Workshop for Literacy

ProgrammeWorkshop 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.

Daily opportunities to develop the three core pathways.

Semantic

Phonological

Orthographic

Understanding Vocabulary / meaning

Phonological Processing Sounds

Visual processing Shapes / Print

What does it look like? P1-3

SEMANTIC • Listening• Making links• Range of questions• Vocabulary developed• Special words• Classification

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

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

Quality book linked to the pupils’

interests

Reading the book•Dirty Dancing Clip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?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 rhymeSemantic – 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 LiteracyPrimary 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.com/resources/letterdice/letterdiceload.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

moreeasily if they are given short but fun activities on a regular basis.

Tasksthat 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 wordThe different ways we can make the i sound Teach them that words ending in the i sound are speltwith a y and it can be extended to : comply,

imply,supplyDefy,deny.Once children know the i sound can be created in themiddle of a word with the igh grapheme, they can

spell Slight, tight, nightmare, highlight etcWhen they know yet another way is to create the i

soundwith 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, phonologicalor 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