Click on the image below for information on an event on Language Disorders in May, delivered by Maggie Johnson (Speech and Language Therapist Advisor).

The Literacy curriculum for Primary 7 pupils in the Millburn Area School Group (ASG) has looked a little bit different this term. They have been developing oral and written communication skills, research skills, critical thinking skills, the skill of making connections, presentation skills and comparing and contrasting sources. The skills themselves have been no different than the skill set that has traditionally been developed within the Literacy curriculum in Primary 7; however, this year they have been driven through the context of Career Education.

Following the work that Lochardil Primary School developed on Career Education through their Literacy and Health and Wellbeing programme, the Millburn ASG have developed this within their school’s curriculum. The children have been researching local industries on My World of Work, comparing the values of businesses to the values of their school, communicating directly with businesses, developing dynamic presentation skills to present to their families and businesses, making the connections between their own skills within the curriculum and the skills across learning, life and work with a focus on industry.

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These core Literacy and Communication skills have been reflected in the direct work that the Millburn ASG has done with Skills Development Scotland, Barnardo’s Works and with local businesses across hospitality, finance, the consumer chain, construction and science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) industries. Across industries, these skills have been valued as crucial to the work place. This is showing learners in Primary 7 the purpose for developing these skills and the transferable nature of these skills through the rest of their time in education and beyond!

Have you seen the new National Improvement Hub resource released by Education Scotland?

CLICK HERE to access the Literacy resources on the National Improvement Hub. It would be great to hear how you plan to use the resource to support raising attainment in your school.

Sir Chris Hoy and co-author Joanna Nadin are part of a special Authors Live event this week, delivered by the Scottish Book Trust.

Chris and Joanna will be introducing their new cycling adventure series, Flying Fergus, on Thursday 17th March 2016 between 11am and 11.40am. This event has a target age of P2 – S1.

CLICK HERE – Flying Fergus: Authors Live

To support this Authors Live event, the Scottish Book Trust have published learning resources to support the development of literacy and sport.

For those that are keen to get involved, let us know how your class further develop what they learn from the event by leaving a comment on this blog post.

Last week at the ‘Closing the Vocabulary Gap’ twilight presented by Rebecca Castelo (Speech and Language) and Kirstine Mullin (Glenurquhart Primary School), it was great to see the Building Vocabulary for Better Literacy PowerPoint in action.

In our previous post on Pre-Teaching Vocabulary we shared how the Pip St. John resource can be used to support the development of Oral Language skills, in turn contributing to the narrowing of the vocabulary gap.

Kirstine shared how she has used the materials to support the teaching of vocabulary around emotional literacy in her P5/6 class, much of the vocabulary first seen as abstract by the learners. Through the development of Pre-Teaching Vocabulary in her classroom, the understanding of language and expressive language skills of her learners have developed. This is one great example of how the materials can be used to support the development of Oral Language.

Due to high demand the Inverness training was at full capacity. The twilight will run again in Dingwall on Thursday 21st April 2016. This can be applied for through the CPD Calendar.

Develop core Literacy skills such as sharing opinions, finding evidence, reaching consensus and analysing sources through Global Citizenship using the Positive Development Stories Photo Teaching Resource.

CLICK HERE – Positive Development Stories

This can be used alongside materials from the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) tab, or through looking through some of our previous posts on discussion skills.

Hilton Primary School, Inverness, have done some great work with the Scottish Book Trust. Following this, the Scottish Book Trust are offering CPD training for practitioners in Highland on Thursday 14th April 2016, 4pm – 5.30pm.

To book contact: emma.lamont@scottishbooktrust.com

Find out what Hilton have been up to below . . .

At Hilton Primary in Inverness both of the P6 classes have been taking part in a project inspired by the books and videos of Liz Pichon.

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Getting Started

Initially we watched the Author’s Live Event with Liz Pichon.

This introduced all of the children to the world of Tom Gates. It was an extremely engaging and interactive session as the children had clipboards and paper to follow Liz’s doodling instructions.

During the next session we watched ‘The Brilliant World of Tom Gates’ as a lead into reading the book.

We followed the very natural progression of the book and focussed on the main themes of doodling, music and comics.

Doodling

• We made a string doodle using a piece of string to make a shape, maybe a snail or a monster, and then we added doodles.
• We created a Tom Gates style wall on frieze paper/bookcase in classroom/ school library.
• The children developed their doodling techniques – Comic Capers (half a jotter which has a mix of plain/lined pages) for 10 -15 minutes daily to note ideas and to practise doodles.
• Then they doodled themselves as a character within Tom Gates. They annotated the drawings as Liz does with the characters in her books. The pictures were then added to the Tom Gates wall to create a gallery. 
• We watched the cooking verbs video clip in preparation for writing our own Granny Mavis style recipes. 

We used pages 98-104 from ‘A Little Bit Lucky’ about the pizza toppings as a stimulus.

• Then we had a go at making unusual – yet palatable – pizzas. We wrote the pizzas up as recipe cards using ‘cooking verbs’ and displayed them (or you could make a pizza compilation book). 
• The children used their doodling skills to design a Tom Gates type t-shirt for their rock band. 
• They all took part in a competition to design a new cover for the next Tom Gates book (as Liz had become too busy to design her own!)

Music

• The class listened to, learned and performed Dog Zombie’s version of Delia’s a Weirdo
• They created a band identity through posters and t-shirts.They then produced, learned and performed their own song in their band 
• The children investigated the layout and information in music magazines e.g. Rocksound, Kerrang
• They enjoyed creating their own review about their band as part of class rock magazine.

Comics

• Comic Capers – Build up ideas, doodling experience in Comic Capers books. The children spent 10-15 minutes daily using lined and blank exercise jotters. The children asked that we keep this activity going after the project.
• Then we watched a video clip about producing comics 
  

We spent time with our class looking at comic strip formats either from the Dandy and The Beano, or Oor Wullie. 

The Tom Gates series is written in the epistolary style which can include letters, other documents and often diary entries. An additional activity could be to compare and contrast Tom Gates with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Look for any similarities in the style: first person, irreverence, friendships and rivalries, etc. What is different? Can you tell they are written by different authors and if so, how? What are the clues? Which do they prefer and why? Encourage debate and split the learners into two groups each advocating the superiority of one or other of the novels.

Tom Gates Day

Bringing together the activities already covered by the children, the day comprised of;

• Songs being performed
• Comics/ Music Magazines to view
• Competition winners announced
• Pizzas cooked using recipe cards
• Excerpt read from latest Liz Pichon book
• Children dressed up in t-shirts and wearing character masks
• Doodle activities/games from Scholastic fun stuff website
• Quiz

As a result of the Authors Live broadcast and the follow up activities, the children have gone on to become huge fans of the Tom Gates series. Many of the children have now got their own copies of the series of books and we have been asked to add collections of books to the school’s reading resources.

Check out Education Scotland’s Political Literacy site, You Decide, by clicking the image above.

CLICK HERE – You Decide

Click the image below to check out the Political Literacy briefing paper from Education Scotland. The paper outlines the use of Political Literacy to develop Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and debate.

Check out the following resources on the blog to develop HOTS and debate:
Highland Literacy – Bloom’s Taxonomy
Highland Literacy – De Bono’s Six Hats
Highland Literacy – SOLO Taxonomy
Highland Literacy – Diamond 9

Looking for prompts to inspire creative thinking in your classroom? If so, check out the 365 Creative Writing Prompts by clicking the image below.

CLICK HERE – 365 Creative Writing Prompts

It is now over a year since many schools across Highland began using Speedy Readers to support learners.

The video above has been created by an Australian school to show how they’re using The Literacy Toolbox – Speedy Readers, striving to combat illiteracy.

Charleston Academy, Inverness, made a great video on their work with the software:

We’re looking for enthusiastic practitioners who use Speedy Readers – The Literacy Toolbox to share the following:

1. One five second clip of the front of the school, focusing mainly on the sign on which the name of the schools appears.
2. Two 15 second over-the-shoulder shots of a child reading to an adult from a Toolbox printout.
3. Two 15 second over-the-shoulder shots of a child working at a computer on a Toolbox exercise.
4. A shot of around one minute  of a teacher explaining which year groups s/he teaches and what its impact has been.

If interested, please email attachments to: eddiecarron@btconnect.com