Harlow Excellence Cluster

Report on Literacy Project 2004/05

Introduction

In the summer of 2003 ten schools in the Harlow South Cluster Group obtained funding under the Government’s Promotion of Excellence in schools scheme. One of the activities of focus was to consider ways in which creative activities such and Music, Art, Dance and Drama could be used to develop children’s writing. This report provides an overview of the progress made during the second year of the project.

Aim of the project.

To study the impact of creative activities such as Music, Art, Dance and Drama could have in the development of children’s writing. Special note would be taken to study the impact of the activities on Gender differences. Process. Latton Green Primary School provided leadership and support under the scheme to facilitate the funding arrangements and a collaborative approach between the schools to organise the project. Collaboration was sought between the Head teachers, Literacy Co-ordinators and the class teachers involved in developing the project. Release time was provided for the Literacy Co-ordinators involved for planning meetings and reflective discussions. Training was provided both centrally and in the individual schools for the teachers involved.

It was agreed that the process employed should not incur additional work load to teachers and extra curriculum planning in the schools. The requirements of the National Literacy Strategy would be addressed. To assist the project it was agreed to use commercially produced materials known as ‘Literacy Goes MADD’, which provided resources and planning ideas for the use of Music, Art, Dance and Drama. For the second year of the project it was decided to provide the resources to years 3 to 6 in all ten schools. The focus group for the second year of the study would be year 5. It was agreed to use the Essex County Literacy Levels for the assessment process and staff were given the opportunity at a training day to use agreement assessment procedures with colleagues to establish consistency in their evaluations of the children’s writing To minimise disruption to the teachers and their classes a period of five weeks in each term would be allocated in which to use the resources and to see what impact Music, Art, Dance and Drama could have on children’s creative writing.

During the first week of each project period the children in the classes involved would be asked to write an unaided piece of writing related to the term project theme. This would form the bench mark for the work to be carried out in the term.

At the end of the five week period the children would write another unaided piece based upon the theme of the resources used. This would enable comparisons to be made. Data of children’s attainment levels for both pieces would be submitted from each school for evaluation to identify the outcomes.

Towards the end of the project period interviews with children from all the schools involved were held to ascertain their perceptions and comments about the activities and resources used. Reports of each interview session would be prepared for the schools concerned. (See Appendix (B) for copies of the reports)

The project would continue to be monitored by an independent assessor (John Statton – J&S Associates) to provide an objective overview. That overview being the purpose of this report.

The Report

This report is set out to provide an overview of the second year of the project and is organised to cover three key aspects of the project with a view to ascertaining what the impact of the creative activities such as Music, Art, Dance and Drama had on the children’s writing development.

The three areas monitored were:

1) Analysis of the Assessment Data This section of the report sets out the overviews of the attainment levels achieved by the children and the changes across those levels during Autumn and Spring Terms only. The data has been restricted due to other LEA initiatives being introduced during the year requiring an increased staff involvement, which limited time for assessments to be completed

2) Children’s perceptions and comments arising from the interviews This section provides a broad selection of the many positive comments made by the children indicating their thoughts about the project. At the end of the Summer term 2005 a pupil survey was made of the year 5 and some year 6 children to ascertain their agreement levels on the comments made during the previous two terms. The results of the survey are included in this section.

3) Teachers’ comments about the project. This section indicates some of the comments that came from the teachers about the project.

1) Analysis of the Assessment Data

Autumn Term 2003

Analysis showed that, out of the 172 children assessed, changes within the levels of attainment from the first to the second piece of writing were as follows:

Levels

	Less 3	Less 2	Less 1	Constant	Plus 1	Plus 2	Plus 3	Plus 4	Absent
All Pupils	0%	1.7%	9.9%	48.9%	30.2%	8.1%	0.6%	0.6%	10.9%
Girls	0%	1%	16.9%	50.6%	22.5%	9%	0%	0%	11.9%
Boys	0%	2%	2%	47%	40%	7%	1%	1%	10%

88.4% of all pupils assessed sustained or improved their level of achievement.

82.1%of the girls assessed sustained or improved their level of achievement.

95.2% of all boys assessed sustained or improved their level of achievement

Diagram 1 -Gender Level Change Comparison Diagram Autumn Term 04

31% of Girls made an improvement.
46.5% of Boys made an improvement.
Boys made a greater improvement

A comparison of levels development can be seen from the following diagrams:

Diagram 2 - All pupils

Diagram 3 - Girls

Diagram 4 - Boys

Spring Term 2004

Analysis showed that, out of the 57 children assessed, changes within the levels of attainment from first to second piece of writing were as follows:

Levels

	Less 2	Less 1	Constant	Plus 1	Plus 2	Plus 3	Plus 6
All Children	1.5%	8.2	39.7%	36.7%	11.5%	0%	1.85%
Girls	3%	9%	42.5%	36.5%	9%	0%	0%
Boys	0%	7.4%	37%	37%	14%	0%	3.7%

90.3% of all pupils sustained and improved their level of achievement.

88% of the girls sustained and improved their level of achievement.

92.6% of the boys sustained and improved their level of achievement.

Diagram 5 Gender Level Change Comparison Diagram Spring Term 05

45.5% of Girls made improvement

51.9% of Boys made improvement

Boys made a greater improvement

A comparison of level development can be seen from the following diagram:

Diagram 6 - All Pupils

Diagram 7 - Girls

Diagram 8 - Boys

From the above data and diagrams it is clear that the trend for boys to make a better improvement than the girls is a continuing trend. The girls are attaining higher levels of achievement overall.

As the sample numbers have diminished completely during the year it is not possible to make a valid appraisal of the whole year progress as made in the previous report.

2) Interviews with Children

At the end of each project period in the Autumn and Spring Terms interviews were held with groups of children in each of the schools involved. In total 140 children (67 girls and 73 boys) took part in discussion groups which ranged in size from 4 to 9.

The following is a selection of the most common comments made by the children about the project.

• They recognised that ideas were important to write an interesting piece of writing and the activities had stimulated their think about ideas to use.
• One child made the comment that the activities ‘helps you remember to do better work because it is about one thing’, because ‘with other work you forget when it is more than one thing’. By this they meant that they preferred to work with a common theme as opposed to a continuous changing of topics.
• They likened the activities to a packet of crisps with flavours rather than the plain variety.
• They also saw the project as ‘a seed that grew into a tree’ because you were learning more each day about a lot of topics.
• They had used drama to act out the poem. They felt that ‘through drama you can act out your imagination’.
• Drama ‘made your think about what you were doing’.
• They enjoyed working with related topics based around the poem.
• Without the activities they were ‘not as keen and get bored’.
• They expressed their enthusiasm to ‘want to go to school because of the activities’.
• From the activities they had gained enjoyment and a sense of fun which made them interested in the narrative. This had led them to explore the emotions involved which ranged from sadness to excitement.
• By exploring their feelings towards the poem they had ‘transferred ideas to their writing’.
• They got into the story and wanted to hear more as they finished each chapter. They did want it end.
• They felt that in other lessons ‘you never get to focus on one book’ and that the activities ‘gives us more experience of what a book is like. It makes us want to read more’.
• They ‘definitely prefer’ the MADD work.
• Working with ‘one topic makes it easier to remember’
• One topic allowed them to finish their work and not forget what they wanted to write.
• They felt that they were being challenged by the work as you had to ‘use your brains more.’
• They felt that there was a quieter work atmosphere in the classroom when they were working with the activities.
• They had enjoyed the opportunity ‘to read every day.’
• Through their reading it was giving them more ideas and words to use in their writing.

The children were asked if they felt their writing had improved as a result of the project. There was 100% agreement in all groups that they had developed their writing for the following reasons.

• They had found it easy to write their chosen pieces as they were working on one theme.
• They felt that their writing was improving because they were working on the theme which allowed them to work on their writing each day so that they could improve it.
• They felt that they had ‘a better understanding of how to write’ from using the activities.
• They felt that by using the poems in drama you ‘got into poetry’ as they were not keen on poetry before.
• They had made a word study of the poem which had contained words which were new to them. This had given them a greater understanding of the meaning of the words and their context in the poem.
• From the activities and from listening to the story, they felt that their writing was ‘getting better’ as they were ‘writing more detail’ which had come from the information in the story.
• They had learnt how to write from other peoples’ points of view.
• They were using the five elements of persuasive writing which they had found useful.
• They felt that the descriptions in the poem helped to ‘build pictures in the mind’ which had led them to ‘discuss the feelings of the characters’.
• They had been made to think of ‘powerful words’ to use in their writing which had helped with their understanding of adjectives.
• From their work based on the poem they had learnt how to ‘do suspense’ which was achieved by using ‘short sentences’, ‘dropping clauses’ and ‘use of apostrophes’.
• They had learnt where to put ‘hooks to keep your reader interested’ to make sure they wanted to read the story.
• Their involvement in the story was helping them to develop a critical appreciation of a good text.
• They felt that the text had given them good ideas when writing in a diary style which made their writing more personal.
• They felt that by using the book they had learnt more about grammar when writing with connections, similes and metaphors.
• They were enjoying their writing with an improved use of description which had come from their work with the text.
• They felt that the work was more challenging as you had to think about the language used in the text. They felt this was helping them to improve their writing as they were using new words which they understood from the discussions in class.
• They all felt that their writing skills were developing with better use of punctuation, handwriting and use of correct grammar which had come from the activities linked to the text.
• They felt that they were becoming more focussed and concentrating on the task in hand. ‘Everyone was getting immersed in their work’.

Pupil Survey

As was indicated at the start of this report the ability of staff to provide a consistent assessment programme related to the project proved to be constrained by LEA initiatives that were introduced during the year.

In the Summer Term a Pupil Survey was conducted to provided evidence that would support the emerging trends and confirm the established perceptions of the children towards the project.

The survey was based upon comments that had been made by the children which reflected the key findings. The children were asked to agree or disagree with the comments. From the information it was possible to establish levels of agreement which reflected not only the whole group surveyed but the gender differences in the replies. Individual analysis was provided for each school providing comparative information which indicated the school’s agreement levels with that of the whole group.

In all 384 year five and six children took part, of which 173 were girls and 211 were boys.

The survey questions and agreement levels were as follows:

1) We liked the lessons because they were making our work enjoyable.
All 84% Girls 90%  Boys 79%

2) We are enjoying writing as we are writing about more interesting topics.
All 81% Girls 87% Boys 77%

3) We enjoyed the shared writing because working with a partner helps you to write better stories.
All 87% Girls 88% Boys 86%

4) We enjoyed being able to read every day which gave us more ideas and words to use in our writing.
All 80% Girls 81% Boys 79%

5) Listening to the story has helped us to write more detailed stories which made them more interesting.
All 85% Girls 87% Boys 82%

6) We got into the story and wanted to hear more as we finished each chapter. We did not want it to end.
All 76% Girls 73% Boys 78%

7) Drama gets you into things and gets you involved, it’s exciting.
All 82% Girls 86% Boys 79%

8) We developed ideas for writing from our drama lessons.
All 66% Girls 70% Boys 62%

9) Drama helps your think out what you want to write.
All 77% Girls 84% Boys 71%

10) You need ideas. Without ideas you cannot write a good story
All 95% Girls 96% Boys 95%

11) Our writing is improving because we are working on the story theme which lets us work on our writing each day.
All 77% Girls 84% Boys 71%

12) Our writing has improved as we are writing longer stories with better ideas.
All 87% Girls 90% Boys 84%

13) We feel proud and better about ourselves because our teacher tells us we are writing better stories.
All 86% Girls 90% Boys 82%

14) We think Literacy Lessons are more fun when linked to a story
All 75% Girls 79% Boys 72%

15) You write well about things that interest you and the activities provided that interest.
All 93% Girls 95% Boys 92%

Highest overall Level of Agreement was 95% (statement 10)
Highest girls’ Levels of Agreement was 96% (statement 10)
Highest Boys Level of Agreement was 95% (statement 10)

Lowest overall Level of Agreement was 66% (statement 8)
Lowest girls Level of Agreement was 70% (statement 8)
Lowest boys Level of Agreement was 62% (statement 8)

Average overall level of Agreement was 82%
Average Girls’ Level of Agreement was 85%
Average Boys’ Level of Agreement was 79%

In all cases there are high levels of agreement, but the girls higher levels than the boys could reflect a better appreciation of the factors required for developing creative writing and thus their overall higher performance. At the same time the difference of 6% is not significant and could reflect the boys improving performance which led to the continuing narrowing of the attainment levels. There was a very high level of agreement with the boys and girls for statements 10 and 15 which relate to the need for ideas to stimulate creative writing and the need for interesting activities, which the project provided. For all statements there was overwhelming majority support.

3) Teachers comments

• Ofsted had been very pleased to report favourably about the project in their school. They saw it as a strength within their school.
• The children had enjoyed all the encompassing components covering the Music, Art, Dance and Drama.
• The project had empowered the teachers to teach Drama and Music.
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• It had given the children the opportunity to express themselves in a variety of ways other than in the Literacy Hour Mode. They had been more creative with their writing.
• It had proved to be a very good input for children with Learning Difficulties.
• The more able had been extended, but this required thought in the teacher’s planning to create the appropriate opportunities.
• It had provided a rich lesson resource for the artistic and talented child which had allowed teachers to see children using their brains creatively.
• Having seen good progress it was felt that it would be a shame to take a backward step by not continuing to use and develop the resources.
• It was felt that the children had never been so enthusiastic about literacy lessons
• The children were getting a much wider range of inputs, particularly from the materials which provided ‘vivid and beautifully illustrated books’. Combined with the text, it offered good models for writing styles to the children.
• This was much preferred to the ‘snippets from the Literacy Strategy which was not useful as children wanted to know more, but you had to move on’. This was always cutting the children off from discovering more.
• The children have been able to see themselves as writers by exploring the text which has opened up their minds to stories as a whole ‘instead of bits’
• The activities are ‘making children to question, to listen and to think about a story line’.
• Through the activities children really get to understand a book. It enables the children to see a character develop and to explore their emotions through drama.
• The activities encouraged the children ‘to read and seek out authors as well as researching the background to the story’. It has been ‘getting them to think’.
• The drama had stimulated children to visualise ideas. The use of videoing drama had prompted thoughtful feed back.
• The children have been motivated by the project and they have gained self confidence in their writing.
• The children’s ‘skills of empathy have improved’. They now look at writing in a different way. They ‘look at the story behind the story’.
• The project has given the children more opportunities for interactive and experiential learning which is broadening their horizons.
• The resources provided a more fun way of teaching with opportunities for more cross curricular learning.
• Using the resources was making teachers to think about ways in which to change their approach to curriculum planning.
• There was more opportunity for sentence work and they liked the flexibility which was provided. This flexibility was enhanced the more they were learning about the resources.
• The wide range of activities led to a natural development for class assemblies and shared activities. This had been appreciated by the parents who attended the assemblies.
• There is so much in the resources that ‘you don’t get lazy as it gives you extra ideas, stimulates creative activities which give a focus’
• After using the resources some teachers cannot go back to using extracts as provided in the Literacy Strategy. They are now using whole books at times when the resources are not being used.
• Teachers have gained confidence from the project and it has made learning fun. As one person put it ‘I got excited myself about the project so I am enthusiastic.’
• It was felt that the choice of books was very good which had encouraged the teachers and children to seek out and read other books by the authors chosen.
• The drama activities were by far the most influential activity in the resources
• The resources provide a wide range of ideas and activities which saves time for the teacher to search for ideas.
• Good links were being made through the use of IT for research purposes in History Science and Geography.
• There was a consensus as to the way in which the project had provided a more effective and efficient approach to learning as several curriculum objectives could be achieved in a more relevant and integrated manner.
• Drama was felt to be an important motivating activity for the children.
• The use of the resources in the mixed age group classes had provided a cohesive learning opportunity.
• It was noted that the practical activities, such as sewing ‘the swag bag’ in the Highwayman resource has been enjoyed by all the children and had developed into a ‘circle time’ atmosphere where conversation about various topics had taken place.

4) Conclusions

The aim of the project was to consider the impact of creative activities on children’s writing. From the evidence above the following statements would be seen to be substantive for the second year running.

From the interviews with children it is clear that there continues to be a very positive appreciation of the learning environment the project has created.

The children remain very enthusiastic about the way in which they have been involved in the creative activities. They felt that their writing skills continued to improve as a direct result of the creative inputs and the teachers’ leadership.

The children’ responses to the Agreement Survey show a very clear understanding of the appropriate components that are required to provide a secure framework to enable them to develop as creative writers.

The teachers’ comments show a clear indication of their commitment to the project and the resultant development of the children. They have considered the implications of the use of the resources within their schools and the way in which they can be used effectively.

The limited data evidence has shown that children of all abilities have made good and in some cases very significant progress in their creative writing skills and levels of achievement.

More girls than boys continued to attain higher levels of attainment throughout the year. However the boys have continued to achieved a higher level of progress which has further reduced the difference between the boys and girls levels of attainment.

John StattonSeptember 2005

JS Associates, Making Education Creative
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