Literacy How would you approach How would you

Literacy

How would you approach?

How would you approach? Suggestions

Why we all need to embrace literacy • By the age of 4 a child with educated and professional parents may have been exposed to 50 million words whereas a child from a disadvantaged background may have heard just 12 million, these are the children who will remain behind their peers throughout school (Hart & Risley, 2003). • By the age of seven the deficit will be one which results in them being unlikely to go on to achieve good GCSE grades fro English and Maths. • Those entering secondary school below the recommended entry level 4 have an exclusion rate of 5 times that of pupils entering at the expected level and are four times as likely to truant (Morrisroe, 2014).

Student (A) Student: Dyslexic Entitled to a reader and a scribe for his exams but is fiercely independent and wants to write his own answers. He has made significant progress. Know your students – ask colleagues – use the information and the systems we have. Literacy = whole school

Mindset What’s yours towards literacy?

Brooks & Goldstein (2008) A mindset can be defined, in teaching as being: “Mindsets are assumptions and expectations we have for ourselves and others that guide our teaching practices and our interactions with students, parents, and colleagues” (Goldstein & Brooks, 2007).

How would you feel? You have some correct information. You need to complete the question again having used the corrections.

How would you feel? Andy, you have worked hard to complete the challenge questions. I am pleased with how you have presented your work. Regarding the skills needed, you have correctly identified the method, however I would like you to re-analyse your results using the corrections I have indicated. Please re-attempt as your DIT.

Tips Understand the barriers to the literacy issues in your subject area. Is there a reading for understanding need? Is there a written response need? Literacy = whole school

Feedback We all give feedback and we all know what it is like to receive it. You will always remember negative over positive – 3 to 1, therefore feedback needs to be meaningful, motivate and inspire. Literacy = whole school

Literacy feedback Personalise - use their name Be mindful of what you are marking especially for literacy – select a focus either as a class or student Avoid ‘red’ Set SMART targets and refer back in the next piece of marking – celebrate success Offer strategies – knowledge check/spellings/key word bingo Literacy = whole school

Feedback Research has shown that feedback is one of the top 10 influences on learning (Hattie, 2009) Response can be a ‘helpless’ one which is associated to lack of ability, failure and lack of persistence or ‘mastery -orientated’ where they focus on effort when faced with difficulty and maintain effort. Literacy = whole school

Tips – Written work Mark work with one accuracy focus Promote modelling in the class – teacher + students e. g. verbal rehearsal of responses before getting student’s to write things down. Raise standards – reject one word answers Literacy = whole school

An activity Imagine you’re staying here, write a postcard to be sent to a family member.

An activity How many of you used ‘nice’, ‘good’ or ‘fun’ These words are now banned. Look for alternatives and use thesaurus if it helps.

An activity How many of you started a sentence with ‘it’? You need to be specific about your subject. ‘It’ could related to anything!

Tips – Written work Encourage language variety Literacy = whole school Students like to start responses with: ‘so’, ‘basically’, ‘because’, ‘like’ or ‘also’. Encourage students to vary their language – put limitations on the number of times a word can be used in a piece of work. Use synonyms – borrow a thesaurus

Tips – Written work Look to move away from vague language. What does a monologue mean? ‘It’ means… Be specific, identify your subject. Literacy = whole school

Tips – Written work (Q) How was Macbeth presented at the start of the play? Brave In William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare presented Macbeth as a ‘noble’ solider at the start of the play. Literacy = whole school

Problems identified - Maths • It is the QWC (quality of written communication) questions which are causing issues. • Decoding (knowing what it means)

What we can do… • Encourage students to read the question and for them to underline key words.

Adopt the marking code

GRIT Duckworth defines grit as: “…passions and persistence for long-term goals” (Duckworth & Quinn, 2009, p 166). Duckworth identified that a person’s grit can be aided by having a growth mindset (Duckworth, 2007).

Brooks & Goldstein (2008) • All students wish to learn and to succeed. • Educators have a lifelong effect on students and their resilience. • Empathy is an essential skill for effective teaching and relationships with students as well as parents and colleagues. Empathic educators are able to place themselves inside the shoes of their students and others and perceive the world through their eyes. • If our strategies are not effective, we must ask, “What is it that I can do differently? ” rather than continuing to wait for the student to change first.

Changing minds – Amy Conley You say. . . Good job! You could say. . . I can really see your effort in revision. Why? Praising effort and process encourages writers to keep trying. (Dweck) Build time for self-reflection You're a good writer. Those drafts paid off in sentence Encouraging growth instead of fixed • Your reflection should focus less on whether the idea was a success or a variety and imagery. mindset makes for happier people in failure, but rather on what the teacher learnt fromcharge the process – this will go of their progress. (Dweck) journal. You haven't mastered semi-colons yet. The power of yet suggests growth and You don'tinto knowyour how to use semi-colons. mastery. (Dweck and Pink) Please revise. Improved topic sentences and Specific reader-focused feedback might transitions between paragraphs would seem nitpicky, but helps writers feel Formative Feedbackimprove your paper's structure and purpose of revision. • Teachers need toreadability. try new things and make mistakes. Part of the growth Write a persuasive your a real purpose and real mindsetessay. is to try. Persuade new approaches and not to have Writers a fear need of failure. principal/Congressman/parents to do a audience to write their best work. specific action. (Pink) Read Heart of Darkness. Choose a work from the list of …. How People prefer autonomy and choice. Discuss the importance of does… (Pink) the Congo River to this narrative.