This quick collection is focused at literacy leaders – both Literacy Coordinators, Studying Leads, or Curriculum Deputies – with a key function in main literacy to make sure that pupils entry the curriculum and reach assembly the educational calls for of faculty.
Each college coverage ought to be seen via the eyes of a just lately certified instructor on a full timetable, with a difficult class or lessons.
If you start with this assumption, it instantly makes you take into account the problem stage of embedding any shiny improvements, modified curricula, or new instructing strategies. Even a seemingly minor new instructing technique should be built-in into a posh array of current habits, lessons, timetabling, and classroom peculiarities.
Then we take into account literacy. Its scale and scope are close to limitless: studying, writing, discuss routines, spelling, grammar, enhancing, textual content decisions, textual content decisions, curriculum planning, and pupils’ literacy boundaries and so forth. The record goes on.
With these challenges attending creating instructing strategies and instructor habits, it is sensible for literacy leaders to rigorously about implementing a small variety of significant however manageable literacy developments.
COM-B – A useful mannequin to think about instructor behaviour change
It’s useful to try to distil down a possible literacy problem/improvement, similar to ‘enhance the studying of informational texts and curriculum entry’.
First, what particular instructor behaviours are we want to assist? As an illustration, it could be we would like lecturers to appraise the problem stage of all informational texts they’re utilizing. Along with that, it could be we’re after lecturers pre-teaching ‘keystone vocabulary’, or planning retrieval quizzes on the idea of chosen difficult informational texts.
We then could take into account what lively pupil behaviours we’re meaning to assist, in order that pupils learn informational texts extra efficiently. It could be that we train them older pupils particular note-taking methods, similar to Cornell Word-making, to assist them chunk down, navigate and report difficult informational texts.
After you have refined the specifics you may then use the COM-B mannequin to mirror additional on the behaviour change we’re after. The COM-B behaviour mannequin, is a part of a ‘behaviour change wheel’ devised by Susan Michie and colleagues. On the coronary heart of the strategy is a helpful consideration of the drivers of human behaviour – lecturers or in any other case:
You’ll be able to apply the mannequin to the related literacy strategy you want to assist:
Functionality: This describes each the bodily and psychological functionality to undertake a behaviour. As an illustration, do lecturers have the power and stamina, together with the deep data and abilities to replan classes and focus in on altering the studying strategy to difficult informational texts. In the case of informational texts, there’s doubtless a topic data problem to collate a spread of apt texts and to have the ability to break them down and scaffold them appropriately.
Alternative: This describes each the bodily alternatives (time for SOL planning and bodily sources – similar to new textbooks) and social alternatives (do my division or part staff colleagues wish to make related adjustments and wish to collaborate?). Maybe the chief actuality right here is giving over the time to make a change and having a staff of colleagues working with you. With out these helps, alternatives are all the time restricted. Keep in mind the busy RQT on a full timetable?
Motivation: This describes a reflective motivation (whereat lecturers plan and mirror upon their work, thereby influencing our attitudes and behaviours), together with our automated motivations (such because the habits that drive our day by day apply). After all, when you have each ‘functionality’ and ‘alternative’, then motivation is extra doubtless. With informational texts, our curriculum planning could steer our instructing approaches, together with our ordinary approaches to efficiently scaffolding troublesome texts in our topic or part. In reality, lecturers simply could not recognise there is a matter, and so are simply not motivated to alter.
COM-B and Literacy Priorities
Utilizing this mannequin to mirror on any proposed literacy priorities can show helpful. For instance, if there are challenges with regard to instructor data or method, then CPD is the answer. And but, if motivation is low, or there’s too little time or alternative, then CPD is more likely to show vital however inadequate.
You’ll be able to attempt it rapidly. You wish to enhance the instructing of the enhancing course of for pupils’ writing in any respect key levels throughout a variety of lecturers and TAs? Nicely, what instructor drawback is that this fixing (motivation)? How a lot topic data and confidence do lecturers have in explicitly instructing sentence variation or spelling patterns (functionality)? The place within the college day are these approaches being embedded and the way do lecturers discover the time to present significant suggestions to pupils (alternative)?
Now, take into account the strategy to behaviours that drive improved spelling, enhancing, and writing accuracy from a pupil perspective. Functionality, alternative and motivation nonetheless apply.
We could come to new reflections as literacy leaders. A CPD session, or perhaps a sequence of coaching, is unlikely to show a silver bullet.
Not solely that – it is probably not that lecturers are immune to adjusting their literacy practices in any respect – it could simply show that they don’t seem to be wholly clear what particular behaviour adjustments are literally vital within the classroom. As an illustration, lecturers could perceive an intention to learn extra prolonged texts, however they aren’t clear when or how greatest to enact prolonged studying throughout the restricted scope of present curriculum time.
Let’s take into account each literacy improvement, certainly all college enchancment plans, via the lens of that harried, enthusiastic RQT dealing with a stacked timetable. COM-B might assist to higher assist and steer profitable change. If we’re main literacy, in no matter function, let’s guarantee we seize each alternative to affect and assist lecturers to make profitable adjustments.
Learn the collection:
Half 1: ‘Main Literacy… And Perennial Issues’
Half 2: Main Literacy…And Influencing Lecturers
Half 3: Main Literacy…And Purposeful Skilled Growth
Half 4: Main Literacy…And Speaking Complexity
Half 5: Main Literact…And Evaluating Impression