Category Archives: Literacy Resources

Learning has to be FUN, doesn’t it?

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I read a recent post on chartchums.wordpress.com and it made me smile!  This time of year can be one that feels a little frantic so for me this time to read and reflect felt good!  We all know that if children are motivated and engaged it makes our lives easier, so how do we use their excitement to develop their literacy skills? Take a look at how a Primary 1 class were hooked on reading through their obsession with Star Wars then if you want to find out more, click on the link above and go to the chartchums blog (a great one to follow as they do post some interesting things!).

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Ideas for the Summer Term!

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teaching ideaspoetry archive

Click on the images above and you’ll find yourself at two very good websites recommended by Primary colleagues!  Teaching Ideas has a wealth of resources for all curricular areas.  If you hover over the Literacy tab you’ll find almost everything you need to inspire you this term.  I had a look at some of the videos and there are some excellent shorts that I’ll be using to stimulate storyline discussions with my Primary 6 class (my favourite is ‘Alma’ – a bit freaky but I like that!).  The Poetry Archive has a selection of poetry that children will love and also featured poets to get to know.

Here’s Alma for you to enjoy…don’t watch it with infant classes!

If you know of any resources out there that you can share, please let us know and we’ll post them here for everyone to enjoy!

 

More Media Ideas

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moving image

Following on from the previous post about  ‘Using Media in Literacy’ click on the image above and you’ll find yourself at the Moving Image Education website.  This site has a host of quality video clips that can be used to develop children’s literacy skills. These are great to use and add a little variety to the texts we ask the children to view and think about.

Using film trailers is also a great way to start thinking about story lines and characterisation but the challenge is often finding films the children don’t actually know!  Using foreign films has worked well for me, have a look at one of my favourites:

 

Supporting Reading

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trugs-box-1

There are many great resources out there that support reading development.  ‘Trugs’ is one we thought we’d try and have to say it’s great!  Our P2-P7 children have been playing the games and love them!  Click on the image above and you’ll find yourself on the Read Successfully website where you can find out more (the video clips on the site are a good place to start).

Talk the Big Talk

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Talk the Big Talk, a precursor to Big Writing, puts emphasis on the importance of talk, particularly in the early years, to enhance the writing process.

Talk the big talkUsing the core Big Writing principles of Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation, (VCOP) early years practitioners can use the power of talk within their writing sessions. Ros Wilson (founder of Big Writing) believes that:

‘If a child can’t say it, a child can’t write it.’

Up-levelling- the skill of improving sentences through the use of ambitious vocabulary, varied connectives, powerful openers and punctuation. Allowing learners to develop the concept of VCOP orally, will in turn influence their ability to transfer their skills into their writing. Click on the links below for ideas of how to use VCOP in the classroom.
sentenceplay.co.uk – CLICK HERE!
VCOP Ideas Bank- CLICK HERE!
VCOP – Year 1 ideas- CLICK HERE!

In addition to this, ‘Talk Homework’ is at the core of Big Writing/Big Talk sessions. Some ideas for Talk Homework can be found below:
Talk Homework Ideas- CLICK HERE!

If you use ‘Talk the Big Talk’ in your classroom, and have any learning and teaching ideas, we’d love to hear from you.

What makes a HERO?

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HeroesLogo

Click on the image above and you’ll find yourself on the TED website which has a wealth of amazing video clips (mostly for second level and beyond) that can be used for teaching those big ideas that children often find tricky.  I love this video, it’s a great one to use in Writing or Reading Workshop to get the children making connections!

 

Literacy in the Early Level

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Speaking to a few early level colleagues, they’re looking for some new ideas to revitalise what they are already doing in reading and writing. Here are some images that take what we teach the little ones but present it in perhaps a new way!  If you know of someone in your school who is doing something interesting with literacy, then let us know and we’ll post it on the blog!

eBooks- a resource for the classroom

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Those of you who are fortunate enough to have either an interactive whiteboard or projector in your room- this will be of interest to you.

rm3          RMBooks          rm2

Glow, now serviced by RM Unify, decided that tiles were the way forward in enabling users to access information quickly. A new tile ‘RM Books’ is one in which I discovered last week. Each teacher with a Glow account can download books which can then be used for whole class/group lessons – ideal for Reading for Information and Writer’s Craft.

Clicking on the ‘School Library’ I was able to access 69 FREE books which can be used. I would suggest however that these resources are perhaps more relevant to second level (CfE) and above.

I am itching to use the free Yeats’ poetry book to demonstrate classic poetry and ballads. You may need to speak to the Glow administrator for your school if you experience problems in logging into your account – however I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

https://www.rmbookshelf.com/