Visual Literacy Raising the writing levels of Boys in Year 4

Overview Large inner-city school in Bordesley Green 98% EAL Start school a lot below average 58% SATs results Labelled ‘Hard to shift!”

Aims Motivate, inspire, enthuse! Improve their writing by motivating them write and want to improve To raise self-confidence and self-esteem To improve their speaking and listening skills

Results Pre-start level End of term F2b B 2a In2b2a Is2b3c A2b3c D2a3c

Life before Visual literacy… No because my hand starts to hurt and I don’t like literacy No because sometimes I can’t think properly Do you enjoy writing? Why/why not? Yes because it keeps my brain working No because my hands ache

Life AFTER Visual literacy… Yes, because I am a good writer Yes, it helps you get better at writing Do you enjoy writing? Why/why not? Yes because you can get clever Yes because you can put your Imagination on paper

Dvd cover

The March of the Penguins Used it for: Different styles of poetryDifferent styles of poetry Acrostic poemsAcrostic poems Non-fiction writingNon-fiction writing Making a fact book to read to reception childrenMaking a fact book to read to reception children

The March of the Penguins Techniques used: Sequencing slidesSequencing slides Zones of relevanceZones of relevance Non-fiction writingNon-fiction writing Fact filesFact files ResearchingResearching HotseatingHotseating Philosophy for children (p4c)Philosophy for children (p4c)

The March of the Penguins Initially sceptical as thought they might not be stimulating enough! How wrong could I be! Retained far more information about penguins than I ever expected (even now!) A: “I liked March of the penguins cos when they have a baby they pass it to the mother and when it be’s cold the dad keeps it in a warm place.”

Penguin display

Teaching reception about penguins!

The Iron Giant

Sequencing Hearts and minds Diary entries Philosophy for children (P4c) Comparisons with the book Zone of relevance

The Iron Giant Before Visual literacy: “My character has a AK47 Gund he is really Sad. Got a feather on his cloths. He is very angry. Is gonna shoot someone. Dark green head. Green and dark black eyes.”

The Iron Giant AFTER Visual literacy: “Wow! What a day! Mums at work so I could stay up late as I can as I was watching t.v. Suddenly the power of the t.v went off so then I went outside to look. I carried on looking to see what had happened. Then I saw a big giant. I got scared as he was getting electrocuted by the wires. Then I went to switch off the electricity…I got really scared of the giant he had a big ugly lump on his head…”

Before…

…after!

Conclusions ALL the children seem to have an increased motivation to Literacy Quickly become engrossed in an activity and always on-task Improvements in: Speaking and listening Inference and deduction Group work Note-taking, re-drafting etc. Self-esteem

Whats next… “Hard to shift!” Year 5: The Piano Over the hedge: Year 4 Visual Literacy week Continuing to motivate all the children in the class with Visual literacy!

Zone of relevance