Literacy Leadership Tools (Years 1 to 8)

Back to Literacy Leadership Programme (Years 1 to 8)

The Literacy Vision Statement

To raise achievement and close any identified gaps in literacy throughout our school.

Goal 1

We will raise the oral language capacity of all students in our school.

Time frame
February to December

This goal has three foci on context for oral language development.

Focus 1: Questioning, discussing, and reasoning in context across the curriculum, February to May.

Focus 2: Performance in context across the curriculum, June to September.

Focus 3: Social courtesies in context across the curriculum, October to December.

Action points

All staff will discuss the requirements of being able to speak and listen well in our society.
Staff will describe and define what "speaking effectively" sounds like and what "listening effectively" involves.
Staff will explore the contexts in which speaking and listening effectively might happen and relate them to the diverse cultures we have in our school.

Focus 1, which will correspond with developing school-wide classroom and school values, attitudes, and skills at the beginning of the year:

All staff will brainstorm oral language contexts for questioning, discussing, and reasoning across the curriculum.
All staff will work collaboratively on accompanying criteria for questioning, discussing, and reasoning skills in contexts that will include student-student interactions, teacher-student interactions, student-visitor interactions, questioning techniques, giving an opinion, disagreeing and agreeing politely, resolving conflicts in positive ways, sharing and helping others, and listening critically and effectively.
An assessment tool will be created from the criteria. The tool will also state the range of contexts for questioning, discussing, and reasoning.
Teachers will assess each student by using the tool to assess questioning, discussing, and reasoning, noting the context and the criteria used.
Data will be collected across the school, strengths and needs will be identified, and targets will be set for each child to attain by the end of the time frame.
Teachers' expertise in the teaching of oral language will be developed through professional development courses, in-class support by colleagues, and drawing on outside expertise.
A teacher-mentoring system will be set up within the school, using those teachers and outside personnel who display expertise in developing speaking and listening in their classrooms, as the mentors.
Resourcing will be set aside to assist in reaching the goal; for example, one-to-one and small-group teaching for students with specific needs will be budgeted for.
Teaching and learning materials that can assist teachers to reach the goal will be explored. For example, all teachers will know the English in the New Zealand Curriculum requirements for listening and speaking for the levels appropriate to our school and the oral language section of the Ministry of Education publication Exploring Language and will be familiar with current research articles on oral language, such as the NEMP reports on speaking (1996) and listening (1998) by Flockton and Crooks; and other resources to assist them in their teaching programmes, including videos of people, particularly children, using effective oral language skills in real contexts.
This school literacy goal will be reflected in newsletters to parents informing them of this focus and asking them to help develop specifically stated oral language skills in their children at home; certificates for children who have improved in their oral language; and an open day, to be held each term, where oral language is the focus across the curriculum.
Visits will be arranged from people involved in occupations where high levels of listening and speaking are required.
A videotape will be made of students in speaking and listening roles across a range of contexts, ages, and cultures and will be played in the school foyer.
Ongoing appraisal of how classroom programmes are focusing on the goal will be undertaken.
Ongoing assessment of oral language will be undertaken across classrooms, with each teacher identifying the individual strengths and needs of their students.
Oral language strengths and needs across the school community will be collated, identified as trends, and monitored.

Focus 2, which will correspond with visiting performances and lead to a school performance:

All staff will brainstorm contexts for performance across the curriculum.
All staff will work collaboratively on developing criteria for performance skills in contexts that will include recounting an event, retelling a story, play reading, reciting poetry, reading to an audience, debating, speech making, ad-libbing, and interviewing. They will also develop criteria for the speaking and listening skills needed for each performance skill.
An assessment tool will be created from the criteria. The tool will also state the range of contexts for performance. These criteria and contexts will be added to the Focus 1 assessment tool, allowing development to continue in both areas.
Teachers will assess each child, using this tool to assess performance and noting the context and the criteria used.
Data will be collected across the school, strengths and needs will be identified, and targets will be set for each child to attain by the end of the time frame.
Tasks will be set, in context and across the curriculum, that offer opportunities for reaching these targets.

Focus 3, which will correspond with a school-wide emphasis on using purposeful contexts to teach and learn about responding effectively and confidently, in terms of social courtesies, to both the demands of the classroom and the wider environment:

All staff will brainstorm contexts for social courtesies across the curriculum.
All staff will work collaboratively on developing criteria for social courtesies skills in contexts that will include answering a telephone, taking a message, delivering a message, seeking permission, greeting a visitor or friend, making an apology, borrowing or returning an item, interrupting politely, disagreeing politely, and so on.
An assessment tool will be created from these criteria. The tool will also state the range of contexts for social courtesies. These criteria and contexts will be added to the Focus 1 and 2 assessment tools, allowing development to continue in all areas.
Teachers will assess each child by using this tool to assess social courtesies, noting the context and the criteria used.
Data will be collected across the school and discussed, and targets will be set for each child to attain by the end of the time frame.
Tasks will be set, in context and across the curriculum, that offer opportunities for reaching these targets.

Evaluation and reflection

Are teachers and children increasingly aware that the social and cultural group that children belong to has a significant effect on the way they communicate?
Are our students communicating effectively and displaying confidence in the situations focused on in this goal?
Are our teachers confident in their teaching and assessing of oral language?
Has the goal been reached? How do we know?
Has the process we devised for this goal worked?
Do we need more time? (Do particular focus areas need more time allocated to them?)
Do we need to explore other contexts for oral language development?
Are we ready to set exemplars of expected levels of oral language development throughout the school?

Goal 2

We will raise all students' writing achievement across a wide range of text types and across the curriculum.

Time frame
February to December

Action points

All staff, using writing examples from throughout the school, will identify and select exemplars of students' writing that represent the writing stages of development in this school (eight to twelve exemplars in all).
All staff will work collaboratively to write indicators that describe the writing behaviours exhibited in each exemplar.
Teachers will take unassisted samples of writing from each student in their class and identify each writer's stage, strengths, and needs, using the writing indicators and exemplars developed above.
Teachers will identify the general strengths and needs of their class, express them as trends, and identify programme requirements to address them.
Teachers' expertise in the teaching of writing will be developed through professional development courses, in-class support by colleagues, and drawing on outside expertise.
A teacher-mentoring system will be set up within the school, using, as the mentors, those teachers and outside personnel who display expertise in the writing process in their classroom teaching.
Resourcing will be set aside to assist in reaching the goal; for example, one-to-one and small-group teaching for students with specific needs within a classroom setting will be budgeted for.
Teaching and learning materials that can assist us to reach the goal will be explored. For example, all teachers will know of the relevant Ministry of Education learning materials; current research articles with discussions on writing (such as the NEMP survey on writing [1999] by Flockton and Crooks); and other materials that reflect exemplary models of language of different types (such as library books, articles, and so on) that will assist them in their teaching programmes.
The school focus on writing will be reflected in school newsletters to parents, for example, by including samples of children's writing.
A monthly school newspaper will reflect the writing focus.
The school foyer and classroom foyers will reflect the writing focus.
Author visits will be arranged, for example, by local writers, newspaper writers, and editors.
Assessment in classrooms will be ongoing. A randomly selected, thirty-percent cohort of unassisted samples of writing from each classroom will be analysed and commented on every six weeks.
Whole-school assessment will take place in February, July, and November.
There will be ongoing appraisal of classroom programmes to assist in reaching the goal.

Evaluation and reflection

Has the standard of writing in the school improved?
Has the standard of writing of those students identified as having specific needs improved?
Has the goal been reached? If not, how far are we towards reaching our goal?
Has the process we devised worked?
Do we need more time? If so, how much extra time do we need?
What modifications or additions do we need to make to our action points?
How do the students feel about their writing?
How do the teachers feel about their teaching of writing?
Where to now?

The Literacy Vision Tool

The Literacy Vision Tool details the literacy vision statement, goal(s) and time frames, action points, evaluation and reflection.

The Literacy Vision Tool - Download RTF file. The instructions for downloading this format will open in a separate window. Closing the window will return you to this page.

The Literacy Review Tool

The Literacy Review Tool - PDF file. If this list doesn't work you will need to download and install Adobe's Free Acrobat Reader software.

The School Action Plan

The School Action Plan - Download RTF file. The instructions for downloading this format will open in a separate window. Closing the window will return you to this page.

Using the School Action Plan (file includes 'Using the Classroom Initiative Journal) - Download RTF file.

The Classroom Initiative Journal

The Classroom Initiative Journal - Download PDF file.

Using the Classroom Initiative Journal (file includes 'Using the School Action Plan) - Download RTF file.

Literacy Action Plan

Literacy Action Plan - Download the PDF
An example of a Literacy Action Plan - Download the PDF

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