respond by saying, “I agree/disagree
because... “
4. Develop their use of sophisticated sentence openers
5. Encourage students to use connectives in talk
6. Encourage students to question/challenge the talk of others
7. Encourage your students to provide more than 1 reason to support
their views
8. Persistently ask them to develop/ tell me more/ explain/
9. Encourage them to sum up their ideas into a formalised statement
10. Encourage formal talk where possible- avoid contractions “I’d” “I
would”
Writing
Writing
What is the purpose? audience? format?
(PAF)
Style - formal or informal?
Layout and presentation?
Tone
Conventions?
What to explore
Generating ideas + effective planning
Connectives
Sentence discourse markers
Spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPG)
Purposes
Inform
Explain
Persuade
Evaluate
Review
Argue
Advise
Writing Provide model
Deconstr-uct
model
Analyse effective-
ness
Provide scaffold
Construct collabor-atively
Create indepen-
dently
Evaluate and
review
Make writing real
“Write a letter advising another scientist
about DNA.”
Why?
What’s the point?
Avoid meaningless writing tasks.
Better...
Write an online article aimed at teenagers
to be published on Science Today’s
website explaining recent research on
DNA.
format audience
purposetheme
Model expectations of writing
teacher
exemplarschecklists
peer
Tense
• Past
– I walked
• Present
– I am walking
• Future
– I am going to walk
Voice
• First person
– I, we, my, our, us
• Second person
– You
• Third person
– He, she, they, it
Sentence types Openings
Sentence types
• Short
– Used to emphasise a point
– Create tension
– To give clarity (good when
used before or after longer,
more detailed sentences or
at the beginning or end of
writing)
• Long
– To develop a point
– To show extending thinking
Vary Openings
• Adverbs
– “Interestingly, ...”
Shows personal opinion first
• Connectives
– Introduce ideas and other
lines of thinking
– However, ...
– Consequently, ...
– Although...
– Despite...
– Since...
“The limits of my language are
the limits of my world”Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
Vocab matrixAdjectives
Words that describe Verbs (-ing -ed)
Words that are actionsAdverbs
Words that describe an actionConnectives
Words that link ideas
PrepositionsWords that show the
relationship between words
e.g. distraught e.g. thinking e.g. furiously e.g. Despite that.... e.g. Yesterday...
troubled
discussing Even though...
annoyingly
after
Developing students’ vocabulary
Read challenging texts
(suited to ability)
Provide glossaries
Dictionaries /
thesaurus
Word of the week
Key quotes board
‘Up-cycling’ words
Reading
Ways of reading
Continuous reading
Close reading
Skimming
Scanning
Supporting reading in the
classroom
Enlarge the font size for your weakest students
Print on yellow paper for students with dyslexia
Think about the vocabulary you use in the classroom –challenge your more able students!
Point out tricky words and explain what they mean when reading – give glossaries for those students who may need them
Supporting reading in the
classroom
Ask students to read in pairs, as a group, whole class, or individually. Ask them to read in chunks – a sentence or paragraph for weaker students/ half-page or page for more-able
Check understanding – older students can sometimes read aloud quite competently but gain only a partial understanding of what has been read.
Provide accessible texts: short sentences, pictorial support and clear signposting all help!
Word Clouds (Tagxedo.com)
1 All children deserve the right
to a quality education . No
matter what their social background
is or what their learning
needs are . Education for all . 25
Describe your educational philosophy in 25 words.
Spelling strategies
QR codes
Literacy in PE blog @davidfawcett27
Outstanding support of literacy?
Literacy embedded in every lesson
Classrooms rich with quality dialogue about literacy
Established classroom routines display high quality
provision for literacy
All teachers in school actively promoting literacy – driven
by SLT/ senior leader and English department
Enrichment activities in subjects other than English that
promote literacy – e.g. ‘Geography in the news’ club
Engagement with new technologies to support the
acquisition of good literacy skills
Questions Ofsted may use when
observing ‘literacy’ in any subject:
Are key terms and vocabulary clear and explored with pupils to ensure
that they recognise and understand them? Are they related to similar
words or the root from which they are derived?
Do teachers identify any particular features of key terms and help
pupils with strategies for remembering how to spell them or why they
might be capitalised (e.g. ‘Parliament’ in history or citizenship)?
Do teachers remind pupils of important core skills – for example how to
skim a text to extract the main elements of its content quickly or to scan
a text for information about a key word or topic?
Do teachers make expectations clear before pupils begin a task – for
example on the conventions of layout in a formal letter or on the main
features of writing persuasively?
Do teachers reinforce the importance of accuracy in spoken or written
language – for example, emphasising the need for correct sentence
punctuation in one-sentence answers or correcting ‘we was…’ in
pupils’ speech?
Do teachers identify when it is important to use standard English and
when other registers or dialects may be used – for example, in a
formal examination answer and when recreating dialogue as part of
narrative writing?
Do teachers help pupils with key elements of literacy as they support
them in lessons? Do they point out spelling, grammar or punctuation
issues as they look at work around the class?
Does teachers’ marking support key literacy points? For example,
are key subject terms always checked for correct spelling? Is
sentence punctuation always corrected?
Further reading
http://www.scoop.it/t/literacy-in-secondary-
education
#LiteracyDropbox
Literacy in…geography/history/RE/maths/
science/PE
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