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At RVHS, we really value the power of reading and writing. Having strong literacy skills will mean that our students can be successful across all subject areas.
We believe that good literacy skills give all of our students equal access across all of our subject areas. Every student should be exposed to new language, broaden their vocabulary and read as many different types of text as possible.
To raise the status of literacy across the school, RVHS has introduced a number of literacy initiatives that students participate in:
DEAR time - Drop everything and read!
DEAW time- Drop everything and write!
Word of the Week
Bedrock Vocabulary
Star writer award in our Bulletin
ACED lessons that incorporate literacy skill teaching!
dear- Drop everything and read!
dear- Drop everything and read!
DEAR time is a part of our daily routine at RVHS. Our students in Years 7-9 all read silently for 20 minutes a day- this takes place at the beginning of a lesson.
Students can chose what to read during DEAR time- as we want our students to independently select what interests them. We want to encourage our students to love reading and continue to do so throughout their adult life.
Students have a DEAR time 'Reading passport', where they keep a running record of how many pages they are reading per session. This means that students can track their own progress & have meaningful conversations with their academic mentor to celebrate the completion of their reading passport.
deAW- drop everything and write!
deAW- drop everything and write!
DEAW time is an initiative that we introduced in April 2019 and has been a success. Again, our student in Years 7-9 take part in this. DEAW time takes place once a week and it is done in the place of DEAR time on a Friday.
Instead of reading solidly for 20 minutes, students write solidly. They are given a bespoke task; linked to our themes of the week. The students must respond to a photograph, quotation or piece of text through a written answer. We hope that DEAW time will build up our students resilience to writing for long periods of time.
Word of the week!
Word of the week!
Every week our students are introduced to a 'Word of the Week' that is closely linked with our 'Theme of the Week'. The word is broadcast around the entire school building and shared with students in their assemblies and Period 1 Character and Culture sessions. The Word of the Week is also incorporated into OUR DEAW tasks- students are encouraged to use the WoW in their own writing. Our aim is for our students to extend their vocabulary, be exposed to as many words as possible, and feel confident using them in their work.
STAR WRITER!
STAR WRITER!
The Star Writer award is issued on a bi-weekly basis. It is awarded to students who have done the extra mile with their writing. At RVHS, we want to show our students that we value academic achievement and that we celebrate excellent written work. Our star writer award is published in our much loved Parent Bulletin.
Bedrock Vocabularly
Bedrock Vocabularly
At RVHS we now use an online, interactive literacy tool called 'Bedrock'. Bedrock is a tool that helps to improve our students Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary and improve their application of these new words. This week, our students have had a virtual assembly based on the importance of this tool. If you want to look at the assembly, please click here.
During Term 1, Ms Bleakley and I also did a live-streamed parent's workshop on Bedrock. If you missed this, and want to watch the recording, please click on the link below:
1. To watch the live stream, please click here.
2. To access the free Bedrock resources on our website, please click here.
If you would like to be re-sent your parent access code (so that you can monitor your child's progress on BEDROCK) via email, please email me on plarkin@rodingvalley.net
ACED T&L- Literacy skills!
ACED T&L- Literacy skills!
Our ACED framework provides us with the perfect platform to teach our students to become confident readers & writers.
Our teachers use a deliberate practise etymology strategy when introducing new, subject-specific words (Tier 3 language). We break the word down, as a class, to look at it's root word & to work out what the meaning may be.
We then look at synonyms and put the word into its context. Doing this together & breaking down this process really helps our students when they encounter unfamiliar words when reading independently.
We also like to use the 'Guided Reading' method when tackling extended texts. This allows our students to process the meaning of individual paragraphs before coming up with a summary of the information.
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