Research School Network: Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools A whole-school approach to literacy with a long-lasting impact on daily practice in secondary schools.

With planned implementation, it has the potential to transform literacy in all subject areas. In contrast to much general literacy advice, guidance within this report places subject specialists at the centre of the school improvement plan. With collaboration and emphasis on ​‘disciplinary literacy’ (Recommendation 1), all teachers will see how they can purposefully and explicitly teach students to read, write and communicate effectively in their own subjects.

We will look at all seven of the recommendations in the report: disciplinary literacy, vocabulary instruction, reading academic texts, breaking down complex writing, combining writing instruction with reading, structured talk and providing high quality interventions. Teachers will be given the opportunity to really dig into the research and consider its relevance in the light of vignettes of practice. They will have the opportunity to reflect on and analyse their practice, supported by 3 gap tasks in order to create a tailored implementation plan for their particular context.

We will hone in on ​‘disciplinary literacy’ and focus on the differences between all subjects in terms of the literacy skills needed. This difference stems from the way these disciplines create, communicate and evaluate information. Maybe the use of the passive voice, long noun phrases, nominalization of verbs and hedging in Science holds the key to unlock the door to literacy for our students? Or the extensive range of text types students will be faced with in History or the very different reading skills needed in Mathematics? Different types of instruction are needed to teach those literacy skills (Shanahan 2012).

One of the aims of the course will be to encourage collaboration across subjects as together teachers develop approaches to enable students to become independent learners who can learn about their discipline from reading, writing in discipline appropriate ways and thinking deeply about what they learn. As Shanahan argues ​‘Professional development is critical if disciplinary literacy practices are to deepen what it means to read in each academic subject area’. (Shanahan 2015)

We look forward to working with you!