Speaking & Listening
We know that spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing and this is reflected in our EYFS curriculum design and continues throughout KS1 and KS2. We continue to develop pupils’ confidence and competence in their speaking and listening skills.
Speaking and listening support Reading
Pupils will be encouraged to explain their understanding of what they read and ask questions to check understanding.
Speaking and listening support Writing
We know that vocabulary and grammar are best developed by the quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak.
Our children are encouraged to use their inner ‘writers voice’ to prepare their ideas clearly before they write.
Overarching aims of Speaking and Listening in our school
Use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas
Are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.
Pupils should be taught to
listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas
speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates
gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
select and use appropriate registers for effective communication.
Drama
Pupils are enabled to participate in drama, adopting, creating, sustaining and responding appropriately to others in role. These activities happen in the English teaching sequence during the immerse and analyse stages and feature as; hot seating, conscience alley, role on the wall, freeze frame and improvisation. Pupils are also given the opportunity to observe and respond to drama and theatre performances through enrichment.
Reading
At Fazakerley Primary School we know that mastering reading skills as early as possible is crucial and acts as a gateway to all other curriculum areas. Reading allows pupils to acquire knowledge including vocabulary acquisition. Research shows that it’s the encounters that children have with new vocabulary in reading that has the greatest impact on them gaining an understanding of the word and ability to use the word themselves in other contexts and subject areas. This allows the children to gain further knowledge in the future by building on what they already know. When children read widely and often, they encounter vocabulary they would rarely hear or use in everyday speech. We take advantage of opportunities for vocabulary development through reading when they naturally arise; adults show pupils how to understand the relationship between words and meaning. We aim to foster a love of literature through widespread reading for enjoyment. We encourage our pupils to read widely across fiction, non-fiction and poetry to develop knowledge of themselves and the world in which they live, to establish an appreciation and love of reading, and to gain knowledge across the curriculum.
We aim for our pupils to:
read easily, fluently and with good understanding
develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language
appreciate our rich and varied literary heritage
Writing
Similarly, to reading having 2 dimensions, writing is constructed and our teaching develops pupils’ competence in the following two dimensions:
Transcription - spelling and handwriting. We encourage effective transcription including spelling quickly and accurately whilst using fluent, legible and speedy handwriting.
Composition - articulating ideas and structuring them in speech and writing coherently to a reader. This requires clarity, awareness of the audience, purpose and context, and an increasingly wide knowledge of vocabulary and grammar. Planning, revising and editing is also a part of composition.
Our pupils are taught to write consciously using standard English:
write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences
We use the writing processes of:
Shared
Guided
Modelled
Independent
We know in order to master the skills of writing (transcription and composition) our pupils need to have this explicitly modelled to them.
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar (SPaG)
In addition to our Ready Steady Write curriculum, the children benefit from a discreet SPaG lesson.
This is the first English lesson at the start of each week aims to support the pre-learning prior to a new genre starting or to support the current learning within a genre being taught. For example, if the children are about to begin or are in the middle of ‘Instructions’ as a genre, the use of imperative verbs would be a focus during the SPaG lesson in order to support the identifying and using of them in the pupils’ reading and writing. The SPaG lesson concept would then be revisited through each relevant English lesson in the same week through the sentence accuracy activity in the Ready Steady Write lesson.
Poetry
Poetry is part of our reading for pleasure spine and the pupils write poetry as part of their incidental writes in Ready Steady Write but to enrich this offer further, each year group has a focus poem termly. This is a poem which is studied daily for a week. The poem is also sent home and pupils learn the poem off by heart.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF LEARNING A POEM BY HEART?
Achievement
Pupils who succeed in learning a poem by heart, however short, feel an incredible sense of achievement, especially if they also go on to perform it for others. We think it’s to do with a tangible sense of mastery: the child either gets to the end of their poem or they don’t, and they can measure for themselves how well they’ve done it.
Enjoyment
Children consistently tell us that learning a poem is fun. That can mean many things but includes the freedom to choose a poem for themselves, the difficulty of the challenge, the risk and the dare of performing their poem, and the immediate gratification of the respect of their friends and relatives when they take that risk.
Focus
We know that certain kinds of digital interaction encourage scattered modes of thinking. Learning a poem by heart requires the complete opposite in a sustained focus on just one thing; pupils tell us it helps with their concentration and we’re increasingly curious about the potential wellbeing benefits of stiller, calmer minds.
Independence
No-one can learn a poem by heart for you. You have to create your own relationship with the poem, discover what memory tactics work best for you, and keep going when it seems too difficult.
Language
The gains in reading fluency, vocabulary enrichment and the musicality of English.
Memory
Adults are regularly surprised by the facility children seem to have for learning by heart with varied reasons proposed such as less fear, the pliability of young brains, and more time to devote to it. There’s a general consensus that once you’ve learned one thing it’s easier to learn more things, a poem being a very good place to begin.
Oracy
Learning a poem is not the same as performing it but if one leads to the other, distinctive gains to oracy seem to be made. Performing a poem requires skills that can be difficult to develop otherwise including how to manage pace and timing to powerful effect; how to hold a silence; eye contact, body language and gesture.