Curriculum

Literacy cont'd

These memories are not so funny now that my own girls are approaching the same age! I must say it’s, ‘do what I say not what I did’.  And, while I’m here, I must say to my own mum – whatever I gave you I am getting back in spades I assure you (after all I was an only child and I have three girls to live through adolescence with… gulp)!

Just like my own mother did back then, I try so very hard to be a ‘cool mum’ these days, but I still somehow manage to cause them ‘embarrassment’! You remember, we did it to our parents as well – getting dropped off where no one can see you, getting the ‘look’ if you say hello or smile at friends, and, god forbid you should ‘crack a joke’ or speak – I’ve been trained by my eldest that ‘parents should be seen and not heard’ (wasn’t it once that children should be seen and not heard?).

The antics (and mouth) of my eldest inspired me to ‘prank’ her the other night. When I picked her up from youth group, I locked her car door (I love my new car) so she could not get in! Her friends were in raptures when I soon realised that being a new car I had not yet learned how to reopen the door (especially in the dark). It was a funny sight for her friends to see my eldest clambering to get in the car as I tried every button I could to finally open the door. Car lights were flashing, wipers were going up and down and to my delight Kristy’s face was quite flushed with embarrassment (my dear, this is called ‘mum’s revenge’).

Some things never change! I used to have my ‘nose in a book’ all of those years ago and to my delight, so do my daughters. They are always reading and enjoying the latest series of imaginative books. Like me at the same age, however, they have never been particularly interested in Non-Fiction. This is fundamental! While the girls are doing well with Narratives and building up their descriptive vocabularies, they are too young to realise that ‘91 per cent’ of text in high school and beyond is Non-Fiction! Children need to be immersed in Non Fiction text and know how they work. They must know and understand the ‘literacy’ behind procedures, expositions (actually they know how to argue very well I must say), discussions, reports and so on.

Stephen Graham was brilliant on our pupil free day! He reviewed nine text types and went through two of them with us in detail. He provided excellent scaffolds (techniques to explicitly teach children) and reinforced the importance of non-fiction text. It is fundamental that children can argue, discuss, describe, critically analyse and explain. Reading a variety of text is essential. I challenge you all to ensure that some of the books on your child’s Premier’s Reading Challenge forms this year are Non-Fiction! Children need a range of text to read and there is no time like the present! Choose topics that your children are interested in and talk with your children about what they notice in these texts. Happy reading everyone!

Think! Act! Reflect

Leanne Winning

Literacy Improvement Coordinator

Blog with Leanne at http://lockleysnorthliteracyblog.edublogs.org and / or follow on Twitter@LNPSwinning to read previous articles and soon to be uploaded tips for parents.