The format and shape of the Framework for secondary English is designed to make links and connections more visible at all levels. In particular, there are similar content and process references at both substrand and objective level.
Substrand reference | How it helps with planning |
|---|---|
Listening and responding 1.1: Developing active listening skills and strategies | Getting pupils to consider the different skills and strategies across these three learning modes can enable them to see that once they develop a skill, they can modify, flex and adapt it according to context and purpose. They might begin to see links in listening for key information alongside reading for key information and consider, for example, whether the same note-making skills will be appropriate for both. Planned sequences of lessons may then combine reading and listening activities alongside each other to focus as much on the process of information gathering as on the information itself. |
Speaking and presenting 2.1: Developing and adapting speaking skills and strategies in formal and informal contexts | |
Reading 5.1: Developing and adapting active reading skills and strategies |
Substrand reference | How it helps with planning |
|---|---|
Speaking and presenting 2.2: Using and adapting the conventions and forms of spoken texts | Seeing the link between these two modes could help create an interesting exploration, for example, of whether persuasive formal talk shares the same features as a formal letter containing persuasive techniques. |
Writing 7.2: Using and adapting the conventions and forms of [written] texts… |
In order that learners make the best progress in relation to the objectives in the Framework, teaching must be planned taking account of learners' prior knowledge and their personal targets for learning. This is why the Framework strands also prompt and enable teachers to review the related assessment focuses and access detailed assessment criteria for the different National Curriculum levels. While the objectives are age-related, teachers are able to see and move between objectives for different years so they can plan according to learners' attainment and progress. This gives more flexibility in pitching objectives according to where different learners are and where they need to be, within a common focus for learning. So, both in its form as an online tool and in its structure and design, the Framework promotes and depends on teachers' professional judgement in developing sequences of lessons that respond flexibly to the needs of pupils.
Successful planning for particular classes and groups, and personalising learning, require teachers to construct the learning objectives into a coherent scheme of work – by grouping objectives, from across as well as within years, and aligning them to appropriate contexts, activities and resources. The Framework supports this process by enabling teachers to combine objectives. These are arranged progressively in a limited number of strands and substrands (as seen above). Consequently, planning is more flexible and manageable and progression more clearly defined for the teacher and, more importantly, for the learner.
