Literacy

Whole school marking policy

Nurturing a love for reading…

World Book Day:  We participate in the annual celebration to promote our love of reading. Staff and students participate in literacy focused activities through the school such as reading and writing competitions, literacy quizzes and sharing our favourite stories with one another. Activities are shared and are planned for each separate Key Stage. The day is celebrated whole-school and our World Book Day Book Throw Video marks our celebrating of reading our favourite books.

Masked Reader

As part of our whole-school commitment to Literacy, our staff participate in our popular Masked Reader quizzes. Students have to guess the identity of the staff member, who give clues on their favourite books and reading habits!

WoW Words:

As part of our commitment to developing students’ vocabulary and literacy across all subjects, we are continuing with our ‘Word of the Week’ which students will be introduced to each week during registration time. The Word of the Week is displayed across the school, website and the English department Instagram page (@boldonschool_english) and each registration group is asked to complete a Word of the Week vocabulary task, exploring the definition, synonyms, antonyms, use of and history of the word. To start the new term in September, we are exploring prefixes and the words that can be formed with each example. Every term, we will focus on a different aspect of literacy to securely close all gaps created as a result of lockdown. We encourage students to use the word in all subjects at any given written or verbal opportunity. When achieved, this will be rewarded.

Accelerated Reader:

Accelerated Reader is the one of most effective literacy interventions we have in place. It enables students to access the curriculum in all areas of school life. Accelerated Reader is an exciting programme:

A student reads a book – takes an online quiz – gets immediate feedback.

Students respond to regular feedback and are motivated to make progress with their reading skills.

Students develop reading skills most effectively when they read appropriately challenging books – difficult enough to keep them reading but not so difficult that they become frustrated. Regular Star Reading assessments determine each student’s current reading level.

Students become more enthused and the standard of reading increases substantially in terms of difficulty level and they read deeper and longer texts – all of which we see as evidence of students improving their reading habits.

The Accelerated Reader virtual bookshelf tracks all books that have been read and understood by a student. This enables staff to understand their reading scores and appropriate plan next steps.

LEXIA Power-up

Lexia Powerup is a highly personalised, computer-based literacy instruction, specifically designed to support students to become more proficient readers and confident learners.  It blends online student driven learning with offline teacher delivered lessons and activities. It can be accessed both at school and at home.

Chosen students complete an assessment which automatically places them at the appropriate starting point on the programme of their personalised learning pathway. They then work independently, at their own pace, to develop critical reading and language skills.

The programme tracks student progress, effectively identifying any skill areas in which a student requires extra support. Lexia provides extra online practice through scaffolding and explicit instruction. By continually adapting to the individual progress of each student, Lexia can target the specific needs of individuals. Extra support and practice are also provided through paper-based skill builders, which allow students to practice their newly acquired skills, and through individual lessons when more direct instruction is required.

Students are supported to work independently and can decide which skills to work on, allowing them to be self-directed in their learning. A personalised dashboard enables students to view their progress and encourages students to take ownership of their learning by setting and managing goals.

As students work through online activities, data is collected through an assessment tool and can be viewed online by teachers; this identifies the skill areas in which a student is currently working and the skills with which they need further guidance.

Literacy Interventions

Using whole-school data to identify a need, weekly personalised literacy interventions are delivered to students targeting vocabulary, grammar and comprehension skills.

Short comprehension tasks to develop core understanding of texts

Accelerated Reading Intervention – students who are identified as being below their expected progress in the programme are highlighted as needing 1:1 support; this is delivered by our HLTA who target the specific reading skill that requirements remediation.

MyOn:

MyOn is a digital library that gives students access to over 7,000  books. Personalised to suit each student’s interests and ability; it gives students a wider range of literature to enjoy. Its unique features include: audio, dictionary, annotation and automatic link up to Accelerated Reader. These tools increase student engagement and promote personal achievement  to improve comprehension skills through a wide range of texts.