This website requires cookies to provide all of its features. For more information on what data is contained in the cookies, please see our Privacy Policy page. To accept cookies from this site, please click the Allow button. Learn More.
The Literacy Toolbox Approach introduces a range of support for reading and learning to your classroom. These recognisable resources normalise making use of tools to help learners be successful. This simple strategy provides a pathway to independence for learners with literacy difficulties and neurodiverse needs.
Best of all, it reduces the stigma of needing to use a tool to support with reading because everyone can make use of the tools in the box. Think of it as a normal way of working that is essential for a few, helpful to some and accepted by all.
Advantages of the toolbox approach:
MAKES NORMAL the use of tools that supports independent learning and metacognition.
REDUCES STIGMA for students who may not want to be spotlighted as having a reading difficulty.
ENABLES LANGUAGE ACQUISITION for EAL learners and students with Speech, Language and Communication needs.
READING AND COMPREHENSION improvements provides access to the reading of age-related texts and reducing the need for scaffolding.
PROMOTES INDEPENDENCE for students who would normally ask for a human reader for word decoding and instructions to be repeated
SCAFFOLDING is an approach to supporting SEN in the classroom that will benefit all students. It provides universal support and gives teachers the flexibility to provide both targeted and specialised interventions.
SELF-ESTEEM improves with the use of reading tools, helping to develop learning confidence and change student’s perceptions of themselves as able learners.
QUALITY-FIRST TEACHING and dyslexia friendly strategy.
What is included in the Literacy Toolbox?
A good builder needs the right tools for the job. The literacy Toolbox is made up of all essential items required to start building a solid foundation for literacy.
We’ve done the research and put together a breakdown of the must-haves and their costs.
The cost to put together a classroom toolbox costs just over £400, depending on how you put the box together and how many you were creating.
Item:
Type of support:
Available from:
Approx Costs:
C-Pen Reader 2
Text to speech
www.scanningpens.co.uk
£230.00 (Ex VAT)
Sticky index tabs
Visual focus
Amazon / Consortium
£7.00
Fidget toy class pack
Concentration
Amazon / Consortium
£16.00
High frequency bookmarks (DSC)
Self-confidence for spelling
Amazon
£3.50
Rubber thimbles pack
SpLD co-ordination
Amazon / Consortium
£4.00
Finger trackers & reading strips pack
SpLD dyslexia – tracking
Amazon
£10.00
Colour overlays
SpLD dyslexia Visual disturbance
Crossbow Education/Amazon/Consortium
£8.00
Page holders x2
Co-ordination
Amazon
£4.00
Talking Tins Pack
SpLD & SLCN audio /speech / memory
Amazon / Consortium
£20.00
Credit card size magnifiers x 4
Visual focus & concentration
Amazon
£5.00
Pencil grips pack
Co-ordination
Amazon / Consortium
£10.00
Whisper phone / Toobaloo
SpLD & SLCN
Amazon
£10 to £15
Fingerlights
SpLD dyslexia – tracking
Amazon
£8.00
Medium size toolbox
Lidl
£8
Literacy Toolbox Masterclass
Join the education team for the Literacy Toolbox Masterclass, a video series focusing on the items in the toolbox and how each can support learners.
Securing funding often requires evidence of impact. You may need to start with one teacher and classroom where this approach is used. To produce this evidence, most interventions take a minimum of six weeks.
When evidence is required, start by baselining your students with a Reading/Comprehension test, then re-test at the end of the trial period to produce data you can share. Talk to your SLT about funding streams.
Ask if funds might be available from Pupil Premium, EAL, CIC, EHCP, and the Delegated Budget. There is also Rocket Fund, Government allocated funding, for example, Levelling Up or Catch-up Premium allocation.
What are the Strategies?
Normal Way of Working: This is a strategy that can help you to establish a record of the use of tools that can be used in examination and testing accommodations without the use of a Form 8 – The majority are centre-delegated access arrangements.
Normal Way of Teaching: Elevate your teaching practice by integrating the use of these tools into your teaching strategy
