The development of literacy skills plays an important role in all learning.

Pupils develop and extend  literacy skills when they have opportunities to:

• communicate, collaborate and build relationships
• reflect on and explain  literacy and thinking skills, using feedback to help them improve and sensitively provide useful feedback for others
• engage with and create a wide range of texts in different media, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by ICT
• develop an understanding of what is special, vibrant and valuable about their own and other cultures and their languages
• explore the richness and diversity of language, how it can affect them, and the wide range of ways in which they can be creative
• extend and enrich  vocabulary through listening, talking, watching and reading.

In developing my English language skills pupils:

•  engage with a wide range of texts and develop an appreciation of the richness and breadth of Scotland’s literary and linguistic heritage
• enjoy exploring and discussing word patterns and text structures.

What will I learn?

The National English Course will give you the opportunity to improve your listening and talking, reading and writing skills in order to understand and use language.
In particular, you will develop the ability to:

• listen, talk, read and write, as appropriate to purpose, audience and context
• understand, analyse and evaluate texts, as appropriate to purpose and audiance in the contexts of literature, language and media
• create and produce texts, as appropriate to purpose, audience and context
• apply knowledge of language

What will I do?

Teachers will use a wide range of appropriate approaches to develop your knowledge, understanding and skills: whole class direct and interactive teaching; individual, paired and group activities; use of ICT; and use of the school’s library will all be features of your learning experience.

Self peer and teacher assessment will be used to ensure you understand what is required and receive appropriate feedback on how to improve.  At National level, pupils must pass all of the unit assessment to achieve on overall course award.  These assessments take place during class time throughout the year.