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Literacy Strategy (literacy + strategy)
Kinds of Literacy Strategy Selected Abstracts,Playing the Game called Writing': Children's Views and VoicesENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2003Teresa Grainger Abstract Teachers' perceptions of their changing practice in the context of the National Literacy Strategy have been well documented in recent years. However, few studies have collected pupils' views or voices. As part of a collaborative research and development project into the teaching and learning of writing, 390 primary pupils' views were collected. A marked difference in attitude to writing and self-esteem as writers was found between Key Stages 1 and 2, as well as a degree of indifference and disengagement from in-school writing for some KS2 writers. A strong desire for choice and greater autonomy as writers was expressed and a preference for narrative emerged. This part of the research project ,We're Writers' has underlined the importance of listening to pupils' views about literacy, in order to create a more open dialogue about language and learning, and to negotiate the content of the curriculum in response to their perspectives. [source] Does the Model of Language in the National Literacy Strategy Create Failure for Pupils from Differing Language Backgrounds?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2002Pamela King Abstract The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was introduced by the government in the wake of the hotly debated issue of falling educational standards in the UK. All schools were required to adopt the NLS Literacy Hour unless they could show their preferred programme would result in raised levels of achievement. My experience of delivering the Literacy Hour has been a process of adaptation to the needs of my pupils, who are drawn mainly from groups whose language backgrounds differ from that which is dominant in school. I have found that the requirements of NLS, together with many of the commercial resources used to teach it, are not appropriate for pupils from these groups and a question arose: is it the pupils who are in some way deficient or is it the approach and the resources being used? This article takes a case study of the use of a commercially produced resource to explore the model of language implicit in NLS, the kinds of resources it generates and the ways in which this creates failure in pupils from different language backgrounds. It then considers the New Literacy Studies and their implications for an alteration in our approach. [source] Writing Fables: Genre and CreativityENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 1 2002David Whitley Abstract This article explores the relationship between genre and creativity with particular reference to children's writing. It is argued that, although the programme may have been implemented too rigidly, a key emphasis on genre within the National Literacy Strategy is potentially positive. The fable is offered as a particular example, demonstrating that, although too rigid a conception of a genre's formal characteristics may inhibit children's creative engagement, an understanding in depth of the range of purposes to which a particular form may be put is helpful both in providing a good range of models and in responding sensitively to children's writing. [source] A Bridge Too Far?ENGLISH IN EDUCATION, Issue 2 2001Floppy Fail the Apprentice Reader, How Biff, Kipper Abstract This article is the result of a re-examination of reading scheme books. Taking a literary perspective, the implied reader was investigated in the most popular scheme, The Oxford Reading nee, in order to ascertain how the reader is constructed by the text. It is argued that such texts covertly construct a passive, struggling reader. As such, this has important implications for the National Literacy Strategy, particularly in the selection of texts for Guided Reading. Summary Reading scheme books are designed to bridge the gap between the oral language of the child and the literary language of the book. What is considered important is a recognisable primary world. There is little dialogue yet the language is supposed to reflect that of the child. Short simple sentences devoid of cohesive devices are considered easier to read because the apprentice reader is deemed not to have stamina. Key words such as nouns and verbs are emphasised and little attention is paid to rhythm, hence few elisions and much repetition. As such the reading scheme does not reflect the language of the child for there is little colloquial expression and the lack of literary features actually makes the text very difficult to read. Implied is a reader who is going to find the whole process difficult and has little to bring to the text. On the other hand the children's literature analysed enjoys a variety of narratives and subject matter yet all support the apprentice reader. Such literary texts employ cohesive devices, the third person has a sense of telling with echoes of the oral tradition while those in first person offer a sense of a teller close to the reader. Direct speech is used, which acts as a bridge from the oral to the literary world. The reader is being guided and helped and not left to struggle. Ironically, it is the literary text that offers more support than the supposedly carefully constructed reading scheme. Furthermore, it can be seen that the reading scheme examined constructs a passive reader to whom things happen. The construction of childhood itself is without joy, excitement and wonder. There is a dullness in the text and a dullness in the characters and the plot that constructs a negative view of reading and a negative construction of the child. The model in Figure 1 summarises the difference between the two types of text: Clearly this has implications for texts selected for pupils to read in the National Literacy Strategy, particularly for Guided Reading. There is no shortage in the UK of appropriate, well-written and superbly illustrated children's books that challenge, support and create an interest in literature. It remains a mystery why the dull reading scheme still has such a strong place in the primary classroom. [source] Rhyme and reading: a critical review of the research methodologyJOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN READING, Issue 1 2002Bonnie M. Macmillan There is debate over whether children's early rhyme awareness has important implications for beginning reading instruction. The apparent finding that pre-readers are able to perform rhyme tasks much more readily than phoneme tasks has led some to propose that teaching children to read by drawing attention to rime units within words is ,a route into phonemes' (Goswami, 1999a, p. 233). Rhyme and analogy have been adopted as an integral part of the National Literacy Strategy (DfEE, 1998), a move which appears to have been influenced by three major research claims:1) rhyme awareness is related to reading ability, 2) rhyme awareness affects reading achievement, and 3) rhyme awareness leads to the development of phoneme awareness. A critical examination of the experimental research evidence from a methodological viewpoint, however, shows that not one of the three claims is sufficiently supported. Instructional implications are discussed. [source] Reflections on six years of the National Literacy Strategy in England: an interview with Stephen Anwyll, Director of the NLS 2001,2004LITERACY, Issue 3 2004Kathy Hall Abstract This recorded interview with Stephen Anwyll took place in Summer 2004, just prior to his departure from the post of Director of the National Literacy Strategy to take up a new post. In the interview, Stephen challenges those critics who characterise the Strategy as reductive and mechanistic, but recognises the potential for it to be interpreted in this way if not mediated through knowledgeable and confident teachers. He reflects on how the Strategy has changed and developed over time, and talks about new developments, including greater emphasis on the enjoyment of reading, the importance of encouraging speaking and listening and the recognition of the multiple literacies that children encounter and use. This interview is significant in that it places on public record, for the first time, the detailed views of policy makers at the centre of the NLS concerning the successes and challenges around the implementation and development of the Strategy during the last six years. It was recorded before the results of the 2004 standard assessment tests were known. The transcript below has not been edited into a formal written account. It retains the form of spoken discourse. [source] Changing practice: The National Literacy Strategy and the politics of literacy policyLITERACY, Issue 3 2004Gemma Moss Abstract Drawing on a recent ESRC-funded research project,1 this paper will explore some of the contradictory structural features of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), which have helped shape its evolution over time, and reflect on some of the tension points which have arisen at different levels of implementation as the Strategy unfolds. In the process, the paper will consider NLS not so much as a neutral means of transferring ,what works' from one site to another, but rather as itself constituting a new social context in which literacy teaching and learning take place. It will pay particular attention to the new pace of teaching that NLS has ushered in and the way in which this is driven by the kind of planning regime that NLS introduced. [source] Improving Dean's writing: or, what shall we tell the children?LITERACY, Issue 2 2004Graham Frater Abstract In this paper Graham Frater finds early signs of a revival of explicit instruction in English grammar to pupils of compulsory school age in England; this is accompanied by an expectation that such teaching might play an important part in closing the ,writing gap'. He suggests that, strengthened by the National Literacy Strategy, this early re-awakening invokes again some of the debates that accompanied the construction of the National Curriculum. Rooted in a case study of a text by a low-achieving Y7 writer, and in two surveys of effective practice with writing (covering Key Stages 2,4), this paper argues that purposeful text-level teaching, reading in particular, and the creation of real readerships offer more secure ways of promoting progress in writing. [source] Addressing individual difficulties in reading: issues relating to Reading Recovery and Pause, Prompt, PraiseLITERACY, Issue 1 2004Janice Wearmouth Recently the DfES has issued guidance on ways to address the needs of students who experience difficulties in literacy through Wave Three provision in the National Literacy Strategy (DfES, 2002). This guidance raises the issue of what kind of programmes might be initiated in mainstream schools that will improve what is available generally for pupils who experience difficulties. The original Literacy Taskforce report (1997) named Reading Recovery (RR) as one programme suitable for this purpose. It is not the only programme with 'proven' efficacy, however. This article compares RR and another New Zealand-based programme, Pause, Prompt, Praise (PPP) with which it has a number of characteristics in common, in order to examine particular issues which are important to ensure that a particular programme can meet individual children's literacy needs and also have the potential for adoption by LEAs and schools in the current national curricular context. These issues are the underpinning rationales, assumptions about the reading process and questions of resources, ownership and control (Openshaw et al., 2002). [source] Literacy in the secondary curriculumLITERACY, Issue 1 2001David Wray The much-signalled extension of the National Literacy Strategy from primary to secondary schools is now in full swing and many secondary teachers are actively looking for practical guidance on ways forward with this national priority. One way of providing such guidance is to outline a common language with which secondary teachers of all subjects can discuss the role of literacy within their subjects. This article puts forward one possible way of developing this common language, by building on the work of Freebody and Luke (1990) in Australia who suggest a literacy resource model. This model is applied to the teaching of literacy within the three core subjects of English, Mathematics and Science. [source] The Reader in the WriterLITERACY, Issue 2 2000Myra Barrs This article discusses the role of reading, especially the reading of literature, in the development of writing. It suggests that the direct teaching of written language features is no substitute for extensive experience of written language. It gives a brief preliminary account of a recent centre for language in Primary Education (CLPE) research project on the influence of children's reading of literature on their writing at KS2. Through analysis of children's writing, the project explored the influence of children's reading on their writing. Its findings highlighted the value of children working and writing in role in response to literary texts. It looked closely at the kinds of teaching which made a significant difference to children's writing and documented the impact on teachers' practice of the introduction of the National Literacy Strategy. [source] Lessons from the Nursery: Children as Writers in Early Years EducationLITERACY, Issue 2 2000Lesley Clark This paper considers the rationale of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) for changing approaches to the teaching of writing in the early years. Existing pedagogy and practice are summarised and mapped against the NLS requirements. It is suggested that there are tensions both in ideology and practice which are particularly striking for the Reception year. Research in early years classrooms in three primary schools in Southern England draws attention, in particular, to the ways in which the NLS is prompting changes in contexts for writing and in the nature of teacher intervention, with an increasingly early emphasis on the didactic teaching of writing conventions. The paper concludes that developmentally appropriate, affirming strategies need not contravene the educational ideals of the NLS, providing the professionalism of early years practitioners is genuinely nurtured and respected. [source] How inclusive is the Literacy Hour?BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2001Janice Wearmouth In this article, Janice Wearmouth and Janet Soler, both lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University, explore the implications of recent Government initiatives for pupils who experience difficulties in literacy development. The authors focus, in particular, on their perceptions of the contradictions between the inclusive requirements of the National Curriculum and the prescriptive pedagogy of the National Literacy Strategy. The National Curriculum now requires teachers to respond to pupils' ,diverse learning needs'; the National Literacy Strategy is founded upon an expectation that all pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2 will be taught a daily Literacy Hour. This article explores the impact of these contrasting policies on classroom practice and concludes by drawing upon evidence of previously existing good practice in order to propose ways of resolving this dilemma. [source] Focus on Practice: Is the National Literacy Strategy raising the achievement of lower attainers?BRITISH JOURNAL OF SPECIAL EDUCATION, Issue 3 2000Tony Lingard Tony Lingard, Head of Learning Support, Camborne School and Community College, Cornwall, questions whether the National Literacy Strategy is raising the achievement of lower attainers and suggests adaptations, based on his own Literacy Acceleration programme, which he argues could make the Strategy far more effective. [source] ,It's in the water here': the development of a community-focused literacy strategyLITERACY, Issue 2 2005Carol Taylor Abstract This paper considers the pioneering development of a community-focused literacy initiative that began in Derbyshire, a county in the middle of England. Read On-Write Away! (ROWA!) is viewed from the standpoint of its former director. The article describes the strategy in the context of national policy and other government initiatives in England, and gives a historical account of the project's inception and development. [source] | ||||||||||