Literacy across the
Curriculum
NQT Session
13th November 2014
Why bother?
35% of employers were unhappy with the level of reading and writing
ability of young employees.
Men and women with poor literacy are least likely to be in full-time
employment at the age of thirty.
Poor literacy skills can also be a serious barrier to progressing once in
employment. 63% of men and 75% of women with very low literacy skills
have never received a promotion.
There are too many adults who lack basic literacy skills. In 2006 a
Government sponsored review into basic skills, the Leitch Review, found
that more than five million adults lack functional literacy, the level
needed to get by in life and at work.
Reading books is the only out-of-school activity for 16-year-olds
demonstrably linked to securing managerial or professional jobs.
10 to 16 year-olds who read for pleasure do better at school.
OFSTED
Inspectors will consider the impact of the teaching of
literacy and the outcomes across the range of the school’s
provision. They will use the evidence they gather to inform
the overall evaluation of pupils’ achievement, the quality of
teaching and the impact of leadership and management on
raising standards.
In evaluating achievement, inspectors will:
“progress in literacy and mathematics are assessed by
drawing on evidence from other subjects in the curriculum,
where this is sensible.”
How to plan to
embed literacy.
Following this process will allow you to ensure that literacy is
embedded into all of your lessons/SOL…
Step A: Creating exemplar text that builds
in progression – and builds on prior learning.
Step B: Warming up the words – helping
students internalise the technical language
of the unit.
Words to describe the
Indian wars.
In pairs, you are going to read through the words on the
grid below. One person will read the words; the other
person will put their hand up when the person has
completed the reading.
massacre
eradication
triumph
exterminate
savage
defeat
destruction
failure
barbaric
victory
ruin
aggressive
bleak
conquest
sad
unfair
massacre
eradication
triumph
exterminate
Starter:
What words
would you use
to describe
this scene?
savage
defeat
destruction
failure
barbaric
victory
ruin
aggressive
bleak
conquest
sad
unfair
PPass
Pass
Merit
Distinction
Vocabulary Pyramid
calendar
calander
calender
calandar
perserverence
perseverance
perservirance
perseverants
indispensible
milenium
indispeneble
milennium
indispensable
millenium
millennium
indespencible
supersede
accomodate
supercede
accommodate
superceed
acomodate
acommodate
superseed
Six of the keywords for this topic are written in the
boxes above. But which spelling is the correct one?
Write the correct spelling on your whiteboard.
calendar
calander
calender
calandar
perserverence
perseverance
perservirance
perseverants
indispensible
milenium
indispeneble
milennium
indispensable
millenium
millennium
indespencible
supersede
accomodate
supercede
accommodate
superceed
acomodate
acommodate
superseed
Six of the keywords for this topic are written in the
boxes above. But which spelling is the correct one?
Write the correct spelling on your whiteboard.
A4 Sheet
Exercise Book
Back Cover
Keywords to
fold out and
see whilst
writing
Vocab Builder
In July 1828 Daniel O’Connell stood for
election in County Clare. Voters ignored
the views of their landlords and vote en
mass for O’Connell. He won by 2057
votes to 982. Which words could be used
to describe how O’Connell would have felt
after the election?
Ecstatic
Disappointed
Proud
Rebellious
Daunted
Confident
Pessimistic
Notable
Defiant
Cooperative
Hopeful
Scared
What words would you use to describe how the British government
would have felt?
You have 3 minutes
to write down,
spelling them
correctly, any
keywords to do with
the topic Germany
1918-1945.
Premiership (5 points)
Division 1 (3 points)
Lebensraum
Anti-Semitism
Goebbels
Kristallnacht
Locarno
Dawes Plan
Stresemann
Swastika
Aryan
Fuhrer
Reparations
Niemoller
Division 2 (2 points)
Division 3 (1 point)
Holocaust
SA
SS
Weimar Republic
Reichstag
Gestapo
Mein Kampf
Germany
Nazis
Hitler
Dictatorship
Jews
Communists
Hitler Youth
Problems of law and order were common, because of claim-jumping and
the fact that the gold ___________ the ‘dregs of society’. With no US
government law officers to __________ them, people had to make their
own arrangements. Each town held a mass meeting where a chairman and
officers were chosen. They drew up a ‘mining code’. Claims to
_________ had to be recorded with the district recorder. Disputes
over claims were dealt with by a committee of _________. A sheriff
would be appointed to arrest lawbreakers, and a court of all the miners
Alternative
task
what
– give
theThe
out
main
the
problems
keywords
wouldNow
decidehighlight
on ______________.
trials
did
not takewere
long– and the
most in
common
punishments
were
banishment
or board
students
mining
towns.
must do
a flogging,
Pictionary
on the
________________.
and then the group decides where the word
fits.
Many other nationalities came to the mining towns to make their
_____________. Most camps banned Mexicans, Chinese and
___________ from mining in the area. Mobs would drive Mexicans from
their claims. The Chinese were left to rework old exhausted claims but
even then were often harasses and ____________. The Indians were
just ________________. Most miners refused to work alongside black
people. Despite this, some 2000 free blacks did prospect, and when in
1850 Texas slave-owners arrived with their slaves the white miners made
them ________.
Step C: Warming up the phrases – helping
students internalise the key generic phrases
of the unit.
Vocab
sophisticated
Connectives
whereas
Opening sentence
It is obvious that
Punctuation
?
Reading books is better than watching TV.
Totally
disagree
Totally
agree
Year 8 Example
Task
Punctuate this passage with CAPITAL LETTERS and
FULL STOPS.
last week i went to london zoo i saw elephants and tigers i
ate lunch in the restaurant the best thing about the day
was going to the gift shop i bought a poster and a keyring i
can’t wait to go again
Punctuate this passage with CAPITAL LETTERS,
COMMAS, and FULL STOPS.
when you have a bad day at school it can seem like
everybody is against you especially the teachers being a
teenager can be tough but you need to remember that
everybody has their ups and downs and you can improve
things by having a positive attitude to your work and trying
your hardest in every subject
Connective Cards
Therefore
Manchester United
is a good football
team.
1. Study Source A.
What does this source tell
you about being a soldier
during World War 1?
Level 5 – will be able to
explain in detail what each
example shows about what
life was life for soldiers.
Speaking Game
Whereas
Speaking Game
In contrast
Speaking Game
Similarly
Speaking Game
However
Speaking Game
On the one hand/On the
other hand…
Student selection
Read through the passage you have
been given.
Highlight the openings of the
sentences and then rank them in your
blank punctuation pyramid from most
straight forward to WOW openings.
My Travel Diary – 12.02.12 – Holi Day
Slowly, I woke up with the sun in my eyes. It was the day I had been
waiting for. Smiling, I thought about the photos I had seen of it. I was
also nervous because I had never been anywhere like this before.
After breakfast, I walked to the main square excitedly but nobody had
gathered yet. I strolled to market in order to pass the time on. Lazily, I
wandered around the vibrant market stalls.
Later I returned to the square and it had changed incredibly. To my
surprise, it was full of people. The people were dressed in brightly
coloured robes and had friendly faces.
Blinking in the sun, I looked at all the petite coloured bags in people’s
hands. Suddenly, bang! The colours were being thrown at a terrific
speed with cries of laughter.
My Travel Diary – 12.02.12 – Holi Day
Slowly, I woke up with the sun in my eyes. It was the day I had been
waiting for. Smiling, I thought about the photos I had seen of it. I was
also nervous because I had never been anywhere like this before.
After breakfast, I walked to the main square excitedly but nobody had
gathered yet. I strolled to market in order to pass the time on. Lazily, I
wandered around the vibrant market stalls.
Later, I returned to the square and it had changed incredibly. To my
surprise, it was full of people. The people were dressed in brightly
coloured robes with friendly faces.
An hour passed and I waited patiently. Blinking in the sun, I looked at all
the petite coloured bags in people’s hands. Suddenly, bang! The paint
bombs were being thrown at a terrific speed as cries of laughter filled
the air. It was the best day of my life.
Your pyramid might look
something like this…
Step D: Internalising the text – helping
students internalise the type of writing that
is required including establishing the toolkit
for this type of writing.
Activity 1 –
collaborative reading.
You are actually going to read through some information
about 9/11.
You are going to read in the following way:
• Page 1 – a word each.
• Page 2 – a line each.
• Page 3 – a sentence each.
Activity 2 – picturing writing.
Why dragons are extinct
It is a well-known fact that, up until a few hundred years ago, dragons roamed
England terrorising villages with their fiery breath and capturing maidens. So
why are they now extinct?
Experts think that the main reason is the rise and rise of football. Because so
many England fans started wearing the colours of St George, the dragons fled to
remote moorlands.
Turn the text into a pictoral
Unfortunately, the very cold weather of the moorlands meant that the dragons’
version.
favourite
green foods (gooseberries, cabbage and spinach) refused to grow.
These plants were not only vital for the dragons’ health but also for their colour
which provided camouflage in the woods.
Slowly, the green dragons turned purple, caused by eating too much heather. It
is this colour-change that led to their final extinction. Once the heather had
died away in the autumn, the dragons could no longer hide because their purple
scales made them easily visible. This enabled local bounty hunters to hunt and
destroy them.
So that is why the only dragons you see in England today are in pictures, books or
films.
Now, using your pictoral
version only reproduce the
original text orally.
Activity 3 – Battleships
Put a cross in TEN empty
boxes, without letting
your partner see. The aim
of the game is to guess
the squares chosen by
your partner, by combining
two expressions to give
the coordinates of the
squares.
Co-constructed toolkit
for information text
Key ingredients
Plan it – order
your ideas.
• Box up information logically in paragraphs.
• Introduce topic clearly with a hook.
• Round information off with interesting conclusion.
Link it – join
your ideas
effectively
• Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence to
introduce it.
• Link points with connectives and sentence
signposts.
Express it –
make your
ideas sound
good
• Choose effective phrases to help reader understand
your points.
• Use technical language appropriately.
Check it
• Read it through, check for accuracy and improve it.
• Make certain it informs the reader.
Step E: Consolidating learning to build in
progression.
Records the strengths and weaknesses of
the product along with targets for the
future (where appropriate).
Writing to
Evaluate
What language features
should be included?
Past tense and future
tense for target
setting.
Illustration, cause and
effect and summary
connectives used.
• Evaluations in Science or
Design
• Book reviews
• Film reviews
• Performance reviews in
Drama
• Starts with a brief
SUMMARY of the
item/issue.
• Focuses on POSITIVES
aspects and NEGATIVE
while finding possible
REASONS for these
Gives EXAMPLES/
EVIDENCE for both
positive and negative
(subheadings can be used).
• Comes to conclusions and
sums up while also giving a
RECOMMENDATIONs or
setting targets.
First person I/We used as
well as Third Person.
Evaluation
writing
sample