Author Emily Mackenzie of ‘There’s a Broccoli in my Ice Cream!‘ will be on Authors Live as part of Bookbug Week 2019 on Thursday 16th May, 11am – 11.40am.

Authors Live sessions can be watched live, or can be accessed in the Watch on Demand section of the Scottish Book Trust website.

CLICK HERE – SIGN UP AUTHORS LIVE: Emily MacKenzie

Date: Thursday 16th May 2019
Time: 11am – 11.40am
Target Audience: Nursery – Primary 3

Please note that the link to watch is emailed to you manually by one of the Scottish Book Trust team. As this is not an automatic process, please sign up to watch as soon as you can so that they can get your link to you in plenty of time.

Thank you to Julie Thompson Hunter from Tongue Primary School for sharing her learning through this post.

In 2004, my school took part in a pilot project with the British Film Institute (BFI) and Scottish Screen. We were going to learn about “Moving Image Education” and how to teach it to pupils in primary and secondary school. I remember sitting in the room, waiting for training to start, and thinking, “Oh, no! One more thing to find space for in an already overloaded curriculum!”

And then I saw how easy, fun and multipurpose MIE could be!

Over the past 15 years, I have been using Moving Image Education (analysing film, creating digital films and animations) in my classroom. It’s highly motivating (don’t take my word for it – find research links at the bottom of the page), it can be used to teach a wide range of reading and writing skills, and it is identified in the curriculum under digital literacy.  However, several teachers I have spoken to have said that they don’t use it to teach. So, I wondered, what are the barriers for some teachers in delivering Moving Image (MIE) in primary schools, and how do other teacher overcome them? This created the research question for a master’s work-based project.

Although the sample size was small, the three main barriers that were highlighted were access to resources, lack of training, and rating by teachers of the overall importance of MIE as a part of the curriculum.

Teachers who overcame these perceived barriers and embedded MIE in their classes used a range of methods: they collected resources from across the school (tripods, cameras, chargers and batteries), and in some cases, brought them in from home. They used film resources online in their classrooms and undertook online training to understand how to teach the skills. Overall, they felt that MIE was a valuable tool in primary teaching of language compared to their colleagues who hadn’t embedded MIE in their own practice.

It sounds like my first thoughts – “Not one more thing!”

But indulge me. Over the next few months, I hope to produce a series of lesson plans on MIE for teachers to use in their classrooms. Some will be about teaching reading skills, such as inference and critical thinking skills. Others have a cross-curricular theme with modern languages. I also hope to produce a series of short, online videos in how to use cameras, tablets, tripods and editing equipment to create stop-gap animations with your class. Try them!

For those of you who already use MIE in your classroom and want to contribute to the lessons available online, please email me at julie.thompson@highland.gov.uk . And if you have any suggestions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Is it motivating? Check out the research!

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/%20bfi-a-framework-for-film-education-brochure-2015-06-12.pdf

http://www.acta.sapientia.ro/acta-social/C6-1/social61-09.pdf

www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/film-21st-century-literacy-redefining-film-education.pdf

In taking a developmental approach to literacy, language and communication, we have explored the importance in developing rhythm and rhyme in early learning and childcare settings and schools. CLICK HERE to read a blog post from The Imagination Tree that discusses this further and includes some great ideas to develop rhythm and rhyme in your setting.

As part of their work across the Early Level in taking a developmental approach to Emerging Literacy, Merkinch nursery and primary have been developing Rhyme Time through “Rhyme of the Week”. CLICK HERE – Rhyme of the Week guidance.

We’ve written a number of posts previously on supporting children’s literacy language and communication development through rhyme and rhythm. CLICK HERE – Highland Literacy Rhyme posts.

Scottish Book Trust’s annual campaign to get Scotland writing is back! This year, they’re looking for your real-life stories on what Blether means to you. CLICK HERE to find out more. The deadline is Wednesday 5th June 2019.

CLICK HERE – SBT Blether

Check out the Words for Life website (part of the National Literacy Trust site) for information for practitioners and families to support children’s literacy, language and communication development.

CLICK HERE – Words for Life

Speech and Language Therapists across Highland work in collaboration with practitioners in Early Learning and Childcare settings and schools to support adult/ child interactions through the Words Up Early and Words Up Primary Key Messages.

Last session, working with Early Learning and Childcare practitioners in Scottish Attainment Challenge schools, Speech and Language Therapy Assistants supported adult/ child interaction through ongoing coaching, modelling and evaluation.

The report below details the impact of the collaboration on supporting children’s language and communication, a key predictor of children’s later attainment and achievement. As schools consider their Pupil Equity Fund interventions, they may wish to consider the partnership with our local speech and language therapy team in supporting children’s speech, language and communication.

CLICK HERE – Developing Communication Skills in Early Years

The Precision Teaching Wave Three Intervention Materials have been updated, including an introductory training PowerPoint with slide voiceovers, and a resource package to support the use of precision teaching.

You can download the Precision Teaching Resources below:

• CLICK HERE Precision Teaching PowerPoint

• CLICK HERE Precision Teaching Templates

Literacy permeates throughout everything we do both in and out of school. Practitioners can plan for Literacy skills through three different ways:

• Discrete literacy learning – Developing individual aspects of literacy.

• Literacy through Interdisciplinary Learning (IDL) – Applying and assessing literacy skills in context.

• Across learning  – Opportunities to develop and demonstrate literacy skills in all subject areas.  

Recently Education Scotland published resources for use across the Broad General Education (3-15), created in a partnership between the University of Glasgow and Education Scotland. The resources are located in a number of curricular areas such as Social Studies, Modern Languages, RME and Technologies. The resource links provide an opportunity for children to apply their literacy skills through interdisciplinary learning, or demonstrate literacy skills across learning.

CLICK HERE – Education Scotland/ University of Glasgow BGE Materials