Our first TeachMeet CPD was dedicated to literacy. Many thanks to all staff who shared an idea.
Jess – spellings with tutor groups : students who struggle with learning spellings could learn 5 instead of 10 / challenge pupils to pick 2 words out of the list and use them in a sentence. Jess also shared how she has used a spreadsheet to record her tutees’ scores and how this has helped her to create some competition within her form group. Template Spelling Results with class average and pupil weekly average
Becky – literacy starters : which one is the odd one out? (have multiple answers to promote discussion) / boggle / sort words into categories Quick literacy starters
Chris – 4 corners : 4 words on the board, one in each corner. Students make a sentence with it. For example in maths,
printed prompts for 2 stars and a wish to ensure pupils give better feedback to their peers & literacy mats to reinforce subject specific vocabulary Music Key Words Final
Deb – 7 Monkeys example
definitions:
- Pupils come up with their own definitions of key words
- Compare with another pupils
- Come up with a definitive definition
- Be able to justify why their definition is the best one within a group
“think outside the box”:
- Read back through work/passage/information
- Link to an analogy/real life context/draw a picture or sequence of pictures to represent
- Explain their drawings to partner/class/group depending on activity.
Ana – scaffolding writing: 1 / mind map key vocabulary (for example in French opinions / connectives / quantifiers) 2/ give pupils more vocab to add to their mind map 3/ always use the mind map as a tool box to improve quality of writing & speaking. 4/ write in a triangle as a way as building up a quality answer. 5/ when pupils have used words from their mind map enough times, they can highlight them on their mind map in order to show that they are confident with them. 6/ they can then focus on new vocabulary.
Merun – literacy games COUNTDOWN UNO card game present tense irregular verbs
Use http://www.teachit.co.uk (under the “whizzy things” tab) and http://www.classtools.net for more literacy games and templates.
– definitions to match up with words as a way of expanding pupils’ range of vocabulary Hay que estudiar sobre los tiempos pasados y sobre las guerras y las personas famosas de antes subject names
Rute – using a template to encourage KS5 students to take better notes during lessons
Claire – “fun fan” to practise accuracy in spellings Fun Fan hola vocab cabin crew dialogue
– using a checklist to ensure students produce complex and sophisticated pieces of writing checklist write an answer likes and dislikes
– using animations on Word to focus pupils’ attention to particular aspects of literacy Blinking background and Las Vegas lights
– literacy plasters to save time correcting some of the most common mistakes! French literacy plastersFrench literacy plasters (2) French literacy plasters (3) literacy plasters 1 literacy plasters 2
Thanks for a great session. Please let us know if you have tried any of the ideas shared after the TeachMeet.
Teaching & Learning Blog 