The Learning Environment

Developing Display in Your School

Lancashire Literacy Strategy

Developed by the Lancashire Literacy Consultants working with Lancashire Literacy Co-ordinators and Leading Literacy Teachers

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The Learning Environment – Developing Display inYour School

Introduction

This booklet will support co-ordinators as theyevaluate and develop the learning environment in theirschool. It was produced by Literacy Co-ordinators andLeading Literacy Teachers in Lancashire over a seriesof courses delivered in the autumn term 2002.

This booklet will help co-ordinators as they use theaudit forms in the Literacy Co-ordinators file. Usingthe audit, they will be able to identify strengths andweaknesses in their schools. This booklet will then helpthem to develop display and learning prompts in theschool.

It can also be used by classroom teachers to helpdevelop their own classroom learning environment. Thesuggestions for learning prompts are identified by yeargroups and will help teachers identify and develop theprompts they use with their children.

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Display

Ensure that displays are up to date – they can become part of the furnitureafter a time. Bright, cheerful and colourful two and three D displays addinterest and variety. Interactive displays can ensure engagement andconsolidation.

Where space is at a premium, displays can be developed using albums, big books,charts or pictures which children can return to from time to time. Ensure thatdisplay is at the eye level of the children wherever possible and involve them indeveloping the display. This will increase their sense of ownership and they willbe more likely to use and refer to the resources. Much of the work created inthe shared session e.g. text marking, writing frames can be directly displayed onthe walls to give the children immediate and appropriate support as they workindependently.

What can display do?

Display shows the ethos of the classroom.� Celebrate children’s work – ensure that all children are represented� Create a lively, colourful, interesting environment� Give examples of expectations from children of kinds of work and

presentation of work e.g. role model boards� Develop interaction with the displayed work to support or encourage the

children� Show class, group and individual targets and celebrate their attainment

What kinds of display?

� Graffiti walls – can children add limericks, powerful verbs, interestingphrases

� Cross curricular work� Table top display for active engagement e.g. magnetic letters/whiteboards� Key vocabulary – common words, better words for said� Pictures, diagrams, samples of writing, examples of text types� The process of writing/learning to spell e.g. Look Cover Write Check� Annotated writing� Speech bubbles� Display of library loans related to current work/topics� Questions � Familiar illustrations/links e.g. Floppy� Book characters� Pictures/diagrams – visual e.g. photographs showing children engaged in the

process� Challenge boards – Can you…? How many…?� Genre check lists

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Interactive display

� Lift the flaps� Washing lines� Achievement boards� Children add to displays to enhance and develop e.g. spelling patterns� Key questions linked to the displays

Learning Prompts

Supporting children in their independent work is very important. The workundertaken in the shared and guided sessions of the literacy hour oftenpresents children with prompts to support them in their reading, writing andword level work.

Developing the use of these prompts in classroom display will help to ensure thatthese skills are transferred and that the children have clear examples on whichto base their work.

The following pages exemplify learning prompts which are year group specific.

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Reception

Text Level

� Opportunities for children to write/read in the role play area – include

writing frames appropriate to the theme

� Book corner where children can read

quietly

� Opportunity for children to ‘read’ the text

shared by the whole class in the book corner

� Provide ‘pointers’ for the children to use

when they are in the book corner

� Book of the week, with a voting box for children

to respond using a smiley/sad face card

� Writing table – lots of resources, e.g. pens, pencils, felt pens, crayons,

coloured paper, envelopes, etc.

� Books with finger puppets

� Story boxes – decorated shoe box containing small world play resources on a

theme e.g. Bob the Builder, the pet shop, dinosaurs,

characters from a story

� Instructions for how to carry out tasks around the

classroom, with pictures/photographs and captions

� Listening area

� Displays using well known phrases

from books

� Nursery rhymes displayed

� Arrows to show that reading and

writing goes from left to right

� Lists for the children to sign and tick, e.g. I have been on the computer

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Sentence Level

� Label/caption some resources with a full sentence, e.g. The Lego is in here.

� Simple captions on displays making use of high frequency words

� Write a ‘daily question’ for the children to respond to, on a

board close to where they come in

� Sentence makers

� Sentence starters, e.g. I am, I can, I like, I went…

Word Level

� Alphabet washing line

� Letters on laminated cards, big enough to follow with a finger

� Tactile letters – playdough, magnetic, sand

� High Frequency Word Tree – words on card and laminated, stuck to the tree

with Velcro so that the children can remove them and use them as required.

� Labels on all resources, accompany with pictures (old YPO/HOPE etc.

catalogues are an excellent place to find pictures of your

resources)

� Children’s names on laminated card – use for self

registration

� Matching children’s names to photographs

� Display the days of the week and the months of the year – provide

opportunities for children to order the words

� Picture dictionaries

� Letter/word games and puzzles

� Upper and lower case letter matching

� Onset-rime lists – interactive displays where the children can change the

initial sound

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Year 1

Text Level

� Specific prompts to support current literacy focus, e.g. examples of captions

and labels, simple checklist reminders of key features of a sentence;

� Prompts to support the process of writing, e.g.

- Talk to a friend before you write your sentence

- Good writers in class 2 always think before they

write

- How to be a good talk partner.

� Displays which encourage children to engage, e.g. adding

words to sentences, putting in full stops using blu-tack,

labelling parts of a text – title, cover page, blurb etc;

� A collection of super story starters/ key features of

story language taken from texts read e.g. ‘There once lived a wicked Troll…’

� Have a WOW board to display children’s writing;

� A list of I will statements for writing, e.g.

- I will always try to use some words that I have never used before;

� A list of Wow words collected from texts read.

� Pictures of characters from stories read with

characteristics described around them;

� Collect endings of stories for display, e.g.

…and they all lived happily ever after.

� Develop a ‘story wall’, display children’s

pictures of a story in sequence and add

captions/sentences to tell the story.

� A collection of outlines of story plots, e.g.

captions, pictures, arrows etc to record main

incidents in order;

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� Collect simple questions to use as part of an interactive display, e.g. Where is

the Little Red Riding Hood? How many? Etc;

� A collection of favourite poems in a class anthology;

� A list of poetic sentences…;

� A writing frame for a recount – First, next, after, when

etc;

� Class book about, e.g. Our Day at the Zoo…;

Sentence Level

� A list of SUPER Sentences;

� Interactive displays where children can change words around in sentences or

add to sentences;

� Reminders to use capital letters and full stops;

� Question board – Is this a sentence or a caption? Children can add stick on

question marks;

� Sentences with words covered so that children can predict what the word

might be, let them select from a group of words which would fit;

� When to use a capital letter display;

Word Level

� A word wall with removable high-frequency words for children to access

independently;

� A word display highlighting key words from literacy

lessons;

� Spelling/phonic prompts, such as table-top

laminated alphabet strips, washing line alphabets,

families of spellings, class dictionaries, topic word

collections, phoneme frames;

� Reminders of the process of spelling – What do we do

when we get stuck? How can we find out? Who else can help us?

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� Try it papers/white boards on tables for children to use;

� Magnetic letters to try words out;

� Alphabet display situated where children can see it during shared word work;

� A how to form your letters display;

� Consonant clusters to add to parts of words displayed on the wall, e.g. __ip

(sl, bl, tr etc);

� A list of words and their plurals – this could be interactive;

� Past and present tense sentences;

� Vowel/consonant wall display for children to refer to.

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Year 2

Text level

� Examples of story starters – space for children to add

their favourites

� Exciting ideas for interesting endings

� Appropriate connectives to use to make writing more

effective – connectives for time

� Writing frames linked to types of writing used in literacy and other

curricular areas

� Prompts for using working/listening partners

� Use boxes which can be turned with a prompt on

each side e.g. SAY – WRITE – READ

� Large 3D pencil – each side has a different

suggestion for the audience of a piece of writing

� Story wheels with suggestions for the different

element of a story

� Character profiles

Sentence level

� Support writing speech – highlight speech in different colours to other parts

of the text – link with speech bubbles to reinforce.

� What makes a good sentence? – examples

How many time words can you use in your story?Have you tried …………….

first after later the next day eventually

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� Punctuation pointers

Word level

� High frequency words – displayed or laminated examples on tables.

Months/days/cross curricular vocabulary

� Suggestions of what to do if you get stuck spelling a word

� Same sound/different spelling display

� Interactive phonics work

� Lists of synonyms

� Spelling strategies – suggestions and examples for self help

� Juicy words to describe character

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Year 3

General

Objectives for lesson

Class and group targets

What to do if you finish your work

Word Level

High frequency words

Alphabet chart

Word families

Spelling Chart: What to do if you get stuck on a word

Themed word banks

Spelling strategies

Spelling rules linked to objectives e.g.:

� Two syllable words with double consonants

� Homophones to/two/too

� Verb endings ed/ing

� Prefixes and suffixes

Sentence level

Punctuation prompts:

� Rules for adding speech marks

� Conjunctions

� Time connectives

� Using commas in a sentence

� Apostrophe to mark possession

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Interactive wall displays e.g. Sentence of the day/week

Sentence beginnings

Rules for capitalisation

Plurals investigations

List of powerful verbs

Interactive verb wall adding ing / ed

Adjective banks

Text level

Writing prompts

Shared writing modelled by the teacher

Annotated children’s work

Planning frames for different genres

Story starters

Story endings

Genre checklist linked to text types studied e.g.:

� Information texts

� Non chronological reports

� Instructions

� Letters

� Myths and legends

� Cross curricular links to Literacy

Character descriptions

Different types of poetry

Marking key

‘How to edit your work’

Book reviews

Presentation tips

Self help strategies

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Year Four

Word Level Prompts

� Suffixes machine input root word> root word + suffix� Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check� Spelling games/cards linked to a spelling rule� Spelling challenges e.g. ‘can you spot

the small word inside the big word?’� Topic Words� Word Bank posters

Sentence Level Prompts

� Alternative words for ‘said’� Connectives list� Powerful verbs display� Tenses machines- input past >

present > future� Better adjectives flower – centre of

flower ‘nice’ children write on � petals with improved suggestions� Grammar – tricky areas display

prompts Speech conventions poster

Text Level Prompts

� Text type/Genre checklists� Book area with children’s book reviews� Range of texts linked closely to genre range being studied

� Questions board where pupils canrespond to a stimulating display in othercurriculum areas

� Book areas with questions next to topicrelated books e.g. ’can you find out about…?’

� Poetry boxes with activity prompt cards next tothem

� ‘Role on the wall’ character studies from textdrawn inside silhouette� Big books from the shared session

displayed on stands with post-it labels pointingout genre features

� Interactive writing display� Shared Writing - Work in Progress – examples with

annotations/commentary� Letter writing frames

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� Writing corner with different writing materials� Easy access to dictionaries, thesauri, reference books etc.� List of story openings/endings� Proof reading/Editing checklist� Writing prompt sheet� Editing Partner prompts e.g. ‘One thing I really liked about your story

was...Can you tell me more about…’

Self-help Prompts

� ‘What to do if I get stuck’ list� ‘What to do if I can’t spell a word’ chart� ‘I can’ targets relating to objectives� Classroom/School rules� Lesson Objectives� Clearly labelled resources

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Year Five

Word Level

� Objectives;

� Interactive displays – adding prefixes and suffixes; adding to lists of

spellings; matching tasks;

� Spelling rules;

� Spelling tips;

� Mnemonics;

� Cross-curricular

vocabulary;

� Spelling caterpillars;

� Labels;

� Word walls;

� Targets

� Alternatives to ‘said’

� Alternatives to ‘nice’, ‘sad’, ‘noisy’, ‘happy’, etc.

� Amazing adjectives, powerful verbs, astounding adverbs;

� Topic word lists;

� Definitions/ glossary poster;

� Persuasive phrases;

� Plurals;

Sentence Level

� Objectives;

� Time Connectives;

� Sequence connectives;

� Grammatical terminology – silly sentence containing every word class;

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� Targets;

� Punctuation reminders;

� ‘Always put yourself last in a list of people’

� Blank speech bubbles to fill in;

� New sentence displayed each week and written

in different ways – reordered;

Text Level

� Objectives;

� Key features of text types;

� Story starters and endings;

� Reminders of purposes and audiences;

� Picture prompts to include senses: ‘What can the character hear, see, feel,

see, taste?’

� Work in progress shared writing book;

� Interactive daily message boards;

� Class anthologies;

� Individual writing portfolios;

� Gallery of work;

� Book Reviews;

� Author profiles;

� Writing partners;

� Writing frames – narrative

and non-narrative;

� Targets

� Authorial intent prompts and ways

to express opinions

� Editing symbols

� Writing process reminders for each stage;

� Questions – “Have you included…”

� Checklist for drafting/editing etc;

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� Examples of expressing moods, characters,

feelings;

� Examples of similes and metaphors;

� Dialogue layout;

� Handwriting formation chart;

� Examples of titles appropriate to week’s genre;

� Collect and classify shades of meaning;

� Idiomatic phrases;

Self-Help

� Dictionaries;

� Thesauruses;

� Genre vocabulary cards – fantasy words and phrases; sci-fi words and

phrases;

� How to work independently;

� “Think of a sentence, say the sentence, write the sentence, read the

sentence.”

� Planning formats – skeletons

� Timetable;

� Labelled drawers and cupboards;

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Year 6

Text

� Statements to support personal response to texts – It makes me imagine…,

The author is saying…, It gives the impression that…, It’s the author’s way of

saying…,It makes me feel…

� Genre Checklists – fiction and non-fiction,

identifying key features of different text

types. Include specific examples of

features taken from Shared Texts.

� Agreed plan/framework for the current piece

of writing.

� Shared writing/children’s writing with key

features labelled.

� Examples of different planning formats for different text types e.g.

spidergram, timeline etc

� Editing – symbols to use when editing writing.

� Character – reminders that authors present characters through action,

dialogue and description. Collection of examples found in reading.

� Story openings – collections of story openings, sorted into categories, e.g.

stories that start with dialogue, stories that start with action, descriptive

openings, other devices such as exclamations,

questions etc.

� Paragraphs – reminders of when to

start a new paragraph.

� Definitions and examples of figurative

language, e.g. metaphor, simile,

personification.

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Word

� Word roots, prefixes and suffixes –

lists which children can add to as

they come across more examples.

� Collections of connectives – types and

examples of usage.

� Glossaries of technical/historical vocabulary related to text type being

studied, e.g. scientific explanation, historical story.

� Word origins – lists of words coming from Latin, Greek, Old English etc.

� Spelling rules and strategies.

� Useful mnemonics for commonly mis-spelt or tricky words.

� Collections of proverbs and idioms with meanings.

Sentence

� A sentence written vertically with word classes indicated beside each word.

� Sentence building activity (perhaps from Grammar for Writing) involving

reordering sentences, or constructing complex sentences. Laminated clauses

or words could be rearranged to create new sentences.

� How to use more sophisticated punctuation – colon, semi-colon, dashes,

brackets etc.

� Collections of persuasive words and phrases gathered from reading, e.g.

leaflets, holiday brochures, advertisements.

� Dialogue – guidance for setting out dialogue in text.

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Special Schools and Units

There is a difference between what would be expected in one kind of special

school compared to another. This is a list covering a range of different types of

provision.

� Symbolic or pictorial timetable

� Signs, labels and symbols

� Stimulating displays (not suitable for all children

in special schools)

� A range of different types of writing

� Multi-sensory displays

� Children’s work

� Examples of different genre types

� Displays of books / authors

� Texts relating to other areas of the curriculum

� Objects of reference

� Photographs

� Tactile objects

� Children’s names

� Labelled equipment

� Alphabet strips

� Key words

� Topic words

� Reading scheme characters

� School rules

� Days of the week and months of the

year

� Literacy targets