Do your pupils have a burning question about Mortal Engines they really need answered? Join the  chat on @FMReadChallenge from 10am to 10.30am on Friday 25th January 2019 for a special Twitter Q&A with its author Philip Reeve. Send your questions in advance, or post them on the day tagged #PhilipReeveBookChat.

Back in September the 15th Neil Gunn Writing Competition was launched. A reminder that the closing date for this competition is Friday 8th March 2019.

This year’s competition is open to:

• Primary: P5-P7
• Secondary: S3-S6

There have been brilliant submissions from Highland primary and secondary schools over the years. For both the primary and secondary competition there is a key theme for the 2018/2019 competition. They are as follows:

Entries are due on Friday 8th March 2019. Before schools take part in the competition, check out the Rules for the Competition document below and access the entry forms for primary and secondary.

Whilst the competition is open to P5-P7 and S3-S6 there have been  lesson plan materials put together by Jenny Wilson, Literacy Development Officer, for children working within Early through to Second Levels in exploring the primary school theme as part of their learning and teaching. For those schools entering the competition at P5-P7 there is also biography information on Neil Gunn to use alongside the lesson plan.

CLICK HERE for further information

The deadline for the next round of Live Literature funding is 23rd January. If you would like financial support to bring authors to your school or library, between 1st April and 31st December 2019, apply now! 

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE

Back in 2015 we published a blog post on ‘Read On Get On’; a national campaign to get children reading well by 11 years old.

In 2017, the Read On Get On coalition developed a tripartite model of reading which asserts that, in order for a child to read well at age 11, they must have strong cognitive reading skills (including phonics and comprehension), positive affective processes (including reading enjoyment) and positive reading behaviours (including reading daily). The Read On Get On (ROGO) index provides further information.

Last month Read On Get On published their 2018 ROGO Index. Reading for enjoyment features as the key theme. They have teamed up with authors to create resources to support their next step. You can find out more on the link below.

Read On Get On 2018 Resources

Towards the end of 2018, Brainpickings published ‘The Loveliest Children’s Books of 2018’ book list. The Brainpickings ‘The Loveliest Children’s Books of 2018’ list includes texts which could be used as a stimulus for writing, as a modelled text for teaching reading strategies in a literacy workshop, or as a text for all to enjoy in the classroom! Their unique selection of books are texts which you may find are not already in your classroom.

CLICK HERE – Brainpickings Book List

This month’s ’50 Word Fiction’ from the Scottish Book Trust asks you to ‘Write a story featuring fireworks.’

The deadline is Tuesday 29th January 2019. The two Young Writers categories are open to all children and young people from 5 to 18, and there is an all age catergory for Gaelic writers.

CLICK HERE – ’50 Word Fiction’

The next Emerging Literacy Network will be taking place on Monday 14th January 2019, 4pm – 6pm. The January 2019 networks are organised into Buddy Network Groups where schools are meeting in one of 26 different locations across Highland. The content for the session is housed within the video below. The video can be used to facilitate the session.

To support collaboration at the network, practitioners are asked to bring:

• copies of the network resources CLICK HERE for the zip file
• trackers for phonological awareness and pre-handwriting
• any materials that detail their school’s approach to the teaching of phonics and spelling.

The details of where each school group has identified that they will meet can be found in the relevant document below:

• CLICK HERE – Highland Buddy Network Groups

The Emerging Literacy Term 2 Update includes:

• a debrief of the Year Group Networks in October/ November, and links to resources following the networks
• an overview of the Buddy Group Networks in January, and a link to the the information and resources for the session
• a summary of the Northern Alliance Emerging Literacy 18/19 interim report published on Friday 14th December 2018
• links to resources shared during the term to support adult/child interaction and rhyme awareness and detection.

CLICK HERE – Emerging Literacy – Term 2 Update (December 2018)

Jenny Wilson, Literacy Development Officer, has created a selection of leaflets which you may find useful to incorporate as part of the school’s approach to family learning, connecting the learning between the classroom and home. Each leaflet supports the practice in the teaching of reading and spelling which Jenny has developed through training and resources.

CLICK HERE – Family Learning Leaflets

The Literacy WAGOLL (what a good one looks like) site has a number of digital texts in the form of pictures, sound clips and videos that can be used to support comprehension and the creation of texts. There are also samples of written texts that can be used when anaylsing the craft of writers.

CLICK HERE – Literacy WAGOLL