TJA Approach to Literacy

We believe that the acquisition of Literacy skills is critical to students being able to access the whole curriculum. Teachers recognise that ultimately every teacher is a teacher of literacy. 

Support for the development of skills in reading and writing and is embedded in teachers’ day-to-day practice within the classroom via the following:

Teachers prioritise subject-specific literacy skills
•    Teachers combine relevant reading activities with writing instruction in every subject
•    Terminology/vocabulary that is relevant to subjects and topics is explicitly taught and pre-taught on a daily basis
•    The range of subject-based vocabulary that teachers carefully select is broad and ambitious
•    Teachers aim to ‘make students the experts’ in their subject areas, via not only understanding terms and connecting them to other relevant vocabulary, but also by: using terms independently; applying them correctly; practising them regularly; and being able to retrieve and recall them at a later date

Approach to reading
•    Students read a range of literacy rich texts, both fiction and non-fiction and from a vast range of time periods
•    They are encouraged to read outside of school for pleasure and also in class; every student is encouraged to read both independently and aloud and teachers select carefully what is appropriate for each student with the aim to develop confidence and fluency in reading skills 
•    Texts are appropriately broken down where needed, with careful consideration of the needs of individual learners, with the view of gradually building students’ independence in reading
•    More complex words are broken down by teachers as needed to support and scaffold students

Oracy 
•    Teachers understand that the ability to listen and speak and express oneself is instrumental to improving reading and writing
•    Teachers model high-quality talk and support students to confidently express and organise thoughts and ideas, whilst accurately using ambitious terminology verbally, prior to writing them down
•    Thereafter, teachers model and guide student writing as needed, providing targeted support, whilst continuing to encourage further oracy to support the writing process

In addition, all teachers contribute to marking for Literacy.  When quality marking, at least one paragraph is corrected for Literacy using the school’s literacy marking codes with errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar being made explicit. Students are given time to address these and make corrections with the support of their teacher.