Janet Evans, NLS literacy consultant, Literacy and Learning

	1. The Foundations of Learning
	Literacy in the early years
	Children's early literacy experiences at home and school can fundamentally influence their later achievements in reading and writing. This video demonstrates how experienced, skilful teachers in nursery and reception classes build on children's home learning and on their pleasure in rhyme, stories and rhythmical language to support their learning of written language.
	2. Gaining Control
	Writing at KS1
	Children who are learning to write are starting to express meaning in written form and to make sense of the alphabetic writing system. This video observes children's progress as beginning writers and throughout KS1. Looking at a variety of classroom situations, from information writing with the whole class to the development of individual extended stories, it shows skilful teachers demonstrating how they guide and promote children's progress in writing and spelling.
	3. Becoming Independent
	Reading at KS1
	This video shows children learning to use all available sources of information to make sense of texts. It demonstrates how children's involvement in well-loved stories familiarises them with story structures, written language structures, and literary styles and rhythms. This video is a fund of imaginative and stimulating ideas for classroom activities.
	4. Reflective Readers
	Reading at KS2
	This video demonstrates how children at KS2 use reading for learning and establish personal preferences as independent readers. Highlighting the key experiences that children need in order to become competent, reflective and critical readers, it follows teachers as they provide opportunities for children to think carefully about their reading, explore the meanings of texts and compare their interpretations with others. The video offers a range of inspiring examples of good practice, which show children learning to focus on the language, structures and themes of fiction and information texts.
	5. Communities of Writers
	Writing at KS2
	This video demonstrates the key writing experiences that children need in order to develop their ideas in writing and become confident and effective writers of fiction and information texts. Teachers are shown modelling different kinds of writing, helping children to revise and improve their texts and drawing attention to word structures and spellings.
	6. Literacy in Practice
	A parents guide to literacy teaching and learning
	This video for parents looks at children's progress as readers and writers throughout the early years and primary years, from ages 3 to 11. It vividly demonstrates how, from the outset, teachers aim to involve children with literacy and ensure that they see the point of reading and writing. The video stresses the value of home-school partnerships and conferences with parents, at every stage of a child's schooling.

What reviewers have said about Learning to be Literate videos

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Reviews for Learning to be Literate videos

“If literacy for all is an ideal, then CLPE's Learning to be Literate series aspires to present it on video. Each of the six films in this set lovingly illustrates the essential elements that facilitate children becoming effective users of literacy. There are knowledgeable role-models who share the processes of talking, listening, reading and writing with children in school. There are print- rich learning environments that use a range of teaching approaches to offer a wealth of interesting and beautifully presented literature of diverse genres. And this means there are children who are positively motivated to learn, because they are seeing learning as a meaningful process that builds on what they already know, forges links with parents and carers in the home environment, and ultimately helps them relate to the wider world.
The series spans the primary years from nursery to Year 6…

…I very much like this new set of videos. The sales information claims that the videos are “supporting the National Literacy Strategy”, and except for the lack of guided reading examples, they are mostly successful in doing so. There is a strong sense of direction in relation to principles, philosophy and background theory; and at the same time it comes across loudly and clearly that the CLPE team wants to effect change by providing examples of good practice (not always in the easiest of situations). CLPE has succeeded once again, and this series of videos will provide a valuable resource/input stimulus for use in professional development sessions and initial teacher education courses with all interested parties across the primary range. Well done CLPE.”

Janet Evans, literacy consultant, City of Liverpool
Literacy and Learning, April/Mary 1999

“At about 40 minutes each, these videos, which document effective practice in literacy teaching, are ideal for staff meetings. They answer the question, “What does good literacy teaching look like?” All the teachers (from various London borough schools) are exemplary practitioners and elicit excellent responses from their children who range from the highly articulate to those for whom English is a second language. All age groups are seen working on challenging but achievable objectives. The children, regardless of ability, are nurtured as confident, thoughtful and reflective readers and writers through a range of stimulating activities, skilled questioning and peer support.

The teachers are shown conferring with individual children and parents, and also talking straight to camera about their methods and aims. Their explanation of shared writing and the use of open structures is particularly good, as is their skill in using the children's own experiences - including placing a high value on cultural traditions, such as oral storytelling. And for the staffroom cynic, let me bear witness to the fact that these are real children in genuine, mixed-ability classes of 30 or so (the uncertain mumbling response of the less able when reading aloud a difficult, whole-class text is very true to life). The production values are comparable to the national literacy strategy video material and helpfully include text on the screen to accompany the children's reading of their own work…

Kevin Harcombe, headteacher, Times Educational Supplement, 25 May 1999

Literacy in practice: a parents' guide to teaching and learning

The CLPE team led by Myra Barrs has produced a short video which packs in an enormous amount and, by dint of expert selection and sequencing of items, unobtrusive but highly professional direction, and a satisfying succession of good teachers seen going about their business, provides a first-rate resource. It fulfils its stated aim of being a resource for parents, but I can see it with a function for govemors and students, as well as INSET for new teachers.

Children's development in literacy is followed through KS1 and 2. We see several classes at work with different teachers and the whole is linked with a precise, beautifully spoken commentary. Those looking for justification for any one approach to reading or dependence on mantras of time allocation in the Literacy Hour will be disappointed. This is a holistic approach; the indivisibility of reading, writing and talk shine through and, what's more, is conclusively demonstrated. Every approach is united here: the individual learning process is the main concern. Home-school co-operation is emphasised. This is absorbing viewing and can be revisited over and again to offer new insights. Excellent.

Denis Hamley, School Librarian, Volume 47, Number 3, Autumn 1999

The foundations of learning: literacy in the early years
Gaining control: writing at Key Stage 1
Becoming independent: reading at Key Stage

“These three videos are excellent and would be ideal as an in-service training tool for primary schools. They are a great extension to the National literacy Strategy training materials. Realistic demonstrations of good practice are provided. Perhaps more importantly they feature teachers reflecting on how they guide children's progress as both writers and readers, and how they see their role as being crucial to aid their children's learning. The videos are about literacy as an objective rather than being specifically tied to the Literacy Hour itself. Primary teachers will be able to gain knowledge and ideas from such well-produced resources. Each video contains a written copy of the commentary which is helpful for later reference. All three videos would be an excellent investment as teachers will not only learn, they will also find them enjoyable.”

Rebecca Taylor, School Librarian, Volume 47, Number 3, Autumn 1999

”…Firstly, there is a refreshing realism about the classroom situations portrayed by CLPE. Whilst I do not doubt for a moment that the NLS too used real teachers and real classrooms, the extracts on those videos remain stylised, polished performances. I recall one in particular from Module 5 (“Shared and guided reading and writing at KS2”). Here the teacher is talking about planning a story. A series of closed questions which demand the answers “character”, “setting”, “problem”, “conflict” and “resolution” in quick succession are posed to a class of children who are far from engaged in what is going on. There is a real sense of an agenda here - a body of knowledge to deliver and a formulaic lesson intended as a model to copy.

CLPE are in the real world. Here we have real classrooms where the children sometimes lead the discussion in a new direction, where the unexpected answer is not neatly moulded into the: “correct” one but used instead as a stimulus to move the discussion in a new direction. Here the children are involved, not detached; they are engaged because their teachers constantly seek to capture their interest and offer them new and exciting experiences. Above all - and this is the element so badly lacking from the NLS materials - here are real communities of adults and children learning together about literacy.

But secondly, and ironically, perhaps the most encouraging thing of all in the CLPE videos is that these classes are nevertheless quite obviously engaged in the NLS. Which means that behind this prescribed body of knowledge, and beyond the seemingly endless learning objectives, there is still room for all that so many of us still hold dear - the freedom to build a classroom which is a community of readers and writers, where a love of reading and writing need not be stifled. Perhaps the real value of these videos lies in just this.”

Claire Saunders, The Primary English Magazine, June 1999

Power of Reading Project