Induction tutor materials
Training session - improving literacy skills through oral language and written tasks
Duration: 90 minutes
Session objectives
Learn that:
- 3.10. Every teacher can improve pupils’ literacy, including by explicitly teaching reading, writing and oral language skills specific to individual disciplines.
Learn how to develop pupils’ literacy by:
- 3r. Modelling and requiring high-quality oral language, recognising that spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing (for example, requiring pupils to respond to questions in full sentences, making use of relevant technical vocabulary).
- 3s. Teaching different forms of writing by modelling planning, drafting and editing.
How to prepare for the session
ECTs should think about one lesson they have taught recently and make a list of all the literacy skills and knowledge they required the pupils to use during the course of the lesson.
The following broad areas could be used to help with this:
- did pupils need to read?
- did pupils write anything, in what style, and what was its purpose?
- was there any new subject-specific vocabulary introduced?
- how much were students asked to talk during the lesson and how were they supported to do this?
You should model effective practices throughout. This includes explicitly pointing out the literacy skill assumed or required in every activity, introducing new vocabulary explicitly.
Connect the learning (10 minutes)
Remind ECTs that literacy is the responsibility of all teachers.
Ask ECTs to share something they have done since the last session on literacy that worked well. You should pick out good examples and share. If it is a webinar, the comments section can be used for this.
Model and require high-quality oral language (25 minutes)
You should explain that spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. Therefore, the way that pupils speak and interact in the classroom is highly relevant to the development of their reading and writing. Effective writing is underpinned by children’s expressive language capabilities (EEF, 2018).
Facilitators should share different strategies that could be used:
- the way the teacher speaks - teachers need to model high-quality sentences and vocabulary
- ban slang - prevent students from using slang words
- use banned words activity - ban words such as ‘nice’ to encourage pupils to use more challenging vocabulary
- insist on full sentences - remind students to respond in full sentences before they answer questions
- if they do not answer in full sentences, ask them to repeat using a full sentence and reward those who speak in full sentences
- use high-quality vocabulary to support students to learn more complex vocabulary
- use sentence stems
- remodel pupils’ statements and asking them to repeat
- give pupils specific roles or perspectives to talk from, for example within this conversation, you are only allowed to challenge what others are saying
- hot seating and roleplay
- think, pair, share
- paired talk
- shared writing
- debates and discussions with and without scaffolds
- Socratic seminars
Ask ECTs: Which strategies will you make more of next time you teach and why?
- frequently
- sometimes
- never
This could be done in a variety of ways depending on the mode of delivery - cards on a table, posters on the wall, voting buttons on webinar.
Teach different forms of writing by modelling, planning, drafting and editing (40 minutes)
Writing is a challenging activity for young children because it combines the expression of meaning (composition) with the physical skills of handwriting (transcription) and spelling. Children also need to learn about features of writing, which includes concepts about print through to more advanced ideas about different types of writing (EEF, 2018).
You should share the importance of modelling planning, drafting and editing.
Planning
Modelling planning supports pupils in learning different forms of writing:
- it is vital to plan before we write because good writers make intentional choices to meet the needs of their task, audience and text type
- it emphasises that establishing the purpose of the writing is crucially important
Drafting
Modelling drafting supports students to see that writing is a process and requires thought and craft:
- we must explicitly teach students to ‘think like a writer’ and ‘think like a reader’ as they write
- drafting is a multi-stage process and good writing is developed through multiple drafts
Editing
Modelling editing supports pupils in learning different forms of writing:
- all good writers edit their work, which leads to re-drafting
- the drafting and editing process goes back and forth in order to produce high-quality written work
ECTs should be broken up into groups (breakouts on webinar can be used). Mix up the strategies in the table below and ask ECTs to sort them into whether they are planning, drafting or editing. ECTs should discuss:
- which have you used and how did it go?
- which haven’t you used and why not?
- what will you use next time you teach writing explicitly?
Planning
Understanding genre and purpose by looking at models of the text you are going to produce and breaking down the task into genre, audience, purpose.
Oral rehearsal - speaking a text before writing it.
Using a pre-prepared structure to support pupils to recognise the different sections. ‘Boxing up’ - pupils place boxes around the different sections of the text to work out the purpose of that section - for example, the introduction sets out the aims and poses questions.
Drafting
Unpicking a pre-prepared model or exemplar to create a toolkit.
Shared writing with the whole class or a smaller group. Pupils co-create a draft using ‘generate, reflect, select’. For example, the class generates ideas and the teacher supports them to reflect on the quality of these ideas. The teacher probes to verbalise the writing process. What could we write next? Why might we need a new paragraph here? It should support pupils to think like writers.
Modelling writing - the teacher writes on a visualiser or on the board, narrating their thought process ‘I’m going to use this word because.’
Editing
Redrafting - planning for multiple drafts for written work. ‘Swap, add, delete’ is a helpful redrafting tool.
Critique protocols - between drafts, planning protocolled opportunities for students to critique their own or others’ work.
Shared writing - the whole class or a group contribute to edit and improve a draft. The teacher questions to deepen thinking around the writing process:
- why did you choose that phrase?
- could there be a more scientific, academic, or emotive way of saying it?
Live marking - taking one piece of work under a visualiser and modelling the marking process with a verbal commentary. This acts as a model for students.
Check understanding
Bring groups back together and check understanding of strategies and take feedback.
Either in pairs or individually, ECTs should select an upcoming lesson and plan an opportunity for pupils to practise redrafting a piece of work. They should plan how they are going to:
- support pupils in their planning
- model
- explicitly teach pupils how to edit
Planning for action (15 minutes)
To end the session, ECTs should think about how they will teach writing of a common text type in their subject. They should share this with the group and prepare to tell their mentors when they next meet.