Tag: active literacy

STUDENTS CAN COUNT ON ADULT LITERACY CLASSES

An Adult Literacy support service available across Forth Valley College’s three campuses can support students with everything from arithmetic and numeracy to reading, writing and how to formulate essays.
The valuable service – run by the Core and Essential Skills Department – is open to anyone who thinks they need a little bit more help and confidence boosting encouragement with the core skills needed to complete further education courses at the college.
Forth Valley College Core Skills Lecturer Anne Reid said: “My colleagues and I are positive that these classes can make a huge difference to the lives of students who need some help in their core skills.
“We hope to raise the profile of the regular support sessions in order to make people more aware of when and where they are being held. Some students will only come along just the once to get some support with something specific like structuring an essay or others will attend for a few weeks to brush up on their computing or number skills.
“There should be no embarrassment or stigma attached to seeking help for basic literacy or numeracy. However if anyone feels they need to contact us in confidence about any issues they can.”
Alyson Milne (27) from Camelon, a former Forth Valley College HNC Working With Communities student benefited from the classes and is now beginning a BA degree course at the University of the West of Scotland.
Alyson said: “The Adult Literacy classes were brilliant in helping me to brush up on things I needed to in order to catch up in my course. They are great because the lecturers help you as you go at your own pace and level, and there are no deadlines or homework to worry about.
“No one should feel embarrassed about going along to these courses as they are just another class to help you learn something else or enhance what you already have. They make you feel so much better about your ability to push on with your course and the lecturers are excellent in the way they break things down into understandable sections.
“I would thoroughly recommend you give the classes a try – what have you got to lose?”
For more information on Forth Valley College’s Adult Literacy Classes contact Anne Reid by emailing anne.reid@forthvalley.ac.uk
Alternatively just drop in to any of the classes, the timetables for which can be found below:

FORTH VALLEY COLLEGE – EXCELLENCE IN LEARNING
Forth Valley College is made up of over 14,500 students and 500 staff and offers more than 750 courses at its campuses in Alloa, Falkirk and Stirling. Approximately 97% of students successfully progress on to employment or University upon completion of their course at Forth Valley College.

Contact:
Stuart Hall or Laura Riley on 01324 403125 or by e-mail on stuart.hall@forthvalley.ac.uk or laura.riley@forthvalley.ac.uk

Embedding Reading Strategies Across Bonnybridge Primary School

Bonnybridge Primary School have been working really hard to embed active literacy  across their school. In this post, we are taking a look at how Bonnybridge are improving attainment in reading. In active literacy reading, there are 6 comprehension strategies which are:

1. Prior knowledge and understanding – what do the pupils already know about the text/ main theme/ author

2. Metalinguistics – what are the interesting words and phrases? Which words do you like? Which words are you unsure of? How can we check the meaning?

Here the pupils are using a range of strategies, but you can see how they are analysing the words and phrases in this online newspaper report and using a dictionary to support their understanding. The pupils are using an active reading approach called ‘The Thinking Reader’ here:

3. Visualisation – can you produce a visual image in your head of the story/ plot/ character? Younger pupils will record this as a picture or drawing. Older children will produce more complex mind maps/ diagrams.

4. Inference – reading between the lines – what is the message the author is trying to convey without actually saying? What is the difference between what the character is thinking and what the character is saying?

Look at this wonderful work showing results of applying their inference skills about an advert #widertext 

5. Main ideas – what are the main ideas relating to plot/ character/ setting/ themes? Here we can see the pupils from P6/7 of Bonnybridge Primary School using their knowledge of the main ideas to formulate a theory of their own.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFdMGginz4Y&feature=youtu.be

    6. Summarising and paraphrasing – can you summarise the text in less than 20 words? Can you summarise in a tweet? Can you paraphrase the story? Can you provide synonyms and antonyms?

Look at these wonderful summaries of Danny, Champion of the World:

All of these 6 comprehension strategies combined are a very powerful toolkit for pupils who are then required to apply across a range of curricular areas in a range of new and unfamiliar situations.

Here is a quote from the Head Teacher commenting on the impact of active literacy across her school:

“A greater understanding and confidence by staff in delivering literacy across the school. Engagement of staff in the use of media to enhance learning and teaching is much more evident. This in turn has developed a deeper understanding for pupils of their learning.” – Jill Stocks, Headteacher

What does the DHT say about active literacy?

“This session, part of my remit is to develop Literacy and English across the school. We have worked hard as a staff to implement the principles behind Active Literacy. I find that reading has moved significantly away from ‘hearing reading’ to ‘teaching reading.’ At all stages in the school, the children are actively involved in their learning, working with the six comprehension strategies to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the texts that they are reading, watching or listening to. The use of Blooms Fans in the upper stages has encouraged deeper thinking and questioning of texts. A wide variety of learning contexts to which the children can apply their comprehension strategies has helped the children to transfer their reading skills across the curriculum.  In addition to reading, writing has improved with the implementation of the genre specific targets in Taught Writing, Core Writing Targets in Taught Writing, Daily Writing and Writing Across The Curriculum jotters. Some classes have also introduced Personal Writing Targets where children are encouraged to set their own areas for improvement. The contexts for writing are relevant, purposeful, enjoyable and link directly to IDL themes where appropriate.” – Andrew Watson – DHT

Here is a quote from one of the class teachers:

“I have seen a vast improvement in Literacy over the past year. The implementation of spelling strategies have enabled the children to meet core targets within everyday literacy tasks. The children learn to spell actively which allows the words to come alive and while there is still very much a place for writing / spelling the words correctly, this has allowed the children to embed their learning,

The comprehension strategies are firmly implemented within all reading tasks. The children are fully aware of what each strategy is and how each strategy helps them  to progress their learning and fully understand any text, whether it is a novel, film or a tweet. The children are more engaged with their literacy and are not only improving in literacy but are very much focussed on doing so.”- Michelle Cairns Class Teacher

“There has been a definite improvement in the literacy skills of the children over the past term.  The children are much more engaged in their learning and I feel they have gained confidence in their own abilities. Over the past year the children have developed a more secure understanding of the 6 comprehension strategies and are much more confident using these independently.  The inferencing skills in particular of the children in my class have improved and they are now more able to show a deeper understanding of the text as well as recognise and include inferencing  within their own writing.  My class really enjoy using a variety of texts such as film clips, articles etc and I feel that because of this the quality of discussion has significantly improved.” P6 Class teacher Emma Stanners

“Both myself and my class have learned a lot through active literacy this session. It has been a delight to provide a context for active learning and then to watch as the children take the initiative with their own learning.

The six comprehension strategies help to make reading more interesting for the children. They gain a deeper understanding of their texts and, consequently, enjoy it more. I have had parents come and tell me about how surprised they were that their child has suddenly developed an enthusiasm for reading at home and I believe active literacy played a huge role in this.

Similarly, I have been able to see many children develop and interest in their writing this session through active literacy. Much of our writing has linked to practical activities that we engage in prior to putting pencil to paper and so the children have been actively thinking about their task before even writing about it. As a result, they are eager to write.” Class teacher P6/7 Sarah Burns

What about the pupils? What do they have to say about active literacy? Here is a sample from P3K:

“Reading is different this year because we’ve got chapter books, with harder words. In Primary 2, we didn’t do inference, but now we do. I like reading because it’s quite fun and I like finding the clues. Inferencing is my favourite thing because we find everything”  – Lucy MacFarlane P3K

 “I like reading because it’s fun to do. I like doing summarising because it can be hard to find all the main points. It’s fun because you get to see good books like Boy Racer and you can read about who wins and who’s not good and who sticks up for them. It’s basically just fun!” – Zaak Budzinski

“I like reading because you get to learn loads of stuff from the books. I like doing main ideas. Sometimes it’s really hard, sometimes it’s really easy.” – Laura Little P3K Matthew Morrison P3K

“Prior Knowledge is everything that’s already inside your head. You use it so you can read.” – Ellie Wyatt P3K

“I like reading because you learn new things and you get harder words now. The book is longer too.” – Rory Bateman

Active Reading Animation for Parents and Carers

As part of Falkirk Council’s ‘Zero Tolerance to Illiteracy’ strategy, the Curriculum Support Team have been working on a number of ways to support parents and carers in this area. It is very important to us to share the strategies used to teach reading with parents and carers in order to improve attainment in this area. Reading workshops have been delivered a number of Falkirk Council Primary Schools and these have been really well received with really positive feedback.

A short animation has been recorded to support in this area and is available on Falkirk Council’s You Tube channel. We are very grateful to a P7 pupil from Airth Primary for recording the voiceover on this, showing us her excellent reading skills in action! It can also be accessed from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef1zKq6zm3U

For more information, please contact your child’s school to see if they are holding an active literacy reading workshop.

Active Literacy Update Session 2013 – 2014

 

Each year, as part of Workstream 6 of the Literacy Strategy, a report is prepared relating to Workstream 1 – ‘Embed active literacy in every establishment’.  These reports can be viewed here:

Please click this link to access Active Literacy Strategy July 2013 for Session 2012 – 2013.

Please click this link Active Literacy Strategy July 2014 to access ‘Active Literacy Update’ for Session 2013 – 2014.

For further information, please contact literacy@falkirk.gov.uk

Literacy at Nethermains

Pupils from Nethermains Primary School have been discovering their inner poets by using autumn as their inspiration and developing their active literacy skills by creating some exciting new poetry.  They worked co-operatively to create a list of exciting vocabulary and ventured on a walk in their local wooded area as a stimulus for their writing.

[kml_flashembed movie="https://www.youtube.com/v/lUBGH2Hs5-U" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

The Thinking Reader – What do the pupils think?

 

Pupils from St. Bernadette’s R.C.P.S. in Falkirk have demonstrated their knowledge and understanding of the six reading comprehension strategies at a recent C.P.D. event. The two P7 pupils eloquently described each of the strategies and treated the audience to both an i-movie trailer of a book they have been studying and a rap.

The audience included a range of teachers, including Education Scotland and the Literacy Development Officer from Highland Council who said “The two P7 children from the school were excellent. It highlighted to me that the years of training they’ve had in developing their Higher Order Thinking Skills has allowed them to apply their knowledge, understanding and skills across the curriculum – a real treasure.”

 The audience really enjoyed the presentation and later went onto Twitter to tweet:

Here are some extracts from the presentation, prepared by the pupils:

Citv Share a Story Winner! Falkirk Pupil wins National Competition

 

A local Falkirk pupil has recently been successful with her entry to Citv’s ‘Share a Story’ competition. The national competition asked pupils to produce a story board which would be made into a short animation aired on Citv in October 2014. Leah was successful and in August went down to Manchester to the ITV studios where she saw her storyboard come to life.

This is what Leah had to say about the experience:

“I like writing and reading so whenever there is a writing competition I give it a go. I like having a longer time to think about the best awesome things I can think of.

I like drawing as well so it was quite nice getting to draw out my story on a storyboard.

When I won my hands were actually shaking. I didn’t really take it in until we got to the TV studio 2 months later.

First we got to look round the studios, to see the set of one of the cartoons and do the weather report. then we got down to business and we got to see the start of our animation. We got to talk to the graphic designers about how we wanted our characters to look. My favourite thing was doing the VoiceOver to my story as the man from Scooby Doo taught us to do voices for our characters. 

If I could say one thing about writing to teachers it would be to give us some flexibility now and then so we can use our imagination. We might have a really good idea you never hear about because we never had the opportunity to write it. Lots of people have very good ideas but we don’t always get to use them if we have to stick to a certain topic.”

Well done Leah, we are all very proud of you and cannot wait for this to be aired in October!

Primary One Literacy Assessment and Action Resource

 

Primary One Literacy Assessment & Action Resource (POLAAR)

The Primary One Literacy Assessment & Action Resource, aimed at helping P1 teachers and support staff to identify learners at risk of developing later difficulties with their reading and writing, is now published on the Education Scotland website.  The resource was developed collaboratively by educational psychology professional bodies, the Scottish Government and Education Scotland and is based on research commissioned by the Scottish Government and undertaken by Professor Keith Topping on the key factors which underpin successful literacy development in learners.  POLAAR meets a commitment made in the SG’s Literacy Action Plan to encourage all local authorities to introduce personalised (literacy) assessments and diagnosis at P1, and to encourage practitioners to be aware of and act on this assessment information.

Click here to access Literacy Appraisal and Action in the Early Years summary document.

Engaging with Families

Falkirk Council is proud to be featured on the Scottish Government’s website – ‘Engaging with Families’. It demonstrates one of the ways Falkirk are working with families (Work stream 4) in pursuit of  ‘zero tolerance to illiteracy’. We are delighted to be featured here with a good practice story from Kinneil Primary School and Nursery Class in Bo’ness.

The ‘engaging with families’ website contains lots of ideas and advice in relation to raising attainment and closing the inequity gap. It explores a range of ways in which families can support children to achieve their potential.  The ‘Learning at Home’ section demonstrates how Falkirk Council have developed our ‘Learning to Achieve’ policy to support learners in the community. Part of this strategy includes interactive literacy and numeracy workshops where parents are given practical suggestions for how they can support their child’s learning at home.

For further information, please contact your child’s school to see if they are hosting an active literacy and/ or active numeracy workshop.