Category: Literacy Skills

This category collects information and practice relating to all literacy skills

Connecting Parents & Carers with Literacy through Play at Maddiston Primary School

Primary 1 staff and Diane Russell (PT) at Maddiston PS created a video for their P1 parents and carers, who would usually visit the P1 classrooms to attend Literacy information workshops. The video shares and explains how literacy learning and play pedagogy are used to support primary 1 pupils as they progress their reading, writing, talking and listening.

The video shares a range of ways in which staff build literacy through play, playful teaching and engaging, active learning. These include:

  • Helicopter Stories
  • Foundations of Writing
  • Approaches designed to develop phonological awareness & other elements of reading
  • Building words
  • Developing a reading culture
  • Stories – reading in class and at home via initiatives such as the Bedtime Story Box
  • Listening activities
  • Message centre

The video is narrated by staff and children and they share how the learning environment promotes literacy skills.

  • Role play
  • Small worlds
  • Sand and water trays
  • Construction
  • Sound and audio in class

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlqPAd6BEG4&w=560&h=315]

The final section of the video gives parents and carers an overview of a key reading and comprehension resource used in school – Bug Club.

Applying Literacy Skills in a Celebration of Burns and Scottish Heritage – Some Support Materials

Scottish Flags Clipart | Free Images at Clker.com - vector clip art online, royalty free & public domain

Literacy Team colleagues from our Falkirk Service and School Improvement Team have created a learning grid of literacy-led activities which can be used by school colleagues to support their remote learning planning and teaching in January 2021. Judith Davies and Louise Amos created the grid and sourced the many useful links and engaging learning activities it offers. Click on the image above to open the grid and click here to view the activity sheets.

The Scottish Book Trust also have resources linked to Scotland/Burns click here to view the resources Tweeted @Bookbug_SBT – Learn about Rabbie’s life as a boy, colour in a wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie and discover the meaning of some braw #Scots words in this activity pack from @VisitScotland

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East Ayrshire Council also shared a Google Robert Burns Birthplace Virtual Classroom link available here.

Family Literacy Learning Pack 2 – Our Dream Holiday

This blog post shares the second family literacy learning pack created by Falkirk Children’s Services Literacy Team during school closures caused by coronavirus. We hope it gives Falkirk families a fun way to learn together while dreaming of better times when we can go anywhere we like! 🙂

Are you ready to pretend that you’ve won a dream holiday, have a large budget to spend and can go to any 3 cities in the world?

Click here to download a print copy of the plan – this takes the form of a work book which you and your children can use at your own pace (it has 50 pages so you might want to pick and choose the ones you need, or ask your child’s school to make you a print copy). The whole family can work together at the same time, or children can work independently – you will know what is right for you.

Look at the plan with your child(ren), check they understand the order of the little task bubbles and questions at the beginning of each section, then get started. The plan suggests things to do and ways to do them, but you might have even better ideas. Enjoy doing as much or as little as your child(ren) want to each day and remember that this learning shouldn’t replace or be in addition to what your children are being asked to do by their teacher or school. Don’t do too much.

Useful Links to use with this plan –  Click on the links below when you are ready for them (they are roughly in the order you will need them as you work through the plan).

What is a holiday? Click here for a simple definition. We hope you enjoy remembering and talking about your own holidays and days out.

Click here to watch a BBC Bitesize video about the world, the continents, atlases and maps you might want to spend a bit of time refreshing your knowledge of the world by doing the activities there too.

Click here to view our brochure with information about some of the major cities of the world – you can research to find out more information or find your own cities instead if you want to. Click here to view a useful presentation created for Falkirk pupils by the digital learning team at Encyclopeadia Britannica. This brilliant resource will help you research cities of the world. You can click here to visit their schools website

Google Street Map is a great tool for taking a virtual tour or walk in your city, use this link to help you.

When your children/your family are on their pretend holiday, you might want to make/keep a creative holiday diary – click here to see a couple of examples from the internet.

Click on the country below to learn more about the culture, the traditions and the language spoken in your holiday cities – these power points have audio files which you can use to practise using words and phrases you might need.

France    Spain    Italy   Germany

Enjoy your pretend dream holiday!

https://images.app.goo.gl/DpxRTPhAEDFU9Jyr9

When you come back, please tell us all about it by leaving a comment below. We would be grateful for your feedback about how valuable you find this plan.

 

 

 

 

Falkirk Children’s Services – Family Literacy Learning Pack 1 – Jack and the Beanstalk

This blog post shares a digital family learning pack created by the literacy team working for Falkirk Children’s Services. This is our first pack produced during the closure of our schools and centres as a result of the corona virus and it uses the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We hope it helps parents and carers across our authority to support their children’s learning and to enjoy learning together.  To use this pack with your children you should:

  1. Read over the plan – click here to view (save to a new file in your device?)
  2. Listen to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk by clicking here OR click here for another version. You might prefer to watch this modern cartoon version or click here to read the story as a text.
  3. Explain the plan to your younger children and let older children read it themselves – you can talk about whether you all want to use it to learn together or with only one child (your child’s school may have given you advice about how it fits with the other work your children have been sent)
  4. Tell your child(ren) that working on this plan will help them practise and get better at talking, listening, reading, writing, being creative and developing technology skills. You might want to talk about the little curriculum pie chart (see picture below right) which shows the school subjects this plan links together – literacy, expressive arts and technologies. 
  5. Simply start with episode one and work your way through to episode 5 – remember to only do as much as you are able to at any time and to take breaks when your child(ren) need these.
  6. You can stick really closely to the questions and activities suggested by the  plan, but it can be just as valuable to change these depending on how your children answer, and what they like/want/are able to do.
  7. At any suitable point during your Jack and the Beanstalk learning, let your child(ren) search through the extra activity ideas listed below and choose any that they want to do.
  8. When you are finished, we would love to hear how it has gone. Please leave a comment on this blog post below, and/or  Tweet tagging your child’s school  and our #LiteracyAtHome.

This way of learning is called Storyline and has been used in Scottish schools and nurseries for over 40 years. Click here to learn more about the Storyline approach.

Extra Ideas for your Jack and the Beanstalk Storyline work:

  • Activities for nursery and primary 1 children – click here.
  • BBC Radio Music resource – learn how to sing the story of Jack and the Beanstalk – click here
  • Click here to explore Jack and the Beanstalk drama ideas from the Scottish Book Trust
  • Click here to view copyright free pictures and resources

Using Picture Books to Promote Primary 1 Progress in Reading at Bowhouse PS

Earlier this session, Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher, Falkirk Children’s Services, met with Charlotte McManus, Acting Depute Head teacher at Bowhouse Primary School to discuss literacy. Charlotte shared literacy teaching and learning which was going well in Bowhouse, including their focus at early level on rhyme, repetition and being playful with words through songs and actions. Charlotte kindly shared some of the picture books which Bowhouse colleagues use with primary 1 learners to support their progression of reading skills. We hope this list (see below) is useful to you – but please note other texts which are helping your learners by commenting upon this post? Together we can build an engaging plethora (love that word) of suggestions! These skills are highlighted by the extract from our Falkirk Literacy & English Progression Pathway pictured above.

Early in Term 1 – Environmental sound book suggestions

1.        Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

2.        We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen

3.        Farmyard Hullabaloo by Giles Andreae

4.        Peace At Last by Jill Murphy

5.       Quiet by Kate Alizadeh

6.       Rabbits Nap (Julia Donaldson)

7.       Lullaby Hullaballoo

Later in Term 1 – Authors who use rhyme

1.       Julia Donaldson

2.       Nick Sharrat ( Fairytales if focus is Fairyland)

3.       Kes Gray (oi Frog!)

4.       Jez Alborough

5.       Giles Andreae

6.       Quintin Blake

7.       Lynley Dodd

Term 2 – Books with repeated phrases

1.       Jack and the Flum Flum Tree

2.       Hairy McLary

3.       The very Hungry Caterpillar

4.       The Tiger who Came to Tea

5.       The Gruffalo

6.       Owl Babies

7.       Handa’s Surprise

8.       Mrs Mopple’s Washing Line

9.       The Day Louis Got Eaten

10.   Solomen Crocodile

11.   Brown Bear Brown Bear what do you see?

12.   Farmer Duck

13.   Don’t Talk to the Bus Driver

The Scottish Book Trust website also has resources which develop  similar literacy skills using Scots language and rhymes here – these may be useful for parents reading to their children at home too. Education Scotland National Improvement Hub resources point to this Words for Life section of the National Literacy Trust website. It offers guidance for parents on literacy activities and milestones in talking and reading which may also be helpful for family learning.

Improving literacy across learning in Argyll and Bute

At the National Literacy Network meeting in June 2019, Claire Bryden, Principal Teacher for literacy from Argyll and Bute Council shared literacy developments ongoing with primary and secondary colleagues. The slide above captures the ultimate aim of the strategies being developed – to ensure that:

  1. All practitioners understand the importance of literacy to learning across the curriculum
  2. All practitioners understand the level of challenge required when designing literacy tasks
  3. Literacy is embedded within planning across the school
  4. Literacy learning is made visible to learners
  5. Pupils have an overview of their own literacy across the school
  6. Staff provide feedback on literacy
  7. All staff involved in the assessment of literacy

Click here to view Claire’s full presentation and learn how she is working with others to explore and combine a number of ideas, research sources and tools such as:

  • Supporting emerging literacy inspired by a variety of sources including David Fulton
  • Exploring ideas from research by Sue Ellis on the three domains of literacy
  • The development of pupil vocabulary using the Storyline approach
  • Developing interdisciplinary contexts which integrate STEM/science within relevant historical contexts
  • Defining how these contexts could progress the degree of challenge to pupils’ literacy skills and development across the curriculum in primary and secondary settings (see below)

  • Focus on the development of pupil skills – supporting these by creating simple, effective tools for pupils and staff to use during teaching (see below)

  • Linking all of these developments to aim for a shared, firm understanding of standards and appropriate pace and challenge for literacy across learning
  • Applying Improvement Science methodology to track and evidence impact

Key Messages about Digital Literacy from the National Literacy Network Meeting – June 2019

James Miller, our FV & WL regional collaborative seconded development officer for Digital Skills presented key information and support at the June 2019 National Literacy Network meeting. The slide above captures facts which show the relevance of digital literacy for our young people as they grow. Key points are bulleted below along with useful links:

  • Experiences and Outcomes specific to Digital Literacy and Computing Science have been present in our Technologies curriculum area from the emergence of Curriculum for Excellence. Internet Safety and Cyber Resilience are sub-organisers/elements within Digital Literacy.
  • Since 2017 developments to Technologies  include a review and re-fresh of E & Os & creation of the Technologies Benchmarks
  • Key Digital Literacy documents include: HGIOS 4, Digital Strategy for Scotland refresh, Cyber Resilience Strategy for Scotland, STEM Strategy and…

  • Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through the Use of Digital Technology 2016 supports effective & appropriate use of technology across the curriculum for practitioners in all settings. It has four objectives/areas of focus: Educator Skills, Curriculum and Assessment, Access to Technology and Leadership. The document defines 40 national actions for these and sets out expectations for schools and local authorities.

James highlighted the variety of texts which are digital: emails, films, games, TV programmes, instructions, text messages, blogs, etc. He explored how literacy and digital literacy skills could be bundled or grouped in relevant ways within the broad general education (BGE),  suggesting that pupils could/should be inspired and encouraged to use digital technology in new ways to develop their literacy AND digital literacy skills i.e. naturally occurring interdisciplinary learning opportunities – see slide below with the success criteria.

Click here to view the extracts from his presentation which offer further advice about linking/progressing literacy across learning with digital literacy, including resource suggestions such as Immersive Reader – a Microsoft OneNote tool – click here – which can support development of reading comprehension, fluency and confidence in readers with English as a first or additional language.

 

Developing the Thinking Reader Approach at Larbert Village Primary School

As part of their Larbert cluster focus on reading skills, Laura Robinson and Claire Morrison have been developing the Thinking Reader approach with colleagues at Larbert Village PS over the last 3 school sessions. Laura and Claire had both used this approach themselves previously and recognised its value for developing children’s reading skills, engagement in and enjoyment of reading. Both volunteered to jointly lead the literacy working group who were focusing on reading in their school.

Year 1 was about raising staff awareness and offering training opportunities to build staff confidence in using the Thinking Reader approach. One of the most valuable activities was the creation of a Thinking Reader resource booklet which staff made together. This booklet has proven to be a very useful tool which helps everyone plan their Thinking Reader units of work. Staff were so enthusiastic about using the approach that they took advantage of opportunities to observe and shadow Laura and Claire during Thinking Reader lessons.

Teachers noticed that the approach was having a whole range of impacts on children’s reading:

  • Increased understanding of the text
  • Greater engagement with the text
  • Raised the profile of reading across the school
  • Obvious enjoyment of the text and a real sense of how valued each text was (Book Bug books were used as Thinking Readers and became very precious to the children – they could not wait to share their book with family members – parents and relatives still comment on how often the children want to read these books at home)

This first year went so well that a  showcase event was held at the end of National Book Week to celebrate reading and share the Thinking Reader approach with parents. The Thinking Reader questions developed by staff have been turned into a poster with questions which parents can use at home when reading with their children. Laura and Claire see this as a valuable tool which they can share with parents when they ask for specific ways to support their child’s reading

Using feedback from colleagues, Laura and Claire set about increasing the range of texts available for use with this approach. Through working group research and collaboration texts were identified, then gathered to create Thinking Reader resource libraries (Book Fair and PEF funding also supported these purchases). 2018-19 focused on acquiring age-appropriate picture book texts for use with primary 4-7 pupils. Teachers felt that these texts would be accessible so that all pupils could develop their reading skills in addition to enjoying and being engaged with the texts.

Different teachers have chosen to capture/collect the learning resulting from their Thinking Readers in variety of ways. Floor books, folders, jotters and wall displays all proved useful ways to share in school plus effective use of Twitter for parents and a wider education audience. Claire’s primary 2 class were particularly inspired by a fictional book about a pink penguin – their Thinking Reader developed into a whole series of pink penguin toy adventures and the creation of a penguin rucksack which went home with the penguin each weekend.

This literacy development of the Thinking Reader approach has been successful for a host of reasons: effective peer support and collaboration; use of display and other methods of sharing; making sure that the approach is used consistently across the school; ensuring skills progression within and across stages. Laura and Claire feel that it has been a very positive journey for the whole staff, and that they can see a real increase in pupil engagement and enjoyment of reading using this approach. The Thinking Reader approach makes comprehension creative and fun so that the children enjoy taking part in the activities and progressing their literacy skills.

Increasing engagement in reading with Primary 2 at Beancross Primary School

In March 2018 Rebecca Morrison, class teacher of primary 2 at Beancross PS began looking at ways to help her pupils make more progress in their reading. After attending a CPD session which explored enjoyment and choice in reading, Rebecca decided to make links with the local library and to involve parents who wanted to help progress their children’s reading.

With the support of her head teacher, Rebecca initially checked that Grangemouth Public Library could accommodate class visits by her pupils. The next step was to set dates which suited the library and her children’s parents. Parents were invited to join in with monthly visits to the library to read with their children, help them select books and generally promote reading and the use of the library.

So far the visits have been well attended by parents and pupils have been very enthusiastic about this shared reading experience. Some parents have become members of the library as a result of this initiative. Pupils borrow a book from the library each time they visit, returning it the following time – they really enjoy having access to the huge range of books available in the public library.

Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher with Falkirk Children’s Services joined the class visit on the morning of 29th May 2019, and spoke to the children, parents, carers and grandparents attending. She asked the children how they felt about the library visits:

Kayden said “Happy. I like going to the library, I’ve been every month since I started primary 2. I read more and I enjoy getting new books.”

Hannah likes the visits because “there’s lots of books close together and I can choose anything I want.”

Siobhan said “I feel good going to the library and I enjoy that you get new books every month. It helps with my reading and sounding out words. I like getting them (right) and if I’m not sure I can ask.”

One of the mums said “It’s really good for them to be able to come down to pick a book they can read in school – the visits help them become more independent.” Mr Finlayson joined his grandson to read, commenting that “He reads all the time and has been coming to the library since he was 18 months old – it definitely has paid dividends for his reading.” Mums Jennifer and Emma feel that the visits are a very valuable experience for the children who hadn’t been to the library before. They suggested that the visits really encourage reading as well as offering a valuable opportunity to walk from school, getting fresh air, exercise and learning safe routes around their town. This was dad James’ first time being part of the library visit, and he explained that his child “seems to be enjoying it – it’s nice to see them coming to the library.”

Rebecca has been liaising with Grant, the librarian to arrange the visits and as soon as he and his colleagues had completed the mammoth task of checking out the books, Yvonne also gathered his thoughts: “We love having the kids in the library – they are the future and it’s great that they are getting into reading and literature. We have our Summer Challenge coming up (click here for more information) and it’s great that we have such good relationships with the primary schools in Grangemouth.

The enjoyment of the children was obvious during their visit, with final selection and stamping of books being particularly exciting – as can be seen from the photos.

Rebecca has observed that combining her teaching of reading in the classroom with monthly visits to the public library with parents has helped her pupils’ reading in the following ways:

  • pupils willingly choose to read for pleasure during opportunities for free choice in class
  • they are eager to look at and read each others’ books (they have read more books!)
  • the number of pupils who read at home has increased
  • parents are reading with their children more frequently than before
  • pupils who previously struggled with fluency and comprehension have improved these skills – some of them have made very significant progress

Rebecca will continue to develop this work next session through an approach called practitioner inquiry where research and more formal data measures will help her evaluate just how much difference this reading intervention makes.