Following the Emerging Literacy training which took place across the Authority towards the end of last session, the draft support materials are now available to download by clicking the images below.

Support materials, in the form of developmental continua, have been created on the following areas (click the links to download):

Concepts of Print – CLICK HERE Developmental Continuum
Expressive Language – CLICK HERE Developmental Continuum
Understanding of Language – CLICK HERE Developmental Continuum
Pre-Handwriting – CLICK HERE Developmental Continuum
Phonological Awareness – CLICK HERE Developmental Continuum

A working group will continue to develop these materials over the 2015/2016 session. Please access the most up to date version of the materials by visiting the blog.

To support your engagement with the Primary One Literacy Assessment and Action Resource (POLAAR) we have created a support tool which allows you to use the materials above when engaging with the POLAAR: Child Observation and Child Observation with Actions documents.

The following document has connected the twenty aspects in the POLAAR observational checklist to the relevant areas within the continua:

CLICK HERE – POLAAR Child Observational Assessment and Development Links

The developmental overviews which are used in Early Years and Childcare settings in Highland can also be downloaded below:

Overview of Early (3 year old) Pre-school Skills – CLICK HERE
Overview of Pre-school (4 year old) Skills – CLICK HERE

At the recent ‘Building the Primary Curriculum’ workshops, the ‘Skills for learning, life and work’ guidelines were shared with Head Teachers.

Click the image above to access the document. Within the document you will find information on Higher Order Thinking Skills and Literacy skills for life.

Check out the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) tab at the top.

The World Book Day website has a great resource, Storytime Online, which includes a number of popular stories read by some of TV’s famous faces. Click the image below to access the resource.

Finding and Using Information is one of the Sub-SALs highlighted in Education Scotland’s Literacy and English Assessing Progress and Achievement paper.

Are we teaching learners how to find and use information on the internet? When search engines like Google conduct over 40,000 searches per second, how do our children and young people interrogate, reflect on, make inferences and draw conclusions about what they’ve found?

CLICK HERE for the Information and Critical Literacy section on Education Scotland’s website. It includes mini bites of information for pupils, parents and practitioners on finding and using information.

Evaluating Websites – Oxford Brookes University – a guide which asks you to question the sources you find online.

CLICK HERE for a blog post from Falkirk Council on Googling in the Primary classroom which links to further resources.

Want your learners to create multi-modal texts and develop their digital literacy skills?

Canva is a fabulous free (for many templates, colours and fonts) resource which can be used to create texts such as posters, collages and presentations online.

Click the image above to visit the website, sign-up for account and let your learners get creative!

Following the SSLN Literacy Report, Education Scotland has created professional workshop materials to support practitioners with areas for development identified in the results of the Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (Literacy).

Check out the following resource areas:

• Listening and Talking (Group Discussion)
• Reading
• Writing

You will find General Resources for each of the three modes, and levelled resources for First, Second and Third Levels underneath each Literacy mode.

A favourite of the Literacy Working Group . . . 

Language of Discussion Stems – these can be used by practitioners or learners as discussion starters. Perfect for use in group discussion alongside Bloom’s Question Fans.

A new resource has been created and added to ‘The Literacy Toolkit’ section of our blog.

Talk with Confidence – The objective of this PPT is to explore the research and views around developing ‘individual’ and ‘group’ confidence when talking, and to generate professional dialogue and action relating to this with a view to improving experiences for the young people in school. 

CLICK HERE – Talk with Confidence

drawastickman.com is a great resource that can be used to stimulate creative thinking during the writing process.

Take your stickman on an adventure, overcoming the hurdles along the way. This is a great resource that can be used to teach sequencing and problem solving / conflict resolution in writing.

Click the image above to check out the two episodes!

Click the image below to check out the new 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

Lesley Glasgow, a colleague from Hilton Primary School in Inverness, recently worked with ‘A Tale Unfolds‘ on a Second Level Literacy and Digital Media project. She has shared her review of the project below . . .

I’ve just completed a literacy-based project that I thought others might like to investigate.

It is an inspiring resource provided by A Tale Unfolds.

You are provided with 7 weeks of lessons which are beautifully planned and which take the children’s written work to a higher level.

Each day builds on the learning of the day before. The plans are  well structured and engaging e.g. using links to video clips for children to experience what they are being asked to write about.

What I haven’t mentioned is the driving force behind the writing. Each piece of writing is a part of a master plan. There are diary entries, letter writing, character descriptions and scripts. These build together to make a film: ‘Cindy, Ann & Bones and The Temple of Boom!’

You don’t have to be a technical genius to do this. The team at A Tale Unfolds have really thought of everything. A basic website called WeVideo is used. They’ve had teachers who are tech-terrified become ‘addicted’ to WeVideo so please don’t be frightened by anything. It’s really simple, I promise. You are guided with short, simple videos that explain easily what you need to do. If I can do it anyone can. You will need something to film the children with and a computer. Media engages today’s ‘digital native’ student. This type of project fosters creativity and multi-modal learning. A Tale Unfolds provides the content and support to bring these projects to life in the classroom.

It was great to come across a resource that was well-planned, straightforward to use and provided the children with such enthusiasm towards writing. 

Well worth a look everyone. If you’re tempted check out this link: A Tale Unfolds