Tag: literacy skills

September 2024 Literacy News

Here is our September 2024 list of Literacy News items from your Falkirk literacy team:

  1. Once you’ve read this update, please browse this refreshed Literacy blog using the page menu at the top and the post selections below. Our digital spaces have been “tidied” to make them as clear, simple and valuable as possible. Thanks to your Literacy Audit responses last year, we’ve added a Literacy Resources section here and are gradually developing our Literacy Microsoft Team too. Further suggestions welcome.
  2. Our updated and streamlined second edition of our Falkirk Literacy Framework will be launched soon. It includes our latest literacy team plan and the visual description of our Falkirk Literacy Networks below.   
  3. Our Falkirk Literacy and English Curriculum Network (FLECN) includes at least one representative from each of our cluster areas. These colleagues act as literacy leads and will share key literacy information with each of their cluster colleagues. They will meet for the first time this session on 12.9.24.
  4. We’ve worked hard to create a diverse menu of literacy and English professional learning for all. Our universal CLPL menu includes a selection of sixteen opportunities listed under the prefix LIT within Falkirk CPD Manager. Our team members are also providing more targeted literacy support through close collaboration with selected schools.
  5. Education Scotland has released another chunk of their Early Reading Resource. These resources, offer valuable support not only for early years practitioners, but for everyone supporting the literacy of our children and young people.
  6. The National Response to Improving Literacy (NRIL) board are almost ready to report their findings to the Scottish Government – more news next time on this.
  7. Yvonne McBlain takes up a 0.5 FTE role as NRIL Development Officer with Education Scotland between October 2024 and March 2025.
  8. Your literacy team are planning to offer a menu of literacy professional learning on the February 2025 in-service day. This is a work in progress, but we are aiming for a menu with options for practitioners working in any sector or setting. Contact us to add to the wish list!

Developing Writing at Larbert Village PS

As part of her Masters in Early Years Pedagogy, Frances McMahon, class teacher, led recent work to develop teaching of writing in Larbert Village PS (LVPS). She and her colleagues in school defined the following aims for this work:

  • to create a shared understanding and ethos of writing across the school
  • to share good practice/engage in professional dialogue
  • to discuss plans for moderation of writing

Frances initially facilitated a collegiate meeting with colleagues to share key information about children’s development of writing. This included: why writing matters, the cognitive load required as children learn transcription and compositional skills, teachers’ responses to children’s written work, and the purposes of writing. Falkirk practitioners can view her presentation in more detail in our Literacy in Falkirk Team here.

Larbert Village PS teachers then explored different approaches to writing which included:

  1. Shared writing: helps to highlight what goes on in a writer’s head, whilst being a partner in the process
  2. Modelling writing: strategic intervention, teacher or peer modelling the process or specifics e.g. sentence structure and punctuation
  3. Guided writing: conferencing 1:1 or small group. Talking to the child about their writing as a reader not an assessor. Scaffolding them to think about the purpose/ audience help them get out what they are trying to say
  4. Building in opportunities for paired and group readings of writing for children to check they have said what they wanted to say
  5. Low stakes writing (less pressure) building to high stakes (more formal pieces of writing with success criteria)

Staff spent time during this session exploring low stakes writing and sharing current writing practice. They then agreed to use the PM Writing framework to structure their teaching of information report writing during a 5 week period so that they could then moderate the resulting pupil evidence together.

On the May in-service day teachers met with stage partners to moderate this evidence and valued seeing the progression of writing for this purpose from primary 1 – 7. The examples shared here are from primary 1, 4 and 7.  Staff used the core and information report writing targets from PM during this moderation process. When reviewing this whole writing initiative, teachers raised issues about the variation in teaching practices used, how each learning experience had been planned and the degree of scaffolding provided for pupils. They recognised that all of these factors affected the validity of their assessment and moderation of children’s evidence of writing.

As a result, next session, they will take quality time to plan their writing lessons and will moderate their planning, teaching and assessment together. Their moderation will focus on a range of pupil evidence and purposes for writing (writing genres). Throughout this work, they will apply their knowledge of the demands of writing development for children. They will build in small changes to their writing teaching practice too.

 

 

Frances and colleagues teaching primary 1 and 2 children in Larbert Village PS have adopted specific pedagogical approaches to support early development of writing.  They build on the use of Helicopter Stories in the nursery by continuing to capture children’s story-making through similar strategies.  Children sit around a delineated space and volunteer to share their improvised narrative tales. They direct fellow pupils in role as their characters to act these out while the teacher scribes the tale. In this way, children build their capacity to create characters, setting, storylines, beginnings, middles and conclusions. Their communication, vocabulary, speech and sequencing skills are all developed in a fun and non-threatening way. These are known as “Stage Stories” in LVPS and each classroom displays these tales to celebrate and share this playful, adult and child-initiated learning.

 

Foundations of Writing is also employed by teachers as a developmentally appropriate adult-directed way to scaffold children’s development of the physical skills and cognitive capacity to write. Teachers using this drawing-based programme initially encourage children to make representative line drawings which they then scribe in writing for each child. These drawings depict not only the way things look to the children, but also less tangible information such as the movement of things being shown.

The teacher gradually initiates or directs children to increasingly detailed drawings/depictions of events and stories. As they draw increasingly complex and detailed lines, shapes, and patterns, children develop the fine motor skills and muscle stamina to make the transition to letter formation. When “telling” their picture/story to the teacher/adult who is scribing for them they understand the symbolic and representative nature of mark-making and begin to connect phonemes and graphemes in a gradual and natural way.

 

Frances and colleagues observe each child’s progress carefully to identify when their letter-formation and blending becomes reliable enough for them to write independently.

To read another post about Foundations of Writing click here.

 

 

 

Literacy and Digital Tools Professional Learning Resources Now Available

Falkirk Literacy Team colleagues and Kerry Abercrombie, DigiLearn Falkirk Support Officer have been co-delivering professional learning about digital tools which support learners’ literacy skills since 2020. We responded to teachers’ requests for guidance on which digital tools might help remove literacy and/or curriculum barriers for their pupils. The training sessions shared digital tools which we felt could be vital to the learning of some children and young people but also valuable to all (helping to close gaps and improve equity). These training sessions have been very well attended and  evaluated by teachers, early years officers and senior leaders across our Forth Valley & West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative (FVWLRIC).

We are delighted to share Kerry’s one-stop-shop link (click on the picture above) and QR code below which leads to the support pages where she has collated the materials from each session . The landing page enables you to learn about digital tools for reading, writing, creating, presenting or for learners with English as an Additional Language.

Each page includes:

  • The Powerpoint slides from the session
  • A recording of the session
  • A description of the digital tools and how they support learners’ literacy
  • Demonstration videos
  • Ideas and suggestions for ways in which the tools can support literacy learning

 

 

Our annual Writing Week – Writing for Pleasure at Bonnybridge Primary School

Writing Week has been an annual event at Bonnybridge for the last four years. It has grown from an idea to encourage children to enjoy writing to a highly anticipated time of year which many of our children look forward to.

Raising attainment in writing was a school improvement priority, so as well as focusing on how we teach writing throughout the year, we wanted to raise the status of writing as something, like reading, which could be done for pleasure. The guiding principles of Writing Week are that pupils have choice over their genre and content, and that they are equipped with the necessary skills to start to see themselves as a novice author who has responsibility for taking their piece of writing through the writer’s process, from an idea, through drafts, editing and revision, to a final published piece.

Writing Week looks different across the school as we have developed the initial idea to suit the age and stage of the children. In P1 and 2, the classes take a storybook approach which fits naturally into our play pedagogy. The children are given opportunities to take part in tasks related to a variety of books which encourage their oral, pictorial and written story-telling skills.

From P3 – P7, the children work to a greater or lesser extent on taking their piece of writing through the writer’s process. Each day of the week is allocated to Ideas and Planning, first draft, editing and revision, final drafts and publication. Idea generation, planning and the first draft are completed using a quick write strategy. We use this method in order to remove any potential transcriptional barriers. The pupils are encouraged to let their ideas flow and if they are unsure of a spelling or choice of vocabulary they ‘circle it out’, meaning that they draw a circle around the word or phrase knowing that they will have the opportunity later in the week to revise and edit their work.

As the week progresses, the writing becomes more deliberate and slows in pace with a focus on accuracy. We have found that reinforcing the concept of a first draft for all age groups has stimulated a shift in attitude towards writing and has helped to remove some of the writing anxiety or writer’s block that some children have experienced in the past.

As the years have progressed, the children have become more and more excited and engaged in writing week and this has had an increasingly positive impact on the attainment in writing throughout the year. The children respond well to having more ownership and choice over their writing and the teachers have enjoyed the opportunity to develop Writing Week within their classrooms using the guiding principles.

This year, many of the teachers identified a need to enhance our publication process and have been developing digital publication using sites such as Canva. Please click to see an example from one of our P2 classes or use the QR code below.

 

 

 

 

Supporting Attainment in Literacy at Stenhousemuir PS – Our use of Read Write Inc

Catharine Gillespie is the raising attainment teacher in Stenhousemuir PS and, with the support of her principal teacher Dawn Easton, she is leading the use of Read Write Inc Phonics (RWI) from primary 1- 4  as a key support for progressing pupils’ reading, writing and spelling. The Read Write Inc Phonics programme is produced by Oxford University Press and Catharine was trained as a reading leader via the Ruth Miskin training programme. All teachers using the programme in Stenhousemuir PS have also been trained and Catharine provides ongoing professional learning and support for them. This training comprises the first three steps of a seven-step RWI programme which also includes:

 

  1. Rigorous assessment, tracking and monitoring
  2. Grouping children for maximum progress based on the above assessment
  3. Making consistent use of teaching strategies and pedagogy which encourages children’s best learning behaviours
  4. Supporting parents and carers so that they can contribute to their child’s progress

What impact on literacy learning is the use of this programme having?

The current primary 5 children at Stenhousemuir have been developing their literacy skills through this programme since primary 1 and there has been significant improvement in their attainment as a result. Most children across the school are on track with their learning with only a small number needing additional interventions to support their learning differences. Catharine notes that more children are achieving more quickly and measures this impact by comparing the attainment of current primary 2 children with those of previous primary 2 classes prior to using the programme. She attributes this impact to:

  1. Close Assessment of children’s progress:

Catharine assesses all children at 6-8 week intervals to determine where they are in their learning. Using the assessment resources within the programme, she identifies the consolidation opportunities and new learning needed then adjusts the groups which the children learn within to provide the correct degree of challenge for them.

2. Grouping of children:

Primary one children experience the programme within the adult-directed literacy element of their learning day. Fred the frog is introduced to children (the character used to engage children) and then used as a focus for structured teaching strategies across the programme. From January the children are grouped across both primary 1 classes and learn their initial sounds visually through the “Fred Talk and Fred Fingers” procedures, rhymes and visual clues. These procedures are taught in primary 1 and are then used consistently by all teachers working with groups across the school. From primary 2 upwards, Catharine groups the children using their assessment information within mixed class groups. She allocates each group to a teacher and a learning space within the school. The Read Write Inc sessions take place during an hour between play time and lunch time Monday to Thursday of each week. Catherine ensures that no child works in a classroom space which is below their actual primary stage.

3. Pedagogy and teaching strategies used:

The initial training guides teachers’ use of interactive, consistent routines for each part of the daily RWI sessions. Catharine and colleagues use these effectively to ensure that ways of working remain familiar and constant so that children can focus on the new learning. Each literacy session includes the Fred talk exploration of the new sound and teachers make this as multi-sensory and accessible as they can through their dialogue and interaction with their group of children. The Fred Fingers strategy involves children pinching their fingers in time with each of the sounds they hear in each word they see and learn. The teachers use flash cards with words which contain each new sound and a selection of review sounds, in a familiar routine with their whole group.

The RWI 1 hour sessions are focussed, with the actual activities  and ways of working changing every 15 minutes or so to support children’s focus and engagement. There is:

  • Always a review of the learning from the previous day’s work,
  • Introduction of the new sound and flash cards as above
  • Review of previously taught sounds
  • Writing of the letters, sounds and words learned
  • 3 readings of the text identified for the group (more detail below)
  • A quiz/differentiated comprehension questions
  • Linked writing opportunities at appropriate levels
  • Proofread and editing tasks
  • Grammar and vocabulary challenges
  • Longer writing tasks which enable children to apply their writing skills more creatively

The children are prepared for reading by learning the decodable and tricky words they will encounter in the story. They have a lively and engaging story introduction which builds enthusiasm for reading the text and puts the story into a context. Then they do paired reading – each child reading it again in turn. When listening to each other, the children use a lollipop stick as a pointer to guide their partner’s reading. After the first read, they have the text read by the teacher to model confident, fluent and expressive reading. Read two develops fluency and read three focusses on comprehension of the text and voice choice to match

The whole philosophy is that children are given every skill they need to be successful in their reading before they begin. As the children progress in their reading, the levels of challenge in vocabulary increase, as does the length of the text.

All of these activities support children’s ability to:

  • de-code the text
  • develop their reading fluency
  • link the phonemes with their corresponding graphemes
  • form the graphemes and
  • use the graphemes correctly when spelling.

The texts also have comprehension questions which increase in quantity and difficulty as children move through the levels of the programme.

The Ruth Miskin training programme includes the specification of pedagogical/classroom management techniques which support children’s learning behaviours and attitudes. These promote a calm, ordered, focused learning environment and familiar routines and ways of working. Teachers at Stenhousemuir PS use these actions rather than their voices to manage the different procedures involved in each literacy lesson. For example, children learn that when the teacher raises their hand this means it’s time to stop what they are doing and listen for instruction. When moving from one activity or group to another, teachers use a 1, 2, 3 finger signal to manage children’s standing, moving and sitting. These techniques have been so successful that they have become adopted throughout the teaching day for all classes.

What do the children think of this literacy learning?

When asked for their opinions of their teachers’ use of this programme children in two learning groups said:

“It’s not hard or easy” gave thumbs up sign with smile “it’s medium.”

“It’s helping me learn.”

“I like the books – they are nice and good. I feel like I am learning all of the words.”

“The lolly stick helps me see all of the words.”

“ I love Read Write Inc because it helps me to read fast.” – P2

“You have to work hard to learn all of the sounds” – P1

“I read my home reading book to my mum and she is proud of me!” – P3

The teachers feel that as the programme moves up through its levels, it supports specific literacy skills and understanding such as children’s knowledge of alternative spellings for similar sounds and their capacity to proof read and edit their writing. Catharine feels that their use of the programme offers their children small, measured steps to success leading to independent working and the ability to apply literacy skills purposefully across the curriculum.

How are teachers adapting and using this programme for their children?

When reviewing their use of RWI, teachers at Stenhousemuir agreed on adaptations to their use of the programme. This included:

  • Adapting the assessments provided to be more focussed
  • Adding in a Fred Star of the Day award to the child who’d engaged, progressed or contributed well to the daily RWI hour
  • Changing the classroom  literacy displays weekly to reflect the learning focus
  • Enabling children to take Fred home for the weekend (a child in each group does this and provides a simple diary insert for Fred’s adventure book).

On Fridays children’s literacy hour happens with their own class in their own room. Teachers use elements of PM Writing to teach varied and creative writing lessons  which enable children to apply the learning they’ve acquired over the previous week.

Ongoing Development and Next Steps

To complement their use of the RWI programme, teachers are also supporting primary 6 and 7 children to catch up on any gaps in their learning by using the RWI Fresh Start programme. Children work in small groups to develop and consolidate their literacy skills, using texts which have a more age appropriate interest level.

Upon seeing the impact of Read Write Inc Phonics in the lower school, the school invested in the Read Write Inc Literacy and Language programme for Primary 4-7 children. This forms part of a language rich curriculum which develops children’s reading and understanding in different genres and builds upon the work done in the phonics programme.

Engaging Parents

It was decided that maximum impact on learning could be gained through the purchase and use of  RWI text collections of home readers and speed sound booklets. In conjunction with information night opportunities for parents and carers, these booklets enable parents and carers to support their child’s reading homework tasks. The home readers are matched with the taught content of the RWI texts used in school to ensure that children will experience success while reading. Similarly, the speed sound books enable parents and carers to engage in fun consolidation of their child’s knowledge of their taught sounds at home.

Parents and carers have been very positive about these developments, but Catharine and colleagues at Stenhousemuir PS now want to build on this initial parental involvement in their children’s literacy. They would love to attract or recruit more parental helpers who can work with children in their learning groups.

In summary, staff use of the Read, Write Inc Phonics programme at Stenhousemuir PS is engaging learners, improving reading attainment and enabling children to progress their literacy skills at an appropriate pace. Catharine would be delighted to speak with colleagues wanting to know more, and an information/sharing opportunity will be scheduled via Falkirk CPD Manager before Easter 2024.

Coming soon to our FVWL RIC – Alex Quigley talks Literacy

We are delighted to have Alex Quigley, a renowned literacy specialist, contributor to Educational Endowment Foundation (EEF) research and publications and author of several best-selling books (including Closing the Reading Gap and Closing the Vocabulary Gap) join us for three sessions in May and June. During these sessions Alex will share insights and evidence-informed approaches that teachers can employ in their practice. There will be a follow-up session on 15th June for attendees to discuss what they have taken from the sessions, as well as a platform to discuss how the RIC can best support you going into the 2022-2023 school year.

 Closing the Reading Gap with Alex Quigley

11th of May at 4pm – Alex explores the brilliantly complex act of reading in this session. He tackles practical issues, such as developing reading fluency, and how to support pupils to become strategic and knowledgeable readers. The session draws upon Alex’s best-selling book for teachers, and is research-informed but also packed with practical strategies every teacher can apply in the classroom.

Sign up via CPD Manager – course ID: 78388

Literacy across Learning with Alex Quigley

25th of May at 4pm – During this one-hour session Alex draws upon his classroom practice and a wealth of research evidence to explore the challenges pupils face when it comes to literacy in the classroom. In this session, he explores the importance of ‘disciplinary literacy’, focusing on how pupils develop as readers and writers across the curriculum. The session includes practical strategies to develop reading, writing and vocabulary approaches that unlock the curriculum for students and help ensure their success.

Sign up via CPD Manager – course ID: 78133

*This session is also part of the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative’s Futureproofing Pedagogy Series, which runs every Wednesday from 4pm from 26th April until 1st June.

Closing the Vocabulary Gap with Alex Quigley

7th of June at 4pm – Alex explores the phenomenon of the ‘vocabulary gap’ and its crucial impact on learning in the classroom. In this session, he explores how teachers can support vocabulary through rich academic talk, alongside applying vocabulary approaches to ensure pupils read and write with success. Alex holds a mirror up to word-rich classrooms and offers practical strategies that you can apply in your own classroom context.

Sign up via CPD Manager – course ID: 78389

Closing the Literacy Gap

15th of June at 4pm – This session is an opportunity for practitioners who attended Alex Quigley’s sessions to meet up and discuss the key messages covered in the sessions, as well as sharing ideas on what type of support they would like from the Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative in the 2022-23 school year.

Sign up via CPD Manager – course ID: 78697

Literacy News Update – March 2021

This blog post shares recent developments regarding literacy and English in our authority and within our Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Collaborative. It then lists the professional learning opportunities which will be available April to June 2021.

News:

Our literacy network met on 2nd February 2021 and discussed:

  • how to build on the very successful staff development day professional learning session about writing.
  • how we could support teacher judgement and confidence in assessing literacy during the remote-face-to-face transition phase
  • how we might support and co-ordinate moderation across clusters and the authority using existing or new portals with professional learning
  • the grammar and other online sessions provided by Dr Kylie Bradfield – what we gained from these and how the recordings could be shared more effectively (Click here to view an example)
  • what the gaps in pupil literacy learning might be upon return to school-based learning and what we could do to help

We used Google Jamboard (image above) to capture what was going well at that stage in remote literacy learning.

Our Learning Resource Service Teacher book clubs are going from strength to strength enabling teachers to recommend texts for each other and for specific pupil needs and interests. Click here to read more about this in our LRS blog.

Our wonderful LRS also created and promoted a brilliant Falkirk response to World Book day. We hope you like our team photos and thank you to all who made such effective use of Twitter at the time too.

 

 

Our Literacy Strategy Refresh:

The literacy team have developed our professional learning menu in response to the initial Literacy Blether sessions we held with various groups at the start of this session. By combining this intelligence from practitioners and senior leaders with other data,  focus areas emerged to inform a visual refresh of our Falkirk Literacy Strategy. Our literacy network colleagues will naturally help to shape this strategy, but contact yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk if you want to be involved. This document will update and complement our existing Sway Strategy by indicating key messages and processes.

Our professional learning menu below indicates some of these focus areas, and also shares sessions designed with Malcolm Wilson to explore how digital tools and approaches can support teaching and learning and help unlock the literacy potential of all pupils. In March 2021, Malcolm and Yvonne co-presented a Top Tips for Teams Feedback and Assessment in literacy then a session which homed in on how to combine Sway and Microsoft Forms for literacy teaching, learning and assessment. Sessions LIT 10, 13 & 14 below all explore how specific digital tools can support practitioners as they adapt their practice during the return to classroom-based teaching. You may also want to click here to visit the Education Scotland Digilearnscot Literacy Support video library.

West OS Literacy support videos 

William Brown, development officer for West OS gave a short presentation at the most recent FVWL RIC literacy meeting. He highlighted how this collection of 10 minute micro lessons could be used independently by pupils, or as learning/teaching tools by practitioners. These teaching and learning resources are being developed as a long term national support tool and have a wide range of teacher-produced, quality-assured literacy videos from early level up through the broad, general education. Once logged into Glow and West OS via ClickView, click here to view an example of a video for early learners designed to develop reading visualisation skills. William explained that these materials provide standalone learning activities in or out of the classroom and have proven valuable for many learners including those in self-isolation, with English as an additional language or hearing impaired children and young people (most videos also have closed captions). Although there is a very wide library of videos, William would be glad to hear from practitioners who would like to create/submit their own micro-lessons (arrangements for payment for this work are in progress). Contact inwbrown001@glowmail.org.uk for further information.

Professional Learning Opportunities:

Falkirk:

LIT 10-2021 – 26.4.21 – Let’s talk about unlocking pupil potential – creating texts across the curriculum using digital tools (speech to text & read aloud) This is an opportunity to explore how tools such as Immersive Reader can support pupil progression and attainment in literacy – particularly creating written texts. 4-5.30 pm.

LIT 11-2021 – 6.5.21 –  Let’s talk about reading – resources. This is a staff development day session for primary and secondary support for learning assistants. 9.15 – 12 noon

LIT 12-2021 – 7.5.21 – Let’s talk about reading – challenges and support. This is a staff development day session for primary and secondary support for learning assistants which explores reading difficulties, shares approaches for supporting readers through adult/pupil paired reading strategies, and provides a forum for sharing, discussing and asking questions about reading. 9.15-12 noon.

LIT 13-2021 -18.5.21 – Let’s talk about unlocking pupil potential – supporting independent reading for research across the curriculum using digital tools (Immersive reader – converting texts, screen reader, simplified layout, Office Lens) This is an opportunity to explore how these tools can support pupil progression in reading for information and understanding. 4-5.30 pm

LIT 14-2021 – 27.5.21 – Let’s talk about unlocking pupil potential – supporting pupils to be clear, expressive and confident when communicating & presenting using digital tools ( Power Point Live & Presentation Coach) This professional learning is for practitioners working in primary, secondary and ASN settings. 4-5.30 pm.

LIT 15-2021 – 1.6.21 – Let’s talk about how our schools are using Reciprocal Reading strategies. This professional learning is  for practitioners and senior leaders who have attended training in Reciprocal Reading and/or have been using/developing this reading comprehension approach in their setting. It is designed as an opportunity to promote sharing of useful practice and reflection upon the impact of the approach so far. It also offers a chance for colleagues from different schools to begin to form useful networks around this and other reading approaches and strategies. 4-5.15 pm.

Forth Valley & West Lothian RIC:

RIC LIT 15 – 20.4.21 – Collaborative Literacy in Early Years Session 2

RIC LIT 14 – 21.4.21 – Helicopter Stories for early years and primary practitioners

RIC LIT 20 – an introduction to Reciprocal Reading strategies (this is a repeat of previous opportunities as requested by our schools)

RIC LIT 18 – 28.4.21 – Greg Bottrill session on his message centre approach to early writing

RIC LIT 21 – 13.5.21 – Reciprocal Reading session 2 – part of the extended training in Reciprocal Reading offered by Dr Janet Adam. This session will focus on the importance and role of Think Alouds and pupil meta-cognition when modelling and teaching these reading strategies. It will be co-presented by Dr Kylie Bradfield of Stirling University.

RIC LIT 22 – 25.5.21 Reciprocal Reading session 3 – the final part of the extended training in Reciprocal Reading offered by Dr Janet Adam. This session will focus on exploring approaches and good practice in the use of this approach to reading comprehension.

RIC LIT 23 – 27.4.21 – Writing Bubbles Webinar 3.15-4.15 pm

RIC LIT 24 – 4.5.21 – Collaborative Literacy in Early years session 3

RIC LIT 25 – 11.5.21 & 25.5.21 – Collaborative Literacy – Literacy through Play (Colleagues from Airth PS will co-deliver these sessions) 4-5 pm.

Click here to view the Sway March 2021 update from our FVWL RIC – it contains further detail in the Literacy section about the events and developments listed here.

 

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

Image

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.

 

 

 

 

Literacy Support for Falkirk Practitioners Professional Learning During COVID 19

This post collates sources of professional learning for Literacy and English and was compiled by Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer with central team colleagues from Falkirk Children’s services. We hope these offer valuable support in these challenging times, but please email yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk with comments or additional ideas.

This blog is our main Falkirk source of information about literacy and English in our establishments – you can browse examples of Falkirk practice as well as local and national updates. Our Falkirk Literacy and English Glow group  (login required) also stores hundreds of documents and ideas which we can’t share on this public platform.

Click on the text/images below to browse each site.

Education Scotland colleagues have collated a  links to online sources of materials for literacy in their Professional Learning Wakelet

These include sources such as BBC Bitesize, Scottish Booktrust, Education Scotland sites, etc.

This is a quick link to the early years Wakelet

This one takes you to the primary Wakelet

Secondary 1-S3 BGE is here and Senior Phase is available by clicking this link.

Our Forth Valley & West Lothian Regional Collaborative Literacy group have also created a blog which is full of sources and materials to extend professional knowledge and support the adaptations to practice currently required of us. These materials were designed to support all practitioners – whether teaching from home, or working in our hubs.

Yvonne Manning, principal librarian, Falkirk Children’s Services and her wonderful team have moved our Library Resource Service to its new home at our Bothkennar Hub. Click here to visit the Learning Resource Service blog and stay updated on developments including Borrowbox, reading for enjoyment and developing a reading culture.

Louise Amos and Jude Davies, Support Teachers for Specific Learning Differences can be contacted louise.amos@falkirk.gov.uk & judith.davies@falkirk.gov.uk  and have provided the following documents, materials and links to support your professional learning around specific literacy or language difficulties.

CLPL incorporating the Scottish context –

  • Click here to explore online course materials – An Introduction to Inclusive Education
  • Click here to explore Three Dyslexia online learning modules
  • Click here to explore Education Scotland professional learning

Other useful information, links and resources can be found in the Addressing Dyslexia website here.

 

Ursula Busch and Ann McPhilemy from our English as an Additional Language service has also provided the following links:

  • Click here to visit NALDIC – National subject association for EAL
  • Click here for British Council support and advice
  • This link leads to essential reading: Learning in 2+ languages – Guidance which promotes inclusion of bilingual pupils and identifies good practice in supporting bilingual pupils
  • This link leads to and Education Scotland professional learning tool – Supporting bilingualism and English as an additional language
  • Further links and information have been collated here in this document by Ursula – thanks to colleagues in Stirling and Glasgow Councils for the information shared.