Whole School Policy - Literacy

Last updated: 2011

Rationale

Literacy underpins the school curriculum by developing students' abilities to speak, listen, read and write for a wide range of purposes. Helping students to express themselves clearly orally and in writing enhances and enriches learning in all subjects. All departments and all teachers have a crucial role to play in supporting students' literacy development.

Aims

The aims of this policy document are to:

• Support students' learning in all subjects by developing and improving communication skills so that all students will be able to read and write with confidence, fluency and understanding.

• Develop a shared understanding between all staff of the role of language in students' learning.

• Raise students' own awareness of the importance of literacy in all subject areas.

• Develop an interest in books and read for enjoyment.

Aims of the three language modes

Although the following is divided into three sections

• Speaking and Listening

• Reading

• Writing

We recognize that the three modes are interdependent.

Speaking and Listening

We want our students to develop increasing confidence and competence in speaking and listening so that they are able to:

• express and explain their ideas

• use specialised vocabulary

• speak for a range of purposes e.g. to narrate, to analyse, to explain, to reflect and evaluate

• listen with understanding and respond appropriately

Reading

We want our students to enjoy reading, to be able to use their reading to help them learn and to develop increasing confidence and competence in reading so that they are able to:

• read fluently, accurately and with understanding

• become independent and critical readers and make informed and appropriate choices

• select information from a wide range of texts an d sources including print, media and ICT and to evaluate those sources

• apply techniques such as skimming and scanning to textual material.

Writing

We want our students to develop increasing confidence and competence in writing so that they are able to:

• write in a wide variety of forms for different purposes e.g. to interpret, evaluate, explain, analyse and explore

• develop ideas and communicate meaning to a reader using wide-ranging and technical vocabulary and an effective style

• present their writing clearly using accurate punctuation, correct spelling and legible handwriting

• use word processing when appropriate

Implementation

Successful implementation of this policy is dependent upon the extent to which we:

• take account of the needs of all students with regard to their ability, ethnicity, social and cultural factors

• value students' language achievements including those in languages other than English and dialects other than standard English e.g. Ulster-Scots

• structure lessons appropriately in ways that support and stimulate language development

e.g. using Key Words for subject specific topics.

Implementation of the three language modes

(i) Speaking and Listening In class

• teachers provide planned opportunities across the curriculum for students to engage in purposeful talk, both formally and informally

• planning teachers take into account the demands on concentration to ensure that students are required to listen for realistic lengths of time.

• students are given regular opportunities to speak and listen in a variety of contexts e.g. in pairs working with a partner, in groups, in whole class discussions, presentations

• student s are given opportunities to use various modes of speech e.g. describing, questioning, speculating, hypothesising, planning, organizing, reviewing.

(ii) Reading

• Data from Standardised Reading Test s is used to make informed decisions regarding appropriate support for students with literacy difficulties so that attainment across the curriculum can be improved.

• Planned opportunities are provided to allow for pleasurable reading.

Encourage t he use of the school and county libraries.

• Class Planning across the curriculum provides opportunities for students to: o read and follow instructions

o read with understanding descriptions of processes, structures and mechanisms

o learn how to skim , select and take notes from text

o learn how to scan for key points and overall meaning

o use reading to research and investigat e to pics

(iii) Writing

In class teachers:

• help students develop different forms of writing e.g. diary entries, journal articles, formal and informal letters, descriptive writing, creative writing

• help students to recognise the appropriate form of written response required e.g. note form, formal construction

provide dictionaries, glossaries and lists of subject specific key words for students

• help students to improve spelling by using a range of strategies e.g. look-cover­ write-check; exploring word families; spelling rules

• provide opportunities to use ICT to support teaching and learning in Literacy.

Assessing Literacy across the Curriculum

When assessing students' work across the curriculum teachers:

• take into account any specific learning difficulties a student may have with regard to literacy e.g. spelling and grammar waiver, reader

• target specific areas for improvement e.g. identification of a pattern of spelling errors, lack of punctuation

• give guidance on how to improve standards of literacy e.g. specific guidance with regard to spelling errors

• give priority to content, ideas, organisation and meaning above secretarial features

• along with the use of standardised data, recommend students who would benefit from RACE in State Examinations.

Future Aims

• Audit existing literacy provision in the school

• Monitor and Evaluate current support for students with Special educational Needs in the area of Literacy.

• Raise teacher awareness of students with literacy difficulties and to provide professional development opportunities in literacy for mainstream teachers.

• Establish a Core Team of teachers for Special educational Needs. Given the importance of literacy in SEN, it is important that there are mainstream English teachers in the Core Team.

• Raise the profile of Literacy across the curriculum e.g. Displaying of Key words in each subject area and vocabulary related to exams e.g. words like account, describe

• Increased liaison between subject teachers and Learning Support/ Resource Teachers. Planning time may need to be allocated for this.

• Increase literacy levels among the student population.

• Encourage greater parental involvement with literacy e.g. homework, paired reading, key words, involvement with Word Millionaire

• Introduce more reading initiatives e.g. Drop Everything And Read (DEAR)

• Introduce Reading Testing for 2^nd during times of Christmas exams.

This Policy should be read in conjunction with the Special Educational Needs Policy and the JCSP Policy