Learning and undertaking activities in English contribute to achievement
of the curriculum aims for all young people to become:
- successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve
- confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling
lives
- responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.
The importance of English
English is vital for communicating with others in school and in the wider
world, and is fundamental to learning in all curriculum subjects. In studying
English students develop skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing
that they will need to participate in society and employment. Students learn
to express themselves creatively and imaginatively and to communicate with
others confidently and effectively. Literature in English is rich and influential.
It reflects the experience of people from many countries and times and contributes
to our sense of cultural identity. Students learn to become enthusiastic
and critical readers of stories, poetry and drama as well as non fiction
and media texts, gaining access to the pleasure and world of knowledge that
reading offers. Looking at the patterns, structures, origins and conventions
of English helps students understand how language works. Using this understanding,
students can choose and adapt what they say and write in different situations
as well as appreciate and interpret the choices made by other writers and
speakers.
Key concepts
There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of English.
Students need to understand these concepts in order to deepen and broaden
their knowledge, skills and understanding. These essential concepts promote
students' progress in speaking and listening, reading and writing.
Competence
Competence
Competence in reading, writing and speaking and listening enables students
to be successful and engage with the world beyond the classroom. They
are able to communicate effectively and function in a wide range of situations
and contexts. Competence includes being able to speak or write correctly,
read or listen reliably and accurately and, beyond this, being able to
adapt to the demands of work or study and be successful.
- Expressing complex ideas and information clearly, precisely and accurately
in spoken and written communication.
- Reading, understanding the detail and gaining an overview of texts from
a wide range of sources, including those found beyond the classroom.
- Making independent judgements about how to communicate effectively and
sustain formal interaction, particularly in unfamiliar contexts.
- Demonstrating a secure understanding of the conventions of written language
including grammar, spelling and punctuation.
- Applying and transferring skills in a wide range of contexts, demonstrating
flexibility and adaptability.
Creativity
Creativity
Students show creativity when they make unexpected connections, use striking
and original phrases or images, approach tasks from a variety of starting
points, or change forms to surprise and engage the reader. Creativity
can be encouraged by providing purposeful opportunities for experiment,
expansion or for students to follow their own interests. Creativity in
English extends beyond narrative and poetry to other forms and uses of
language. Creativity is essential in allowing students to progress to
higher levels of understanding and become independent.
- Using imagination to experiment with language, take risks and create
effects to surprise and engage the audience.
- Manipulating form, challenging conventions and reinterpreting ideas.
- Exploring linguistic effects and seeing associations between ideas and
concepts that are not usually connected.
- Using creative approaches to answering questions, solving problems and
developing ideas.
Cultural
understanding
Cultural understanding
Through English students learn about the great traditions of English literature
and about how modern writers see the world today. Through the study of
language and literature students compare texts from different cultures
and traditions. They develop understanding of continuity and contrast
and gain an appreciation of the linguistic heritages that contribute to
the richness of spoken and written language. It helps students explore
ideas of cultural excellence and allows them to engage with new ways in
which culture develops. It also enables them to explore the culture of
their society, the groups in which they participate and questions of local
and national identity.
- Understanding that texts from the English Literary Heritage have been
influential and significant over time and exploring their meaning today.
- Exploring how texts from different cultures and traditions influence
values, assumptions and sense of identity.
- Understanding how spoken and written language evolves in response to
changes in society and technology and how this process relates to identity
and cultural diversity.
Critical
understanding
Critical understanding
Students develop critical understanding when they examine uses of language
and forms of media and communication, including literary texts, information
texts and the spoken word. Developing critical skills allows students
to challenge ideas, interpretations and assumptions on grounds of logic,
evidence or argument and is essential if students are to form and express
their own views independently.
- Engaging with the details of ideas and texts.
- Forming independent views and challenging what is heard or read on the
grounds of logic, evidence or argument.
- Making connections within and between texts.
- Analysing and evaluating spoken and written language to explore the
impact on the audience.
- Being active and engaged participants in a wide range of spoken and
written discourse.
Key processes
These are the essential skills and processes in English that students need
to learn to make progress.
Speaking and listening
Students should be able to:
- speak fluently, adapting talk to a wide range of familiar
and unfamiliar contexts and purposes, including those requiring
confident and fluent use of standard
English
- present information clearly and persuasively to others, selecting the
most appropriate way to structure
and organise their speech for clarity and effect
- select from strategies
for adapting speaking and listening flexibly in different circumstances
- reflect and comment critically on their own and others' performances
- listen
to complex information and respond critically, constructively
and cogently in order to clarify points and challenge ideas
- synthesise what they hear, separating key ideas from detail and illustration
- judge the intentions
and standpoint of a speaker
- listen with sensitivity, judging when intervention is appropriate
- take
different roles in organising, planning and sustaining discussion
in a range of formal and informal contexts
- work purposefully in groups, negotiating and building on the contributions
of others to complete tasks or reach consensus
- use a range
of dramatic approaches to explore complex ideas, texts and issues
in scripted and improvised work
- select different
dramatic techniques and justify choices used to convey action,
character, atmosphere and tension
- evaluate
drama performances that they have watched or taken part in.
Familiar and unfamiliar contexts
Familiar contexts could include speaking in the classroom to peers or
adults who are well known to students. Unfamiliar contexts could include
speaking to groups of younger pupils, making formal presentations in,
for example, Young Enterprise groups, talking to visitors or adults who
may be employers or members of the wider community, and conducting interviews.
Standard English
When teaching standard English it is helpful to bear in mind the most
common non-standard usages in the UK: subject-verb agreement (they was),
formation of past tense (have fell, I done), formation of negatives (I
ain't), formation of adverbs (come quick), use of demonstrative pronouns
(them books), use of pronouns (me and him went), use of prepositions (out
the door).
Structure and organise their speech
This includes speech organised chronologically, logically, in order of
importance, by point/counterpoint or question/answer. It also includes
judging appropriate use of ICT as a means of presentation.
Strategies for adapting
Strategies will need to be used in situations where the full range of
contextual clues is not available. For example, in telephone conversations
participants will need to establish the context and relationship of the
exchange. Strategies could include varying tone and pace, reiterating,
questioning, and reframing to establish clarity.
Listen to complex information
This develops the ability to follow ideas through complex material. It
requires flexibility, comparison of opposing ideas, synthesis and selection
of information from what is heard, and an understanding of where and when
new ideas could be introduced. It develops the ability to look at an idea
from different perspectives. It also develops the ability to hold different
interpretations, and to evaluate their validity in the light of shifts
in discussion.
Intentions and standpoint of a speaker
This includes distinguishing tone and undertone and recognising when a
speaker uses and abuses evidence, makes unsubstantiated statements, or
is being deliberately ambiguous.
Take different roles
In formal situations this could include chairing debate or discussion,
introducing or summarising. In informal situations it could include mediating,
arbitrating and negotiating to reach consensus or resolve conflict. Taking
on different roles allows students to make a variety of contributions
and to challenge ideas constructively in order to move discussions forward.
Range of dramatic approaches
These include tableaux, hot seating, role play, teacher in role, thought
tracking, forum theatre, conscience corridor.
Different dramatic techniques
These could include varying volume, tone and pace, use of pause, gesture,
movement and staging, choral speaking, monologues and dramatic irony.
These apply to both scripted and improvised performance.
Evaluate drama performances
This involves making informed, evaluative judgements about the impact
of a performance on the audience, relating the experience to previous
knowledge and comparing different interpretations. It involves developing
understanding of how the elements of performance contribute to the overall
dramatic effect.
Reading
Reading for meaning
Students should be able to:
- analyse and evaluate information, events and ideas from texts
- understand how
meaning is constructed within sentences and across
texts as a whole
- recognise subtlety, ambiguity and allusion within sentences and across
texts as a whole
- develop and sustain independent interpretations of what they read, supporting
them with detailed textual reference
- select, compare, summarise and synthesise information from different
texts and use to form own ideas, arguments and opinions
- reflect on the origin
and purpose of texts and assess their usefulness, recognising
bias, opinion, implicit meaning and abuse of evidence
- relate
texts to their social and historical contexts and the literary
traditions of which they are a part
- recognise and evaluate the ways in which texts may be interpreted differently
according to the perspective of the reader
- analyse and evaluate the impact of combining words, images and sounds
in media, moving-image and multi-modal
texts.
Reading
On paper and on screen where appropriate.
How meaning is constructed within sentences
This could include recognising the effect of different connectives, identifying
how phrases and clauses build relevant detail and information, understanding
how modal or qualifying words or phrases build shades of meaning, and
how the use of adverbials, prepositional phrases and non-finite clauses
give clarity and emphasis to meaning.
Across texts as a whole
This could include understanding how endings link to openings, how the
ordering of paragraphs helps to develop an argument or theme, or tracing
how main ideas/characters develop over the text as a whole.
Origin and purpose
This involves looking at how texts reflect the purposes for which they
were written and the impact they are intended to have on the reader. Texts
could come from commercial organisations, employers, government sources,
political and charity campaigns and websites.
Relate texts to their social and historical
contexts
This could include relating the way women are presented in literature
to the attitudes and behaviours of a particular period and understanding
that it is likely to change over time. Connections and contrasts between
texts could be explored by looking at how writers from different periods
and traditions approach similar themes or ideas.
Multi-modal texts
Multi-modal texts are those that combine one or more modes of communication
(eg written, aural, visual) to create meaning. This could include the
combination of words and images in a newspaper or magazine page, the combination
of words, images, video clips and sound in a website or CD-ROM, or the
combination of images, speech and sound in moving-image texts.
The author's craft
Students should be able to:
- analyse and evaluate writers' use of language in a range of texts, commenting
precisely on how
texts are crafted to shape meaning and produce particular effects
- identify the purposes of texts, analysing and evaluating how writers
structure
and organise ideas to shape meaning for particular audiences
and readers
- analyse and evaluate how form, layout and presentation contribute to
effect
- compare texts, looking at style, theme and language and exploring connections
and contrasts
- analyse connections and comparisons between texts
from different cultures and traditions.
How texts are crafted
This could include use of emotive language, subtleties in vocabulary choice,
use of irony, use of the passive voice, shifts in pace or tense, choice
of personal pronoun, use of modal verbs (eg can, could, must, would, shall,
may), use of rhetorical and literary techniques.
Structure and organise ideas
This could include linking paragraphs in a variety of ways (eg thematically
or temporally) or varying paragraphs to support the purpose of the text
(eg using single-sentence paragraphs to clinch an argument, or contrasting
longer and shorter paragraphs to convey tension).
For non-linear and multi-modal texts this could include using links and
hyperlinks or interactive content in websites or CD-ROMs, or editing and
sequencing shots in moving-image texts.
Texts from different cultures and traditions
This includes differences in place or culture. Such texts include those
written in other countries that reflect different and diverse cultural
experiences.
Writing
Composition
Students should be able to:
- write imaginatively, creatively and thoughtfully, producing texts that
interest, engage and challenge the reader
- write fluently, adapting style and language to a wide range of forms,
contexts and purposes
- present
information and ideas on complex subjects concisely, logically
and persuasively
- establish and sustain a consistent point of view in fiction and non-fiction
writing
- use a range of ways to structure
whole texts to give clarity and emphasis
- use
clearly demarcated paragraphs to develop and organise meaning
- use a wide variety of sentence structures to support the purpose of
the task giving clarity, emphasis and specific effects and to extend,
link and develop ideas
- support and strengthen their own views by incorporating different
kinds of evidence from a range of sources
- select appropriate persuasive techniques
and rhetorical devices
- draw on their reading and knowledge of linguistic
and literary forms when composing their writing
- summarise and take notes
- use planning, drafting, editing, proofreading and self-evaluation to
revise and craft their writing for maximum impact.
Writing
On paper and on screen where appropriate.
Present information and ideas on complex subjects
This should include producing pieces of extended writing on unfamiliar
topics that require research to develop and extend ideas and the collation
of information from a range of sources.
Structure whole texts
This includes features of whole-text cohesion that clearly signal the
overall direction of the text to the reader (eg opening paragraphs that
introduce themes and suggest direction and scope, and conclusions that
summarise and consolidate).
Use clearly demarcated paragraphs to develop
and organise meaning
This includes cohesion within and between paragraphs: paragraphs that
are constructed to support meaning and purpose between paragraphs (eg
chronological or cataphoric and anaphoric references) and a range of devices
that support cohesion within paragraphs (eg pronouns, connectives, and
adverbials as sentence starters).
It also includes presentational features that create impact and guide
the reader (eg the placement of text on the page, headings, subheadings,
bullet points, captions, font style or size, and the use of bold or italics).
Different kinds of evidence
This could include statistics, anecdote, visual material such as graphs,
quotation from authoritative sources.
Techniques and rhetorical devices
This could include use of irony, rhetorical questions, humour, hyperbole,
repetition, emotive language, use of evidence, antithesis, comparison,
euphemism, figures of speech, deliberate use of cliché, balanced structures.
Linguistic and literary forms
This could include using particular forms for writing poetry, using pastiche
and parody to demonstrate understanding of stylistic features, using satire
and caricature, experimenting with different narrative voices, understanding
and using key features of literary genres.
Technical accuracy
Students should be able to:
- use the grammatical features of written standard English accurately
to structure a wide range of sentence types for particular purposes and
effect
- use the full
range of punctuation marks accurately and for deliberate effect
- spell correctly, including words that do not conform to regular patterns
and words that are sometimes confused in use.
Full range of punctuation marks
This should include full stops, commas, apostrophes, exclamation and question
marks, brackets for parentheses, colons, semicolons, inverted commas,
commas to mark clauses and clarify meaning, and the full punctuation of
speech.
Range and content
This section outlines the breadth of the subject on which teachers should
draw when teaching the key concepts and key processes.
The study of English should enable pupils to apply their knowledge, skills
and understanding to relevant real world situations.
Language structure and variation
The study of English should include, across speaking and listening, reading
and writing:
- spoken language variation and attitudes to use of standard and non-standard
forms
- the
ways in which language reflects identity through regional, social
and personal variation and diversity
- the differences between spoken and written language in terms of vocabulary,
structure and grammar
- the importance of sentence grammar and whole-text cohesion and their
impact in writing
- the development of English, including development over time, current
influences, borrowings from other languages, origins of words and the
impact of technology on spoken and written communication
- the importance and influence of English as a global language.
The ways in which language reflects identity
This could include accent, dialect, idiolect, lexical change, varieties
of standard English such as Creole, occupational variety and differences
in language use according to age or gender.
Speaking and listening
The range of speaking and listening activities should include:
- prepared, formal presentations and debates in contexts where the audience
and topic are unfamiliar
- informal and formal group or pair discussions requiring students to
take on a range of roles
- individual and group improvisation and performance.
The range of purposes for speaking and listening should include describing,
narrating, explaining, informing, persuading, entertaining, hypothesising,
exploring and expressing ideas, feelings and opinions. The stimulus for
speaking and listening activities should include those drawn from work contexts
and other real-life uses.
Reading
The texts chosen should:
- be of high
quality, among the best of their type, that will encourage students
to appreciate their characteristics and how, in some cases, they have
influenced
culture and thinking
- be interesting and engaging, allowing students to explore
their present situation or move beyond to experience different
times, cultures, viewpoints and situations
- be challenging, using language imaginatively to create new meanings
and effects, encouraging students to try such writing for themselves
- allow students to experience depth and breadth in their reading, enabling
them to make
connections across texts.
High quality
Both fiction and non-fiction texts must be sufficiently rich and substantial
to engage readers intellectually and emotionally. High-quality texts encourage
students to explore ideas, themes and language in ways that relate to
their own experiences and also develop their understanding of less familiar
viewpoints and situations.
Influenced culture and thinking
This includes texts that are widely known, referred to and quoted, and
have become part of the cultural fabric of society through their language
and the way in which they present ideas, themes and issues. They could
be texts that stimulate social conscience and challenge preconceptions
and particular viewpoints. They provide social and cultural commentaries
that illuminate, provoke and encourage reflection.
Explore their present situation
The choice of texts should be informed by the cultural context of the
school and experiences of the students. It could include texts that:
- help students explore their own sense of identity and reflect on
their own values, attitudes and assumptions about other people, times
and places, either through continuity or contrast with their own experiences
- explore common experiences in different and unfamiliar contexts
(time, place, culture).
Make connections across texts
Clustering texts according to themes that cut across period and genre
is particularly useful in supporting an integrated approach to teaching.
Examples of such themes could include: images of men and women, place
and identity, narrative voice/viewpoint.
The range of literature studied should include:
- stories, poetry and drama drawn from different historical times, including
contemporary
writers
- texts that enable students to understand the nature, significance and
influence over time of texts from the English
literary heritage.
The range of texts studied should include work by the following pre-twentieth
century writers: Matthew Arnold, Jane Austen, William Blake, Charlotte
Brontë, Emily Brontë, Robert Browning, John Bunyan, Lord Byron, Geoffrey
Chaucer, William Congreve, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wilkie
Collins, Joseph Conrad, Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, John Donne, John
Dryden, George Eliot, Henry Fielding, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oliver Goldsmith,
Thomas Hardy, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Henry
James, John Keats, Christopher Marlowe, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Mary
Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, RB Sheridan, Edmund Spenser, Robert Louis
Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, Henry
Vaughan, HG Wells, Oscar Wilde, William Wordsworth and Sir Thomas Wyatt
- texts that enable students to make connections in experiences across
time and literary traditions
- texts that enable students to analyse the values and assumptions of
writing from
different cultures and traditions, relating and connecting them
to their own experience
- at
least one play by Shakespeare.
Contemporary writers
This includes texts written for young people as well as adults and a wide
range of recent and contemporary writing, such as historical, crime, science
fiction and fantasy. Students should be encouraged to be ambitious in
their reading, experimenting with new texts, authors and genres, particularly
in their individual reading.
Texts appropriate for study at key stage 4 include some works by the following
authors: Douglas Adams, Richard Adams, Fleur Adcock, Isabel Allende, Simon
Armitage, Alan Ayckbourn, JG Ballard, Pat Barker, Alan Bennett, Alan Bleasdale,
Bill Bryson, Angela Carter, Bruce Chatwin, Brian Clark, Gillian Clarke,
Robert Cormier, Jennifer Donnelly, Keith Douglas, Roddy Doyle, Carol Ann
Duffy, UA Fanthorpe, John Fowles, Brian Friel, Mark Haddon, Willis Hall,
David Hare, Tony Harrison, Susan Hill, SE Hinton, Jackie Kay, Harper Lee,
Laurie Lee, Andrea Levy, Joan Lingard, Penelope Lively, Liz Lochhead,
Mal Peet, Philip Pullman, Peter Porter, Willy Russell, Jo Shapcott, RC
Sherriff, Zadie Smith and Arnold Wesker.
The English literary heritage
These are authors that continue to have an enduring appeal that transcends
the period in which they were written. For example, the novels of Jane
Austen or the plays of Shakespeare continue to be widely read, studied
and reinterpreted in print and on-screen for contemporary audiences. The
study of texts by these authors should be based on whole texts and presented
in ways that will engage students (eg supported by the use of film resources
and drama activities).
Writers from the English literary heritage during the twentieth century
appropriate for study at key stage 4 include: Kingsley Amis, WH Auden,
TS Eliot, EM Forster, Robert Frost, William Golding, Graham Greene, Seamus
Heaney, Ted Hughes, Aldous Huxley, Elizabeth Jennings, James Joyce, Philip
Larkin, DH Lawrence, Katharine Mansfield, Sean O'Casey, George Orwell,
Wilfred Owen, Harold Pinter, Sylvia Plath, JB Priestley, Siegfried Sassoon,
Peter Shaffer, George Bernard Shaw, Stevie Smith, Muriel Spark, Dylan
Thomas, Edward Thomas, RS Thomas, William Trevor, Evelyn Waugh, John Wyndham
and WB Yeats.
From different cultures and traditions
When choosing texts from different cultures and traditions, it is important
to look for authors who are so familiar with a particular culture or country
that they represent it accurately and with understanding. The texts should
be of high quality and speak with an authentic voice to help students
learn about the literature of another culture as well as reflect their
own experiences.
Texts appropriate for study at key stage 4 include some works by the following
authors: Chinua Achebe, John Agard, Monica Ali, Maya Angelou, Moniza Alvi,
Isaac Bashevis Singer, James Berry, Edward Brathwaite, Anita Desai, Emily
Dickinson, F Scott Fitzgerald, Athol Fugard, Jamila Gavin, Nadine Gordimer,
Arthur Miller, Doris Lessing, Les Murray, Beverly Naidoo, RK Narayan,
Grace Nichols, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Wole Soyinka, John Steinbeck, Meera
Syal, Bali Rai, Mildred D Taylor, Mark Twain, Derek Walcott, Walt Whitman,
Tennessee Williams, Adeline Yen Mah and Benjamin Zephaniah.
At least one play by Shakespeare
The study of Shakespeare should be based on whole texts, presented in
lively, active ways that encourage students to develop independent, critical
interpretations and responses to the text. Students develop their interpretive
and analytical skills through seeing the play in terms of its social and
historical context and significance.
The range of non-fiction and non-literary texts studied should include:
- forms such as journalism, travel writing, essays, reportage, literary
non-fiction, print media, film, television and multi-modal texts
- purposes such as to instruct, inform, explain, describe, analyse, review,
discuss and persuade.
Writing
In their writing students should:
- develop and sustain ideas, themes, imagery, settings and characters,
when writing to imagine, explore and entertain
- analyse and evaluate subject matter, supporting views and opinions with
a range of evidence
- develop and sustain ideas and views cogently and persuasively
- use formal, impersonal and concise expression to explain or describe
information and ideas relevantly and clearly.
The forms for such writing should be drawn from different kinds of stories,
poems, play scripts, autobiographies, screenplays, diaries, minutes, accounts,
information leaflets, plans, summaries, brochures, advertisements, editorials,
articles and letters conveying opinions, campaign literature, polemics,
reviews, commentaries, articles, essays and reports.
Curriculum opportunities
During the key stage students should be offered the following opportunities
that are integral to their learning and enhance their engagement with the
concepts, processes and content of the subject.
Speaking and listening
The curriculum should provide opportunities for students to:
- build their confidence in speaking and listening in unfamiliar
situations and to audiences beyond the classroom
- use their speaking and listening skills to solve problems creatively
and cooperatively in groups
- engage in specific activities that develop speaking and listening skills
as well as those that are integrated with the teaching of reading and
writing
- make extended, independent contributions that develop ideas in-depth
- make purposeful
presentations that allow them to speak with authority on significant
subjects
- develop speaking and listening skills through work that makes cross-curricular
links with other subjects
- evaluate and respond constructively to their own and others' performance
- watch live performances in the theatre wherever possible and consider
how action, character, atmosphere, tension and themes are conveyed
- participate in debate, discussion, live talks and presentations, engaging
in dialogue with experts, members of the community and unfamiliar adults
- discuss issues of local, national and global concern.
Unfamiliar situations and audiences beyond the
classroom
Speaking and listening in unfamiliar situations prepares students to operate
with confidence in the world outside school. Students need opportunities
to make independent judgements about their audience and to engage in discussion
with people whose responses may be less predictable than those of their
teachers or peers.
Contexts and audiences that could be appropriate here include vocational
contexts, eg interviews during work experience, and community contexts,
eg council and public meetings, working with students and pupils in other
secondary and primary schools, and interviewing residents about local
issues.
Purposeful presentations
Wherever possible, presentations should have valid contexts and real outcomes
that involve communicating ideas and information to an audience. They
could include the use of technology, such as video and audio materials,
slides and other visual aids.
Presentations could include collaborative work, such as dramatisations,
practical demonstrations or displays, as well as informative talks.
Cross-curricular links with other subjects
This includes using speaking and listening skills developed in English
in other subjects (eg in coaching, mentoring and providing feedback in
peer assessment in PE).
Reading
The curriculum should provide opportunities for students to:
- develop independence in reading, encouraging them to become lifelong,
discerning readers
- discuss and share their personal reading interests and preferences,
encouraging individual reading for pleasure
- engage with whole texts in sustained ways
- read texts that provide the best models for their own writing
- respond
and act upon texts they have read
- develop reading skills through work that makes cross-curricular
links with other subjects
- meet
and talk with writers and other readers
- become involved in events and activities
that inspire reading
- engage with texts that challenge preconceptions and develop understanding
beyond the personal and immediate.
Respond and act upon texts
The skills involved in reading, assimilating and taking action on written
information are encountered in a wide range of contexts, including the
workplace and other public settings. Opportunities to develop these skills
could be provided by simulation or in-tray activities and situations where
text can be used as a stimulus for responsive and interactive activities
such as role-play.
Cross-curricular links with other subjects
This includes reading skills developed in other subjects (eg assessing
the validity of a range of sources in history or interpreting data in
geography) or using themes and ideas from other subjects to provide a
purposeful context for reading in English.
Meet and talk with writers and other readers
This could include attending author readings, visiting writers in residence,
taking part in seminars given by higher education institutions, interacting
with writers via the internet and sharing peer reviews and recommendations.
Activities that inspire reading
This could include taking part in book groups, literary festivals and
Children's Book Week. It could also include working with younger pupils
to establish reading groups and organising events such as Carnegie shadowing.
Writing
The curriculum should provide opportunities for students to:
- develop independence in writing on paper and on-screen
- produce extended writing to develop their ideas in depth and detail
- experiment with language and explore different ways of discovering and
shaping their own meanings
- use writing as a means of reflecting and exploring a range
of views and perspectives on the world
- evaluate their own and others' writing in terms of impact and fitness
for purpose and to redraft
their own work in the light of feedback
- develop writing skills through work that makes cross-curricular
links with other subjects
- work
in sustained and practical ways with writers where possible
to learn about the art, craft and discipline of writing
- write
in real contexts, for a range
of audiences.
Range of views
This could include responses in online forums to local, national and international
issues, articles on current issues and concerns.
Redraft their own work in the light of feedback
This could include self-evaluation using success criteria, recording and
reviewing performances, target setting and formal and informal use of
peer assessment. Redrafting should be purposeful, moving beyond proofreading
for errors to the re-shaping of whole texts or parts of texts.
Cross-curricular links with other subjects
This includes using writing skills developed in English in other subjects
(eg developing a written response for a particular audience about global
warming in science).
Work in sustained and practical ways with writers
This could include taking part in a series of workshops or having ongoing
interactions with writers via the internet. Writers could include writers
of fiction, poetry, travel writing, journalism and biography, who may
be experienced writers but not necessarily professionals.
Students should have opportunities to showcase their work, eg through
publication on websites or in print.
Write in real contexts
This enables students to see writing as a powerful tool to achieve a purpose.
Range of audiences
This could include employers, businesses, charities, colleges, local residents,
local and national newspapers and politicians, multinational organisations
and interest groups.
