Author Archives: lauramcginlay

Poetry Packs 3 and 4

We know how busy you all are, so we are continuing to put together some resources that may help.

We now have Poetry Packs 3 and 4 ready to go! Poetry Pack 3 is based on ‘Street Talk’ by J.K Annand and Poetry Pack 4 is based on ‘The Hill We Climb’ by Amanda Gorman. Both poems have a Scottish connection…read on to find out more!

The poetry packs can be accessed below –

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Nnw9Uyg8Wtin1FM6Uau2cJ9uB_WigCWWP2A36S2zw_E/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1XPOMySWikQnlrlk5S8KJ2Y0g00rpfLQQ4tb6m6289RU/edit?usp=sharing

Sharing Good Practice in Highland – Talk for Writing

Many teachers in Highland are planning, teaching and assessing writing using the Talk for Writing framework. This is not a one size fits all approach and needs to be adapted to suit your class.

We thought we’d share this example of good practice from Tore Primary School. Sally Thorne, class teacher, shares how she teaches writing while linking with other curricular areas and contexts.

Sally used ‘The Abominables’, a class reader from Pie Corbett’s reading spine as the stimulus for this unit of work. The unit was introduced with free writing on ‘If I met a yeti he….’ along with accompanying art work. This was successful in hooking the pupils, generating interest and excitement.

Sally shared the next steps…

“After group planning sessions, which includes building up word banks, I took one of the more successful plans, with tweaks and phrases from all groups and we created a class text that we could use for reading as a class. We pulled this apart for literacy techniques which could be used in the pupil’s writing.  

This was then the basis for the pupils to plan and create their own story, a section at a time.  As it’s a multi-stage writing process, some pupils are able to run with the idea, some need more support.  I try to create texts that contain as many of the T4W techniques as possible: repetition, power of 3, starting with adverbs etc.”

Click here for the Class Yeti Story

Happy Burns Day! Poetry Pack 2

We know how busy you all are, so we are continuing to put together some resources that may help.

This pack is another Robert Burns poem, ‘Up in the Morning Early’. This is aimed at end of First/Second Level.

It has been created in Google Slides with links to activities on Jamboard, Google Forms, Google Docs and YouTube.

We hope to continue creating these for the duration of lockdown.

Feel free to edit these and use as much of this as you like with your class.

To access this pack , use this link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1nSVzjSGO7QIjW797X9bxSaBeg-ULKlyJgwKrupB2ciI/edit?usp=sharing

Listening and Talking Training Sessions

Suzanne Callander (SAC Literacy Officer) has developed a range of support materials aimed at the the teaching of Listening and Talking at both Primary and Secondary level.

Suzanne will be running 3 sessions this week to share the materials and how these might be used. Join us on Tuesday 26th, Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th at 1.30pm to hear more.

The link for training can be found on the Highland Digital School Hub on the calendar.

You can also sign up via the CPD website.

Ready to Go Robert Burns Poetry Teaching and Learning Resource

We know how busy you all are, so we are putting together some resources that may help.

The first one is for Burns Day and is based around, ‘A Red, Red Rose’. This is aimed at end of First/Second Level.

It has been created in Google Slides with links to activities on Jamboard, Google Forms, Google Docs and YouTube.

We hope to continue creating these for the duration of lockdown.

Feel free to edit these and use as much of this as you like with your class.

To access the first one, use this link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1PjDYsGTvcZrf1Mx1qNrXw8oiQQ8TFedLgQcdfvo08k4/edit?usp=sharing

Read and Write – Highland Guidance

Here are resource page links for Highland staff using Read and Write –

 1. Teacher page – text.help/highland-teachers

This houses all the resources teachers will need to get to know the toolbar themselves (see the ‘Getting colleagues on board’ section). There are also downloadable resources for teachers to use to spread the word to their students and parents. 

2.  Student/parent page – text.help/highland-students
This page includes links to the home install guides for each platform. Also, there are additional resources for students/parents to learn more about Read&Write.

Training Opportunities

We know that things are far from ‘normal’ in schools but we are here to help! We are still providing regular training sessions. We are here to support you.

All training is listed on the Highland CPD website https://highland.cpdservice.net/

Upcoming training sessions and networks include:

  • Literacy Leaders
  • Developing Literacy – First and Second Level -Reading and Writing
  • Emerging Literacy Network
  • Secondary Teachers – Teaching the Literacy of your Subject