LITERACY POLICY
Literacy across the curriculum
Speaking and listening
Introduction
At the school we believe that:
 Language is central to pupils’ development in every subject.
 Language is used to think, explore, organise and communicate effectively.
 It is every teacher’s responsibility to be aware of how language works and its
functions within the classroom.
 All teachers at the school respect and value the different experiences that pupils
have of language outside school and strive to extend and develop this repertoire.
Policy Statements
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A student's language development is the responsibility of all staff.
It is crucial to develop language in order to follow the National Curriculum.
Spelling accurately is key to developing confidence in written work.
Speaking and listening are key to expressing and developing ideas.
Speaking and Listening
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Talk for a range of purposes and with a variety of audiences
Plan, discuss and evaluate their speaking and listening
Explore ideas through drama and role play
Use talk to explore and develop ideas at length
Use talk to develop their feelings and opinions
Use talk to plan, explore and evaluate other activities
Ask questions as well as answer them
Listen and take on the ideas of others
Solve problems collaboratively
Explore ideas through the medium of ICT
Lessons should help pupils to:
 Value and respect the talk of others
 Value speaking and listening as a primary medium of learning
 Learn to select from, reformulate, question and challenge what they hear
We will aim to:
 Help pupils to select an appropriate degree of formality in relation to their purpose
and audience.
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 The school should have an agreed spelling policy.
 Help pupils to appreciate the differences between Standard English and nonstandard dialect forms and to choose the appropriate form for their purpose.
 Foster pupils' self-esteem by encouraging pride in their dialect.
 Refer to pupils' use of speaking and listening in assessments and reports.
 Use our assessments of students' speaking and listening to help us plan their work.
Approaches to Speaking and Listening
Teaching strategies to promote learning include:
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Teacher modelling of dialogue (turn taking, offering opinions and inviting responses)
Modelling listening (respecting, even if disagreeing with others viewpoints)
Modelling values (encourage participation by all, praise sensitivity)
Modelling participation
Agreeing the rules of what makes a good speaker or listener
Providing a wide range of contexts for speaking and listening
Providing clearly structured tasks which require pupils to participate in talk
Sharing roles with the pupils
Showing pupils how to organise and structure their speech and to use vocabulary
and syntax to communicate more complex meanings
It is important that Speaking and Listening activities are planned into units of work across
the curriculum. Learning activities may include:
 Recording their responses by making documentaries, DVDs and podcasts etc
 Having the opportunity to talk about their own experiences to the whole class, a
group or to the teacher
 Making explanations in a variety of situations
 Taking part in verbal presentations
 Encouraging children to join in discussions and give their opinions
 Encouraging pupils to appraise critically their own and others’ talks
 In Guided Reading, to share opinions and discuss the meaning in books
 Collaborating in problem solving activities
 Developing an awareness of standard spoken English
 Communicating with different audiences, and reflecting on how speakers adapt their
style to suit this
 Having opportunities to talk for a range of purposes
 Engaging in role play, storytelling, freeze frames and other opportunities to use
language creatively and imaginatively
 Performing to others e.g class assemblies, theatre club, charity fund-raising etc.
 Taking on responsibilities in the school such as class council and pupil secretaries.
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Listening Strategies
Most pupils are able to articulate their ideas with a degree of precision, however listening
and responding is a different matter. At the School, we believe that understanding,
absorbing and responding to speaking can be effective -if pupils develop good listening
skills. Some activities require pupils to listen on a superficial level, others require pupils
to investigate and pick up clues like a detective in which case a number of higher order
thinking skills take place. It is therefore important that we consider our pupils as active
listeners and aim to support and develop this skill.
School study- pupil feedback
During reflective discussion about learning, pupils across the two key stages were asked
about speaking and listening activities.
70% of pupils said they preferred to hear the teacher read texts rather than other pupils.
30% preferred to read a text by themselves and 0% said they listened when other pupils
who were reading out loud.
All pupils agreed that the reason for this was because the reading of the text was broken
and the inconsistency in speakers reading aloud was distracting.
80% of pupils said they didn’t listen to the other pupils reading aloud, when they themselves
were picked as one of the people to read a text out loud for the rest of the class.
All pupils agreed that intonation and tone of voice was the number one factor that
influenced whether they listened to the teacher or not. Similarly all pupils said that how
information was presented was more important than the actual topic or even content.
All pupils claimed that when they were actively involved in discussion they listened better.
100% of pupils interviewed, said they were more likely to listen to the introduction at the
start of the lesson when it was anchored by links to the previous lesson.
90% of pupils claimed that when introductions in lessons are too long, they do not hear the
instructions that come after the introduction.
When pupils failed to listen to instructions at the beginning of the lesson-all pupils said they
would ask their friend first and then a teacher. All pupils agreed that displaying the task on
the board would help.
100% of pupils were more likely to listen to the teacher than other pupils. All pupils felt that
when they listened to other pupils they expected to hear opinions rather than facts or
material that was unreliable.
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70% of pupils said they wrote down word for word what they had heard the teacher say in
class discussion. 30% of pupils claimed they were likely to paraphrase what they had heard
the teacher say in class discussion.
Establishing objectives
When pupils are listening ensure you consider first why you want them to listen i.e:
 To follow an instruction
 To understand something –gain knowledge
 To collate relevant information- select and retrieve
 To judge/ develop opinions about something
 To compare what they are listening to –to something else
 To evaluate how something is presented.
 To explore how other ideas may be associated with what is being heard.
Remember what is being communicated by the teacher or other pupils, is not always
what is heard! Check by asking for feedback.
Teaching listening
The best type of planning is when the teacher is able to consider what all pupils will be
doing during speaking and listening activities. Those who are speaking and those who are
listening.
Teach pupils how to listen, by asking them to:
Listen for keywords
Looking for nonverbal cues to meaning
Predicting a speaker’s purpose by the context of the spoken discourse
Associating information with one’s existing background knowledge (activating
schema)
Guessing meanings
Seeking clarification
Listening for the general gist
Always remember that a student’s attention span is usually between 5-10 minutes. Talking
longer than this is tiresome and can lead to pupils becoming bored or ‘switching off.’
Listening, is not a passive activity, rather it involves a number of different processes, ensure
that you plan for different types of listening activities.
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Listening Activities
Speaking activities are synonymous with listening activities. Therefore when planning
speaking activities highlight to the pupils the expectations you have for listening within the
activity.
Easy-to-plan Pre-Listening Activities
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Think-Pair-Share
Thought shower
Word Webbing/Mind Mapping
Team Interview
Easy-to-plan Listening Tasks
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Agree or disagree (with explanation)
Create Venn diagrams
List characteristics, qualities, or features
Strip story (sequencing game)
Match speech to visuals
Compare and contrast to another speech or text
Give advice
Compare and contrast to your own experience
Create your own version of the missing section
Plan a solution to the problem
Share reactions
Create a visual
Re-enact your own version
Easy to Plan Post-listening Assessments
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Guess the meaning of unknown vocabulary
Analyze the speaker’s intentions
List the number of people involved and their function in the script
Analyze the success of communication in the script
Brainstorm alternative ways of expression
Spelling policy
The School understands the importance of spelling being an essential skill that pupils need
to fulfil their potential. In order for the school to teach this skill effectively, pupils need to
be taught consistently across the curriculum, to reinforce and place emphasis on the
importance of spelling.
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MIHSG aims to:
 Increase the confidence of pupils in their written language; by showing they can
competently spell a wide range of vocabulary.
 Facilitate different activities that allow pupils to learn to spell.
 Show pupils the importance of spelling from a collective perspective that spans all
areas of the curriculum.
 Present a co-ordinated approach to improving spelling across all subjects.
 Give pupils extra help when experiencing difficulty with spelling.
 Monitor spelling across the range of pupils in both key stages.
 Provide teachers with guidance in effective approach to teaching spelling.
 Encourage parents to help pupils improve their spellings.
We believe that:
 Correct spelling is essential in any form of written work, regardless of it being
through ICT or hand written.
 Spelling can be taught and learned.
 Spelling problems can occur regardless of age and ability groups.
 All pupils can improve if they have the enthusiasm and confidence to do so.
MIHSG will do this by:
 Displaying guidelines on spelling in every classroom.
 Notify parents of pupils with particular problems in spelling difficulties and work
collectively with them to improve spelling.
 Provide advice for departments and teachers about effective approaches to improve
spelling.
 Encourage all pupils to equip themselves with dictionaries and other spelling aids.
 Requiring that all departments have key word lists that accompany each unit of work
that are shared with the pupils.
 Requiring that all departments include guidance on methods of correcting and
improving spelling in their own departments.
By improving spelling, pupils will be able to:
 Contribute to developing their self-esteem.
 Express their ideas more clearly and precisely.
 Find it easier to communicate and understand others.
 Prevent their ideas being dismissed quickly as a result of inaccurate spelling.
Causes of spelling problems
Spelling relies on three basic motor skills, visual, auditory and kinaesthetic. These work
simultaneously with memory. Difficulties in any of these areas will reduce spelling
efficiency.
1. Auditory problems are when words are either not heard or misheard.
 Abbreviation of sound patterns (fritn-frighten)
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Inability to discriminate between f and th (fird-third)
Word endings are often not included (write-writer)
Speller cannot work out their own words.
If any of these are bought to your attention, then ensure that you inform the head of faculty
and form tutor through the pupils’ organiser.
2. Visual problems
This will be bought to your attention when the pupil struggles to read from a text. Which is
later translated into the pupil’s own writing. In this case the pupil will rely of the pupil’s
auditory skills reproducing words phonetically. It is easily correctable (with glasses etc) and
will be easy to decipher by the teacher. In the first instance ask the pupil, the pupil may
have forgotten his/her glasses, in which case please write a note in the pupil’s organiser. If
the problem persists please ensure you bring it to the attention of your head of department
or form tutor.
Guidelines –Teaching spelling
Spelling needs to be taught and learned. A common misconception is that all the pupils
become good spellers through reading more. On the contrary students become good
spellers by looking at words and writing them down.
Teaching spelling
Here are some ideas to help you develop spelling in your department:
1. Essentially it is a visual and kinaesthetic (and often auditory) method that allows students
to become familiar with the patterns of letter strings. It is this reason that the school has
adopted the look, say, cover, write and check approach.
This procedure needs to be repeated several times. Specific parts of the words should not
corrected, rather the whole word must be rewritten and the student needs to then adopt
the LSCWC procedure to practise. All students should be tested regularly. For weaker
spellers a shorter word list should be given and in some cases it may be necessary to only
mark key words for spelling.
2. Interest pupils in words: try to encourage pupils to find root words in a word:
personification- person
3. Collect word families: ought, bought etc
4. Pay attention to word clusters: -ant, -sion etc
5. Encourage pupils to identify their own errors
6. Use mnemonics i.e there is a bus in business or Never Eat Chocolate Eat Salmon
Sandwiches and Remain Young = necessary
7. Remind students of simple rules: I before e except after c.
8. Break words into syllables: chem./i/cal or pent/a/gon
9. Games are always to interest students and make for great plenaries i.e
hangman/scrabble/crosswords or even word searches.
10. Encourage all students to join up their writing as this has been proven to help
spelling.
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Correcting spellings
The most effective tool that staff have improving spelling is marking. A consistent approach
is necessary across the curriculum for this issue to be addressed. It is not necessary to mark
every spelling mistake in a piece of work, rather key words should be marked on first
instance in order for pupils to become aware of their own spelling. Here are some
guidelines:
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If possible spellings should be corrected in the presence of the pupil
The attitude of the pupils changes when you are able to point out what words they
did spell well.
Spelling mistakes should be underlined and “sp” should be put into the margin to
show this is what you are marking for.
At the end of the work, write the first three letters of the incorrect words for
pupils to finish off.
In the first instance underline the word, and then ask the pupils themselves to pick
out where else that particular word has been written incorrectly/correctly in the
written work.
If there is a word that pupils struggle with, discuss as a group how the students
remember to spell this key word, or any techniques that help them.
Able pupils should have all their spellings corrected, less able students should have
only key words (so that they are not further disaffected).
If a pupil is particularly weak with spelling, a note should be made in your own
organiser and see the English faculty about a high frequency spelling list those
students may use to improve their basic spelling.
Handwriting
Research has indicated that the quality of handwriting correlates significantly with spelling
progress. Good spelling and good handwriting go together, therefore it is important to
monitor on both. Please encourage all pupils to ‘join-up’ their writing carefully.
Remember:
 All round letters are anti-clockwise
 All straight letters begin at the top.
Each department should
 Compile a list of Key words for each unit of work. These should be displayed clearly.
They should also be shared explicitly with the cohort.
 Key words should be marked once every two weeks in the pupils’ books.
 Each department should also emphasis objective words and mark their spellings (see
list).
Form tutor
Objective lead words will be distributed to all staff. During form time, 10 of these words
should be tested once a week. Each week these words should be stuck into the pupil’s
organiser.
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Appendix
1. Look, say, cover, write and check poster (to be displayed)
2. 100 of the most used words in English
3. Subject specific words
4. Objective words
5. Year 7 weekly tutorial lists
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