Linking student news reports to literacy levels(52453)-英语教育-(165)-21英语网

本文作者： 21ST

采写新闻活动助力学生读写能力发展

据英国广播公司报道，最新研究显示，由该公司和英国专业学校与院校信托（Specialist Schools and Academies Trust）联合发起的“学校新闻报道”活动能够有效帮助学生通过采写、播报新闻提高读写水平，增强与人沟通的能力。

RESEARCH carried out by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), a non-profit organization dedicated to raising levels of achievement in British secondary education, indicates that participation in the School Report project can have a significant impact on literacy, according to British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

School Report, which is run by BBC, allows students in the UK aged between 11 and 14 to create and broadcast their own video, audio and text-based news reports. The reports are published on school websites, which are linked to the BBC website.

Jan English, a literacy consultant, was commissioned by SSAT to work with schools taking part in School Report during 2007/8 to evaluate the impact that participation in the project had on the literacy levels of the students involved. The purpose was to ascertain the impact on both the written and oral skills of the students and to exploit the potential of the project to raise the literacy capability of future participants.

Ms English devised some additional resources that could be used in conjunction with the School Report lesson plans. They include “talk cards”, which encourage students to reason and build on each other’s ideas, and “talk tally”, worksheets that help students assess the discussion skills of members of their peer group.

The evidence indicated that participation in School Report had a significant impact on literacy. Video footage of students talking together to solve problems, before and after the project, showed that students experienced a steep learning curve with regard to effective group collaboration and discussion. The use of language to challenge ideas and explore alternatives increased significantly, which demonstrated that students were able to use exploratory talk to work efficiently and collaboratively. The emphasis on discussion as the main learning strategy throughout the project also had a noticeable effect on the quality of written outcomes. In particular, boys and students with English as a second language benefited from the opportunity to discuss ideas and write succinctly and logically, as opposed to expressively.

Mark Byford, BBC Deputy Director General and Head of BBC Journalism, said he was pleased to see the results. He said he hoped BBC and SSAT could build better experiences for more students by working together.