Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been busy sharing the active literacy message with initial teacher education students at Stirling University. Third year students were provided with a brief overview of the Active Literacy strategies and methodologies before embarking on a practical workshop of activities. The third year students participated in a traditional spelling test followed by an active learning spelling test. They commented on the difference between the two and how much more effective the learning was using the Active approach. They also attempted to split words into Elkonin boxes learned about single phonemes, joined phonemes and split phonemes. They examined a range of ‘texts’ including recipes, stories, picture books and film looking at how the six key comprehension reading strategies can be applied at early level. Students were enthused by this creative approach to active literacy and ‘on a mission’ to try out some of the methodologies on their next teaching placement. It was a really enjoyable morning and Dr. Lynsey Burke commented on how important it is to have had a valuable input and insight into current active literacy approaches within Falkirk Council.
Author: Miss Wallace
Using Active Approaches to Reading Using Moving Image as ‘Text’
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been working with a number of schools on active approaches to reading.
Sharon has been working on the development of skills which address ENG 1/2-17a – ‘To show my understanding, I can respond to different kinds of questions and can create different kinds of questions of my own.’
Working with ‘Lost and Found’ moving image as a text, Sharon has been working alongside class teachers to use Blooms question fans to support generating, and indeed, answering their own higher order questions.
Using a ‘book detective’ approach, pupils have been given specific tasks to find evidence within the ‘text’ to support themes/ characterisation/ setting/ plot and structure.
Incorporating co-operative learning strategies such as ‘corners’ (literal, evaluative and inferential questions) and ‘two stay/ two stray’, pupils have generated their own questions and model answers for other pupils to solve.
In their co-operative learning roles of question master, clarifier, recorder and summariser, pupils initially answered prediction questions about the text, followed by generating their own questions to ask others.
Pupils were highly engaged and motivated during the whole of the sessions. These sessions culminated in pupils taking on the role of teacher (Reciprocal Teaching) where they devised their own lessons for younger pupils using the same moving image as ‘text’. Pupils incorporated Assessment is for Learning strategies into their own lessons and shared learning intentions and success criteria.
Active Literacy – Differentiation – Bowhouse Primary School
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been looking for how class teachers in Falkirk have been differentiating the Active Literacy resource to meet the needs of all pupils.
Sharon met with P4 Class Teacher, Nicola Lorenzetti and her pupils in action with Active Literacy activities. The pupils were working through an exciting range of differentiated Active Literacy activities and eloquently explained to Sharon what they were doing.
Nicola Lorenzetti has organised individual literacy trays which contain all the resources needed for Active Literacy teaching, consolidation and application across other areas. These trays provide breadth, challenge and allow pupils to apply their skills across a range of activities including working with non-fiction texts, use of ICT and talking and listening activities.
This good practice is going to be shared at a forthcoming Active Literacy CPD event.
Active Literacy – CPD tv
Sharon Wallace, Effective teaching and learning teacher, Curriculum Support team, has been working on GLOW CPD tv sessions relating to Active Literacy.
The short CPD tv clips provide an introduction to each stage/ aspect of Active Literacy for class teachers.
http://www.youtube.com/user/fcEducationServices
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Al8aAuatSpc" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eTnP9ArCeck" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NuHmDLxFREs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/32oXIbrzzgo" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/D0Sb-Jm_mEA" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/A62fESpf8DY" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rkz1CuJnx7M" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/i4cA9YJl-O8" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Active Literacy – What do the Parents Think About It?
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has recently been carrying out a number of Parent Information Workshops in Falkirk establishments.
The aims of these workshops is to provide an overview of the strategies and methodologies used for Active Literacy in class. These workshops begin with a short presentation which examines strategies such as Elkonin boxes, diacritical marking and reciprocal teaching.
During the next part of the workshop, pupils invite parents/ carers to take part in the activities. Here the pupils take on the role of reciprocal teacher and help their parents/ carers take part in activities such as pyramid spelling, phoneme stories, making words and spell-er-cise.
Parent leaflets are given out which explains the terms used in active literacy, alongside useful websites to support with from home.
Here are a few quotes:
Active Literacy – What do the Pupils Think About It?
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been carrying out some research with pupils in Falkirk establishments to see what they really think about Active Literacy and how they think it helps them to learn.
We first asked the pupils:
“How would you describe active literacy”?
It is fun and really exciting! It is also very helpful with spelling words, I really like it (P6/7)
Active literacy is a language task that is used to help children improve their spelling and sounds (P7)
It helps you see the phonemes in words (P6/7)
Fun if you are working with a partner (P4/5)
I would describe it as a fun lesson to learn different phonemes and spelling rules to help us spell accurately although I enjoy the tasks (P7)
Fun, great way of learning and very helpful for spelling and understanding of spelling (P6)
A better way than spelling tests (P4/5)
I do like active literacy, but sometimes it can be difficult (P5)
We then asked the pupils how they think Active Literacy has helped them in class and this is what they said:
The spelling rules and syllabification.
I understand my literacy work more using active literacy.
I have got better at spelling and I learn lots of new words.
It helps me get better at my literacy work because we learn different language rules that we remember to help us spell so our work is correct.
It has helped me get better because I really understand it now.
I have learned more about the sounds of words.
It helps you see phonemes in words.
I have learned loads using active literacy.
Here are a few pupil quotes:
“I like active literacy because it helps me improve on my story writing and phonemes. I really like the active literacy homework. I like the spellings”. (P4)
“I like active literacy because I am a better reader and speller and I like all the fun tasks for homework. My favourite task is bubble spelling”. (P4)
“I like active literacy, my favourite part is Elkonin boxes. I prefer Elkonin boxes to diacritical marking, but at least it is helping with my vocabulary and spelling. For homework I like the jingles. My spelling has improved since I started Active Literacy. (P7)
Active Literacy and the Specialist Subject in Primary
Sharon Wallace, Effective teaching and learning teacher, Curriculum Support Team delivered an Active Literacy workshop to the Primary Specialists team. Specialists in P.E., Music, Modern Foreign Languages, Art and Drama examined the connections between their subject area and active literacy. We examined the literacy skills needed for each area which included: subject specific vocabulary, visual literacy, sharing ideas, following instructions, interpretation of texts and presenting.
Feedback from colleagues included:
“Will work with class teachers to enable pupils to create a piece of writing linked to work carried out in a drama session”
“This builds confidence and encourages me to do more. Will use Victoria Libraries and GLOW links as suggested”
“Makes me more aware that a lot of what I am doing already links well to active literacy. Makes me more confident”
“I will get my pupils to work more in pairs (Reciprocal teaching) to improve their communication skills”
“Some practical ideas of how to include Active Literacy in a specialist lesson”
“To work co-operatively with the class teacher to enhance active literacy in music class”
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vPRZ8MN9Ha4" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]
Active Literacy Network Meeting – Reading
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team was delighted to host the second Active Literacy Network meeting of this year at Camelon Education Centre. As usual, attendance was fantastic and colleagues were keen and enthusiastic to hear the latest Literacy developments, share good practice and network with colleagues. News was shared about the forthcoming P6/7/S1 packs, as well as links to useful websites relating to reading and updates relating to the Early Years conference. Colleagues from Stenhousemuir Primary and Bonnybridge Primary shared good practice from their schools. Colleagues considered using ‘film’ as a text, as well as using resources such as the Comprehension triangles for each stage.
Comments from colleagues included:
‘As usual, inspiring!’
‘Great getting input from teachers sharing good practice!’
‘These courses are fab and really support us!’
‘Enjoyed professional dialogue with other teachers’
‘As always, taking away some new ideas and an ‘enthusiasm’ boost!’
Active Literacy – Effective Transition at the Early Level
Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning teacher, Curriculum Support Team led an active literacy workshop at the Early Years Conference. The workshop explored ways Nursery and P1 are working together to ensure a smooth transition for literacy development. Good practice was shared by Camelon Nursery and Carmuirs Primary School and this was well received by colleagues. 
