Literacy at Ogilvie High School

We believe that the whole School community must be involved in creating an environment where literacy learning is highly valued. Literacy and learning are inextricably linked. Each subject area has its own distinctive literacy practices that students need to learn to achieve success.

English teachers have a special responsibility for teaching students to use and understand a defined range of texts and teaching the skills of speaking, listening, reading, viewing, writing and spelling.

In support of the six major emphases of the School’s across the curriculum literacy program Grade 7 and 8 English teachers will focus on the following practices in their classrooms.

1. Supporting students with structured opportunities to speak and listen to others in a variety of group situations.
   • providing structured opportunities for paired, small group and whole class speaking activities
   • providing opportunities for individual readings, interviews, panels, multi-voice speaking/discussions, presenting a point of view, debates, arguments, telling stories and drama activities
   • teaching students about the structures and features of spoken texts
   • teaching active listening skills

    

2. Supporting students to obtain information from subject-specific texts, including both print and electronic texts
   • highlighting the structure of particular English texts to clarify meaning and guide reading
   • teaching the strategies of skimming and scanning to locate key ideas in texts
   • teaching the strategy of reading closely and/or rereading to find specific information, including making brief notes and recording sources using the School’s agreed model
   • teaching how to use contents pages, chapter headings, and indexes to locate information in English texts
   • teaching students to read electronic texts
   • teaching how to use general and specific dictionaries, thesauruses and glossaries

    

3. The explicit teaching of the writing process, particularly drafting, editing and proofreading for spelling
   • providing opportunities to write in a wide variety of forms, particularly imaginative and creative forms for a range of purposes and audiences
   • teaching the elements of the writing process ie planning, drafting, editing, proofreading and publishing eg using the strategy of replace, delete and insert
   • teaching particular text structures and organisation eg introductions in expositions or orientations in narratives encouraging the word processing of texts, including on-screen drafting and editing
   • maintaining personalised spelling lists and teaching a multi-strategy approach to the learning of new words
   • testing spelling regularly

    

4. The explicit teaching of how to write subject-specific text types
   • teaching the structure of narratives ie orientation, complication and resolution eg short stories, scripts, fables, ballads, myths and legends
   • teaching the structures of recounts ie orientation, events and conclusion eg newspaper reports, diaries, autobiographical or biographical texts, letters and re-tellings
   • teaching the structure of discussions and/or expositions ie contention, argument and summary eg points of view about an issue, letters to the editor, reviews and arguments
   • testing students skills in crafting selected English text types through a common assessment program

    

5. The explicit teaching of subject specific vocabulary and terminology
   • teaching the terminology of grammar eg nouns, spelling eg syllables, tense eg future, syntax eg phrase, text structures eg paragraph and punctuation eg direct speech
   • teaching poetic terms and devices eg alliteration and metaphor
   • teaching prose terms and devices eg plot and theme
   • teaching the language of visual texts eg camera angles
   • teaching vocabulary eg synonyms and homophones
   • teaching the terminology associated with technologies eg e-mail

    

6. Making literacy learning more explicit for students within lessons and developing approaches to assist students to switch between different subjects and teachers
   • explaining the purpose of the task or unit to students
   • making links to prior knowledge and understandings
   • presenting literacy tasks in meaningful contexts
   • modelling and demonstrating the literacy tasks to be performed
   • providing positive and useful written and spoken feedback to students about their developing literacy skills
   • consistently highlighting the need to use Standard Australian English in formal writing across all subjects areas
   • consistently highlighting the need to use the writing process across all subject areas

 

	Ogilvie High School
	228 New Town Rd, NEW TOWN Tas. 7008.   Telephone: 03 6228 8800  Facsimile: 03 6228 6842.   Email: Ms J. Bennett, Principal Mr P. Becker, Head of English Text of this page by Mr S. Figg
	English pages maintained by Mrs R. Teirney. You are directed to a disclaimer and copyright notice governing the information provided.
	Last updated: 22 October 2001