How do you begin? This was the question that initially plagued the literacy working party at South Camden Community School. Initially there was a tendency to think we needed to invent another wheel, that there was something out there that we should be doing but weren't; everyone was waiting for answers. A literacy audit had been of some value, identifying a number of useful areas to focus on such as helping pupils understand that writing is different from speaking; what the key points of a piece of text were; and how to take notes and move to a finished piece of writing in the appropriate genre for the subject area.

However, what was more important was to concentrate on building best practice in the school. What we needed to do was to make sure that we put into practice what we felt we already knew, and to make clear to the pupils what we were doing and why we were doing it. It sounds almost banal to say, but this very simple point helped us to see a way forward.

What's in a name?
The working party began by agreeing a definition of literacy and some principles that would underpin future work. We agreed to incorporate other necessary skills into the policy although the naming created quite a discussion - were we dealing with study skills? key skills? what are learning skills? surely literacy is part of a group of learning skills, so why mention it separately? is a literacy policy the same as a language policy? We eventually agreed on the umbrella title of Literacy and Learning Skills and believe the straightforward way we have set out our intentions makes the policy clear.

We described the intended outcomes of what pupils should know and the approaches to be used to reach them, using a model gleaned from other schools and from The National Association of Teachers of English (NATE). We also included the principles of accelerated learning in lesson planning (this is a school policy). Each department has a literacy file containing the policy and a variety of different articles and support materials to help them in their practice. We intend to add examples of successful practice from subject areas to the files to facilitate the dissemination of best practice.

The science department
The department's first step was to decide on what being literate meant in science. They arrived at this definition:

"A literate science student can make sense of phenomena they observe and interpret information from a variety of sources. They are able to use correct scientific terminology to communicate their conceptual understanding and are able to present this in written, oral, pictorial and graphical forms. A literate science student is able to carry out investigative work and present analyses and evaluations of scientific data in appropriate forms."
 
Science teachers at the school have worked closely with support staff over a long time to develop suitable materials to stimulate active learning, oral work and support writing, with a particular emphasis on meeting the needs of the school's many multi-lingual learners. Much of this is now embedded in the way they teach and they are apt to forget how much they have actually moved on. It became very clear that, by concentrating on supporting bilingual pupils, class teaching improved. This is because scientific concepts can be difficult and wordy for many pupils, not just those who are bilingual. Teachers can help all pupils access the language of science by explaining key words and allowing time for discussion and oracy work before anything is written down.

Pupils are encouraged to read books at home regularly and the department has its own science book loan system thanks to the help provided by science technicians. This began when the library system within the school was fragile and it has continued simply because it works.
 
 

Writing in science using scaffolding and modelling   1. At the end of a lesson involving processes, homework is set involving a flow diagram of a particular process (this could be blood circulation, Nitrogen cycle, Haber process or generation of electricity).  2. At the start of the next lesson the class is given a good example of a report written about a completely different topic as a model. They are asked to identify all the action verbs in one colour, and then to do the same with connectives and to decide which are causal (reasoning) and which are temporal (time-locked).   3. The next stage is paired work where pupils use their flow diagram and suitable language prompts to talk about the process under revision. They use the language ideas from the model they have seen.  4. At this stage they can be given a specific writing frame to help them to get a report onto paper in an organised way. Some do not need the frame, but it should be there for all to support the work and give them confidence. Starters, action verbs and connectives are on the board. This could be done in pairs but the process leads towards independent work as pupils write their own reports more confidently.

 
If you would like to discuss the issues contact South Camden Community School on 020 7387 0126

Subscribe to Literacy Today