How to improve literacy within the classroom
Advice and tips from Simon Birchall, Programme Manager of English
“The key way that students can improve their literacy is to engage in reading all the time, whether it’s a blog, an article, website or a book”.
Lead by ‘real time’ example
Show students in ‘real time’ how it’s done by writing responses to questions in front of students and by sharing your own creative work at poetry or creative writing to showcase excellent student writing.
Useful tips and advice:
Get students to read widely and to engage with different genres to build the sophistication of their vocabulary
This will show how professional writers use complicated sentence structures to add variety and complexity to their ideas
This will specifically support them with question 5 of the writing tasks in exams
Most importantly it teaches them how to plan and structure their ideas
Creating interest
It is also essential to have regular ‘literacy based events’ for World Book Day
Creative writing competitions, both ‘in house’ and for example ‘Foyles poetry prize’ are also useful
BBC Bitesize English is a good website with useful advice and revision tips for students