Why do you need The Literacy Engine?
The Literacy Engine - Integration and Implementation
Tutor Time Non-Fiction Reading Programme
Many secondary schools are seeing the benefits of integrating a programme of reading fiction into their Form Tutor Programme. The Literacy Engine aims to compliment this valuable intervention strategy by adding a programme of non-fiction texts which augment and add layers of background knowledge to what is studied across a secondary school.
By dedicating just one Tutor Time session to reading one text per week from The Literacy Engine, students would encounter over 24,000 rich academic words and 40 culturally significant topics each year. Integrate all 4 texts each week and that increases to almost 100,000 words and 160 topics!
Each text has been carefully designed to fit into three 5 minute chunks in delivery: 5 minutes predicting and preloading, 5 minutes reading and 5 minutes comprehending and summarising. In short, a perfect fit for a Tutor Time slot.
Embed Across The Curriculum
We have chosen topics for their topical significance, their cultural importance but also for their historical relevance. For example, we have included a biographical look at Jesse Owens in September to coincide with his birthday. You may decide that this would be a topic that fits into History or PE really well and therefore integrate the text into one of those lessons that week. Similarly when we take an extended look at what mortgages are you might want your Maths department to deliver that in their lessons.
By taking a session of extended reading and embedding it into other curriculum areas, we send a very powerful message to our students that literacy is a skill for life not just for English lessons.
Predict and Preload
In this phase we are aiming to do 2 things:
- Activate prior learning and begin the process of integrating new knowledge into existing schemas
- Arm students with knowledge of new and/or challenging Tier 3 vocabulary before they encounter them in the text so they are less likely to become disorientated by them and lose comprehension of the text itself.
This is also a great opportunity to start to make links between this potentially new vocabulary and existing vocabulary based on the graphemes and phonemes in each word.
Interactive Read Aloud
As with learning any new skill, it is important for novices to see (or hear) that skill being modelled by an expert. It is no different with reading.
Interactive Read Aloud puts the reading into the hands of the expert reader in the room: the teacher. Students get to hear new and/or challenging vocabulary pronounced properly first time by an expert, not stumbled over and unintentionally mispronounced by a novice.
By putting the expert in the driver’s seat it also allows them to augment the reading as they go, pausing to clarify meaning, expand on key points, check for understanding and, most importantly, read with expression.
Comprehend and Summarise
Each text comes with 5 basic comprehension questions to check how much students have understood from the text. This gives an opportunity for students to practise rereading sections, recalling information, and then discussing the text itself.
By summarising the text, students are actively engaging with the subject matter and vocabulary from memory. This process of recalling information is a crucial step in solidifying the new vocabulary and knowledge.