Why literacy is the lifeblood of WA
Literacy is fundamental to education
BY MARINA ANGADI, WA
Let us imagine proudly saying goodbye to our students at the end of the school year. As we send them off, we are confident of having prepared them well for the GCSE syllabus and for the next stage of their life. Unfortunately, we have forgotten that our school is on the moon and we haven’t given them oxygen masks. Afterwards, at the inquest, we say, “We taught them everything on our specification. Supplying them with equipment wasn’t our job!” That’s like sending our students out without literacy skills. Literacy is like oxygen: no matter how well we prepare students otherwise, they won’t survive without it. It is too important a task to leave just to one department. Literacy affects us all. Which of us does not teach through the medium of words? We may not always realise it but when we explain new material to our students, we are also extending their vocabulary. Too many of our students come to us with low levels of literacy. They may only half understand what we say. They listen, they obey our instructions but without the ability to manage vocabulary for themselves, their understanding is blurred. It is as though they hear it all through a barrier of white noise. Even with non-verbal problemsolving, they need language skills to apply their knowledge in different contexts. They need to be aware of the verbal connections between subjects to turn
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compartmentalised understanding.
learning
into
That is why we are embedding Explicit Vocabulary Teaching (EVT) across our curriculum. EVT makes the identification of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words into part of the experience in every lesson. Whatever the subject, whatever the MTP, our staff have selected a number of Tier 2 and Tier 3 words, enough to have a ‘word of the week’ in every subject. Tier 2 and Tier 3 words are not subject specific but have a level of difficulty that takes them out of the simple Tier 1 category. For example, in English this week our word for Year 7 was ‘objectify’. In PE it was ‘validity’. Both were words that students would need in that part of the MTP but were also ones that could come up in any environment. And we hope they will. We share our chosen Tier 2 and Tier 3 words with our colleagues, so that they can bring them into their own teaching whenever appropriate. When our students hear them, they recognise them and they start bringing them into their own daily vocabulary. They use them like trophies, like badges of accomplishment. EVT empowers us as teachers too. It gets us talking to one another and learning each other’s verbal priorities. EVT gets oxygenated blood flowing throughout the whole school. Pride in their progress is the oxygen that empowers our students to move forward.
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