Literary and literally have completely different meanings.

Literary means related to books, writings and literature. Or someone who is well
versed in books, writing and literature.

“Book A is inferior to book B in terms of it's literary sophistication.”

Literally means in a strict sense, word for word, not in a metaphorical sense and
without exaggeration.

“I'm literally killing two birds with one stone here, please bring paper towels.”

Literary is a related term of literal.

Literal is a related term of literary.

As adjectives the difference between literal and literary

is that literal is exactly as stated; read or understood without additional
interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or
metaphorical while literary is relating to literature.

As a noun literal
is (programming) a value, as opposed to an identifier, written into the source code of
a computer program.

History

History and Literacy

We are all language teachers, and history provides the perfect vehicle for teaching
literacy. They are wonderfully compatible, fitting together like hand and glove.

Language is at the heart of both English and history: both are reading subjects.
Speaking and listening, discussion and debate are central to both. Both explore
people's feelings, conditions, motives, relationships. Both are concerned with the
questioning and interpretation of texts of various kinds, including objects and
images.
Historical knowledge is primarily organised and communicated through language.
The National Curriculum for English can be addressed through historical activities,
so meeting both history and literacy objectives.

See what this website offers

Many lessons on this website combine history and literacy in stimulating and
imaginative ways.

National Literacy Strategy

The National Literacy Strategy provided a focus for children's thinking and
learning in relation to both language and history. History supplies us with the full
range of text types, and as such history provides a comprehensive context for
practising language - it is language in action.

Literacy can't be taught in a vacuum: the children need a variety of texts to work
on. Crucially, history involves the reading of difficult and challenging texts of
every kind. Reading and writing in history stretch children and extend their literacy
across a range of genres. We therefore suggest starting with the history, to engage
the children imaginatively. This gives the later literacy focus a context which
makes sense to the children and has meaning for them.

In this way, working within both history time and the literacy hour, we can
enhance both curriculum areas. This means focusing explicitly on two separate sets
of objectives: those for literacy and those for history.

The lessons section includes several accounts by teachers who have combined
history and literacy in stimulating and imaginative ways.

Speaking and listening

The Government's Primary Strategy had a strong emphasis on speaking and

listening. Speaking and listening, questioning, discussion and debate, if interesting
and challenging, will extend children's thinking, aid assessment for learning and
clarify and embed new vocabulary and concepts.

In the history classroom, we see these processes at work when we ask children to
engage in:

 group discussion to generate ideas

 talking through their thinking processes
 discussing different interpretations of a source
 justifying statements made
 pair problem-solving
 reciprocal teaching
  evaluating their own learning.

Reading historical texts

Historical texts make greater linguistic demands than modern texts: they include
vocabulary not used today, and have more complex sentence structures. Many
historical words have meanings which are different from the same words today; for
example, the Church, gentleman, hose. Historical texts therefore give teachers
wide-ranging opportunities to challenge and intrigue children (for example, they
love discovering that Tudor hose are worn on men's legs) - and to increase the
richness and breadth of children's vocabulary.

Understanding text is not only about word meanings. To appreciate the full
meaning of a text, we need also to understand the world in which it was made. The
language of any text reflects: the situation in which it is produced, the people who
make and use the text, the people's culture and society, their world view, their
mental landscape, their power structures. The texts from people in history provide
tantalising opportunities for understanding them and their world. Examples are the
1841 Parliamentary Commissioners' report presentiing dark images of children
working down coal mines, or an Aztec codex written in pictograms.

Teachers can draw on these rich historical sources to extend children's literacy as
well as their historical knowledge. On this website, see particularly Dissolution of
the monasteries - Haughmond Abbey and Tudor Tempest, where the children
arrived at deep understandings of difficult and challenging texts and the Tudor
world in which they were written.

Reading different text forms

It is perverse to think of texts as written texts only In the multi-media world our
children inhabit. Images and artefacts are texts in their own right. They require
careful ‘reading' to understand their forms, meanings and purposes, just as written
texts do. Although a reader may need different ways of looking to understand the
different text modes - written documents, visual images and physical artefacts - the
process will be the same. The reader must ask similar questions about all text
types:

Content: What is the text/image about?

Structure: What form does the text take?
Message: What is the writer/maker trying to say?
Method: How is the maker/writer choosing to say it?
Time: When was the text/image/artefact produced?
Situation: What were the context and the location in which it was produced?
Reason: Why was this text/image/artefact produced and for whom? Why was it
produced in this particular form?
Meaning: What can it tell me about people, places, events, society?

These, and more, are standard questions which historians ask when interrogating
sources of evidence - written, pictorial or physical. They reflect and extend
questions familiar in literacy teaching - about genre, mode, tenor, and audience.

Research evidence

Intertwining history and literacy teaching also engages and motivates children.

Several research studies (by Guzzetti et al, 1992; Levstik, 1990; Smith, 1993) have
found that children are more motivated to learn, and learn better, when their history
lessons include literature in the form of historical fiction.

Similarly, Cottingham and Daborn (2000) found that secondary pupils who were
taught history integrated with literacy were more successful in their learning. This
is because the literacy activities such as writing frames and DARTS (Directed
Activities Related to Text) gave them a conceptual model for understanding texts.
In primary schools, Nuffield teachers' action research confirms what these studies
tell us.