Academic Literacy Maria Howard Bower Park Academy - Havering Festival of Education March 2021 - Mondale Events
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Academic Literacy
Maria Howard
Bower Park Academy
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Overview of the session:
This session will cover:
• What is Academic Literacy?
• The research surrounding Academic Literacy
• Practical strategies that can be implemented in different subject
disciplines focused on: vocabulary instruction, approaching texts,
developing student’s writing.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021What is Academic Literacy?
Academic Literacy can be defined as the ability to:
• Understand a range of academic vocabulary in context.
• Understand relations between different parts of a text.
• Interpret different kinds of text type (genre), and show sensitivity for the meaning that they
convey, and the audience that they are aimed at;
• Make distinctions between essential and non-essential information, fact and opinion,
propositions and arguments etc.
• See sequence and order, do simple numerical estimations and computations that are relevant to
academic information, that allow comparisons to be made, and can be applied for the purposes
of an argument.
• Make meaning (e.g. of an academic text) beyond the level of the sentence
Weideman, Albert. 2014. Academic literacy: why is it important?
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Why is it important?
‘Young people who leave school without good literacy skills are held back at every stage of life.
Their outcomes are poorer on almost every measure, from health and wellbeing, to
employment and finance.’ - Education Endowment Foundation Guidance Report
1 in 11 children and young people said that they did not have a
book of their own at home, with the figure for disadvantaged
children rising to 1 in 8’ – National Literacy Trust
‘An attainment gap in literacy is likely to equate to an
attainment gap across the board with the ‘word rich’
getting richer and the ‘word poor’ becoming poorer’
– Stanovich 1986
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Why is it important?
We all need to work towards a shared goal of filling
our student’s bookshelves.
Literacy is not a quick win – it’s a long term
measure.
We need to see the benefit of literacy in our subject
areas.
We are all teachers of literacy!
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction
‘The limit of your language is the limit of your world’
By explicitly teaching vocabulary, we remove the threat of reading and empower
students to use ambitious, academic vocabulary in their own writing.
We need to foster academic vocabulary in our classroom and regularly model how to
use words accurately in different contexts.
Before introducing a new topic to our students we need to be able to pre-empt the
words that they will encounter and struggle with.
‘Students can reach a higher level of understanding of the text if they already know the
meaning of these challenging words. So key words should be introduced at the start of
lessons’ – Reading Reconsidered
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies
Stave One – A Christmas Carol
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial
was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it:
and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley
was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about
a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of
ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat,
emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies
Stave One – A Christmas Carol
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial
was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it:
and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley
was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about
a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of
ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat,
emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies
Clergyman A person with a religious duty, especially in Christianity
‘Change Short for ‘Exchange’ - the Royal Exchange, a place for business dealings and trading money.
Ironmongery Something made of metal
Unhallowed Not blessed; Unholy
Unhallowed
Prefix ‘Un’ = not Root word ‘Hallowed’ = holy, sacred.
Examples: unkind, unfortunate, Examples: Halloween, Harry Potter and the Deathly
unstable Hallows, Halo
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies
Read, Re-read and Read Again (Stuart Pryke)
Stave One – A Christmas Carol
Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the
clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change,
for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Mind! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have
been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our
ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country's done for. You will therefore permit
me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.
Reread the text after teaching the definitions but replace the words with the definitions:
But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unholy hands shall not disturb
it, or the Country's done for.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Strategies
Academic Literacy can be defined as the ability to:
• Understand a range of academic vocabulary in context.
The process by which green plants - Biochemical process
and certain other organisms - Can only be carried out by
Photosynthesis transform light energy into chemical
energy.
living things.
Photosynthesis
Setting, - Green plants: grass, - Animals
Light with Putting or placing sunflowers, cacti - Humans
- Algae
= Putting together with light.
Synthesis
Photograph
Synopsis
Havering Festival of Education March 2021What is it like? What is it? What is it not like?
Word:
Examples
From the real world: From the text: From the text:
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Disciplinary Literacy
Maths
Science
‘I use the knowledge organisers for correct mathematical ‘Vocabulary in science in difficult. Only 6 marks out 360 is awarded for
terminology and definitions. I ensure that students SPAG but to be able to do the papers (even foundation) students have the
articulate their answers well verbally when explaining – I do essentially understand a whole new language.’
not accept poorly worded answers.’
‘When teaching, I regularly emphasise the appropriate key ‘I find that most of my modelling comes from me constantly saying the
words for that lesson and use them in the correct context.’ keywords and rephrasing them to help them understand what they mean,
then using the keyword in different context.’
Religious Education History & Geography
‘I make sure to define any new vocabulary at the ‘Regular spelling tests work really well for new key words or
start of a lesson and then use the word and subject terms.’
definition interchangeably throughout the lesson to ‘Providing a model answer with because, but, so sentence
help embed students’ understanding.’ starters included.’
Physical Education
Music ‘I normally ensure any new vocabulary is in bold on a
‘I normally act out new words and use my voice to handout I might provide in a lesson. I would then use
help students understand the definitions for example: the new vocabulary throughout the lesson.’
Dynamics can either be LOUD or quiet, tempo is
either quickly or slowly.’ Havering Festival of Education March 2021Reading Strategies
Academic Literacy can be defined as the ability to:
• Make meaning (e.g. of an academic text) beyond the level of the sentence
‘Good readers are meaning makers, not passive recipients’
- Quigley Closing The Reading Gap
Before Reading During Reading After Reading
Ask questions to monitor Seek coherence and Summarise
Ask questions about the understanding
text/ topic. Revisit and revise predictions
Make connections and
Activate prior knowledge inferences Generate further questions
about the text to further
Update and make new understanding
Make predictions predictions
Evaluate the reading.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Reading Strategies
‘Good readers are meaning makers, not passive recipients’
- Quigley Closing The Reading Gap
Pre-reading:
• Agree or disagree statements.
• Using other texts to preface a harder text: similar theme, famous figure,
previous texts you have studied, films, games.
• Brain dump: Write down everything you already know and remember about
________.
• Image from source/article to make predictions.
• Vocabulary introduced before reading.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Reading Strategies
‘Good readers are meaning makers, not passive recipients’
- Quigley Closing The Reading Gap
During Reading:
• Expert modelling reading.
Dawn Cox quoted in Mortimore’s disciplinary says ‘too much teacher talk
referred to as a trademark of bad teaching’. She refers to the voice as ‘the best
differentiation tool they have.’
• Targeted questions linked back to student’s predictions and vocabulary
already introduced.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Reading Strategies
‘Good readers are meaning makers, not passive recipients’
- Quigley Closing The Reading Gap
After Reading:
• Read, re-read and read again.
• Make connections: ‘Children are more likely to remember facts when woven
into narratives’ (Mortimore: Disciplinary Literacy)
How is this similar/different to what we read last lesson? Last term?
• Summarise: What have you read? What happened in chapter two?
What are the key words in the question?
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Writing Strategies
‘Writing is one of the most demanding activities that our brains have to manage’ –
Kellogg 2008
• Effective use of exemplars
• Scaffolding
• Slow writing!
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Writing Strategies
‘The exemplars we provide need to be carefully selected, particularly those with weaker literacy skills’
‘It is not that we cannot give a maximum mark essay to a student with weaker literacy skills; it is simply
implying that this essay must be familiar in terms of it’s content, vocabulary, phraseology and structure’
– Mortimore
• How could you use models in your subject?
- Exam board mark schemes
- Create a bank of models in your department
- Write an exam answer as a department to develop subject
knowledge
- Live modelling in lesson, demonstrating the stages of writing.
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Writing Strategies
‘Young people must have the opportunity to experience success – to feel themselves writing in a way
that emulates the very best as often as possible, the support must only be reduced when they are
confident and able to do so’
‘It is not so much a case of removing scaffolding, rather increasing the level of choice and complexity
within it’
• Sentence starters: What do students need to be given to write successfully and
build their confidence?
• ‘How do I start?’
Teach planning skills to remove the threat of filling an empty page.
• Using scaffolding to challenge: Big questions for students to think about, hot
or not list. Havering Festival of Education March 2021Writing Strategies
‘Motivation is also particularly important for success in writing. Students’ attitudes and self-perception
matter in all aspects of literacy, but appear to have a particularly strong effect on writing.’ EEF Guidance
Report
Slow Writing:
- Model each stage of a paragraph, essay, exam answer, creative writing.
- Allow students time to monitor and review their writing.
- Share successes
- Slow writing gradually builds students’ stamina to write for long periods of
time. Havering Festival of Education March 2021Recap of Strategies
Vocabulary:
• Deconstructing words: root words, etymology, prefix, suffix.
• Frayer model
• Read, re-read, read again
• Hot or not list
Reading:
• Prereading: predictions, agree/disagree statements, background knowledge
• During Reading: expert modelling
• After Reading: summarise, make connections, reassess predictions
Writing:
• Exemplar Models
• Scaffolding
• Slow writing
Havering Festival of Education March 2021Takeaways
‘The limit of your language is the limit of your world’
• A lesson spent reading is not a lesson wasted!
• We must prepare our students to able to write like scholars
in our subjects. Our passion and energy will inspire students
to take our subjects further than GCSE and A Level – we
must provide students with the tools to do this.
• Literacy is not a quick win, it is a long term measure: How
can we plan our curriculum around literacy?
• How can we fill our student’s bookshelves so that they can
thrive in conservations, write like scholars and read critically?
mhoward@elatschools.co.uk Havering Festival of Education March 2021Reading
EEF Literacy Guidance
Report:
EEF_KS3_KS4_LITERACY
_GUIDANCE.pdf
(educationendowmentf
oundation.org.uk)
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