The message below is from the Literacy Development Team at Education Scotland. It includes information and links to classroom resources which can be used to teach Literacy and English through the stimulus of the Commonwealth Games.

Game On Scotland: Literacy and Languages

Join us every month for a series of 19 exciting Glow meets running throughout the academic year 2013/14. 

The themed sessions are being broadcast live for all Glow users and will provide a wide variety of stimulating opportunities to engage with the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The sessions will allow practitioners and learners find out more and get directly involved in educational opportunities related to the Commonwealth Games. Glow access is required to join the sessions.

This is the second Glow Meet in a new series around the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games covering all of the 8 curriculum areas, highlighting opportunities for interdisciplinary.

The session will highlight the opportunities Glasgow 2014 can provide to develop rich learning experiences within literacy, English and Languages. It will highlight the latest developments in these areas and will make links between the Games, wider engagement opportunities and newly developed resources such as the SSLN (Scottish Survey for Literacy and Numeracy) Professional Learning resource. It will also include a presentation of Inspire>Aspire’s ‘Citizens in the Making’ project, a values based programme that aims to help Scottish schools find ways to use the inspiration from Glasgow 2014 to develop aspirations in their pupils. 

Also:  Brand new Game On Scotland learning journeys developed in collaboration with Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) will be ‘unveiled’ and you find out about the latest engagement opportunities around the Game On.  

On the panel will be Lisa Russell (Literacy Development Officer, Education Scotland), Julie Thomson (Inspire>Aspire project) and a representative from SCILT.

To register go directly to:  Game On Scotland Glow meet

We have added two new PowerPoints to our Literacy Toolkit for use within schools, with an aim to having at least six available by October. The Literacy Toolkit will be further explained at the Head Teacher conference this Friday and next, and training will be offered during the October inset for leaders of learning to facilitate the delivery within schools.

The Literacy Toolkit takes the form of CPD PowerPoints (roughly 1 hour long) and aims to provide opportunities for teachers to address, discuss and agree improvement steps in Literacy. The PowerPoints will include notes which can be delivered by a facilitator in school development sessions, or be used by individuals for CPD.

Check out the ‘Literacy Toolkit’ menu for more information.

Following our earlier post on Mr Thorne Does Phonics, a new Phonics Resource has been created to support the use of media when teaching phonics.

The document, which can be downloaded by clicking the image above, includes the first 33 phonic sounds, actions, the timing on the Jolly Songs youtube clip, and the link to the Geraldine the Giraffe clips.

Enjoy using the resource! 

As you’re looking over your plans for next week, here’s an important date for your calendar . . .

Next Friday, 6th September, Education Scotland will be supporting International Literacy Day (ILD) through the use of Glow TV. Sign up and see what’s going on by clicking the link below:

GLOW TV – ILD – CLICK HERE!!

Why not celebrate International Literacy Day within your class or as a school, using some of the ideas below – it’s a great opportunity for an Interdisciplinary Topic, encompassing Literacy, RME, Social Studies and Expressive Arts experiences and outcomes, as well as links with Global Citizenship and ECO:

– Host a ‘book drive’ or a whole school ‘book swap’ in which children can choose a new book to read and enjoy

– Have a ‘book buddies’ morning – working with a different class in the school e.g. P1 and P4

– Use the UNESCO website to explore videos of how ILD plays an important part in other countries – a great stimulus for writing in the upper school

– Invite a member of the local community e.g. local councillor, road crossing patrol, postman to come and share a story with the class

– Celebrate cultures and diversity through each class hosting a different themed event from a country – CLICK HERE for an EXCELLENT link with stories linked to countries across the world

CLICK HERE for TES and TES iBoard resources for ILD.

Let us know of any plans you have, or great links by commenting on this post!

It was great to see the buzz at Milton of Leys last Friday afternoon – 111 new Probationers, ready to embark on the first year of their career. We hope you’ve had a great first week.

As mentioned at the introduction day, there are three Literacy and English CPD training programmes available for Probationers currently. These are to be applied for through the CPD calendar, following the link below:
http://highland.cpdservice.net/

Primary

A two day Literacy programme designed to combine the work of the Highland Literacy Project, alongside the recent developments of the Highland Literacy Group, giving you practical suggestions on how to embed Literacy within your classroom.

Group A – Day 1 – Monday 9th September 2013 & Day 2 – Tuesday 12th November 2013
Group B – Day 1 – Tuesday 10th September & Day 2 – Wednesday 13th November 2013

Secondary – Teachers Not of Languages

A one day CPD event which equips practitioners with the rationale behind, as well as resources to embed literacy across learning within their subject area.

Group A – Monday 11th November 2013 
Group B – Thursday 21st November 2013

Secondary – Teachers of Languages

The course aims to support practitioners in developing literacy across learning through exploring materials to support development and sharing emerging practice which staff across the Authority have been involved in. This will include examples of progression, interdisciplinary projects and active learning. Exploring the challenges of CfE.

Wednesday 27th November 2013 

In the meantime, subscribe to our blog to keep up to date with the latest Highland Literacy developments.

Reading a Guardian Education Article recently I came across the work of Mr Thorne – a Primary School Teacher from England who has designed and created videos and apps to enhance Literacy learning and teaching.

If you’re looking for inspiring and engaging phonics or spelling videos click on the images above which will take you to his Youtube page and website.

One of my personal favourites is Geraldine the Giraffe. The video below shows her exploring the letter ‘s’ – something I’ll be trying with my class at the beginning of the session.

Our ‘Spelling and Phonics‘ area of the blog provides the Highland Guidelines for teaching phonics based on the HLP principles.

As you are aware, we are currently refreshing the Highland Literacy Project materials and publishing them on the blog once they are completed.

In addition to the ‘Sharing Box‘ you can access the original HLP Booklets by clicking the image above. These will continue to be made available until the document refresh has been completed.

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Click on any of the blue links below to check out what Pinterest has to offer for the Literacy classroom.

If, like me, you’re maybe moving to a new stage next session, or you’re wondering how you should set up your writing area, or perhaps you are just looking for ideas to inspire learners – Pinterest is for you!

Pinterest is a fantastic resource which houses images and links on many topics. Signing up is easy, just requires an email address and a password – but you can browse without signing up. One benefit of having an account is that you can save ‘pins’ to your account to review later. Clicking on the image takes you to a link, normally a blog post, which gives you further information and resources.

In the search bar you can search for topics such as Literacy, Writing, Reading or Literacy Displays which will provide you with images and links to help inspire learners and shape your classroom.

A particular favourite of mine is the Reading Hut which I’d love to try out for my reading corner.

Happy pinning – enjoy your holidays!

HLP Sharing Box – CLICK HERE!