Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

Section 6 Literacy development for older pupils
Sample activities for pupils with A1 level speaking skills
The activities can be used to focus on a range of literacy needs from
the basic skills of recognising letters of the alphabet, through word
recognition and reading short sentences to the more developed skills
of writing sentences from prompts.
Introduction (model approach)
The previous cycles contained activities for developing the basic literacy skills of pupils with no or little
English. The following activities address the needs of pupils with a different profile – those who need
to continue (or begin) literacy development but whose speaking skills are developed to A1+.
Consequently, a different approach has been taken to the design of the activities that follow. In
recognising pupils’ speaking skills, the activities establish language in context from the outset and
quickly adopt an integrated approach. This facilitates a situation in which the language at the centre of
each activity can be used by different pupils in different ways to address their particular literacy needs
be they at alphabet, word or sentence level.
The issue of age-appropriate materials
Existing materials for developing basic literacy skills are generally aimed at pupils in the very early years
of primary education. Consequently their content may not be suitable for older pupils.
All the activities in this section address the issue of age-appropriate materials as they are based on the
principle that the most effective way to support pupils in developing early reading and writing skills is
to use language which is known to pupils and which relates directly to Units of Work in the primary
curriculum. The activity ‘Using pupils’ own language’ takes this principle a step further in that it roots
the development of literacy skills in the language which pupils produce.
The activities as models
The two activities which follow are intended as models. They can be used
as the basis for teachers to create their own activities according to the
needs and known language of their pupils.
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