Literacy & Oracy
Disciplinary Literacy development - Phase 4 - Writing like a Subject Specialist
The next phase...
In our final phase of disciplinary literacy development, we now turn our attention to writing like a subject specialist.
See the slides for the rationale and the key priorities...
We will know it is working when...
Students are routinely given the time and structures they need to be able to plan their written work (be it a series of short sentences or extended essay)
Teachers routinely use modelling to initiate students into the ‘writing moves’ needed to write like a subject specialist.
Teachers’ approaches to modelling change over time (lessons/ weeks/ terms), increasing student independence.
SP&D - Writing.pdfThis selection of graphic organisers, adapted from Closing the Writing Gap (A. Quigley, 2022) and The Secret of Literacy (D. Didau, 2014), offer some useful ideas for strategies to help students plan their writing.
The use of graphic organisers can support students in carefully considering how to later construct their writing, based on having first organised their thoughts.
Pre-writing activities - Graphic Organisers.pdfDisciplinary Literacy development - Phase 3 - Reading like a Subject Specialist
Webslides.pdfThe next phase...
Building on our work on explicit vocabulary instruction and classroom talk, we now turn our attention to reading like a subject specialist.
See the slides for the rationale and the key priorities...
We will know it is working when...
Subject curricula intentionally incorporate academic text, embedded into learning sequences.
Teachers routinely make conscious, considered decisions about how to approach whole-class reading.
Teachers select specific strategies to develop students as 'strategic readers' in their subject.
These documents (which relied heavily on Alex Quigley's Closing the Reading Gap) provide some useful points to reflect on, in relation to both effective whole-class reading and also developing strategic readers.
Whole-class reading approaches.pdfDeveloping strategic readers.pdfDisciplinary Literacy development - Phase 2 - Speaking like a Subject Specialist
The next phase...
Having spent time working on embedding our shared approach to explicit vocabulary instruction over the last term or so, our focus will now shift to thinking about classroom talk...
See the slides for the rationale and the key priorities...
We will know it is working when...
Staff consciously model high standards of oracy (speaking like a subject specialist - use of technical language, academic register etc)
Staff have embedded the core strategy of pose > pause > pounce > bounce into their daily practice
Through scaffolding, prompting and probing, students are guided towards articulating themselves clearly and precisely
1 - Oracy - speaking like a subject specialist WEBSLIDES.pdf
Disciplinary Literacy development - Phase 1 - Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
Our aim...
Our aim is to embed a consistent format of explicit vocabulary instruction across the school. Rather than striving for uniformity of practice we are aiming for consistency of principle, the principle being that all teachers adopt a planned approach to explaining and exploring words, including repeated meaningful repeated exposures to those words.
The SEEC model will provide our shared framework (inspired by Alex Quigley's Closing the Vocabulary Gap).
We will know it is working when...
Staff feel confident and empowered to teach vocabulary (deeply)
Explicit vocabulary instruction, using the SEEC model, is an embedded and consistent feature in daily lessons
Students' rich and growing vocabulary provides a strong platform to teach them how to read, write and speak like a subject specialist
SEEC model.pdf
Developing 'disciplinary literacy and oracy' within each subject classroom
Literacy and oracy development is everyone's responsibility. Disciplinary literacy places the emphasis on ways of knowing and communicating knowledge within a subject discipline. Our key focus relate to how we are teaching students to:
read like a subject specialist
write like a subject specialist
speak like a subject specialist
The first phase of this work focussed on Explicit Vocabulary Instruction.
The second phase moved us onto Speaking like a Subject Specialist.
The third phase sees us working on Reading like a Subject Specialist.
In our final phase we will look at Writing like a Subject Specialist.