Author: Miss Wallace

Significant aspects of learning in literacy and English

Literacy skills are embedded within all the curriculum areas.  Teachers and learners will focus on developing the skills detailed in the Experiences and Outcomes.  Key aspects of learning within literacy and English relate to the way learners:

  • engage with and create a broad range of texts, including Scottish and Scots texts
  • use reading strategies to understand, analyse and evaluate texts
  • find and use information
  • develop critical literacy skills, including evaluating sources
  • write with increasing accuracy, making effective use of spelling, grammar and punctuation
  • create texts of increasing complexity using more sophisticated language
  • develop and use higher-order thinking skills.

Falkirk’s Curriculum Support Team will be delivering a range of professional learning opportunities this year  based around these significant aspects of learning in literacy.

These opportunities include a range of Active Literacy courses based around active strategies and methodologies for spelling and phonics, reading and writing, sharing good practice networks, higher order reading skills, effective questioning in literacy and using a range of media-linked genre to develop literacy skills.

Blogging About Active Literacy

Mary Jalland, Class Teacher at Westquarter Primary School, Falkirk, has created two Active Literacy blogs. Mary’s blogs are a great way of sharing effective teaching and learning in literacy, as well as sharing resources relating to the P1 and P2 Active Literacy programme. Mary has included links through to pupils demonstrating the Active Literacy strategies and methodologies, as well as a great explanation of Active Learning in their class.

Please visit: http://mrsjallandphonics.primaryblogger.co.uk/atspin/

http://mrsjallandphonics2.primaryblogger.co.uk/atspin/

Active Literacy – FAQs

 How can I support my child with their active literacy homework?

What is a phoneme? 

  • A letter or group of letters that make a single sound, for example, ‘oi’ or ‘a’.

What are Elkonin boxes?

  • These are used to teach phonemic awareness. Pupils listen out for the individual sounds and mark where they hear them in boxes.

What is diacritical marking?

  • Diacritical marking is the use of symbols to mark single sounds/ phonemes (e.g. b, p), joined phonemes (e.g. sh, ch) and split phonemes (magic e words). It is a spelling strategy which is used as part of the ‘Active Literacy’ approach in schools. It is usually taught at Primary 4 and 5, though can be continued and developed in the upper stages. There are three parts to the code: a single dot which represents a single phoneme, a line which represents a joined phoneme and an arch which represents a split phoneme.

What is Reciprocal Teaching?

  • This is a strategy used during Active Learning where children will work together to support and challenge each other. They may adopt roles such as ‘word reader’ or ‘word writer’.

Which spelling strategies are taught at school and how I can support my child with this?

  • There are many spelling strategies taught in school. Some of the ‘fun’ spelling tasks which are used to learn common or tricky words include: Rainbow writing, fancy writing, spell-er-cise, bubble writing, big and little writing, type-em-up, rhyming words, newspaper letters and triangle spelling. Other strategies taught are: syllabification, mnemonics, words within words, word shape, spelling rules and compound words.

Active Approaches to Literacy – Early Level

Within Falkirk Council, we believe in the importance of developing literacy skills within the Early Years through experiential play and the transferring of these skills to everyday life. Our document provides an overview for staff of active approaches to literacy within Curriculum for Excellence Early Level. Click the hyperlink to access the document:

Active Approaches to Literacy July 2014