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Lea Village Infant School
Curriculum |
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Literacy
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The purpose of teaching English is to
help children become literate - that is, to read, write and speak
fluently and with confidence.
Speaking and Listening
As children progress from infants to top juniors, they will go from
talking to each other while they are playing (which, of course, also
involves listening), through speaking to the whole class (in
activities such as News Time), to holding discussions and debates.
By the time they leave Junior School, they should be able to put
forward a point of view, listen to other people's arguments and know
how to disagree logically and politely. They should understand the
difference between an opinion and a fact, and they should know that
there are different ways of speaking, and that some of these are
more appropriate than others in certain situations.
Reading
Children will progress from "pre- reading activities" - learning
that writing has meaning, that it goes across the page from left to
right, talking about pictures and learning to associate text with
them and so on - to be able to sound out words (and recognise some
on sight) for themselves. Later, they'll learn to read silently, and
to understand more complex texts; they'll learn to read aloud (and
in an interesting way!); and they'll learn to use and enjoy a
variety of reading materials including fiction, non-fiction,
magazines and newspapers. Discussing what they are reading is an
important part of all of this. Reading is one of the most important
areas parents can help with. It's also one of the easiest and most
fun. Click here to get some ideas how you can help both in school
and out of it.
Writing
There are several aspects to the teaching of writing. One - perhaps
the most important, and yet in some ways the easiest to overlook -
is that writing is a means to communicate. Although it's important
for children to understand grammar and punctuation, and to be able
to spell and write legibly, these are pretty hollow if they don't
know how to organise their thoughts or put a point of view across -
or if they aren't encouraged to have something to say (whether in
fiction or factual writing). Other aspects of writing are easier to
quantify, however. For instance, children start by learning to
print, but should be beginning to do "joined up" writing by the age
of seven.
As for spelling, though they will probably start by
recognising just the first sounds of words, they should progress so
that by age seven they are spelling most single syllable words
correctly, and are using common patterns of letters and sounds to
help them; by nine, they should be able to spell common words of
several syllables correctly. Children will become familiar with
punctuation when they are reading.
By seven, they should be using full stops and capital letters; by
nine, they should be able to cope with speech marks, exclamation
marks and commas.
The Literacy Hour
Literacy is considered such an important part of the curriculum that
the government has introduced The Literacy Hour to support it. This
is a highly structured part of the day, which aims to ensure that
all classes are given a balanced mix of reading and writing
activities. A more detailed explanation is given on a DfEE web page.
Critics of the Literacy Hour say that it is too bureacratic and
fiddly to administer (leading to teachers spending more time on
paperwork and moving children from one activity to another than on
actual teaching), and that it doesn't allow sufficiently for work on
extended pieces of reading and writing. You may well find that your
child's school has adapted the Literacy Hour, or added to it, to
deal with these problems. A more detailed explanation of what
literacy involves can be found at the DfEE web site
www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/literacy/NLSframework/NLSframework_R-6/literacyhour
Helping your child at home
There are plenty of things that you can do to help your child at
home. Even children as young as four can expect homework, see
Parents On-Line for more information on helping your child at home.
http://www.parents.org.uk
Parents On-Line have developed a range of downloadable modules that
contain all the resources to help at home. These include games,
activities and printable worksheets.
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