Bringing the literacy hour to life
Hannah Gould, communications manager, Campaign for Learning through Museums and Galleries
 
 

Hannah Gould reports on literacy projects in museums and galleries.

You're a teacher. You're faced with teaching another literacy hour to 3B. Just how do you make it more exciting?

How about taking literacy hour into the museum?

This is precisely what schools throughout the country have been doing as part of the Museums and Galleries Education Programme, a Government-funded initiative supported by the Campaign for Learning through Museums and Galleries. The programme has pumped £3.5 million into 65 innovative museum learning projects over the past three years. One third of the projects have involved literacy.

The programme aimed to explore new and exciting ways of learning in the less formal environments of museums and galleries. All the projects were linked closely to the needs of the National Curriculum and many also met National Literacy Strategy objectives. Small wonder when you consider what museums and galleries can offer: awe-inspiring collections, a chance to get up close to 'the real thing', fabulous historic buildings and stimulating environments.

Projects ranged in size and in focus but all well exceeded teachers' expectations. They commented on how much the children learnt from the projects, far more than if the learning had been confined to the classroom. The beauty of museum-centred learning is it does not have to confine itself to rigid subject-specific boxes. Or as one teacher put it, "It enabled freedom with the curriculum and enabled us to extend what we did." So literacy projects combined with topic-based work on history, art, ICT, music and drama. So did that compromise the literacy learning objectives? Not a bit. In most cases, National Curriculum requirements and Qualification and Curriculum Authority objectives were actually exceeded. Or as a teacher involved in a literacy project in Liverpool put it, "It was all brilliant for language development. A stunning example of literacy across the curriculum."

All teachers know that an important aspect of the literacy hour is the use of 'Big books'. At Lancashire Museums they decided to bring the books to life. Big books on subjects like Tudor medicine and toys were matched with real and replica objects from their collections. Local education authority advisory teachers provided notes on how to use the objects for literacy teaching and all the components were packaged into loan boxes, which are now available for schools in Lancashire to hire. They have been so well received that the only problem has been keeping up with demand.

At Cartwright Hall in Bradford the ArtImp project worked with key stage 2 children from eight schools to produce an interactive multimedia unit focusing on literacy, art and ICE Each school chose an artwork from the collection as a focus for their work. One school focused on a sculpture by Anish Kappor entitled 'Turning the World Inside Out'. Children used the sculpture as a starting point for a word brainstorming session and the complexity and creativity of their language amazed teachers. The words were then used to make storyboards on the theme of what it would be like to fall into a sculpture. Again, the children's work was outstanding.

At the Bronte Parsonage Museum a literacy project that focused on key stage 3 and 4 aimed to bring Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights 'off the page'. It worked mainly with pupils from inner city Bradford schools, a predominantly Asian catchment area. Groups visiting the museum were able to explore Emily Bronte's story, not through the 'text' (potentially a stumbling block for children with English as a second language) but by gathering information from the house, from artefacts and, particularly, from costumed characters. Children were able to step into scenes from the story and explore the plot through drama games, role-play and storytelling activities aimed at giving Wuthering Heights a cross-cultural, contemporary relevance. One year later, children were still able to recount their visits to the house in vividly creative language.

These examples are a few of the many creative literacy projects that have been taking place in museums and galleries. There are also many ground-breaking projects exploring other areas of the curriculum and addressing the needs of adults, families and socially excluded learners. There are nearly 2500 museums and galleries out there, more than the total number of supermarkets and eight times the number of universities. They are all packed to the brim with exciting resources just waiting to deliver inspiring learning. Literacy is just one of the areas to benefit.
 

Since this article was written, further funds have been invested in museum and gallery learning by the Department for Education and Skills. For more information visit www.clmg.org.uk.

Subscribe to Literacy Today