Advice

Advice

Along with the variations in how language teachers interpret the idea of Literature and Texts the advice they offer on principles and practice is also fascinating in its diversity!

Here are a few key things for those involved in designing a scheme of work or planning lessons:

Don’t go over the top!
Whenever there are changes to a curriculum or educational policy, there is a tendency to go full pelt towards the new requirements / suggestions and to abandon practice which was actually pretty effective.
Be realistic and try to plan, initially, just a few Literature / Text items into the scheme of work, so that you (and your students) can evaluate them and shape how others might be planned; so maybe just one text per Theme to begin with, until you have gained confidence in the effectiveness of the procedure.

Make it fit
EITHER:
Look for a Text which fits the language (vocabulary or grammar) you are teaching anyway, and build that into your lesson plan sequence
OR
… if you have found / been shown a Text you love, and you think your students will respond to …
Plan what language you would need to teach them before they access the text, so that it doesn’t become to much like hard work to get into it.

A mixture of these strategies often works best!

Give it a try!
Although the Texts have an indication of the age-group they have been / are to be used with, this is only one idea! Many texts can be used with learners of a wide age-range. The key is in the hands of the teacher who plans the interaction with the text.

Think of the learners
Always consider what the students are actually expected to do with the text as you are planning the lesson. This will help you sequence the steps into it with appropriate support and/or challenge.
Are you asking them to understand the whole text? (Implications for pre-teaching)
Or are you asking them to enjoy the text? (Implications for the mood of the lesson segment)
Are you asking them to translate (a section of the) text? (Implications for the attention to detail you ask for)
Or are you asking them to review the text? (Implications for preparing the language of opinion and description)
Are you asking them to manipulate the text? E.g. through redrafting, creative writing or speaking. (Implications for managing the idea-generating stage, attitudes to error, expectations, publication etc.)
Are you asking them to recite, perform, enact the text? (Implications for a focus on speaking skills, phonics, intonation, etc. in the rehearsal phase.)

Do talk to others!
The tried and tested professional word-of-mouth is still an excellent way to identify interesting Texts as well as purposeful and enjoyable learning tasks that go with them. Get involved with your local ALL Branch, Network or Primary Hub, and use your Social Networks.

Be diverse!
There is a paper on Diverse Strategies for engaging with Texts in the Pedagogy and Research section of the wiki (in attached Files at the foot of the page).

The underlying question to ask is about the Rationale for including Literary Text in lessons with younger students. The fact that it is a requirement of the Programme of Study is not sufficient for busy teachers and their schemes of work!
So, some of the potential useful outcomes, making good use of available time, could be:
Speaking skills – asking pupils to read aloud a text intended to be read
Reading skills – looking for specific language, looking for recognizable or guessable words
Grammar – observing the forms of language in practical use
Translation - Making an English version of an element of the authentic text
Narrative skill – thinking about how the writer tells the story, builds the picture, creates the mood
Technical skill - Looking at linguistic features such has rhyme, rhythm, sound, assonance, onomatopoeia, or at literary skills such as description, dialogue, humour
Creative writing / speaking in the target language

A brainstorming workshop produced the following activity types :
Compare subtitles to actual spoken words in films
Gapfills
Jigsaw puzzles
Translation
Running dictation
Finish the story off …….
Match Qs to As / beginnings and ends of sentences
Put into passive voice
Re-order the "summary" correctly

Copyright
This is always a fraught area in relation to other people's writing, images and music.
Here are some sources of advice in relation to Literature in particular:

http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/index.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_the_United_Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_lengths

http://www.ehow.com/how_11384516_check-poem-copyrighted.html

In the blog
http://chrismayoh.com/
there is an entry on Copyright in Education and Teaching (Oct 2014)

Do tell your colleagues through this wiki what has gone well, and use the online fora / social media to debate things that could go better.

Presentations and articles on Reading, Stories etc.

Jane Harvey
http://www.all-languages.org.uk/language-zones/germanzone/once-upon-a-time-using-fairy-tales-to-engage-with-german/

Marie-France Perkins and Jane Wright
http://mmeperkins.typepad.com/my_weblog/2015/05/fun-with-reading-writing-from-ks2-to-ks3.html

Vicky Cooke: Teaching reading in Key Stage 2
[www.all-languages.org.uk/events/language_world/language_world_2015/lw2015_programme_2]

Nathalie Paris : Authentic texts and how they can help cover the programmes of study at KS2 and KS3
- Presentation from Language World 2016 with a list of 40 suggested activities cross-referenced with the Programmes of Study at KS2 and KS3 as well as colour-coded (by skill) Programmes of Study.
Nathalie is currently producing a regular blog on using books from (Easter 2016)

[https://nattalingo.co.uk/books/language-world-2016-how-authentic-texts-can-help-you-cover-the-programmes-of-study-at-ks2-and-ks3/]

Authentic reading texts - handout from Rachel Hawkes (attached file)

ALL Connect offers training resources, including on Literature in key stage 3. Resources are accessible at https://allconnectblog.wordpress.com/category/ks3-literature/

Other ALL Connect wikis are now also online:
[http://all-grammar.wikidot.com/]
[http://all-speaking.wikidot.com/]
[http://all-writingtranslation.wikidot.com/]
[http://all-progressiontransition.wikidot.com/]

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