Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

Section 6 Literacy development for older pupils
Cycle 1. Names and countries
For pupils with no English and very basic literacy needs. These pupils
may have no previous experience of formal schooling.
Literacy begins with known language
For pupils who are absolute language beginners a good place to start is with their names and the names
of the countries that their families come from. This allows pupils to familiarise themselves with the
names of their classmates and reinforces the inclusiveness of the learning environment.
The second stage of this cycle (reading) introduces pupils to the concept of the alphabet.
Teachers’ notes
The notes which accompany the activities in this first cycle are quite detailed. Working with pupils
beyond Senior Infants who, in addition to learning to speak, read and write in a new language, may
also be new to the learning environment is a challenging task. The detailed nature of the notes shows
how the change of focus from speaking to reading to writing is facilitated by a series of carefully
planned steps.
Letter flash cards (pages 193-195)
The letter flash cards are an excellent resource for developing basic literacy skills. They are extremely
effective in:
Developing sound-symbol correspondence.
Developing and consolidating spelling skills.
The flash cards have a dot towards the top left corner to indicate which way up the letters are. Pupils
often say the name of the letter correctly, but then place it upside down or on its side. With the letters
placed alongside each other, the significance of the dot can be pointed out.
The dot has been placed in the top left corner as this is the point on a page where we normally start
writing and to which our attention is drawn.
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