The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Highland Literacy Strategy   All teachers should: Promote the fundamental importance of literacy to learners at all stages of their lives. Ensure that quality time is given to the teaching and learning of core skills in literacy. Ensure that staff provide learners over time with a balance of literacy activities in reading, writing, talking and listening. Ensure that staff agree at least one literacy success criterion with learners for each learning activity and that feedback concentrates on that criterion/those criteria. The Literacy Hub is a vehicle for helping us to achieve these. The Literacy Hub – Introduction is designed to provide support to staff who have attended NUJ training. It will assist them to introduce The Hub to other members of staff. The Notes section in each presentation is primarily for the facilitator, indicating additional requirements or information. The Highland Literacy Strategy provides guidance for the development of literacy in all schools. This extract highlights the main actions most relevant to our task as teachers from across the curriculum in Secondary. The establishment of a Literacy Hub in the school and ASG should help us to achieve these aspects of the Strategy and improve achievement and attainment.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Agenda Background Voice on the table The Hub Concept, Outcomes, Success Criteria, Evaluation Personal Action Planning Summary of Learning This Agenda should take no longer than an hour to complete. The main information about the Hub is contained in slides 4 – 7 and these will require the facilitator(s) to ‘unpack’ the information. It is assumed that there will be a follow-up session where staff meet to discuss the results of their personal action planning (slide 8) and agree a way forward for the Hub.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Voice on the table In a maximum of 30 seconds, describe something that happened in your class where a learner achieved something which would have been worthy of sharing with a wider audience. To start the session choose an activity which is non-judgemental and everyone can contribute. “Describe something that happened in your class where a learner achieved something which would have been worthy of sharing with a wider audience. No teacher can ‘pass” The role of the teachers when it is not their turn is active listening – they should by voice and gesture support the speaker and promote discussion of important points. The facilitator should draw the activity to a conclusion by asking in plenary for participants to identify any common points in relation to the nature of the achievements and why they would have been worthy of sharing with a wider audience. This should be a snappy activity taking no longer than 15 minutes.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit The Concept A centre for on-line publishing and broadcasting of ‘texts’ produced by learners Texts are assessment evidence from courses across the curriculum Learners where possible use their own technology Core editing group of learners from Secondary and/or Primary with support from teachers or a course time-tabled in the BGE curriculum Staff and pupils receive training from the National Union of Journalists to establish and run the Hub. The facilitator(s) will wish to make the following points: The concept of The Hub is an extension/enhancement of blogs or wikis already used by many schools. It is a framework for focusing the minds of learners when they come to talk or write in order to demonstrate learning. It should increase learner motivation. The Centre will be real – in the sense that space will be dedicated in the school for the editing and publication of texts online. Texts are work produced as evidence of attainment and achievement by learners of all stages. The texts may be captured in writing or audio-visually – examples include extended writing, oral presentations, film and pictorial representations. A feature of the initiative is that learners should be encouraged to use their own technology wherever possible to produce texts – i-phones, cameras, home computers, etc. A group must take responsibility for selecting and (where necessary) editing texts for publication. This group could be a selected ‘elite’ of learners or a class, depending on how the school wishes to organise the Hub. The NUJ has been contracted by The Highland Council to provide direct training in literacy and IT for both staff and pupils in the school.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Outcomes for learners Improved motivation Improved literacy skills Improved IT skills Improved staff awareness of language across the curriculum   These are the main outcomes for learners which will result from involvement in the initiative. Experience and research show that pupil motivation increases significantly when they are aware from the outset that their work will be seen not only by their teacher but by others. The motivation of having work seen by teenage peers should not be under-estimated. Involvement in the initiative will raise the profile of literacy skills across all subject areas as learners will be continually aware of the likelihood of their work being published online. Improved IT skills will result from learner use of their own technology in a working rather than a social context. Staff will receive direct training in literacy during the initiative and will have opportunities to discuss and agree simple actions to improve their own practice.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Success Criteria The project will be successful when learners demonstrate: improving reading, writing and talking/listening skills improving IT skills increasing use of IT to engage with texts and to produce texts in school, at home and in the community increasing use - across the curriculum - of extended writing and talking as evidence of achievement other criteria to be identified as appropriate by the school/ASG. These success criteria are open for discussion. The ‘other criteria’ of the final bullet point might include improving attainment in each subject area.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Evaluation The Literacy Hub initiative will be evaluated through baseline and progressive use of: Data - Summary of Progress and Performance and Assessment for Excellence data for Reading (P7 and/or S2) Sampling of Portfolio and Profiling evidence for Writing and Talking/Listening Questionnaire and focus groups of learner and staff attitudes and IT use Audit of assessment practice across the curriculum. These evaluation tools are open for discussion. It is essential that some baseline measurements are undertaken.

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Personal Action Planning Before the next meeting, look for opportunities to refine your thinking about The Literacy Hub. Choose one or two elements that you are going to explore further. Bring back your findings to the next session Personal Action Planning Using a Personal Action plan sheet, each teacher chooses one or two elements s/he is going to explore further. The facilitator may wish to prompt participants about the need to address the issue of the types of assessment instruments used in their departments to provide evidence of attainment. Are all departments exploiting opportunities to develop learner literacy skills by using extended writing and/or presentation as instruments of assessment? If a Literacy Hub is established in the school, is it clear to learners that their work may be seen and/or read by an outside audience? Pair-share: two minutes sharing your plan with your partner then swap. Randomly choose two or three teachers to share with the group what their partner is planning

The Literacy Hub Introduction Literacy Toolkit Summary of Learning Write your name on the card or post-it and how you now feel about The Literacy Hub and its possible effects on learning. Leave your card or post-it on your way out. EXIT CARDS Distribute exit cards( pieces of card or post its) and ask each member to write their name on the card and one thing that they learned in the CPD session. Collect in the exit cards. Read through the cards so that you can feedback to the group at the start of the next workshop.