Share this page!

Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Twitter logo
Jan 30 • 26 tweets • 11 min read
1/ We have done enormous amounts of work on Literacy this year at @TrinityAcademyC and we are starting to see some very encouraging signs that our approach is working. Sharing everything here in the spirit of collaboration and general good cheer... 🧵🧵🧵
2/ Our approach broadly falls into two areas - curricular and extra-curricular reading.

Curricular Reading:

We are currently trialling the use of booklets as a way to immerse students in as much rich text as possible across the curriculum.
3/ Teachers read to students from high quality academic texts in every subject. Rich texts form a strong basis for instruction, discussion and exploration. On average, students in Y7 (the trial year) are reading 2000 words per day. That's over 400,000 words in an academic year.
4/ The Westbrook et al (2018) study 'Just Reading' influenced our push on reading challenging texts at pace. We are seeing significant progress with this strategy after just four months. learn.teachfirst.org.uk/assets/coursew…
5/ Texts are chosen carefully for vocabulary, structure and disciplinary value. Some are taken from reputable sources such as the British Library online or academics in the field, but some are written specifically for that topic by subject teachers - whatever is most appropriate.
6/ Booklets aren't rigid guidebooks - they are tools which enable a teacher to be responsive and deliver the curriculum in a way which will be most suitable for the young people in front of them.

We use visualisers to model reading and annotation skills.
7/ In addition to this, we have a bespoke reading program in English for one hour per week with KS3 - blog here explaining it...
funkypedagogy.com/a-literacy-pos…
8/ Aaaand here is an example of one from my incredibly talented colleague, Georgia Turner Beech (not on Twitter, but the best people usually aren't 😉) shared with her permission. This one is thematically linked to our Y8 text 'Long Way Down.' funkypedagogy.com/wp-content/upl…
9/ Our 'Read Like A...' posters to support subject-specific reading skills have done the rounds...
10/ Lots of people have asked, so here is a link to the editable templates on Canva - fill your boots... (I have struggled for time to get some of the last few subjects done - if they aren't in this folder, they don't exist yet but they will one day...)
canva.com/design/DAE21CE…
11/ Extra-Curricular Reading
My colleague runs inspiring programs for KS3 - Odyssey (Y7) and Graduation (Y8) encourage students to try new things and strive for success. One strand in each of these programs is the reading challenges. 5 books per year is the minimum expectation.
12/ You can see the texts on the posters below - these are all over school. We had great advice from @read_holmfirth to collate these lists.

Feel free to have the template on Canva: canva.com/design/DAE26SA…
13/ During our transition Summer School, we read some of these books with students and then gifted each student with a book and a postcard so that they could tell us how they'd found it over their holiday. We got some brilliant responses from students...
14/ The book gifting continued at Christmas this year with 210 copies of Windrush Child by @BZephaniah
15/ We created a Cultural Advent Calendar. I'm sharing here with some QR codes removed because they contained videos of our school community. Some of them were readings of short stories (The Little Matchgirl, The Winter Oak etc etc)...
canva.com/design/DAE21Kl…
16/ Note on the advent calendar - we are a CofE school, so tying reading to our wider school ethos, but also showing that art of all kinds (music, dance, literature etc) can broaden our understanding of the world, is important.
17/ Students track their reading in simple A5 reading journals. As of January 2022, our students have collectively read 2316 books and counting.

funkypedagogy.com/wp-content/upl…
18/ The reading program is working so well that many students have completed Odyssey and Graduation already. The next challenge is to read the whole list. Students get these bookmarks to chart their progress! (Template below)
canva.com/design/DAE21BR…
19/ We have a range of interventions and support in place to help all students to read - everything from English teacher fun initiatives to small group library sessions. For students with significant reading barriers, we have the 1-1 @ThinkReadHQ program - it is transformational.
20/ Our whole school T&L strategy places literacy front and centre, too. Here's our vocabulary instruction method (you should DEFINITELY follow our T&L account @TACTandL...)
21/ Our approach to literacy feedback is about putting the onus on students to check their work first, and allows teachers to flex to the needs of individuals...
canva.com/design/DAE21H6…
21/ And we support staff to be the best they can be with our CPD program, including our fortnightly literacy surgery...
22/ And literacy bookmarks (editable template below)


canva.com/design/DAE26aK…
23/ Now, obviously, effective T&L isn't just about pretty things. This isn't working because of the resources - it's working because the staff are absolute legends. They believe our young people are capable of anything, AND they have the expertise to deliver in the classroom.
24/ ...the pretty things aren't all fluff though - the first bite is with the eye and all that.
25/ Must credit the incredible @MissGillinder - phenomenal to work with - she makes me think hard and always finds a way to take a good idea to the next level. We are always on the same page 😁

And @TAC_English are absolute literacy heroes

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Jennifer Webb

Jennifer Webb Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @FunkyPedagogy

Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Jan 29
I haven’t had a push on this for a while. With the help of lots of you lovely English teachers and some fancy website plug-ins, I’ve collated a list of diverse texts for KS3.

CAN YOU HELP make this resource even better? Keep reading thread 🧵🧵🧵

funkypedagogy.com/the-reading-li…
/2
If you’ve read something great recently which you think would work for KS3, please take a moment to fill in the simple form on my website, then let me do the rest!

We need EVERYTHING:
- prose, poetry, drama
- fiction, non-fiction
- diverse voices & perspectives
/3
I’d also love to have some texts in translation, transcriptions of performance pieces, graphic novels - basically anything which is high quality and will engage young people, broaden experiences and ideas.
Read 4 tweets
Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Nov 16, 2021
Mini-white-boards in the Secondary English classroom: a thread 🧵

I use them a LOT. Mostly, they make for really easy and effective AFL.

Note - it is an expectation at our school that students have their own white board pen. MWBs are provided in each classroom.
👇👇👇
1. Regular retrieval tasks.

Questions on the board, students write answers on MWBs and after a few minutes I say “boards up in 3, 2, 1”

I get an instant understanding of who knows the content, who doesn’t, who is engaging and who is not. No opt-out 👌
2. Vocabulary examples and non-examples. When teaching a new piece of vocabulary, I show a series of examples of the word used in different contexts. Students put a ✅ on one side of their MWB and a ❌ on the other, then show me which sentences are accurate.
Read 9 tweets
Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Oct 9, 2021
Whole Class Feedback 🧵

1/ I love WCF. Not just because it has transformed my work balance (traditional book marking in English is a different class of madness).
I love it because it facilitates greater understanding of where my students are, which makes me a better teacher.
2/ My process is: READ all work; make notes of common errors as I go; make notes of individual student need which isn’t generic; make notes of things I clearly haven’t taught very well first time around…
3/ The 🔑 is, these observations do not just fuel one-off DIRT tasks or similar. They fundamentally change my planning, questioning and the sequence of learning. What the STUDENTS see is a WCF sheet with tips, reminders, models etc. But what lays beneath is far more important.
Read 8 tweets
Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Feb 21, 2021
Priorities and short cuts - a thread:
People regularly ask how I ‘do it’ because I give off the impression that I do a lot. I don’t. I’m just good at prioritising and have learned some good habits.
My priorities are: my kids, my marriage, my work. That means that, any task which is NOT about one of those three things is something I have stopped doing. I have found ways to streamline and outsource, but also to work smarter.
Here are my current short cuts to productivity:
1. Outsourced lots of household things (investing in a cleaner, for example, is the best thing we ever did). This gives me mental space and reduces stress... worth the money - am happy to forego other luxuries for this.
Read 13 tweets
Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Jul 29, 2020
*NQTs* take care of your health!

1/ Schools are veritable Petri dishes. You WILL get a stinking cold at some point in the first term - it’s standard. You DO NOT, however, have to lose your voice. This will only happen if you don’t take care of yourself...
2/ You don’t need to shout to be heard. The only time you need to shout is if you need to get students’ attention quickly because something is dangerous. If you’re shouting because of poor behaviour, you’ve already lost the battle...
3/ I always find it much more effective to give a proper telling-off in a quiet, measured voice, speaking quite slowly. It makes it easier for me to manage my emotions, and the student(s) can focus on the words, not the anger.
Read 13 tweets
Jennifer Webb Profile picture
Aug 14, 2019
Lots of nervous NQTs out there... for what it’s worth this is my advice for your first week:

1. Keep lessons SIMPLE! You won’t get through everything you’ve planned, so keep it straightforward and save fancy pants stuff with bells on for when you are settled and know your groups
2. Find out IMMEDIATELY:
- how to photocopy
- where the guillotine is kept
- how tea/coffee works
- how to get in and out of the building at different times of the day
3. Get organised. Plan what you will do in each PPA slot and for the time you are at work before and after school. Stick to it as far as possible, but don’t beat yourself up if you struggle. Ask for help EARLY if you feel your workload is too high.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @FunkyPedagogy has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @FunkyPedagogy!

Read all threads by @FunkyPedagogy

:(