Draft English & Literacy Outcomes Published

Yes, they're finally out! Download them here.

More information and materials will follow.

Critical Essay Findings

The Aberdeenshire AifL project which has been looking at the teaching of critical essay writing has made great use of a pupil questionnaire devised by Linda Donnelly and Kathryn Russell of Meldrum Academy.

The questionnaire is designed to find out how well pupils feel they coped with different elements of essay writing and which teaching strategies they value. It consists of multiple choice questions and asks pupils their opinions on their knowledge of texts, their understanding of the task, structure, using quotations, timing and assessment.

Having now analysed the results, the group are going to focus on teaching strategies which:

• give pupils more choice when it comes to text and task
• involve more collaborative working
• focus on handling quotations
• raise pupil's awareness of the benefits of peer assessment

as these are the issues the questionnaires flagged up.

Linda and Kathyrn are happy to share the questionnaire. If you would like a copy to use with your pupils, please leave a comment with an email address and I will send it out to you.

More info on the progress of the project will follow in the coming months...

Books for Reluctant Readers

Publisher Barrington Stoke's books aimed at reluctant readers have been going down extremely well with pupils in Aberdeen City. Several departments have been using these titles which deal with themes affecting today's youngsters. Pupils, especially those unmotivated third year boys, seem to love them . Photocopyable teacher packs are available which are full of close reading questions and activities to generate writing and discussion.

Two particularly popular titles are TWOCKING by Eric Brown, and Burnout by Robert Swindells. TWOCKING deals with a group of friends who become involved in joyriding and have to deal with peer presure and ultimately bereavement and guilt. (The title refers to the Police term 'Taking Without Consent'). Burnout looks at firestarting and most English teachers will already be aware of the quality of Robert Swindells other novels.

To have a look at the full range of texts on offer, visit their website here.