The planned programme of 15 seminars will provide teachers with a valuable opportunity to learn about good practice, methods and materials from a range of advisers, teachers and education professionals in Scottish schools and authorities, as well as representatives of the Educational Institute of Scotland and the Scottish Council for Educational Technology.
Strategies for improving literacy and numeracy feature strongly, but there are also talks on raising the attainment of under-achieving boys, a practical session exploring the partnership between teacher and classroom assistant, and a talk on improving children’s understanding and interest in mathematics and numeracy with the help of the Executive-backed Maths Year 2000 initiative.
Fred Forrester, depute general secretary of EIS, will be drawing attention to some of the support materials available for teachers.
“I think it’s a good thing the Publishers Association is coming to Glasgow,” he says, “because it highlights the role of commercial publishers in providing support materials.”
Alan Yeoman of SCET will host two sessions, one for primary and one for secondary teachers, showing how computers can be used in language and literature to support reading, writing, talking and listenig, using tools such as Storybook CD (see page 7), Writer’s Toolkit and SCETNet English and Communications.
There will be a number of seminars based on experience and good practice in schools within North Lanarkshire and Glasgow City councils. Tricia Wilson, primary adviser for North Lanarkshire, will talk about “Improving Writing 5-14”, and describe guidelines developed for primary teachers.
“At first they were fairly general,” she says, “but we found teachers wanted something more detailed, so we looked at setting targets they could share with children and parents, so they’d all be using the same language. And we specified what to teach at what stage. I’ll be talking about how we use targets; how we do planning with a class; and time spent on each topic.”
A companion seminar on setting guidelines and targets for reading, “Teaching Language Using Big Books”, will be given by headteacher and seconded adviser Pat Ashworth. Big books can be set up on a stand in a classroom and used to make reading a shared experience for the class.”
The seminars are in Celtic Park’s Kerrydale Exhibition Suite from 2-4.45pm on the 29th, and 10am-4.45pm on the 30th. Admission free but by ticket only. Tel: Publishers Association, 020 7565 7474.
