Intent
At Sybil Andrews Academy reading and literacy is an integral part of our curriculum. We want our students to have confidence in their reading and literacy ability and develop good reading and literacy habits to support their academic success.
We want students at Sybil Andrews to take meaning from what they have read, to comprehend, to write successfully. So, it is important that we that we understand the journey of learning to read, write and articulate.
Implementation
Literacy Skills SPAG
We develop student’s literacy skills within the English curriculum and across the curriculum through:
- teaching basic grammar and punctuation
- maintaining up-to-date displays of written work, punctuation and grammar rules
Oracy Skills
Within lessons, we teach students how to communicate effectively verbally in formal and informal situations, whether in pairs and groups or delivering presentations to larger audiences of up to 200 people in our assemblies. This includes:
- using talk to develop, clarify, share and present ideas
- using talk to persuade or argue a point
- identifying the main points to arise from a discussion
- listening for a specific purpose to support learning, develop ideas, contribute to discussion and for evaluation purposes
Extended Writing
We develop student’s literacy skills within the English curriculum and across the curriculum through:
- teaching how to write for specific purposes and audiences, including:
- writing to inform, entertain, persuade, describe and evaluate
- writing reports
- writing evaluations
- writing letters of application
- writing emails
- writing responses to exam questions
- providing regular opportunities across the curriculum for students to produce a range of sustained writing
- engaging students in peer and self-assessment, sharing success criteria and allowing students to set personal targets for improvement
- providing students with diagnostic marking and feedback about their writing
Reading
Sybil Andrews Academy encourages reading for pleasure and endeavours to actively promote this as reading is one of the key literacy building blocks in academic success.
it is imperative that all subject areas are aware of the importance of reading and contribute to its successful teaching.
In English lessons we teach students to:
- read fluently
- read a wide range of texts: fiction and non-fiction, different genres, pre-twentieth century and modern
- read with understanding
- locate and use information
- provide evidence for arguments/research
- follow a process or argument
- summarise, synthesise and adapt what they learn from their reading
In other curriculum areas we use the Sybil READS reading and literacy policy that is underpinned by 6 key areas.
Sybil READS aloud
Sybil READS aloud is a guided reading programme that takes place twice a week during tutor time. Sybil READS aloud supports:
- Students fluency when reading.
- Broadens student’s vocabulary
- Develop students’ automaticity, accuracy, and prosody.
Reading in English
We recognise that our curriculum offer is the overarching primary denominator of success. The structure of our curriculum enables us to return to the core knowledge and skills students should have mastered at regular intervals across the year and key stage. A key facet to our curriculum is the celebration and instruction of reading in each year group, combining challenging texts from both the literary canon and contemporary pieces of writing.
Ways English celebrate reading
Every lesson focuses of the promotion of oracy and reading aloud through a variety of strategies, such as hearing expert prosody from the teacher and practicing their own prosody or learning through talk to develop, clarify and present their expression of ideas.
· At the beginning of each year, students study a transition ‘Reading for Enjoyment’ unit to encourage the students to engage with reading skills and promote their own independent reading outside of the curriculum. Students are exposed to different forms of literature to instil a passion and reinforce the value of reading.
· Key Stage 3 Guided Reading sessions – A fortnightly lesson that focuses our students on reciprocal reading skills in response to a range of fiction and non-fiction books and to engage with broad cultural and social experiences that expand, or mirror, their own. Within the session, there is explicit vocabulary instruction (via. Frayer models and deep dives into vocabulary) to introduce and embed new vocabulary to enable students’ access to English and the wider curriculum. Students will listen to expert prosody and have regular opportunities to practice their own reading prosody in pairs, groups and whole class to vary their rehearsal of this vital skill.
· Students are set vocabulary and reading focused homework to support the development of their vocabulary and encourage their interest in reading outside of the classroom.