We’d appreciate if you could spare less than one minute to click the link below, choose your school and answer one question about the Emerging Literacy materials. The Emerging Literacy group are in the process of refining the Emerging Literacy materials and training and your feedback will be extremely valuable.
Left inspired by one of the writing workshops which we delivered to the Highland Probationers on Saturday, it left me thinking, how are we creating a love for writing in our classrooms?
Journaling is a creative technique which draws together the skills of reading and writing, combined with artistic flair.
After using choral reading to read the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph, focusing on the punctuation to aid the flow, our practitioners disected each stanza to infer meaning. Poetry is a powerful genre which is a great stimulus for writing, often short it’s a genre which we can use to inspire thinking when we’ve got a few minutes before assembly, after lunch or within an extended writing lesson. CLICK HERE – Poetry Archive
Following this, our practitioners used the journaling approach to create visual representations of themselves as practitioners in the year 2046, linked to the theme of the poem.
How could you use journaling in your classroom?
It’s that time of year again where teachers all around plan for a day of reading immersion to ensure that our children and young people leave us with a love of reading. The World Book Day Website has been redesigned and is now more user friendly than ever, allowing you to get to the information you require quickly.
The World Book Day Toolkit is the starting point for all practitioners. Access this by clicking the image below.
Join in on The Bumper Book Quiz by clicking the image below. The resource goes live tomorrow, Tuesday 23rd February.
Let us know what you’re up to on World Book Day by leaving a comment; we’d love to share the work that you’re doing!
Following the previously over-subscribed training, please see information below re CPD delivered by the Speech and Language team.
IDENTIFYING AND SUPPORTING CHILDREN WITH SPEECH AND LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES IN THE PRIMARY SETTING
An interactive whole day session suitable for: class teachers, ASN teachers, SMT, PSAs.
This one-day course will focus on identifying and supporting children with speech and language difficulties within the classroom. Learning will be done through active tasks, collaborative problem solving and analysis of real-life videos of children with SLCN (speech language and communication needs)
Aims of the course:
INVERNESS – Monday 7th March 2016
WICK – Thursday 14th April 2016
FORT WILLIAM – Tuesday 10th May 2016
INVERNESS – Wednesday 20th April 2016
Please apply through the CPD Calendar
Scottish Book Trust have a number of Learning Resources which can be accessed directly on their site.
CLICK HERE – Learning Resources
Check out the Author and Book Resources – great for work in reading workshops and class book study.
To celebrate the birthday of those characters Biff, Chip and Kipper that we’ve grown to know and love, Oxford University Press have released an exciting competition.
Learners are to write and illustrate their own Biff, Chip and Kipper adventure – the prize, their text might be published.
This could be a great writing opportunity for children in the First/Second Level to analyse the features of an Oxford Reading Tree text and create one of their own. Once they’ve finished, why not share it with someone younger in the school as part of World Book Day?
The link below includes information about the competition and resources which can be used in the classroom:
John Lewis have released a resource, Bringing Skills to Life. The Highland Skills for Learning, Life and Work document details the Higher Order Thinking Skills which we develop across the curriculum. Higher Order Thinking Skills permeates throughout the Literacy Curriculum as detailed in The Highland Literacy Progression – Steps to Success.
Sign-up to John Lewis’ Bringing Skills to Life resource to access free lesson plans (linked to the curriculum) and activity cards which provide a stimulus for children to think, explore, imagine and create. Check out the ‘Storytelling’ section for some great lesson plans.
An exciting opportunity is being made available for Highland Primary Schools through the Scottish Book Trust. Sarah McIntyre, Children’s Book Author, is coming to Highland between the 9th and 13th of May and is offering free school visits for P4 – P7 pupils.
To find out more information click the picture below:
To apply for Sarah to come to your school, visit:
Scottish Book Trust – Apply For Author Visit
Click the image below to access the Early Reading briefing published this week by Education Scotland. The Emerging Literacy group will look at this in detail at their next meeting as they continue to develop support materials and training.
CLICK HERE – Education Scotland Early Reading
Click the link below to access Highland’s Emerging Literacy materials to support the pre-literacy skills to support Early Reading.
CLICK HERE to visit the Emerging Literacy section of the blog
ABC Ya! is jam-packed with different interactive literacy games, stories and activities which can be used for individuals, small groups or whole class interactions.
A couple of favourites are:
HIGHLAND LITERACY 