East Ayrshire Building Bridges case study

Writing across the curriculum

 

 PDF file: East Ayrshire Building Bridges case study

Auchinleck Academy and Catrine Primary School

Schools in this project are part of a Learning Partnership which brings together a wide range of services to support young people. The primary is situated in an area of deprivation and the secondary serves a wide and diverse community of towns and villages.

The aim of the project was to provide continuity and progression P6–S2 by focusing on analysis of text and writing across the curriculum. The four staff involved shadowed each other over a period of time, with primary staff becoming directly involved in English and chemistry classes. After consultation a framework for implementation was drawn up and parents were informed of the initiative.

Primary school language audit highlighted reading for comprehension as a general weakness, with concentration, inability to identify key issues, memory recall and difficulty in dealing with unfamiliar words the main elements. Encouraging signs emerged over time, with improved attitude and motivation, increased levels of concentration and enhanced National Test scores.

With Auchinleck entering the second phase of a writing initiative, Building Bridges provided an opportunity to progress this and to extend links with primary. An S2 mixed ability English class was selected. Employing broadly similar strategies to those being used in primary, the class showed progress in target setting, motivation, effective planning for writing and successful use of modelling. In science, the difficulty of texts was the concern. DARTS were experimented with, as were skimming and scanning techniques and writing tasks based on a non-fiction text ‘chart’ which had been devised. Evaluations have been encouraging.

With outcomes positive, future plans include the dissemination of good practice across other curricular areas in the secondary, the development of self-assessment strategies into the lower primary and a joint venture to promote home reading P6–S2.

Feedback from Mrs. Campbell McClinton, Head Teacher, Catrine Primary School

After a few faltering starts, our team, through much discussion, consultation and problem solving came up with some solutions to 'build the bridge' between primary and secondary in literacy.(In particular, reading for comprehension leading to writing across the curriculum.) When we considered the quality of work in place within the classrooms, we were able to focus on and "knit" together good practice across the two schools, think through and produce strategies to further develop the children's skills in these areas. This has been successful beyond our wildest imagination. Our teaching strategies are finely focussed, through consistency in structure and approach, on working with the children who are using these strategies across the curriculum in both schools for reading and research. This project also widened our horizons as listening and note-taking became an essential part of our programme of study.

Within the primary school, we have noted that the children are more motivated, confident and attainment within these classes is improving. Pupils are keen to talk about our project as they have been fully involved from the beginning and their views and opinions taken account of.

As a side benefit, writing is showing a greater level of maturity - more extended vocabulary and a better appreciation of writer's craft and genre. Within the secondary school, the writing structure is being disseminated across other areas of the curriculum with great success.This project is being extended to our partner schools and the relationships which have developed among the staff involved will ensure the 'bridge' will stay where it is for the future benefit of our children.

• Email this page
• Print friendly format
• Digg this
• Save to del.icio.us