Garrydoolis NS Improvement Plan – Literacy 2013/14

1. Committed team of teachers who plan collaboratively and who are open to innovation and new technologies.
2. Individual and group planning and review of the teaching of literacy is very satisfactory.
3. There is a positive learning environment.
4. There is a focus on the individual needs of the pupils. Differentiation occurs in the classroom and as a result targets are realistic.
5. We focus on the holistic development of the child.
6. Parents are recognised as the primary educators of their children and have a voice in their children’s learning.
7. Satisfactory level of involvement from parents, Board of Management, Parents Association and the local community.
8. All members of the school community are valued and their contribution is encouraged.
9. Pupils are happy in the school and are engaged in learning.
10. Newly introduced initiatives which allow junior and senior children to mix and collaborate are going well (green team, Friendship Friday, buddy reading).

1. Specific oral language development in the area of English and Maths.
2. Develop children’s understanding of what oral language actually is.
3. Comprehension skills in reading and oral work to be developed and progress tracked.
4. Writing skills to be appraised at all levels with a special emphasis on free writing and writing genres- linkage with oral language.
5. On-going review of oral language programmes to ensure that students exposed to variety in order to develop all necessary skills during four year cycle in one room.
6. Develop children’s range of vocabulary and teach them how to make their discussion more interesting and engaging.
7. Develop children’s confidence in conversing, presenting information and giving their opinions.
8. Develop children’s ability to defend/ debate apoint of view.

1. Promote auditory memory
2. Teach and extend vocabulary and conceptual knowledge
3. Create a language learning environment
4. Teach a variety of spoken skills
5. Develop listening and speaking skills/oral comprehension

Year 2 – Comprehension/ Maths

1. Continue with oral language targets (Year 1)
2. Comprehension of written texts (link to oral language)
3. Exposure to a variety of writing genre (link to oral language)
4. Begin focus on maths language.

Year 3- Maths Language/ Problem Solving

1. Continue with comprehension of written texts and writing genres
2. Create a maths language environment
3. Focus on written as well as spoken maths language (vocabulary wall regularly updated)
4. Daily problem solving, realistic/ personal contexts
5. Problem solving across all strands of maths curriculum

1. Structured oral language topics (Chatterbox/ Green Emerald)
2. Structured oral language comprehension work
3. Themed oral language vocabulary extension
4. Variety of spoken skills
5. Communication Stations in both classrooms
6. Focus on vocabulary extension
7. Verbal presentation of projects
8. Focus on defending/ debating a particular point of view in senior classroom
9. Buddy reading (junior and senior classes) to be used for the following components of oral language development:

Auditory Memory

Vocabulary Development

Comprehension

Variety of spoken skills

1. Barrier Games
2. “Talk Homework”

Tracking Pupil Progress

Parent involvement and engagement in the learning process to be encouraged through oral language themes/topics and aspects of the pupil’s homework. Information leaflets to explain how parents can promote oral language competency.

• Discussion based on range of written genre- stories, instructions, recipes, letters…
• Multiple choice answers
• Cloze procedure
• Follow instructions to complete task/ picture
• Continue barrier games to develop aural comprehension
• Focus on prediction and inferential comprehension from 2^nd class up
• Explicit teaching of maths language
• Start maths vocabulary wall
• Begin every maths lesson with 10 minutes of oral/ mental maths

Teacher-designed and Standardised Test Result

Parent involvement and engagement encouraged through written comprehension homework activities. Parents to receive information/ tips explaining how they can promote competency in written/ listening comprehension. 

• Continue range of comprehension activities
• Revisit writing genres with follow on activities to build on skills accomplished during year 2
• Continue maths language wall and explicit teaching of maths language
• “Maths eye” introduced at whole school level to raise awareness of maths in our envoronment
• Focus on mental maths daily
• Focus on problem solving to cover all strands of maths curriculum
• Class problems to solve
• Pupils create maths problems for each other to solve
• Senior class prepare and present problem solving sessions to junior classroom
• Maths problem of the week for senior room- given on Monday to be solved by Friday

Practical work/ Presentations

Teacher-designed and Standardised Test Result

Continued encouragement of parent involvement and engagement through written comprehension homework activities. Tips provided on how to engage with “maths eyes” at home. Discuss maths problems at home and provide additional opportunities for problem solving.