Tag: Read

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.

Read, Write, Count Coming Soon

THINKING READER 362

Improving literacy and numeracy has an important role to play in improving attainment.

Improving school attainment for all and closing the attainment gap have long been priorities for the Scottish Government, with programmes such as Raising Attainment for All already working well across Scotland since launching in June this year.

In the year ahead, the Scottish Government will go further by bringing a sharper focus to the need for improvement in educational attainment.

This will include the introduction of a Read, Write, Count literacy and numeracy campaign aimed at Primary 1 to 3 children, to build on the success of the Play, Talk, Read campaign already in place.

 

 

For further information, please visit:

http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/programme-for-government/Programme-for-Government-2014-15/Education-Attainment

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

RED Book Award

 

The RED Book Award is Falkirk Council’s book award for 13 and 14 year olds and has been running since 2006. 

In April each year members of the RED Book Award committee read and reduce a long list of books from nominated titles to the 4 shortisted books which have that WOW factor. The books also have to be published in paperback in the previous year and the authors must agree to attend the award ceremony in Falkirk in January. Multiple copies of the shortlisted titles are sent out to each High School librarian in August and the RED Book Award journey of reading enjoying and debating begins.

This year’s shortlist is:

Raining Fire by Alan Gibbons

Rat Runners by Oisin McGann

Mosi’s War by Cathy MacPhail

Soul Shadows by Alex Woolf

The award ceremony  The 300 young people and invited guests take part in this event which is full of energy and passion! The young people present a creative interpretation of the shortlisted books, senior pupils act as reporters on the day working with the Council’s Press Office, a local school radio station SMFM (St Mungo’s High School) produce a radio broadcast of the ceremony. There is entertainment supplied by the talented young people of Falkirk Council and a question and answer session leading up to the opening of the red envelope to reveal the winning book. Last year’s winner was Slated by Teri Terry.

This year we are continuing with an international dimension. The librarian at an international school in Nairobi, Kenya has agreed to shadow the RED book award again with her reading group of children from the surrounding slum areas. The children will read the books, write reviews and will film their creative interpretation of one of the books which will be shown during the award ceremony.

“Thank you so much for everything this week. I had the best time at the RED book awards. I think having the colour red as part of things added such a fun element to the day. I really enjoyed myself, and was amazed at how good the presentations by the schools were.” Teri Terry