A Mind of Our Own: Developing Literacy Skills in the Secondary School

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A Mind of Our Own Developing Literacy Skills in
the Secondary School

• Julie Graham
• Secondary English Co-ordinator
• Heathlands School, UK

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LET THE CHILD BE THE GUIDE

• What are her/his strengths?
• Which areas require further development?
• Learning planned from here meets individual
  childs literacy needs

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Our Guiding Principles

• Development of sophisticated, high level literacy
  skills is every childs right
• BSL has a firm place in literacy teaching and in
  the childs ability to acquire English
• Creative, flexible approach to learning employing
  every possible strategy to meet childs needs

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ALL LESSONS ARE LANGUAGE LESSONS.ALL TEACHERS
ARE TEACHERS OF LITERACY.
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talking
listening
LITERACY
writing
reading
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• It 20.00 hour. I am police cell. That bloody
  Link the Stink get me caught so in red hand. I
  wish kill him straight like others homeless. I
  catch Link the Stink in my place try attack me.
  But Im army I wont pain by him.
• (Draft 1 October 2004)

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• It is 20.00 hours. I am in a police cell. That
  bloody Link the Stink caught me red handed. I
  wish I could kill him straight away like the
  other scruffy blighters. I caught Link the Stink
  in my place, trying to attack me. But Im an
  army man. I wont take any pain from Link the
  Stink.
• (Final version December 2004)

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A RecipeforSuccessful LiteracyTeaching
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• An ounce of high expectations,
• A slice of challenging reading,
• Mix up well with excellent teacher-pupil
  communication,
• Half a cup of translating from BSL to English,
• And a large repertoire of creative teaching
  strategies
• Hot seating, thought tracking, storyboarding,
  investigative journalism, improvisation, role
  play
• Stir in the explicit teaching of English grammar,
• Add a splash of talk which is crucial before
  writing.

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• Pour in the modelling of written language
  frequently
• Scaffolding, writing frames, brainstorming,
  vocabulary banks, sentence starters
• Bake slowly and avoid a blank sheet of paper.
• Sprinkle with feedback a dialogue between the
  teacher and pupil
• Serve by taking risks try anything and
  everything.
• And there you are the recipes done!

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The Challenges

• Writing, writing, writing!
• mis-match between reading and writing skills
• even the more able, avid readers struggle to
  produce grammatically accurate writing
• progress can be painful
• perseverance essential

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The Answers?

• constant practice
• Live English
• application of TEFL principles in the teaching of
  grammar
• interactive, engaging teaching
• highly qualified, well-trained English teachers
  with excellent receptive skills

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Linguistic competence a passport to the future

• secure functional writing skills
• ability to access all areas of the Curriculum
• enhanced performance in examinations
• greater employment opportunities
• happy, fulfilled individuals

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EQUIP A DEAF CHILD WITH FLUENT ENGLISH SKILLS AND
YOU ARE GIVING THEM THE KEY TO THE WORLD