LITERACY%20IMPACT!

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Wot, no SATS? Reclaiming English for
Pupils Geoff Barton NATE Conference April 2009
You can download this presentation at
www.geoffbarton.co.uk
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THEN 1984
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NOW 2009
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NOW 2009
Autonomy
16 NC Coursework GCSE Framework Performance
tables
Disempowerment
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English Review 2000-05
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October 2005 Key findings
English is one of the best taught subjects in
both primary and secondary schools.
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October 2005 Key findings

• Standards of writing have improved as a result
  of guidance from the national strategies.
  However, although pupils understanding of the
  features of different text types has improved,
  some teachers give too little thought to ensuring
  that pupils fully consider the audience, purpose
  and content for their writing.
• Schools also need to consider how to develop
  continuity in teaching and assessing writing.

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October 2005 Key findings

• Schools do not always seem to understand the
  importance of pupils talk in developing both
  reading and writing.
• Myhill and Fisher quote research which argues
  that spoken language forms a constraint, a
  ceiling not only on the ability to comprehend but
  also on the ability to write, beyond which
  literacy cannot progress. Too many teachers
  appear to have forgotten that speech supports
  and propels writing forward.
• Pupils do not improve writing solely by doing
  more of it good quality writing benefits from
  focused discussion that gives pupils a chance to
  talk through ideas before writing and to respond
  to friends suggestions.

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October 2005 Key findings

• The Progress in International Reading Literacy
  Study (PIRLS), published in 2003, found that,
  although the reading skills of 10 year old pupils
  in England compared well with those of pupils in
  other countries, they read less frequently for
  pleasure and were less interested in reading than
  those elsewhere.
• An NFER reading survey (2003), conducted by
  Marian Sainsbury, concluded that childrens
  enjoyment of reading had declined significantly
  in recent years.
• A Nestlé/MORI report highlighted the existence
  of a small core of children who do not read at
  all, described as an underclass of non-readers,
  together with cycles of non-reading where
  teenagers from families where parents are not
  readers will almost always be less likely to be
  enthusiastic readers themselves

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Key conventions
Demonstrate writing.
Link to speech
Teach composition
Sentence variety
Importance of reading
Connectives
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Know your connectives Adding and, also, as well
as, moreover, too Cause effect because, so,
therefore, thus, consequently Sequencing next,
then, first, finally, meanwhile, before,
after Qualifying however, although, unless,
except, if, as long as, apart from,
yet Emphasising above all, in particular,
especially, significantly, indeed,
notably Illustrating for example, such as, for
instance, as revealed by, in the case
of Comparing equally, in the same way,
similarly, likewise, as with, like Contrasting
whereas, instead of, alternatively, otherwise,
unlike, on the other hand
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Reading needs teaching skimming, scanning,
analysis
Read aloud.
Demystify spelling
Use DARTs prediction, jumbled texts, pictures
and graphs
Teach and display subject-specific vocabulary
Presentation and framing can make texts more
accessible
Teach research skills, not FOFO
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What we know about vocabulary

• Aged 7 children in the top quartile have 7100
  words children in the lowest have around 3000.
  The main influence in parents.
• Using and explaining high-level words is a key to
  expanding vocabulary. A low vocabulary has a
  negative effect throughout schooling.
• Declining reading comprehension from 8 onwards is
  largely a result of low vocabulary. Vocabulary
  aged 6 accounts for 30 of reading variance aged
  16.
• Catching up becomes very difficult. Children with
  low vocabularies would have to learn faster than
  their peers (4-5 roots words a day) to catch up
  within 5-6 years.
• Vocabulary is built via reading to children,
  getting children to read themselves, engaging in
  rich oral language, encouraging reading and
  talking at home
• In the classroom it involves defining and
  explaining word meanings, arranging frequent
  encounters with new words in different contexts,
  creating a word-rich environment, addressing
  vocabulary learning explicitly, selecting
  appropriate words for systematic
  instruction/reinforcement, teaching word-learning
  strategies

With thanks to DCSF Research Unit
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No hands up
Break tyranny of QA
Thinking time
Key words / connectives
Reflective groupings
Rehearsing responses
Get teachers watching teachers who manage SL
well
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Lets reclaim English for pupils
Post-SATs challenge
Improvement happens in the classroom
Consistency is an equal opportunities issue
Integration plus explicit skills
Make being GT sexy
Remember the disappeared
Make Assessment for Learning happen
Use student feedback
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Built around Assessing Pupil Progress
project Built around good English
teaching Complete coverage of Framework
NC Digital and multi-media resources, inc
IWB Its really good
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English Teacher Petite, white-haired Miss
Cartwright Knew Shakespeare off by heart, Or so
we pupils thought. Once in the stalls at the Old
Vic She prompted Lear when he forgot his
part. Ignorant of Scrutiny and Leavis, She
taught Romantic poetry, Dreamt of gossip with
dead poets. To an amazed sixth form once
saidHow good to spend a night with
Shelley. In long war years she fed us
plays, Sophocles to Shaws St Joan. Her reading
nights we named our Courting Club, Yet always
through the blacked-out streets One boy left the
girls and saw her home. When she closed her eyes
and chanted Ode to a Nightingale We laughed yet
honoured her devotion. We knew the man she should
have married Was killed at Passchendaele. Brian
Cox From Collected Poems, Carcanet Press 1993
And finally
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Wot, no SATS? Reclaiming English for
Pupils Geoff Barton NATE Conference April 2009
You can download this presentation at
www.geoffbarton.co.uk/teacher-resources (48)