Workshop for Literacy

Workshop for Literacy

Programme Workshop for Literacy – theory and practical advice Big Write

Spelling Progression/Programme

What is the Workshop for Literacy? • Not a resource! It’s an approach placing literacy in meaningful contexts using high quality real books. • Reading aloud every day at all stages. • All literacy work taught through real books – much less reliance on text books

Core Principles • • •

•

Pupil centred, inclusive – same text done with whole class and differentiated Daily opportunities to listen to, share, read and create text Daily opportunities to play/work with sounds and words (written and aural) Explicit meta-cognition – lots of talking about what, how and why they are learning.

Semantic

Phonological

Orthographic

Understanding Vocabulary / meaning

Phonological Processing Sounds

Visual processing Shapes / Print

Daily opportunities to develop the three core pathways.

What does it look like? P1-3 SEMANTIC • Listening • Making links • Range of questions • Vocabulary developed • Special words • Classification

ORTHOGRAPHY • Visual discrimination • Visual perception • Orientation • Pencil grip • Words in context • Extended text

Quality book linked to the pupils’ interests

PHONOLOGICAL • Listening for sounds • Identifying sounds • Syllabication • Blending • Rhyme • Alliteration • Creating a strong foundation for phonics

Reading the book

• Dirty Dancing Clip http://www.youtube.com/watc h?v=l9BbUqHrWFI • Book Blessing • Questions in advance • Different activities each day that develop the 3 pathways

Jumblebum Orthographic -practising J, spotting j and J, finding Js in other texts Phonological making/finding words that rhyme Semantic – finding the meaning, answering questions

How can you help at home ?

• Reading for enjoyment • Reading aloud to your child every day • Having fun with words - games • Spot rhymes • Spot environmental print • Sing songs • Clap syllables • Don’t give up on picture books too soon • Encourage prediction • Audio books • Lots of praise

Workshop for Literacy Primary 4-7

High Quality Texts

Favourite childhood book? • Engaging • Relevant • Emotional content • Rich vocabulary • Inclusive – decent life lessons

Introducing the Book • Hook in – book bag • Read whole chapters without stopping – immersion in text • Grammar, comprehension and Big Write stimulus through text • Whole class lessons differentiated as appropriate • Lots of discussion – high levels of critical analysis encouraged

How you can help at home

• • •

Read for enjoyment – literacy rich home Share reading and opinions Word games – scrabble, boggle, hangman, charades

Have fun with words!

http://www.teacherled.co m/resources/letterdice/le tterdiceload.html

Reading Homework • Child will still come home with group text e.g. ORT book or novel • Too easy? Not just the reading aloud. • Listen to reading but ask lots of questions about what has happened, what will happen next, meanings of words, classification of words, emotions. • Make it fun and relaxing.

The Big Write • • • • • •

Commercially produced – proven effective Study the genre daily before attempting the writing Focus on Vocabulary, Connectives, Openers and Punctuation (VCOP) Progressive “Steal” words Works in conjunction with Workshop for Literacy

Stages of Writing • • • • •

Orally telling a story Making marks Drawing a picture and talking about it Draw a picture and write a few marks beside it Draw a write a few relevant sounds e.g. they may draw a dinosaur and write d • Blend sounds together and spell some words phonetically and use words from a visual word bank • Orthographic spelling with punctuation Writing should never be scribed – value everything your child writes.

Spelling Stages Preliminary spelling(mark making) Semi-Phonetic- initial sounds and consonant blends eg. bl, -sk Phonetic – vowel sounds, soft and hard g, Silent letters, double consonants, Transitional- plural rules, suffixes, prefixes Independent- combining rules, phonics and etymology

In School Research has found that children learn to spell better, quicker and more easily if they are given short but fun activities on a regular basis. Tasks that are interactive and can be undertaken collaboratively are more effective than worksheets or memorisation and will lead to pupils becoming more independent and focused learners.

• Sound is taught • Sound is reinforced through a carousel of activities that support the 3 pathways – phonological, orthographic and semantic. • Homework is sent home with a variety of activities that address the 3 pathways • Children are tested weekly

Building Blocks

• We are giving the children the bricks so that they know how to build the house • We are not teaching them every word but how families of words are created. • Too easy?

Fly sky spy shy sigh sight fight flight right bright side slide – teaching was i-e, igh and y. Explain why the y is used at the end of a word The different ways we can make the i sound Teach them that words ending in the i sound are spelt with a y and it can be extended to : comply, imply,supply Defy,deny. Once children know the i sound can be created in the middle of a word with the igh grapheme, they can spell Slight, tight, nightmare, highlight etc When they know yet another way is to create the i sound with the magic e, admire, desire, require, advise etc.

Homework Children will have a list of spelling words They should write them out using look, say, cover, write and check They will then have to do one activity that develops one of the pathways – orthographic, phonological or semantic. Over the weeks they will do a variety of activities that will develop all the pathways They will be tested weekly Please do the activity set Please have fun with the words Don’t say these are far too easy as that devalues the learning Encourage children to have a go at all words using the knowledge they are gradually building up eg. how can you make the i sound.

Homework • • • • • • • • • • •

Educational rationale for homework 20 minutes a night Read, read, read Talk to them Do different types of activities Play thinking games Give them free time Let them get bored Encourage independence Praise Read some more