Category: Curriculum Level

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)

ICT to Support Modern Languages in the Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, presented a session with primary class teachers on a variety of ICT resources to support teaching Modern Languages in the Primary School. 

Resources

Audacity – Record pupil voice with Audacity, create and edit audio as pupil listening activities (e.g. cutting individual words or phrases and pasting them out of sequence in the audio for other pupils to correctly re-sequence the words) , turn into mp3 files (such as recitations or songs of individuals or groups of pupils) for sharing on school website, class blog or Glow group: http://glo.li/gJxmOi  

Little Bird Tales – Pupils create stories combining their voice with text (of vocabulary, phrases or sequence of sentences) and their images (either uploaded or created online with an artpad within the Little Bird Tales site) http://www.littlebirdtales.com/ and http://glo.li/rsrAzz for description, guide and video of use. 

Use digital video cameras for pupils to engage with texs and demonstrate their understanding of the text. Create stop-motion animation to illustrate vocabulary, phrase, poem or song. Resources here for video cameras: http://glo.li/gTmdzS. Resources for editing video: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2010/09/16/video-editing-with-windows-live-movie-maker/Resources here for making videos from still image photographs: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/2011/03/09/photostory-3/

Hello Mylo for Games-based learning, has online badges reward pupil progress, teacher account provides pupil progress reports. http://glo.li/RqNj0r

Create word-cloud images for wall display, blog, or website. Pupils create a word cloud of vocabulary on specific topics. Connect foreign word and English word in Wordle by adding a tilde between the words (~) or omit the connection and use as lesson starter for pupils to connect word and translation with pen on interactive whiteboard http://glo.li/f2Ifx9

Comic Creation Tools – pupils sequence stories in chosen language, or annotate conversations with images and speech bubbles for visual story-telling. Free online Comic-creation tools and resources here: http://glo.li/eEkUjo 

Google Translate – Use Google Translate to translate any text by copying and pasting words/phrases, paragraphs or a whole document or website. Use the speech feature to hear the text spoken with the accent of the chosen language. Translate class blog or school website. http://translate.google.com/

Lingro – Highlight words on any website in chosen language, Listen to the words spoken, Translate, then play flashcard games with all words chosen – all within the Lingro toolbar along the top of any website you choose. http://glo.li/hNnhFk 

Song Videos with Lyrics – Online videos with printed lyrics to follow http://chansons-fr.com/ – may provide inspiration for pupils to create own videos http://glo.li/gTmdzS (for resources about using Flipcam-type video cameras). Lyrics-gap Songs on video with choice of level of missing words for pupils to select from words while listening http://www.lyricsgaps.com/ 

Classtools: Online class gaming tools already created for French or German. Easily add own arcade-type games with own questions/answers http://www.classtools.net 

Quiz-creation tools – create self-correcting quizzes, provide feedback on what has been learned by pupils, pupils creating quizzes motivates & helps embed learning http://glo.li/g73CnR

Further Online Links

Teaching Ideas – a series of crowd-sourced ideas shared by teachers http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/foreignlanguages/contents.htm

Cybrary Man links to resources by category http://cybraryman.com/foreign.html 

Comments from participants included: 

“Made me keen to try sites with my class.” 

“Really useful, easy to understand and well presented.”

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”

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Learning Journey Evaluation

Daniel Barrie QIO with the Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team is visiting all Nursery Schools and Classes to evaluate the impactof the introduction of learning journeys on children’s experiences.  Karen Thomson, Early Years Support Officer with the Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team will be working with him. The focus of these visits will be to discuss with staff and children  the way in which  learning journey’s are used to plan experiences for young children that are responsive to their interests

LGBT Young Person Group FKInclude

Marian Boyle Curriculum Support Officer Health and Well Being in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team supported the implementation of LGBT Young Person Group FKInclude. This is the new Falkirk group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people and their friends and allies aged 13-26.This group runs every Thursday.  It  is an inspiring, fun and great place to be! There is a programme of weekly activities, which include workshops on young people rights, sexual health, ‘coming out’, mental health, the National Youth Council, LGBT History Month and Film nights, to name but a few. Workers and volunteers are also on hand for check-ins, support, advocacy and information.If you would like to be kept up to date with information about the group and other opportunities, please go to  www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/Falkirk

Quality P.E.- The 2 Hour Target

Morag Simpson, Physical Education Lead Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services, Curriculum Support Team has been engaging in series of meetings supporting the delivery of quality physical education in Falkirk primary schools. These meetings with Headteachers of the Larbert and Falkirk cluster primary schools were to explore a variety of ways in which schools were able to meet the delivery of the 2 hour target to fulfil the pupil entitlement. These discussions provide the means to share different solutions to the different contexts in relation to staffing, accomodation and resources to name but a few.

Quality Physical Education -2 hour target

Morag Young, Physical Education Lead Officer,  in Falkirk Council Education Services, Curriculum Support Team has been engaging in series of meetings supporting the delivery of quality physical education in Falkirk primary schools. These meetings with Headteachers of Denny and Graeme cluster primary schools were to explore a variety of ways in which schools were able to meet the delivery of the 2 hour target to fulfil the pupil entitlement. These discussions provide the means to share different solutions to the different contexts in relation to staffing, accomodation and resources to name but a few.

Shiny new database – making the work experience process easier

Lorraine Hamilton, Work Experience Administrator and Health & Safety Assessor, Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team has been working with partners and schools to move to a new database which should make the process easier for all. 

The new database (WorkIT) will be up and running for the new session and Work Experience Co-ordinators and Administrators will received training in May/June.  Comments made by one school are:

‘appears more user friendly’

‘modern look to it which may appeal to and encourage pupils to input more info.’

‘extended placement info seen clearly’.