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.
Active Literacy
Pupils should find that the programme involves them in experiencing rich worthwhile literacy tasks, which are active, motivating and enjoyable. The rich literacy tasks should also provide pupils with daily opportunities to enhance talking and listening, reading, writing and thinking. The tasks and skills developed in the programme should allow pupils to have experiences that have more depth and relevance and which open up the possible avenues of personalisation and choice.
Pupils should experience continuous progression in their literacy learning as well as in their learning for life. Each stage should build upon earlier knowledge and achievement with pupils progressing at a rate suited to their needs.
The programme naturally builds in the four capacities of the Curriculum for Excellence, with pupils within all areas of language becoming successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.
Reading Linked to Talking, Listening and Writing
Many North Lanarkshire schools do a minimum of 55 minutes reading on each of four days. This was found to be an effective way of structuring the weekly reading programme.
Pupils will be reading shorter graded books e.g. PM Books which are especially written to be easily read by pupils at an interest level suited to the reading age. The pupils need to be able to read the texts with increased fluency and more focus on improving their understanding and comprehension. The programme provides clear guidance for teachers on how to ‘walk through the text’ with the group as well as how to develop pupils’ fluency and comprehension skills.
For each of the graded books pupils are involved in active, interesting and motivating follow-up tasks which should improve talking, listening, reading and writing.
The range of texts used for Stage 2 and Stage 3 readers involves fiction and non-fiction books with pupils reading at least two books per week. As children move through the Stage 3 programme, they will be involved in reading shorter chapter books and shorter non-fiction books.
Writing linked to Talking, Listening and Reading
It is vitally important that teachers are fully aware of the wide variety of writing contexts and opportunities in which pupils should be engaged. There must still be opportunities for pupils to experience a taught writing lesson.
However, this lesson should be linked to a real or a meaningful imaginary experience, a cross curricular area or to the outdoor environment.
The teachers will be giving children much more regular opportunity to focus on writing.
The writing is purposeful, engaging and completed within a limited time frame.
The aim is to ensure that pupils should want to write, are interested in writing and are successful in writing.
