How to improve literacy in the classroom

Katharine Scott
Children sat down on the floor reading books, with some looking up at their teacher who is sat with a book
Reading time: 5 minutes

Katharine Scott is a teacher trainer and educational materials developer with over 20 years’ experience writing English language textbooks. She’s co-author of the app Primary course - English Code and is based in Spain. Katharine outlines a number of practical ways you can help English language learners develop key literacy skills.

What is literacy?

Teachers at all stages of education often complain about their students’ reading skills. The students are literate. In other words, they can interpret the graphemes, or letters on the page, into words. But they struggle to identify the purpose of a text or to analyze it in a meaningful way. We could say that the students have poor literacy skills.

Literacy is a term used to describe an active, critical form of reading. Some of the skills of a critical reader include:

Checking new information

A crucial literacy skill involves discerning whether a text is factually true or not. A critical reader always checks new information against existing knowledge. As we read, we have an internal dialogue: Where does that information come from? That’s impossible because ….

Separating fact from opinion

This skill is essential for understanding many different types of texts from newspaper articles to scientific research.

Understanding the purpose of a text

All pieces of text have a main purpose. This may be entertainment, in the case of a story or persuasion, in the case of advertising. A critical reader will know how to identify the purpose of the text.

In the classroom, different types of text require different responses from the students. It’s important, as students grow older, that they know how to read and respond appropriately to a piece of written information.

Identifying key information in a text

This is an essential skill for summarizing information or following instructions. It is also important when we transform written information into something else, like a chart.

In many ways, literacy is the key skill that underpins learning at all stages. This may seem like an exaggeration, but consider the importance of the four skills outlined above.

Strategies to promote literacy

Many teachers and parents of early learners instinctively develop literacy skills before the children can even read.

When we read a story out loud to a child, we often ask questions about the narrative as we turn the pages: What is going to happen next? How do you think …. feels? Why is …?

These questions set the foundations for literacy.

Working with a reading text

Too often, the comprehension questions that teachers ask about a text are mechanical. They ask the student to “lift” the information out of the text.

A tale of two dragons

"Once upon a time, there was an island in the sea. One day, people were working in the fields. The sun was shining and there was one cloud in the sky. The cloud was a strange shape and moving towards the island. Soon the cloud was very big. Then a small boy looked up."

Taken from English Code, Unit 4, p. 62

Typical comprehension questions based on the text would be:

  • Where were the people working?
  • How many clouds were in the sky?

These questions do not really reflect on the meaning of the text and do not lead to a critical analysis. While these simple questions are a good checking mechanism, they don’t help develop literacy skills.

If we want to develop critical readers, we need to incorporate a critical analysis of reading texts into class work through a deep reading comprehension. We can organize the comprehension into three types.

1. Text level

Comprehension at “text level” is about exploring the meaning of individual words and phrases in a text. Examples for the text above could be:

  • Find words that show the story is a fairy tale.
  • Underline a sentence about the weather.

Other text-level activities include:

  • Finding words in the text from a definition
  • Identifying opinions in the text
  • Finding verbs of speech
  • Finding and classifying words or phrases

2. Between the lines

Comprehension “between the lines” means speculating and making guesses with the information we already have from the text. This type of literacy activity often involves lots of questions and discussions with the students. You should encourage students to give good reasons for their opinions. An example for the text above could be:

  • What do you think the cloud really is?

Other “Between the lines” activities include:

  • Discussing how characters in a story feel and why
  • Discussing characters’ motivation
  • Identifying the most important moments in a story
  • Speculating about what is going to happen next
  • Identifying possible events from fantasy events

Literacy activities are not only based on fiction. We need to help students be critical readers of all sorts of texts. The text below is factual and informative:

What skills do you need for ice hockey?

"Ice hockey players should be very good skaters. They always have good balance. They change direction very quickly and they shouldn't fall over. Players should also have fast reactions because the puck moves very quickly."

Taken from English Code, Level 4, p. 96

“Between the lines” activities for this text could be:

  • What equipment do you need to play ice hockey?
  • What is the purpose of this piece of text?

3. Behind the lines

Comprehension “behind the lines” is about the information we, the readers, already have. Our previous knowledge, our age, our social background and many other aspects change the way we understand and interpret a text.

An example for the text above could be:

  • What countries do you think are famous for ice hockey?

Sometimes a lack of socio-cultural knowledge can lead to misunderstanding. Look at the text below.

Is the relationship between Ms Turner and Jack Roberts formal or informal?

73 Highlands Road Oxbo, Wisconsin 54552
April 11th

Dear Ms. Tamer,
Some people want to destroy the forest and build an airport. This forest is a habitat for many wolves. If they destroy the forest, the wolves will leave the forest. If the wolves leave the forest, there will be more rabbits. This won't be good for our forest.
Please build the airport in a different place. Please don't destroy the forest.

Kind regards, Jack Robers

Taken from English code, Level 4, unit 5, Writing Lab

If your students are unaware of the convention of using Dear to start a letter in English, they may not answer this question correctly.

Other “Behind the lines” literacy activities include:

  • Identifying the type of text
  • Imagining extra information based on the readers’ experiences
  • Using existing knowledge to check a factual account
  • Identifying false information

Examples:

  • What job do you think Ms Turner has?
  • Do you think Jack lives in a village or a city?
  • Do wolves live in forests?

Literacy is more than reading

From the activities above, it’s clear that a literacy scheme develops more than reading skills. As students speculate and give their opinions, they talk and listen to each other.

A literacy scheme can also develop writing skills. The text analysis gives students a model to follow in their writing. In addition, a literacy scheme works on higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, deduction and summary.

Developing literacy skills so that students become active, critical readers should be a key part of educational programs at all ages. Literacy activities based on a reading text can be especially useful for the foreign language class.

With literacy activities, we can encourage students:

  • To use the text as a springboard for communicating ideas and opinions
  • To analyze the text as a model for writing activities
  • To see how language is used in context
  • To explore the meanings of words

More crucially, we are developing critical readers for the future.

Read our blog posts 'Reading strategies for primary and secondary' and 'How can teachers encourage parents to get kids reading at home?'.

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