Literacy skills include all the basic skills that are required for the process of reading, writing, and interpreting everything that goes around us. There are so many literacy skills, including reading, writing, speaking, listening, and other aspects related to these, that make up the complete skill set and allow a person to be more aware of the happenings around them and how to make perceptions and interpretations about them.
Here we have discussed some of the main literacy skills that are required for students to be able to fully gain knowledge from the elements around and you can also learn these skills from our private tutors.
What are literacy skills?
In order to gain knowledge from our surroundings, there is a need for us to have a basic skill set with which we can absorb and give out the learned info. We can not gain knowledge by simply having a single literacy skill. For instance, if we are aware of what a word sounds like but we have no idea how to read it when we see it in a sentence in front of us, we lack the basic skills of literacy, due to which we will not be able to gain all the knowledge that we are supposed to otherwise.
There are many literacy skills that make up the whole skillset. Let’s discuss how each of these literacy skills needed can be beneficial in individual aspects for the process of gaining knowledge in a child’s everyday environment.
The process of reading is quite simple yet a bit complicated. Reading is a process that involves visually observing the written elements and interpreting the meaning behind them by analyzing the connection and relation between them.
Usually, it has been observed that reading skills can have a major impact on the academic life of students. If they get a grip of reading skills at an early stage, they are more likely to perform better in their academic field because reading is considered the basic step involved in the process of gaining knowledge.
Children should be encouraged through classroom activities if they like reading books, articles, journals, etc. The reading skill is further divided into some other basic skills related to reading as discussed below:
Decoding is the skill involved in the process of reading in which a person tries to read out a written word that they have heard before but haven’t seen in a written form. In this way, when a person sees a word in the written form for the first time, they are actually decoding the word because they are analyzing how to read that word correctly.
Being able to decode is an important part of the reading process because you will encounter words that are new to you, and to know how to read them, you will have to know how to decode them.
To decode a word, you need to know what different letters look like, how they sound like, and how a relationship is established between them. When children are aware of these basic things, they will be able to decode the words written in front of them.
Being aware of phonics is also an essential component of the reading process. It involves the knowledge of the sounds that are made by certain letters, alphabets, and their connection with each other. Each alphabet makes a certain sound that distinguishes them from each other.
When these letters are written together, along with the meaning, the sound of the whole word is also changed. In order to know the sound made by the word, students need to be aware of the sound made by each letter present in the word.
In this way, we can figure out how to say out aloud the written word. For better understanding, you can start with any children’s book you like.
To Be able to read properly, we need to be aware of what a certain letter or word sounds like. Otherwise, we will be spelling out the words wrong, which will make the whole reading process wrong.
Grammar and vocabulary
In order to be able to read perfectly and have ease in word recognition, students need to have a good grip on grammar and vocabulary. This involves knowing the meaning of words that are being read. Being able to merely read without knowing what the meaning of the word that has been written is is quite useless and does not help in the process of gaining knowledge.
The knowledge-gaining process will remain bland if you are unaware of what you are reading, and knowing about that, you need to get a solid grip on grammar and vocabulary. For this, you need to keep a check on any new word you encounter and search about what it means so that the next time you are reading it, you will know the meaning of it and what you are actually reading.
When you have gotten a grip on other main components of the reading process, then you need to be fluent in your reading in order to easily read, understand and comprehend the text. Without fluency, you will be taking many breaks in the process. You wouldn’t be able to read properly and understand the meaning of the text if you are not reading it in a fluent way; rather, you are taking a pause after every second.
In order to gain maximum knowledge while reading something, you should be able to read it in a flow and without breaking the tempo you are reading in. This makes it easy for you to gain knowledge from your reading material.
This refers to the process of understanding the text you are reading. Whatever text has been written, there will be some meaning behind it. It could be a fictional story or a newspaper; there will be a meaning behind the words that have been assembled together.
Reading a text and not being able to understand what it means is not quite useful. It is equally important that you know what you are reading by understanding the meaning behind all the words and their connections with each other.
From reading a storybook to reading an academic one, there is no point in reading it if you do not understand the meaning present behind the words. So this is one of the basic steps if you have gained the grip over reading skills; getting to know the meaning of what you are reading.
The process of writing mainly involves the idea of sharing thoughts and ideas through the use of words and letters written down. A person writes down his thoughts using letters, grammar, punctuation, and more so that the other person can read and understand the thoughts.
Just like reading is quite essential for the process of gaining knowledge, the skill of expressing your thought process through writing is equally important beginning from the time of a child’s primary education.
There are several skills that collectively make up the whole skillset of writing and help children achieve better. Let’s discuss these skills that are quite important if you wish to gain excellency in writing and eventually gain maximum knowledge.
This is one of the major skills required to write correctly. You need to know what you are writing about before you start writing. You can’t simply write words that have no connection with each other. Whenever you start writing down about something, you make sure that whatever you are writing makes sense; otherwise, your literacy skills will lack a major element.
In this way, it is important to find out about the things you are writing about so that you can actually gain knowledge through your writing skills and ensure literacy development.
Grammar and vocabulary
You don’t want your writing to be bland and composed of simply a few kinds of words all over. This requires you to have an expanded vocabulary. Writing good content means adding a diversified range of words and connecting them in a way that the reader would be engaged and willingly invest their time reading it all.
Your grammar and vocabulary are going to decide whether your written material is good, average, or not engaging at all. You can express your thoughts and ideas with simple wordings too, but when you choose to express them with good grammar, your expression will be much better.
So in order to enhance your literacy skills and knowledge, you need to work on improving your grammar and vocabulary.
Working on your grammar will help you to come across new words to be used.
Structure and outline
Good writing material starts with a proper structure and outline. The outline basically decides what you are writing about and gives structure to your material. Without an outline, your content will have no direction, and I will lead nowhere. Even if you are writing a single sentence, there needs to be structure in it that defines the purpose of the whole line.
When there is no structure, there will be no purpose, and eventually, for the reader, there will be no meaning of what they are reading. In order to make sure that you are making sense of what you are writing about, create an outline first, either in your head or in a written form, then form up the structure for it and start writing.
Connection and relativity
You need to know how to rightly make a good connection between different words to rightly express and convey your message. If your words are not connecting right or if you have not used them in the right way, the message you have written down will be conveyed and perceived in a different way. You don’t want the reader to get a totally different message from your text, nor do you want them to be lost trying to figure out what they are reading.
For this purpose, you need to know how to rightly build up a connection between words. This is a major part of improving your writing skills, getting to know how to rightly build a relation between the given words and sentences.
Punctuation is one of the basic elements when it comes to writing. The context of your sentence highly depends on your usage of punctuation in it. The small punctuation elements like a comma or full stop have the power of changing the whole context of your line.
You need to make sure that you are using the right punctuation in the right place to make the reader know the correct meaning behind the sentence. For this purpose, you need to improve your skills related to punctuation and its usage so that your written text will not be misleading for the reader.
Whenever you are done writing something, you need to proofread it and look for any mistakes you might have made or any places where you might have missed to add something important. Proofreading allows you to analyze your own written material, which is very important when it comes to improving the quality of your writing.
Instead of making someone else proofread and recheck your work, make sure you do it on your own because finding your own mistakes and correcting them will help you know what things you should avoid while writing and what things you need to keep in mind.
Lately, it has been observed that people having good listening skills usually have good reading skills. When children are listening and comprehending the meaning of what they listened to, this improves their literacy skills overall and enables them to comprehend better when it comes to reading and writing.
Children who lack the ability to listen, observe and comprehend what they hear often tend to be behind when it comes to other literacy skills such as reading or writing.
There are several skills related to the process of active listening that makes up the whole skillset of listening. Teachers can help students work on these skills in their early years. Let’s discuss some of these skills.
Varying sounds awareness
The basic skill involved in the process of active listening is the ability to distinguish between different sounds. For this, a child needs to be aware of the varying sounds. Different species have different sounds, as a human voice differs from the sound of a cat or a dog. Similarly, the voices of two persons differ from each other. The voice of the two alphabets in the English language differs from each other as well. This can be taught to students from early years through classroom activities.
You must know how to differentiate between two varying sounds so that you focus on the source of the meaning of the sound rather than being lost when trying to figure out what kind of sound it is.
The meaning of the sound will not be interpreted right if you don’t know what you are listening to. In this way, this skill becomes the base of your listening skills.
This is also an important aspect of listening. Children who tend to have good communication skills are often good at listening and understanding what they are hearing. We often tend to gain knowledge from what we hear, and for that, we need to have good hearing skills to comprehend the right meaning.
For this purpose, you need to make sure that when you are communicating with someone, listen to them carefully too. Listen and observe to understand what the a=other person is saying. This can help you greatly in enhancing your communication skills, and eventually, your literacy skills will be improved as well.
Attention and response
Your ability to listen attentively matters a lot when it comes to good listening skills. If you are not paying attention to what you are listening to, you won’t be able to know the real meaning of the sound you are hearing. If you want to develop good reading or writing skills, you first need to make sure that you are listening to the sounds around you with more attention.
Listen to documentaries from web resources. Make sure to listen attentively as this will help you to listen properly.
On the other hand, your response after listening greatly depends on what and how you have listened. The extent of your attention will determine your perception of what you have heard, and in turn, your response will be dependent on that.
Your response basically shows the level of your literacy skills, and if that is disturbed because you weren’t paying attention to what you were listening to, then your literacy skills as a whole will be disturbed.
Comprehension of what you listen to highly depends on your ability to perceive something. When two people are listening to the same thing, they will comprehend it differently.
Suppose there is a loud thud voice in a class that was heard by all students without knowing the source. Some would perceive it to be a fallen desk, and some would say that it was a book that fell down, and so there will be different perceptions of the sound.
In this way, the way you comprehend the meaning of what you have heard matters a lot when it comes to your listening skills because, in the end, it’s only the meaning that will determine what you have gained from listening to the material.
In order to understand the meaning of what they are listening to, students need to improve their comprehension skills so that they are not merely consuming knowledge without any meaning.
The ability to speak effectively and having good speaking skills make people communicate efficiently and make the other person understand the information you have conveyed in a better way. The perception or comprehension of your message by another person mainly depends on how you are conveying it using the speaking skills you have.
The expression of the knowledge you have gained depends on how you let the other person know about it by spoken language. If you fail to do it right based on poor speaking skills, it will simply demonstrate that you lack basic literacy skills.
Let’s some of the basic speaking skills that are required to improve your whole skillset related to speaking.
Phonics awareness refers to the ability to distinguish between different sounds made by the letters and alphabets. To speak in a fluent way correctly, you must know what the different sounds made by the letters and how they change when they are combined with other letters to make a word or a sentence are. If you are making the wrong sound of a particular letter in a word, it will automatically change the sound of the whole word. In this way, the meaning of that word will be lost.
In the early stage, children should be made aware of the sounds made by the alphabet for early literacy development. With a child, you can practice this by singing songs like baba black sheep or Old Mcdonald because such things help to learn faster.
When they say out the word with the right sound, they will eventually be able to speak very fluently and in the right way rather than wrongly pronounced words.
Pronunciation is the key element of speaking. If you are able to read the word correctly, but you fail to speak it right, the listener will not understand what you are trying to convey. They will simply assume that you are unaware of the matter even when you have the knowledge of it.
In this way, if you want to express your knowledge rightly, you have to make sure that you are pronouncing the word correctly. There are certain ways through which common words and letters are pronounced, and that pronunciation is used by many people. They will only understand the common pronunciation of that word and will fail to understand if you pronounce it in some other way.
While you are speaking, you need to be aware of your surroundings, and your concentration must stay. You will only speak in a fluent way if you are concentrated on what you are speaking. Losing concentration will make you forget about what you are going to say or what’s the meaning behind your conversation.
Whatever you are speaking about will simply lose its meaning if you have lost your concentration. So in order to speak and talk in the right way to convey your message to the listener, you will have to keep your concentration right in place.
Volume and clarity
Your volume should be moderately adjustable during your speaking. You need to adapt the volume level in accordance with your surroundings. You need to be aware of being loud or too low. If you are being too loud in a setting where you should speak low or in a high volume required setting, you are speaking too low; in both scenarios, you won’t be able to convey your message in an effective way. To make your message be vivid and audible, you should make sure that you are speaking at the right volume that is not too high and not too low. In this way, the meaning of your message will be rightly heard.
On the other hand, your voice should be clear. Make sure that your voice is not breaking off while you are talking. An unclear voice will convey a rather unclear message properly.
Pace and rhythm
While you are speaking, you need to have a normal pace that can easily be understood by the listener. If you are speaking too fast, the one who is listening will not be able to grasp the meaning of what you are saying. In the same way, if you are speaking too slow, the listener will lose interest in it.
The pace of what you are saying will determine the rhythm of your message. If you want to keep a normal rhythm going on, there should be an acceptable pace.
The two extremes of pace are too fast and too slow. It is known that talking at a pace that lies between these two extremes is the best way to keep the rhythm right and convey your message properly.
Importance of literacy skills
Basic literacy skills are very important in education and general life setting. From the beginning of learning, the development of literacy skills helps the students to score better, and then eventually, it helps them create a liveable life for themselves.
Let’s discuss some ways that make literacy skills important for us.
To score well
The academic life of students requires good knowledge of literacy skills. For the purpose of scoring well in the class, all literacy skills are interrelated. A child who has good literacy skills will be able to score well in the class in comparison to the student who lacks these skills. You should not only be consuming knowledge, but you should also be able to use it to score well.
To communicate effectively
Effective communication requires good literacy skills. If you lack basic literacy skills, you won’t be able to communicate and convey your message correctly. In this way, you will end up conveying a misleading message which you didn’t plan in the first place. Whether you wish to communicate with your peers, parents, or teachers, you need to be good with literacy skills.
To explore and score opportunities
People with good literacy skills tend to pick up more relevant and rewarding opportunities in comparison to those who lack the basic skills. Landing on a perfect opportunity will require you to have the basic skill set that ensures that you did not only find the opportunity but are also ideal for it, whether in the education field or practical one.
To stay aware
Basic literacy skills allow you to be aware of your surroundings. Listening to understand everyday news and current affairs, reading the labels of the products you are using, being engaged in a conversation with someone, all these mentioned examples require you to be well aware of what your response is based on the literacy skills.
Being a responsible citizen
You need to be responsible citizens aware of their rights and responsibilities. A person who has literacy skills can effectively be aware of it, and they will also be able to rightly implement it in their daily life routine. In this way, being a responsible citizen is highly dependent on your literacy skills and how you use them.
Earn and survive
In order to earn well and provide for themselves and their family, a person needs to have some basic literacy skills. Not only will it help them to land a good job, but it will also help them to perform well in it and reach higher positions. Without the skills, they would not be able to understand and convey the work in an ideal way.
Tips to improve your literacy skills
Improving your literacy is all about observation, analysis, practice, and conclusion. Constantly working on your literacy skills from a young age can help you achieve so much more in life. Here are some of the tips that can help you to improve your literacy skills.
Read more often
Try reading about everything! Yes, by everything, we mean things that catch your interest, the things that are beneficial to read. Or simply anything to pass your time. Reading is always helpful for students to improve their literacy skills and focus.
While you are reading, you need to keep your focus straight on the content so that you can read and understand as well. Be it a magazine or novel you like or a newspaper telling you about current affairs with a column on the side stating the reason behind things or articles from web resources or the back of cereal boxes or even road signs, reading these things can greatly impact the level of your literacy skills.
You will not only be able to read better, but it will also allow you to be well aware of everything going on around you.
Look for meaning behind the text
Whenever you are looking at a particular text, try to look for its meaning and how you can relate it to your thought process. Looking for the meaning behind it will help you increase your knowledge horizons. Your grammar and vocabulary will be enhanced as well. Being a teacher, you can ask children the meanings of different words. In this way, children develop the habit of comprehending the written, read, heard, or spoken words, whether in the English language or any other language.
Develop the habit of storytelling
Children should be encouraged to develop a habit of storytelling. During bedtime, there should be 10 to 15 minutes given to children to either make up a story or talk about a story they know about. This will improve the speaking skills of children, also enabling them to be more creative with their thoughts and promoting literacy development.
While you are reading or looking at something, try making notes or short references about it. This will help you to write better and to make your observations stronger. This is quite important for students to bring improvement to their overall literacy skills. With the notes you make, you will be able to keep track easily and increase your concentration span. Making notes requires you to focus closely on everything so that you don’t miss something important. In this way, your ability to focus on things is improved, and note down vocabulary words that you need to remember.
Summarize your readings
Whenever you finish reading something, try to summarize it on paper. It will enhance your writing ability. Other than this, it will enable you to observe and analyze your readings in a better way. You will be able to reflect on different things around you. Write down what you have read or seen and what your thoughts were behind the matter. With this habit, you will be able to convey your message better.
Language is associated with the acquisition of literacy skills. If you want to master your literacy skills, you need to be proficient language learners at the same time because if your language knowledge is incomplete, you won’t be able to completely convey your literacy skills. Hence to master all the skills, you need to start being a language learner.
If you are a second language learner, the skill acquiring process might be a bit difficult for you, but with practice, you gain momentum. In this way, the learning of a basic language is an integral part of literacy and education.
There are several second language learners who can read children’s books with easy to understand active vocabulary to eventually master the English language literacy skills.
Literacy skills are important for everyone, especially students, to carry out the basic tasks in life. If you need to succeed in life, be a better person, or convey an impactful message across the room, then tour literacy skills must be good enough. The level of your literacy skills will determine how good you are at something.
This can include the way you speak, read, listen, write, and more.
Practice can help you to improve the basic literacy skills that can take you forward in life. If you wish to improve your literacy skills or are looking to get a strong grip on your grammar, our certified private English tutors can help you achieve your goals in the best way possible.
Find Top Tutors in Your Area


Planning to look at vocabulary in a reading session should not be a laborious task. A quick annotation of the text should allow you to choose the key vocabulary that you would like to look at and discuss with the students.
This week I looked at Survivors by David Long with a group of Y6 children. I decided to focus on vocabulary with the children in this short 15-20 minute reading session. The class theme at the moment is Mountains so I chose the text to tie in with this.
I asked – was this avalanche expected? They answered no.
I asked them to highlight or underline three phrases which show that the events happened quickly or rapidly.
They underlined: ‘Within seconds,’ ‘With no time,’ ‘sudden’ and we discussed how using all three of these in quick succession intensified the feeling of speed.
We read the next section and I instructed the students to find any evidence that the avalanche was very powerful.
We then collected synonyms that the children knew could be used to describe the powerful avalanche.
We then discussed which other natural phenomena could be described using these words.
The savage ocean, a ferocious earthquake, an awesome eruption (of a volcano)
Ask a teacher to name a book about WW2 and they can usually throw around the names of quite a few. ‘The Silver Sword’ (classic one), ‘Good Night Mr. Tom’ (Heart-warming one), ‘Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’ (shocking one) and ‘Once’ (graphic one). Ask though, which of these books describes the setting of a bomb crater the best and less books may be suggested.
It is imperative though, that teachers have a good working knowledge of the texts, the language used and the structures in order to weave them skilfully into English lessons. For this to happen, a wide range of texts need to have been read by the teacher or teachers so that they can recall features, concepts and even sentences which they can use with their students as model texts.
Take the examples below, each of them is from a different text but each of them describes a forest. It doesn’t really matter what genre the children are writing; a good description can be utilised across a range of writing episodes.
In a hypothetical classroom, somewhere around Year 5 or Year 6, a child is writing about ‘waiting in a forest ready to go into battle during WW2’ based on a picture, film or other stimulus that the teacher has provided. If the class teacher wants to show them a model, they generally have two options – try and find a book where the exact same scenario is occurring (this may not even exist) or write their own model. (Some teachers find difficult).
However, much of the language used in the extracts below would be useful, as would some of the sentence structures and techniques such as building atmosphere or using similes. None of the books below are about World War 2 or are from battle scenes though. With some slight adjustments they can be adapted to work for any narrative which needs a description of a forest.
The Wizards of Once
Perhaps you feel that you know what a dark forest looks like. Well, I can tell you right now that you don’t. These were forests darker than you would believe possible, darker than inkspots, darker than midnight, darker than space itself, and as twisted and as tangled as a Witch’s heart. They were what is now known as wildwoods, and they stretched as far in every direction as you can possibly imagine, only stopping when they reached a sea.
Cowell, Cressida. The Wizards of Once: Book 1 (Kindle Locations 32-35). Hachette Children's Group. Kindle Edition.
In this description the teacher can discuss how Cowell has directly addressed the reader, used rhetorical devices and repeated the word darker and how this effects the audience.
Tanglefern Forest was vast, with some trees so old and tangled that few had passed beneath their branches. But there were places you went and places you didn’t. The Ancientwood in the north of the forest was safe: there was the glade of brilliant spring bluebells and yews beyond Oak’s camp, then a grove of crab-apple trees, and beyond that, after the forest, the farm itself and Tipplebury village. But south . . . Well, south was another place altogether. So she’d heard. The Deepwood was rumoured to be full of shady trees and rotting undergrowth and, when it ended, the heathland, with it sinking bogs and soggy marshes, began.
Elphinstone, Abi. The Dreamsnatcher (Dreamsnatcher 1) (pp. 9-10). Simon & Schuster UK. Kindle Edition.
I like in this extract how Elphinstone paints a positive picture of the forest in the North but then lets the reader imagine what the forest to the South is like. Think back to the scenario of world war 2. The soldier is in the forest and using Elphinstone’s technique, they could say something like:
‘The North side of the barbed wire was safe. The animals went about their daily business, birds were in the trees feeding worms to their chicks, fox cubs frolicked in the long grass of the clearing and a few of us managed to take off our boots and clean ourselves in the babbling brook. But on the other side of the barbed wire? Well that was another place altogether, from what he had heard it was worse than hell, a mud filled hell…’
The Lie Tree
Faith walked through a midnight forest. The trees were pure white, and rose high above her head, disappearing into a blue-black darkness. There was no wind, and yet the snow-white leaves shivered and whispered. She raised one hand to push aside low-hanging foliage, and felt her fingertips brush paper. The trees were flat and pale. The ragged-torn ferns stroked the skin of her hands, paper-cutting her, slyly cruel.
She was not alone.
Hardinge, Frances. The Lie Tree (pp. 234-235). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
The colours that Hardinge uses here are interesting and the last line. 'She was not alone' could be utilised in the scenario above to describe the soldier as well as in many other narrative scenarios.
The Spell Thief (Little Legends Book 1)
The air in the dark woods was thick and damp. Anansi stopped in front of a fallen tree. The roots rose above him like huge dead claws.
Percival, Tom. The Spell Thief (Little Legends Book 1) (pp. 41-42). Pan Macmillan. Kindle Edition.
This is a great example of simile, but it is from a book that most teachers would use with Year 3 and Year 4. Having a knowledge of books from other year groups and other key stages, including books for adults is also useful.
I am working on collecting some texts around a number of themes like these which I will continue to blog and discuss in my CPD sessions.
I am currently updating my CPD courses and the range which I offer for the next academic year so keep your eyes peeled for updates here www.literacyshed.com/cpd
Click the book covers for more information about each
About 3 years ago I decided to write a novel. A historical novel for children set in and around Norwich Cathedral. At this point you may be wondering 'Why?' There are a number of reasons but basically I had an idea and I fancied pursuing it. I have some time on my hands, it is purely for my own pleasure and it allows me time to drop out of the hectic day to day running of The Literacy Shed and sit quietly. It also allows me to visit as many cathedrals as I possibly can which is a secondary pleasurable benefit.
These are some of the key points that I have learned during the VERY slow process.
- No one needs to read this writing in order for the process to be enjoyable.
- Not everything that I write will be published anywhere except in my own private notebooks.
- Not everything will go as planned because ideas ebb and flow as the ink runs across the page.
- There is no need to stick rigidly to planned structures at the sentence level either. They are fluid and will change through the process.
- The quality of the writing isn't dependable on a narrow set of grammatical conditions.
- It is useful to write in small chunks and add them into the narrative.
- Characters come alive once the writing begins and take on a whole new personality sometimes.
The biggest lesson really is that it is OK to start again. The story has been set in Middles ages Norwich, which at one point became the fantasy city of Nearwich. I experimented with the same story being set during the industrial revolution and then in a strange 'steam-punkish' industrial/medieval landscape and now me and Tom (main character) are back in the medieval period.
How does this affect the teaching of writing?
- Remind the children that their writing may not be published but give them the choice whether to have people read it or not.
- If you have a great idea you do not need to stick to the plan.
- Experiment with language and grammar structure and go with what sounds best.
- Write in small chunks and build up towards a finished piece.
- Allow time to go back and add in more small chunks (or even big chunks) into the narrative.
- It is ok to start again!
Writing like this has really given me an insight in both the processes we force the children to go through and the way in which we help them to build narratives around given characters and themes.
I will continue to reflect upon this process and blog about how this can aid the teaching of writing.
WICKED, the award-winning West End musical that tells the incredible untold story of the witches of Oz, together with the National Literacy Trust celebrates its eighth year of the prestigious WICKED YOUNG WRITER AWARDS. As in previous years, entrants can enter one of five different age categories; 5-7, 8-10, 11-14, 15-17, 18-25. In addition, the 2018 Awards see the third year of the FOR GOOD Award for Non-Fiction, encouraging 15-25 year olds to write essays or articles that recognise the positive impact that people can have on each other, their communities and the world we live in. The WICKED FOR GOOD programme supports the charitable causes at the heart of the stage musical.
There is a 750-word limit (not including the title words) on any theme. In the fiction categories, any creative writing will be accepted, a story, play or poem, it can be something written at school or home that has not be entered into a competition before. If you prefer to write non-fiction, you may like to enter the Wicked: For Good Award for Non-Fiction and write an article, essay, biography, review or letter, to name a few! A shortlist of 120 entrants from across the UK will see their work published in the WICKED YOUNG WRITER AWARDS Anthology. They are also invited to an exclusive ceremony at London’s Apollo Victoria, home to the hit musical since 2006, where judges and members of the WICKED cast will read the winning stories and poems and announce who has won in each category. For T&C’s and full prize fund structure please see Wicked Young Writer Awards website. www.wickedyoungwriterawards.com
Here are the rules:
· Entrants must be aged between 5-25 years old when entering the Wicked Young Writer Awards
· Entries can be hand-written or typed
· Writing must be original and your own ideas
· Judges criteria: originality, narrative, descriptive language, characterisation.
· Ensure that all students include their name, surname and age on the entry form
· Open to UK residents only
· Win four tickets to see the London production of WICKED at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
· Meet cast members after the show along with an exclusive backstage tour.
· £50 worth of books/eBooks tokens to spend.
Other prizes for each category:
5-7 also win:
· A creative writing workshop for your class
· £100 worth of books for the winners' school library donated by Hachette Children's Books.
8-10 and 11-14 also win:
· An annual subscription to First News
· £100 worth of books for the winners' school library donated by Hachette Children's Books.
15-17 also win:
· A writing masterclass with a professional author
18-25 also win:
· A self-publishing package from Spiderwize, to publish your very own work.
Award for Non-Fiction also win:
· Work experience at First News newspaper, shadowing the editor Nicky Cox, MBE.
· The 3 schools that submit the most entries also win creative writing workshops.
· All finalists’ entries get printed in the Wicked Young Writer Awards anthology.
A flamboyance of flamingos
This week I came across a collective noun that I had not heard before, ‘A flamboyance of flamingos’ and this reminded me of some of others which I already knew: a business of ferrets, a murder of crows and a parliament of owls.
I then started to share them each day on twitter using the hashtag #collectivenouns and sharing the most unusual examples that I could find, such as a dazzle of zebras.
The posts garnered lots of interest, so I began to think about how I would use the collective nouns in writing. Many of the words are incredibly descriptive and could be used when writing setting descriptions in order to help convey a mood.
For example, when creating a peaceful mood, perhaps to describe a quiet country walk, the following examples could be used:
As I crossed the dew-kissed meadow, the sun rose above the distant hills and a wisp of snipe took flight from the long reeds.
The word ‘wisp’ used here adds to the peaceful mood whereas an example such as a ‘pandemonium of parrots’ or ‘a band of plovers,’ or even a ‘parliament of owls’ would shatter the peace.
It isn’t only birds that can lead us to imagine a peaceful moment. Barely a sound could be heard, except the gentle ruffling of the breeze-blown leaves in the trees and a prickle of hedgehogs snuffling for worms.
As well as peace, they could help children to include some atmospheric language in their writing:
A murder of crows nestled on the black, skeletal branches above, almost invisible now as the darkness descended.
The word murder will have connotations for the reader as will the word skulk in the following example: A skulk of foxes prowled through the town, silently illuminated only by the weak moonlight.
Taking it further...
To take it further, collective noun can be used as similes – see the examples below:
The gang prowled the estate like an ambush of tigers.
The snowy mountains nestled together on the horizon like a giant aurora of polar bears.
The models took to the catwalk like an flamboyance of flamingos; tall, thin and colourful.
The children alighted the bus like a troop of monkeys
Another interesting activity would be to ask children to create their own collective nouns. We asked on social media for a collective noun for teachers and amongst my favourites were:
As always thanks for reading! Please share!
This is the second list of Primary focussed teachers that I have produced. These are people that I have interacted with and followed rather than a list of people that I have looked up. Apologies if you haven't made the list but I am sure there will be a further list very soon. The first 50 can be found here.
@AllanaG13 - Secondary Leader in Primary Ed - #BAMEed Founder
@Brogan_Mr - #WhatItaughttoday Deputy Head
@cazzash - Deputy head and children's book fan
@ChrisChivers2 - Francophile and all round knowledgeable guy
@Claresealy - Primary Head Teacher in that there London
@DaisyMay29 - Teacher, Reader, Writer, Dreamer
@Darynsimon - Teacher often at the heart of the debate
@etaknipsa - Curiosity hasn't killed this primary teacher... yet!
@ey_inspiration1 - Early years duet
@GalwayMr - Part of the amazing Herts for Learning team
@gareth_metcalfe - He sees maths!
@geordiecat2012 - Cat lady teacher
@hengehall ICT Master Wizard
@HeyMissPrice - Always sharing great Literacy ideas
@HopeStreetBlues - Member of the optimistic SLT society
@isright - I wouldn't want to walk a week in his shoes he runs too far!
@JulesDaulby Literacy, SEND and a penguin
@librarymice - School Librarian sharing great books
@Libwithattitude - with attitude like this the books are never late back
@lobroo - My oldest Antipodean twitter pal!
@macfin76 - Y1 teacher who likes a ramble
@Marygtroche Almost legendary critical thinking bookworm
@MaryMyatt - Hopeful about schools
@Mr_P_hillips - Friend, Teacher, Entertainer (in that order)
@MrBKing1988 - A thoroughly entertaining twitter feed
@MrBReading - One of my 'go to' book peeps
@MrBoothY6 - Computing lead who loves books even more than computers!
@MrEFinch - Generally irritated except when on a reading spree
@MrGPrimary - his bio says incompetent but I can't believe that!
@MrMarchayes - holder of multiple learning powers
@nancygedge - SEND legend!
@NikkiGamble - Off exploring children's literature
@OldPrimaryHead1 - <--Does what it says on the tin!
@Parky_teaches - Love of books, StarWars and Night Zoos
@pickleholic - Headteacher of Hogwarts
@pivotalpaul - Teacher wrangler
@primarypercival - Genius behind the Ladybird book of Edutwitter
@rachelrossiter - SENDco checking your ladder is against the right wall
@RobertsNiomi - Laminating Queen ;)
@Sarah_Jayne1982 - Teaching the next generation
@Sarah_Wright1 - Enthusiastic Senior Primary Edu Lecturer
@Skippity_doo - Another awesome librarian sharing awesome books
@Thatboycanteach - Positive teacher knocking out some great blogs
@theprimaryhead - the definite article
@trainingtoteach - filled with positivity for the job - will he change his twitter handle soon?
@Vocabularyninja - Creeps up behind you and shares words of the day
(PS I know there are only 45 but I have left some space for when people inform me who I have missed out) As always I welcome your comments.
Plus follow the new subject specific Primary Rocks threads for themed ideas and discussions. #primaryrocks (more coming soon too)
I have been thinking about and researching how to improve comprehension skills using a range of high quality texts, images, picture books and of course film.
After a number of sessions with children in schools using the new content domains, which can be found on the gov.uk website, I found that all of the key comprehension skills were being covered through the domains. As some of you who follow this blog will know, I like a mnemonic. So I set about thinking about a mnemonic that could be used by teachers, other adults who read with children and also the children themselves. My first attempt - MR SIP TEA was not the catchiest so we have come up with Reading Vipers. Vipers cover the key comprehension skills in line with the 'new' content domains.
At Literacy Shed the minions are now busy making a whole host of resources that will link to Reading Vipers. There are now 30+ Film VIPERS on www.literacyshedplus.com
We are also creating a range of comprehension materials based on extracts from classic texts such as Black Beauty, The Time Machine, Robinson Crusoe and many more which will soon be available here. www.literacyshedplus.com Until then you can download The Time Machine sample (as seen below) by clicking here. =
The same key viper skills can be rehearsed effectively using single images or picture books.
Take a look at this example using the picture book 'Return' by Aaron Becker.
There are over 30 sets of VIPERS questions for the Literacy Shed films now on www.literacyshedplus.com
The question stem documents can be downloaded by click on the relevant image below.
As always comments are welcome!
Click the text below for further reading.
“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Anton Chekov talking about the use of a well know literary device called ‘Show, don’t tell’ and more recently ‘Show, not tell.’
This method which has many proponents in the world of literature is not a new phenomenon. Ernest Hemingway opens his novel ‘To have and have not’ written in 1937 with the following lines:
You know how it is there early in the morning in Havana with the bums still asleep against the walls of the buildings; before even the ice wagons come by with ice for the bars?
Here Hemingway is painting a picture of early morning in Cuba, he could have easily written ‘One very early morning…’ some writers may argue that these examples are still ‘telling’ although somewhat elaborately. Calling it ‘Show, not tell though does simplify it for our students and is a great way of getting them to use vivid description.
Evan Marshall from http://themarshallplan.net/ says:
Don’t just write “The subway station was shabby.”
Write: “Near the edge of the platform, a man with knotted hair held out a Dixie cup to no one in particular, calling, ‘Spare some change? Spare some change?’ Swirls of iridescent orange graffiti covered the Canal Street sign. The whole place smelled of urine and potato chips.”
Perhaps both are telling but one is telling in much more detail. The latter has much more detail and drama.
I use film widely in my teaching and I use film to demonstrate this technique.
The following two extracts are from a music video called 'Titanium' by David Guetta.
These two excerpts are from one of my favourite films on The Literacy Shed, called 'Catch a Lot.'
There are many other examples in the films on www.literacyshed.com and I may follow this blog up with them if people think it is useful.
Thanks for reading and I hope you leave a comment.
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of speaking at a conference in Coventry, I was followed by Roger Black MBE who delivered a keynote speech about his career.
I sat and wondered what the relationship between his career and teaching would be. Roger spoke at length about overcoming adversity and teamwork, the type of thing that teachers do on a daily basis. One thing, however, struck a chord with me. Roger discussed his 'fear of failure' how this fear pushed him from excellent to outstanding.
I wondered... Do we instil this fear in children? Should we? Would our children in school perform better if they had a fear of failure? I thought about my own classroom setting, are my children striving to achieve at all times? No. Do they have a fear of failure? The majority don't.
I then began to think about how I deal with failure on a daily basis. In my Year 5 class what happens if a child delivers a substandard piece of work? The answer: not a lot! If they have been lazy, they may have to do the work again, but only if the work is substantially below standard. If they have failed to achieve due to carelessness, I will probably warn them about their effort or concentration levels. Is it my fault that these children do not have an intrinsic fear of failing? Do they just think they can get away with it or is there another underlying problem?
I have met a number of children throughout my career who don't seem to care about their work, who don't care about achieving. These children lack ambition, it could be down to social pressures, family traditions or a lack of aspiration.
We need to engage these children in a way that makes them care. We need to make sure they care about achieving and instil in them a fear of failure.
The question is how? [I will blog about this at a later date.] I am forming some ideas....


Picturebooks provide a rich and motivating resource to develop children’s early language learning such as basic understanding, vocabulary and phrases related to the content of a story, but they can also be used to develop multiple literacies. These include visual, emotional, cultural, nature, digital, moving image literacy and ‘learning’ literacy, which is linked to learning how to learn and learner autonomy. ‘Learning’ literacy is described as an ethos, a culture and a way of life and involves being ready to develop learning capacities and the behaviours individuals need, including being willing to learn continuously, as competencies essential to thriving in a globally connected, digitally driven world. The Important Book (Brown & Weisgard, 1949) is used as an example of how learning literacy can be integrated into primary English language pedagogy by applying the Plan, Do, Review model of reflection. Working through the three stages of the Plan Do Review cycle, children are informed of the aims of the activity; they identify success criteria, draft and refine their own paragraphs about an important object, review what they did, what they learnt and how they learnt and then assess their performance to identify next steps. This process enables the teacher to create learning environments that develop learning literacy, by providing opportunities for systematic reflection and experimentation and the development of metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies.
Keywords: Picturebooks, multiple literacies, learning how to learn, metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies, reflection, primary English language pedagogy
Gail Ellis is Adviser Young Learners and Quality for the British Council and based in Paris. Her publications include Learning to Learn English, The Primary English Teacher’s Guide, Tell it Again! and Teaching children how to learn. Her main interests are children’s literature, young learner ELT management and inclusive education. [End of Page 27]
I began using picturebooks as my main teaching resource in state primary schools in Paris in 1989, as they provide a rich, motivating and authentic source of meaningful input to develop children’s early English language learning. However, I soon realised they can be used to develop much more than children’s basic understanding, vocabulary and phrases related to the content of a story. They can also be used to help children develop other ways of interpreting, understanding and making meaning, since picturebooks lend themselves to developing multiple literacies.
The term multiple literacies extends the traditional view of literacy, often referred to as functional literacy, which is the ability to read and write. It focuses beyond alphabetical representations and brings into the classroom multimodal resources, as well as those typical of the new, digital media. Meaning is made in ways that are increasingly multimodal in which written-linguistic modes of meaning interface with oral, visual, audio, gestural, tactile and spatial patterns of meaning, to include the interpretation and understanding of information presented via different modes.
Multiple literacies encompass many forms of literacy that require learning how to interpret and decode information conveyed through multiple modes. For example, information conveyed through visual images is an important means of communication, so helping children interpret and understand illustrations in a picturebook develops their visual literacy. Interpreting and understanding facial expressions, gestures and body language helps children develop emotional literacy. Interpreting and understanding similarities and differences between the culture depicted in a picturebook and the child’s own cultural reality helps them develop cultural literacy. Interpreting and understanding the natural world as depicted in a picturebook helps children develop nature literacy. Interpreting and understanding information conveyed through different digital modes integrated into activities to complement learning around a picturebook helps children develop digital literacy. Using animations of picturebooks helps children develop moving image literacy.
We can see that the term multiple literacies embraces the notion that there are multiple ‘modes of representation’ which are much broader than language alone (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000, p. 5). Multiple literacies pedagogy ‘encourages a broader perspective of [End of Page 28] the student as a learner and values diverse ways of knowing, thinking, doing and being’ (O’Rourke, 2005, p. 10). It is underpinned by multimodal theory, which asserts that children create meaning using a ‘multiplicity of modes, means and materials’ for self-expression’ (Kress, 1997, p. 97).
In the early years and primary language classroom, this involves acknowledging and recognising children’s drawings, constructions, arts and crafts and actions as alternative ways of communicating with the teacher about their world in a foreign language. It also invites the teacher to use multimodal input and resources. Using picturebooks allows the teacher to provide multimodal input as they offer a springboard for a range of associated activities, such as songs and chants, realia, film, actions and drama, and digital technologies. These enable children to make meaning, develop and extend language.
Multilple literacies and The Snowman
One of the first picturebooks I used with a class of 9-year-olds was Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman (1978), a wordless picturebook, as I was sure the children would be enchanted by the story and images, given their limited English. They would be able to ‘read’ the pictures and construct their own meaning and find their own words to shape the story. I found the children were more aware of their contribution in making the pictures tell a story as they entered into a partnership with the illustrator. A wordless picturebook offers an open invitation where personal interpretation counts rather than finding a right or wrong answer, and they promote a sense of power, creativity and freedom. The Snowman enabled the children to exercise their imaginations and to become personally, actively and creatively involved in the story as they identified with the characters. It also coincided with the type of weather formally typical of November and December in parts of Europe, and it provided potential for Christmas-related activities.
After the first lessons, I soon realised that children were developing much more than vocabulary and phrases related to colours, clothes, parts of the body, the weather, etc. As they interpreted the picture narrative, they were developing their visual literacy. They were developing emotional literacy as they interpreted the gestures and facial expressions in the illustrations, which enabled them to empathise with the boy in the story, especially in [End of Page 29] the final illustration where the boy is looking down on a pile of melted snow. As one child said: ‘The Snowman story makes me cry. I don’t want him to melt. I don’t want the story to end’. For children to cry at the end of The Snowman shows they have come to empathise with a distinctive and believable character. The children were aware that the Snowman was the boy’s dream or fantasy, which enabled them to explain their sorrow at the end of the story – it was not only the melting snowman but also the end of the boy’s dream.
They were also developing cultural literacy as they noticed details about the setting or how the characters greeted each other, and made comparisons with their own culture; and nature literacy, as they learnt about winter weather, snow and how snowflakes are formed. Creative Writer (Microsoft Kids, 1994) was used to develop digital literacy as children created Snowman menus, and the accompanying film of The Snowman was used to develop moving image literacy. I also realised that children were developing ‘learning’ literacy as they sought clues to meaning via the illustrations, predicted what was going to happen next, organised their learning materials and reviewed their learning.
‘Learning’ literacy is a relatively new term and is linked to learning how to learn and to learner autonomy. It involves developing awareness and understanding of one’s own learning processes, personal preferences and learning strategies. In her blog posting entitled The Global Search for Education: Learning How to Learn (20.01.2016), Rubin describes learning literacy as follows: ‘Being ready to develop our own learning capacities, being able to develop the behaviors we now need as individuals, including being willing to learn continuously, are competencies essential to thriving in a globally connected, digitally driven world’. Rubin’s interviewee, Jim Wynn, co-founder of EducationFastForward offers this definition: ‘Learning literacy is an ethos, a culture and a way of life’. Moreover, learning literary is also about developing an inquisitive mindset and using resources that ignite curiosity and enable experimentation.
Learning literacy is an important aim of most curricula throughout the world, since it underpins learning in all areas of the curriculum and life, and is one of the EU’s eight key competencies for lifelong learning (EU, 2006). It is an important aspect of a child’s overall educational development from a very early age. As Tina Bruce (2011, p. 47) states: [End of Page 30] ‘Children learn best when they are given appropriate responsibility, allowed to make errors, decisions and choices, and respected as autonomous learners’. The Early Years Foundation Stage Profile 2017 Handbook (Standards & Testing Agency, 2016, p. 13) states: ‘Practitioners should involve children fully in their own assessment by encouraging them to communicate about and review their own learning’, since even very young children do possess a considerable degree of metacognitive knowledge and ability (Nisbet & Shucksmith, 1986; Whitebread, Coltman, Anderson, Mehta & Pasternak, 2005).
Children’s ability to reflect on and talk about their learning should not be underestimated. They are competent, insightful and spontaneous commentators on their own learning experiences if they are given the opportunity to do so. So picturebooks can provide an ideal resource to develop children’s language learning as well as their learning literacy, and instil the ethos expressed by Wynn (see Rubin, 2016).
Developing ‘Learning’ Literacy with Picturebooks
Learning literacy can be integrated into a story-based approach with children where between six and twelve hours are spent on a picturebook (Ellis & Brewster, 2014) by applying the Plan Do Review model of reflection. For a list of picturebook titles suitable for English language learning, see Wilbur’s storybook recommendations (Ellis & Ibrahim, 2015a). The Plan Do Review model originates from the HighScope approach to early childhood education (Hohmann, Epstein & Weikart, 2008), which is a child-initiated approach to learning. It provides a consistent, predictable routine that structures the learning sequence and gives children a sense of control over what happens next, and contributes to a stable and secure emotional environment within which they are free to make choices and initiate activities.
The Plan Do Review model of reflection consists of three stages that can be applied to an overall scheme of work around a picturebook where we use the familiar pre- while- and post-storytelling activities. It can also be applied to each lesson and to each activity. This model provides opportunities for systematic reflection, experimentation and further reflection, thereby developing both metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies (O’Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper & Russo, 1985). Metacognitive strategies are strategies that involve children in reflecting on their learning in order to plan, [End of Page 31] monitor and evaluate their learning. Cognitive strategies are task-specific and involve children in doing things or experimenting with the language and their learning material and relate to the skills areas.
Children usually get a lot of implicit practice in developing cognitive strategies as the requirement for the use of a particular strategy is embedded within the activities. Examples are sorting or classifying, listening for specific information, predicting and sequencing. But most classroom situations or materials rarely inform children explicitly about the strategies they are using and why, and they are not encouraged to reflect on their learning. In other words, the metacognitive dimension is missing. So in order to develop learning literacy the teacher needs to take on an expanded role and incorporate this missing metacognitive dimension into her lessons.
Developing ‘Learning’ Literacy with The Important Book
I discovered Margaret Wise Brown’s The Important Book (1949, illustrated Leonard Weisgard) only relatively recently (see Recommended Reads, CLELEjournal, 4/1, 2016 http://clelejournal.org/recommended-reads-may-2016/). Each double spread is illustrated alternately in black-and-white and then colour and dedicated to an everyday object. The illustrations have a slightly surreal feel to them. A poetic paragraph describes the major attributes of each object, such as a spoon, a daisy, the rain, grass, snow, an apple, the wind, the sky, and a shoe. Each paragraph begins and ends with the key attribute, adding repetition. For example: ‘The important thing about a spoon is that you eat with it. It’s like a little shovel, you hold it in your hand, you can put it in your mouth, it isn’t flat, it’s hollow, and it spoons things up. But the important thing about a spoon is that you eat with [End of Page 32] it’ (Brown & Weisgard, 1949: np). The rhythmic paragraphs assign a dream-like quality to reality, ‘the important thing about a daisy is that it is white’, ‘the important thing about the sky is that it is always there’ and ‘the important thing about glass is that you can see through it’.
The format of the book provides children with a perfect model for how to write a good paragraph, with a topic sentence and supporting sentences about an object of their own choice. The book encourages creating and thinking critically as it invites children to construct their own opinions about everyday things in their diverse social and cultural contexts. It also provokes discussion as peers may or may not agree with the key attribute assigned to an object. The Important Book is a timeless book, it encourages children to look at things in different ways, consider multiple perspectives and opinions of their classmates and value everyday things.
The Important Book can be read aloud by the teacher and understood and enjoyed by younger children because there is plenty of repetition, a predictable pattern and simple, clear sentences and visual support. Older children can read the book independently as the illustrations and text interact to create meaning. I have used the book with a group of 9-year-olds who have had three years of English. I introduced the book by showing the cover and asking children to say what they thought was important about some of the things they could see, for example, an apple, water, glass, the sky, a butterfly, a cloud, asking them to begin, ‘The important thing about an apple is ………’ I then read the picturebook aloud, showing the illustrations and encouraging prediction as appropriate. I elicited how the paragraphs were organised, for example,
- The paragraphs start with a topic sentence stating the main important thing.
- There are supporting sentences describing the object and giving details three times.
- The final sentence repeats the main important thing.
As a follow-up activity, the children wrote a paragraph about an object of their own choice.
Plan Do Review model: Plan stage. The children were informed of the learning aims: ‘We’re going to learn how to write a paragraph with a topic sentence and supporting sentences.’ I integrated an assessment for learning approach (Black and Wiliam, 1998), and [End of Page 33] negotiated the success criteria with the children. Success criteria are the parts of the learning activity that are essential in achieving the learning aims. For example,
- Identify the pattern in the paragraph
- Use the pattern to structure your own paragraph.
- Use a dictionary or ask your teacher if necessary.
Plan Do Review model: Do stage. This stage involved children in producing their first draft of their paragraph, self- and peer-reviewing and editing until they were satisfied, and ready to produce and ‘publish’ their final version, see the example in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The important thing about a floor tile.
As a final outcome, the children collated their paragraphs into their own class ‘Important Book’, which they displayed in the story area of their classroom to return to and read during free-choice time.
Plan Do Review model: Review stage. Reviewing is an important aspect of the learning process, but this stage is often omitted from classroom practice. Reviewing can be used to work out how to improve a situation or learn from an experience. As John Dewey [End of Page 34] (1916) stressed, we do not learn from experience but from reflecting upon experience: ‘Such reflection upon experience gives rise to a distinction of what we experience (the experienced) and the experiencing – the ‘how’ (p. 196). Reviewing is important because it develops self-awareness and maximises and enhances learning time. This makes learning more efficient and effective as it improves the children’s understanding of their own learning processes so they can become better learners. The Plan Do Review model of reflection ensures that this important aspect of the learning process is not neglected.
The Review stage involved the children in reflecting on their learning in order to become aware of and understand their learning by responding to five reflection questions:
- What did you do?
- What did you learn?
- How did you learn?
- How well did you do?
- What do you need to do next?
Question one encouraged children to refer back to the success criteria and assess to what extent they followed these to complete the task. This helped them become more aware of the processes involved and what they needed to do to complete the task successfully. To make reviewing interesting and memorable, it was linked to the language and topic of the activity, which provided further consolidation and maintained the children’s interest and motivation. For example:
The important thing I did was …………………
The important thing I learnt was …………………
Question four encouraged children to assess their performance. Self-assessment is viewed as one of the pillars of learner autonomy (Harris, 1997). It can increase awareness of individual progress as it can help children locate their own strengths and weaknesses and get them to think about what they need to do next. Through self-assessment children understand that they each learn different things and each have their own preferences about content and learning. Children begin to look forward to this part of their learning and taking on responsibility for assessing how well they did and when what they say matters. Figure 2 shows how the self-assessment was linked to the content of the activity. Children [End of Page 35] chose a comment that best reflected how well they did and then completed the sentence in order to reflect further and personalise their self-assessment. Some chose to complete it in the style of The Important Book and wrote a paragraph. It is important that children discuss their self-assessment with their peers and their teacher to fully extend the potential for reflection, otherwise there is a risk that self-assessment may become a repetitive and mechanical task of ticking boxes, circling smiley faces or colouring traffic lights with no further reflection.
Figure 2: The Important Book – self-assessment (Ellis and Ibrahim, 2015b)
This reflection is important as it drives improvement in performance. However, it cannot be assumed that by reflecting, performance automatically improves. Children need to act upon their reflections and justify their self-assessment and discuss with their peers or their teacher. Action based upon reflection is critical, so question five involved children reflecting on what they needed to do next.
Thus learning literacy, in addition to English language learning, can be developed through picturebooks, if children are encouraged to plan and review their learning so they become aware of and understand the processes involved and of their own personal preferences and learning strategies.
Further Review Activities to Develop ‘Learning’ Literacy
There are many other ways children can reflect on their learning in a story-based approach and also give their personal response to a narrative. For example, they can complete a book mark by responding to questions about a story, drawing pictures about their favourite [End of Page 36] characters and illustrations, saying which part of the story they liked most and why, as well as evaluating their performance. Figure 3 on Pat Hutchins’ The Doorbell Rang (1986) demonstrates how children’s attention can be focussed on the learning strategies they used.
Figure 3: Personal response to a story
Figure 4 shows how children used Lego to construct a model of their favourite cat in Eve Sutton and Lynley Dodd’s picturebook, My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes (1974), which involved them kinaesthetically and creatively in reflecting on their learning.
Figure 4: The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane [End of Page 37]
These techniques use a variety of modes so reviewing becomes multimodal – for example, drawing, photo and film, constructing models, movement and puppets. Reviewing is often considered a solitary activity, although it can be made interactive and collaborative by having children work in pairs or groups so they learn with and from each other. This can help develop social skills and creativity.
In order to develop learning literacy through picturebooks, teachers need to create a learning environment which provides opportunities for reflection, experimentation and further reflection. This can be achieved by applying the Plan Do Review model of reflection to both the overall scheme of work and to individual activities in a story-based approach. In this way, learning literacy can be systematically and explicitly developed through the combination of both metacognitive and cognitive strategy training. In addition, using multimodal resources makes learning inclusive by accommodating children’s learning differences and preferences, and enabling them to express their views and opinions about language learning in their preferred mode. Through doing so, children become more engaged in their English language learning as they gradually develop an awareness and understanding of their own learning processes. This equips children with the mindset required to learn new things in a rapidly diverse and changing world so learning literacy indeed becomes, as Wynn urges, ‘an ethos, a culture and a way of life’.
Briggs, R. (1978). The Snowman. Harmondsworth: Hamish Hamilton.
Brown, M.W. (1949). The Important Book. Leonard Weisgard (Illus.). New York: HarperCollins.
Hutchins, P. (1986). The Doorbell Rang. Harmondsworth: Puffin Books.
Sutton, E. (1974). My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. Lynley Dodd (Illus.). Harmondsworth: Puffin Books. [End of Page 38]
Black, P., Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 139-148. http://weaeducation.typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf
Bruce, T. (2011). Early Childhood Education. 4th edition. London: Hodder Education.
Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (2009). ‘Multiliteracies’: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An International Journal. 4, 164-195.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: The Macmillan Company. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education
Ellis, G. & Brewster, J. (2014). Tell it Again! The Storytelling Handbook for Primary English Language Teachers. London: British Council https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/D467_Storytelling_handbook_FINAL_web.pdf
Ellis, G. & Ibrahim, N. (2015a). Teachers’ toolkit. Wilbur’s storybook recommendations. Retrieved from http://www.deltapublishing.co.uk/content/uploads/2016/02/Wilburs-storybook-recommendations.pdf
Ellis, G. & Ibrahim, N. (2015b). Teaching Children How to Learn. Peaslake, Surrey: Delta Publishing.
EU. (2006). Key competences for lifelong learning – A European framework. Official Journal of the European Union, 30 December. http://www.alfa-trall.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/EU2007-keyCompetencesL3-brochure.pdf .
Harris, M. (1997). Self-assessment on language learning in formal setting. ELT Journal, 51(1), 12-14.
Hohmann, M., Epstein, A. S., & Weikart, D. (2008). Educating Young Children: Active Learning Practices for Preschool and Child Care Programs. 3rd Edition. Ypsilanti, MI: HighScope Press.
Kress, G. (1997). Before Writing: Rethinking the Paths to Literacy. New York: Routledge.
Microsoft Kids. (1994). Creative Writer. Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press.
Nisbet, J., & Shucksmith, J. (1986). Learning Strategies. Boston: Routledge.
O’Malley, J.M., Chamot, A., U., Stewner-Manzanares, G, Kupper, L. & Russo, R. P. [End of Page 39] (1985). Learning strategies used by beginning and intermediate ESLstudents. Language Learning, 35, 21-46.
O’Rourke, M. (2005). Multiliteracies for 21st Century Schools. Lindfield, NSW: The Australian National Schools Network Ltd.
Rubin, C. M. (2016, Jan 20). The global search for education: Learning how to learn. CMRubinWorld. Sustainable Solutions Through Global Discourse. Retrieved from http://www.cmrubinworld.com/the-global-search-for-education-learning-how-to-learn
Standards & Testing Agency (2016). Early Years Foundation Stage Profile 2017 Handbook. UK: Department for Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/564249/2017_EYFSP_handbook_v1.1.pdf
Whitebread, D., Coltman, P., Anderson, H., Mehta, S. & Pasternak, D.P. (2005). Metacognition in young children: Evidence from a naturalistic study of 3–5 year olds. Paper presented at the 5th Warwick International Early Years Conference, March 2005, and the 11th Biennial European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) Conference, Cyprus, August 2005. https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/cindle/Cyprus%20paper%202.doc
[End of Page 40]