As
a creative school, with a track record in fantastic English results, we are often asked what our specific approach is:
how do we teach through the arts yet manage to maintain such high expectations
from all our pupils? I'd like to share some of these approaches with you:
Immersion
activities
How
can children access stories, poems and other texts if their minds and imaginations
not fully engaged? We have found that immersing children in a range of creative
activities before reading the text means that they are fully prepared, and
excited, about the reading journey ahead of them. Through painting, music
composition, a film project, in role drama or sculpture, the kids have had a
chance to share vocabulary, ideas and concepts which gives their reading fresh
meaning and purpose.
Clear
purpose
What's
the point of reading and writing anything if you don't know why you're doing
it? We aim to provide children with a clear purpose to all reading, and
especially writing tasks. Whether it's an invitation to the headteacher to
attend a class assembly, an email to an author or an article for a school
newspaper, our children know why the quality of their writing matters: because
there will be a real audience for their published work.
Professional
publishing
One
effective way of valuing children's work as well as providing a real incentive,
is to plan for a range of ways to publish their writing. Recent examples
include a whole school bookmaking project. Following a whole school Inset on
bookbinding techniques, every class published their own shared book; one
example being an anthology of short spooky stories composed by year 6. Their
stories were mounted on handmade paper, accompanied with each child's art work
(lino cut style prints on metallic paper) with a dramatic paper cut out front
cover. The effort the children put into their work was immense, and the results
were stunning as a result. The anthology has been enjoyed by parents and other
pupils and the children's pride in their work is clear to see.
Meaningful
planning
Where
possible, learning in English is linked with subjects
within the creative curriculum we follow: the international
primary curriculum
(IPC). Well in advance of teaching, teachers collaborate and
share their ideas for planning through a mind mapping process. Meaningful,
creative activities are planned for, ensuring that all staff members know
exactly what the children will be learning and why.
Focused
on strategies
The
teaching of reading is not easy. As children's fluency in reading increases,
it's hard to know what reading skills need to be taught, and when. We ensure
that specific reading strategies are modelled explicitly to the class; this
provides children with a holistic bank of skills to draw upon. This could
include scanning a text, making an inference, predicting or creating a mental
image. Our teachers use 'think aloud' statements to model to the children how
these skills are used, and how they can help them become better readers. These
strategies are then shared as a class, and then assessed in follow up guided
reading activities.
Inspirational
learning environment
Take
a trip to our school and you'll find classroom environments that inspire adults
and children alike. Not only is the children's work displayed creatively, but
there is a range of learning prompts to inspire and support all pupils. We want
to encourage our children to discover new texts, genres and authors, so our
reading areas are inviting, well resourced and highly organised. Pupils can
choose from an exciting array of reading material: newspapers, classic texts,
reference books as well as the children's own published stories are just some examples
of what book corners might offer.
Drama
to engage and inspire
The
use of drama is such a powerful tool. Taking the lead from our drama
specialist, all teaching staff use a range of techniques to promote the
exploration of characters, situations and historical events. This process
expands the pupils' imaginations, and provides them with the ideas they need to
give their writing that extra spark and flair.
Rigorous
teaching of spelling and phonics
In
the infants, phonics is streamed, so all children can benefit from tailored
teaching, making maximum progress as a result. All phonics and spelling
activities are fun, multi sensory and as physical possible, the aim being to
meet all learning styles in the class. In the juniors, we try to make homework
lists as personalised to the child as possible to ensure that the spelling
patterns stick in a meaningful way.
Grammar
concepts taught creatively
Grammar
cannot be taught as a stand alone activity. What's the point of that? Children
begin to understand grammar concepts, and start to apply them in their own
writing, when they start to read with a writer's mind. Punctuation rules and
techniques are drawn from shared texts; texts which the children have already
been immersed in and have a good understanding of. Exploring these, and
embedding them creatively is how the learning takes place.
Peer
and self assessment
What
child doesn't love marking somebody else's work? With a clear marking key,
success criteria and purpose in mind, children set about assessing either their
own, or a partner's piece of writing. Modelled through the teacher's own
formative marking, pupils know what the expectations are. They are well trained
in searching for successful examples of the learning intention, articulating
their responses to the work, checking the writing matches any targets and
giving constructive feedback. Seeing the children learn from each other in this
way is hugely positive; you know you've done your job well.