DEVELOPING SECONDARY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC WRITING: A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Helen Lines University of Exeter

“If you want a sure way to provoke a collective groan in your staffroom, announce that you are intending to hold a training day devoted to whole-school literacy. ‘We did that five years ago!’ someone will shout.”

Geoff Barton in The Times Educational Supplement, 5 March 2010

Quoted in Improving literacy in secondary schools: a shared responsibility, OFSTED 23 April 2013

What do we mean by literacy?

If smart growth is about knowledge and innovation, investment in

literacy skills is a prerequisite for achieving such growth…Our

world is dominated by the written word, both online and in print.

This means we can only contribute and participate actively if we

can read and write sufficiently well. Literacy is about people’s

ability to function in society as private individuals, active citizens,

employees or parents... Literacy is about people’s self-esteem,

their interaction with others, their health and employability.

Ultimately, literacy is about whether a society is fit for the future.

Final report of the EU High Level Group of experts on literacy, 2012

Developing literacy: whose responsibility?

We strongly recommend that whatever the means chosen to implement it a policy for language across the curriculum should be adopted by every secondary school. We are convinced that the benefits would be out of all proportion to the effort it would demand, considerable though this would undoubtedly be. A Language for Life,

1975

Inspectors should expect to collect evidence about literacy (communication, reading and writing) from more than just English lessons and assessment data. Schools might be expected to have comprehensive policies on the teaching and application of literacy skills within subjects.

Guidance and training for inspectors, OFSTED 2011

Developing literacy: whose responsibility?

Head teachers should be responsible for the literacy levels of their students. Schools should be developing cross-departmental strategies to improve literacy, rather than working in departmental silos.

Report of the Inquiry into Overcoming the Barriers to Literacy, All-Party

Parliamentary Group for Education, 2011

Developing literacy: whose responsibility?

Secondary school teachers identified 57% of their pupils as having

weak or very weak literacy skills, compared to the significantly lower

39% of pupils identified by primary school teachers. Nevertheless,

across secondary schools, only 6% indicated that there should be a

change in the extent to which literacy is incorporated into lessons.

Instead, secondary school teachers were more likely to prefer the

option of one-to-one support for struggling pupils. This suggests that it

is more difficult for secondary schools to tackle literacy as a distinct

issue.

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Education’s literacy survey, May 2011

Developing literacy: whose responsibility?

A teacher must demonstrate an understanding of and

take responsibility for promoting high standards of

literacy, articulacy and the correct use of standard

English, whatever the teacher’s specialist subject.

Revised teaching standards, from September 2012

Developing literacy: a linguistic challenge?

The move from an integrated to a specialist curriculum constitutes

in itself a considerably increased demand upon the linguistic

powers of the pupil, but the most obvious demand, that for a wider

and more specialised vocabulary, is not the principal difficulty. In

general, a curriculum subject, philosophically speaking, is a

distinctive mode of analysis. While many teachers recognise that

their aim is to initiate a student in a particular mode of analysis, they

rarely recognise the linguistic implications of doing so.

A Language for Life, 1975

Developing literacy: a shared responsibility

Addressing literacy in curriculum subjects is not about

doing the job of an English teacher: it is about inducting

learners into how knowledge is expressed and how

thinking occurs in that subject’s disciplinary context.

Writing is powerful. Students who can write well are

hugely advantaged in any subject which examines

learning through writing.

Developing literacy as a shared responsibility: one secondary school’s experience

Took part in Grammar for Writing impact project in partnership with

University of Exeter: January – June 2012.

5 teachers: English, Science, Geography, Psychology, RS/Philosophy.

Identified writing problem:

“A significant proportion of students across subjects and across year

groups struggle to write clear and concise explanations. This means

that, despite good subject knowledge, the students are not achieving

the higher grades in their examinations.”

Focus on Y12 (and Y10 Geography).

Developing literacy: recognising common ground

Describe the environmental and economic consequences of climate

change for the world.

Why has international terrorism become such an important issue in

the last two decades? Make sure you support your answer by using

a range of sources.

Explore the ways writers present and use ideas of conflict in the

texts you have studied.

Describe and discuss the use of biological therapies in treating

abnormal behaviours.

Choose one of these questions and explain:• What makes a successful answer? • What are the challenges?

Developing literacy: recognising common ground

An explanation gives clear descriptions of and reasons for a phenomenon,

problem, situation or issue, drawing on evidence and examples, and is used to

assess students’ knowledge and understanding, e.g. how supervolcanoes are

formed; the Impressionists; a healthy lifestyle.The expectation is that a broad topic

will be addressed through attention to detail. A successful explanation is clear,

logical, precise and succinct.

An analysis goes beyond a purely factual explanation to present a reasoned

response or argument, often drawing on appropriate evidence to put forward a

personal view, e.g. the causes of WW1: benefits and drawbacks of nuclear power;

effective use of lighting in a drama performance. Successful analyses are clear,

well-balanced and carefully-evidenced.

Developing literacy: recognising common ground

Using exam board high-grade descriptors, mark schemes and good student answers, the project teachers asked: What are the language structures that characterise high-

quality explanations and analyses? When, and how, can we explicitly teach students these

language structures?

For example: Use a wide range of specialist terms adeptly and with

precision Detailed development of statements All information in the answer is relevant, clear, organised and

presented in a structured and coherent format

Language and thinking: what makes this answer muddled?

However I do not believe that Swinburne succeeds in proving that design in the world shows that God exists as it does not explain the problem of evil within the world, this also relates to another criticism of the design argument which is offered by Hume whom states that how can we see God as a perfect being when the world in which he apparently designed is not perfect. 

Language and thinking: what makes this answer clearer?

Zombies in philosophy are imaginary creatures used to illuminate problems about consciousness and its relation to the physical world. A ‘zombie’ is a being who lacks subjective consciousness. Zombies have no qualitative characteristics and are simply input-output – like robots. It is fundamental to understand that the ‘zombies’ we are referring to are not ‘Hollywood zombies’, as they have no philosophical relevance. Few people believe zombies actually exist, but many argue that they are at the very least conceivable if not possible. It is therefore argued, that if the idea of a philosophical zombie is possible, physicalism must be false and some kind of dualism must be true.

Language and thinking work together

Using a case study of a quarry you have studied, describe how it has been managed

during extraction and restored following the extraction of the resources. (9 marks)

Level 1 (Basic: 1-4 marks) Trees are planted on edges. Roads are cleaned at night. The quarry is used

for other things like lakes.

Level 2 (Clear: 5-7 marks)

At Hope in Derbyshire, a lot of trees have been planted to make the quarry and

cement works less obvious. Much is transported by train and traffic on narrow roads

in the countryside is reduced. Road cleaning is arranged to get rid of dust in

immediate area. After an area is finished it is restored to farming or a different use,

such as fishing lakes.

Language and thinking work together

Level 3 (Detailed: 8-9 marks)

At Lafarge Cement in Hope in Derbyshire, over 75000 trees have been

planted to make the quarry and cement works less obvious and make it

blend in with the environment. Two and a half million tonnes of limestone

that could not be used for making cement have been used to help conceal

the entrance by altering the landscape. Much is transported by train, so

traffic on narrow roads in the countryside is reduced. Road cleaning is

arranged to get rid of dust in immediate area. After an area is finished it is

restored to farming or a different use, such as fishing lakes, and a 9- hole

golf course has been opened.

Grammar provides a way of describing what writers do

with language in order to be successful in a particular

type of text, and particular ways of thinking. The

suggestion is not to teach a raft of terminology but to be

explicit about important structures and patterns of

language that students can imitate.

At Lafarge Cement in Hope in Derbyshire, over 75000

trees have been planted to make the quarry and cement

works less obvious and make it blend in with the

environment. Two and a half million tonnes of limestone

that could not be used for making cement have been used

to help conceal the entrance by altering the landscape.

Much is transported by train, so traffic on narrow roads in

the countryside is reduced. Road cleaning is arranged to

get rid of dust in immediate area. After an area is finished

it is restored to farming or a different use, such as fishing

lakes, and a 9- hole golf course has been opened.

How do language and thinking work together here?

Developing literacy together: planning

All project teachers planned into sequences of lessons an explicit focus on:

Use of subject-specific vocabulary: nouns and noun phrases for

succinctness, precision and detail

Text cohesion: connectives/discourse markers between paragraphs for

clear sequencing and comparison; logical links between sentences within

paragraphs

Sentence construction: simple (one-clause) sentences for clarity,

precision and emphasis; complex sentences (main + subordinate clauses)

to add detail and to signal cause and effect

Developing literacy together: key teaching

Introducing core vocabulary for a topic in the form of key

nouns and noun phrases; using these to plan and rehearse

exam answers, orally and in writing

Building vocabulary for speculation - ‘measured and qualified

explanation’ and ‘tentativeness of explanation’ e.g. modal

verbs (might, could, may, will etc.) and range of adverbs :

maybe; indisputably; possibly; probably; crucially etc.

Developing literacy together: key teaching

Modelling sentence construction e.g. showing how to use simple

sentences for clarity to top and tail a paragraph and complex

sentences for adding detail and creating ‘cause and effect’ links

Practising sentence building and sentence combining e.g.

embedding relative clauses (starting who, which, that); changing

emphasis by moving position of subordinate clause; using wider

range of subordinating conjunctions to link ideas

Sentence combining

A metal reacts with an acid. Bubbles of gas

are produced.

William was a good leader. He was ambitious. He was determined. He won the battle of Hastings.

Developing literacy together: key teaching

Planning well-constructed extended answers using wider

range of whole-text connectives

Analysing model answers for content and use of

language; constructing own answers in imitation; peer

assessment using mark scheme criteria

Developing literacy together: evaluation

Successes:

Students appreciated explicit focus on writing skills

Better understanding by students of exam criteria and mark schemes

Better understanding by teachers of written demands of their

respective subjects

Improved structure of exam answers, particularly use of topic

sentences

Focus on noun phrases deemed more successful as a reading and

revision strategy than technique for improving writing

Developing literacy together: evaluation

Challenges:

Teachers’ confidence with linguistic subject knowledge – ‘new

learning’

Focus on language in Y12 was “too little, too late”

Integrating content coverage and language focus

For the future: extending practice within own departments and

across school

Developing literacy: a shared responsibility

The most successful schools emphasised that there was no ‘eureka’ moment, that is to say, specific or unusual practice. Rather, they made what one school described as ‘painstaking adjustments’ to what they did when their monitoring provided evidence of weaknesses, and they stuck with what worked.

In the secondary schools where teachers in all subject departments had received training in teaching literacy and where staff had included an objective for literacy in all the lessons, senior managers noted an improvement in outcomes across all subjects, as well as in English.

Removing barriers to literacy, Ofsted, 2011