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Making Literacy REAL for everyone! |
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Words! Literacy Club |
A Vision for the Future |
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About Words! |
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“Words!” began with a desire to do something to help children who were failing in schools through no fault of their own. The idea of a Literacy Club came from the writings of Frank Smith who talks about the need to include all children in “the Literacy Club”. Too often children are excluded from this Club because they don’t get what is being taught. I wanted to return to a more classic approach to learning that puts the onus on me as the teacher to ensure that learning takes place. Without the inspiration of Frank Smith, the work of Melvyn Ramsden and ‘Real Spelling’ and all the children worldwide who have embraced this approach to learning, “Words!” would not have been possible – it would have remained one of my many good ideas that just didn’t make it. “Words!” then, is an environment where children can learn freely the truth about literacy, in their own time, with the encouragement and help of others interested in the same thing. I do this one-to-one with some students and through the club sessions with others. Now, with this website, I am offering a virtual “Words!” Literacy Club in an endeavour to spark an interest, open a dialogue, create an opportunity for all wishing to embrace the English language in a challenging and enlightening way. Enjoy your visit and I hope to see you here again soon. Lesley Catterall April 2006 |
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Real Literacy is what happens when a combination of factors work together; a systematic and natural progression that grows from a foundation of English orthography. By teaching a child about the real orthographic nature of the English writing system, we empower them with the elements and the cognitive capabilities necessary to enable them to become writers and readers. Through the use of a flowing script that links the thinking action with the written one, we encourage a love of the beauty of writing, not just in the words but also the presentation. And so with a command of the orthographic nature of the language and an efficient and ergonomic script writers are able to write what they mean so that others can understand. Equally, that same orthographic foundation empowers the reader to interpret and make sense of the written word, however difficult it might first appear. These are the elements of real literacy. The two diagrams on this page—one schematic, the other pictorial—illustrate the underlying elements that bring a child to literacy. As Frank Smith states in his book ‘Reading Without Nonsense’: ‘To understand reading, children must become members of a group of written language users, they must join the literacy club.’ He was talking about an affiliation with all who are literate that happens automatically once one is able to make sense of the printed word. We make it so difficult for some to join this club, “Words!” is a bridge that all can use to make that transition. |
What Do I Mean by Real Literacy? |
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Words! Literacy Club is copyright © Lesley Catterall 2003-2007 All rights reserved. |
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Books by Frank Smith “Reading Without Nonsense” “Writing and the Writer” “The Book of Learning and Forgetting” “Unspeakable Acts, Unnatural Practices” |
