When consolidating the teaching of phoneme (the sound) and grapheme (the letter) correspondance and futher developing this to blend and segment words, having access to decodable texts can support your teaching of the phonic code.
SPELD SA have a number of free online decodable texts which can be used to support the teaching of these skills. These can be used universally with individuals and groups to support the consolidation of phonics teaching as part of a literacy workshop.
On the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) website you will find Poetryline – the national poetry centre for primary schools.
The Poetryline website includes a number of resources to support teachers in developing poetry in their classrooms.
The Poems section of Poetryline includes a number of poems which are accompanied by lesson plans and ideas. These can be searched by pupil stage, poet, theme, poetic device or poetic form.
The Classroom Resources section includes a number of different resources which can be used in individual classes and across schools to support the teaching of poetry.
The Poets section includes interviews with a number of the poets which are featured on the site along with links to their poems and learning resources.
Often we’re asked to recommend books – today we’re recommending a few which have some fundamental messages.
The Equalities Act (2010) places a duty on local authorities to eliminate discrimination, victimisation and harrassment with regards to the nine Protected Characteristics.
CLICK HERE – Equalities Act (2010) Information For Schools
Prejudiced based bullying can be prevented through education on Equality, Diversity and Children’s Rights and picture books are a powerful tool to deliver these messages.
Click the images below to access a list of selected picture books that the Millburn ASG are using to develop Equality, Diversity and Children’s Rights. The Equalities Pupil Group at Crown last session identified the key themes which could be delivered through the books.
The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) in England have worked with partners to create reading and writing scales for ‘beginning – mature independent’ readers and writers. The scales could be used alongside Steps to Success – The Highland Literacy Progression to support planning for progression.
The scales describe the reading and writing behaviours that children may display at each stage from ‘beginning – mature independent’ and include next steps for each stage on the scale.
The reading and writing scales are tools which could support you in taking a developmental approach to reading and writing across the Broad General Education, building on from foundational reading and writing skills through Emerging Literacy.
Most of the resources have just been updated with new links or a slight rearrangement of formatting; however, we also see two new resources:
Access the Messy Play resource for sensory play experiences to support the development of fine motor skills and pre-writing skills.
Access the Bike Riding handout, ideal for families, to support the development of bike riding skills.
The local to Highland Neil Gunn Writing Competition is extending its submission date for P5-P7 children across Highland until the end of term (April 5th) to provide schools with the time to get their submissions in. This is a great opportunity for children to create a piece of writing for a competition which celebrates the life of the Scottish writer Neil Gunn.
Children in P5-P7 can write a piece which is inspired by this quote, presented in either poetry or prose.
The Building Vocabulary for Better Literacy PowerPoint within the Literacy Toolkit, suggests that in order to store new words effectively we need knowledge about three key areas:
The Pip St.John – Pre-Teaching Vocabulary resource provides free teaching materials which can be used when teaching learners new vocabulary.
This month’s ’50 Word Fiction’ from the Scottish Book Trust features an image which captures storytelling at its best – the camp fire. Using the image below as a stimulus, learners can create a story of no more than 50 words.
Some campfire crackling sounds may help get the creative juices flowing. You could bring a virtual camfire into your classroom as part of storytelling. Check it out below:
The deadline is Tuesday 28th March 2017. The Young Writers category is open to all children and young people under 18.
As part of the Emerging Literacy development this year, as we shared in our post in December 2016, we are working with the other six local authorities across the Northern Alliance to further develop Emerging Literacy across the north of Scotland.
As part of this we have undertaken midyear data analysis of Phonological Awareness and Pre-Handwriting as of January 2017 to compare with the baseline data which we gathered in September 2016 within these two domains. This, along with information on the progress made between June 2016 and March 2017, can be found in the report on the link below:
A final report will be published in July to detail the progress made over the academic year.
HIGHLAND LITERACY 