Teaching Literacy across the

Teaching Literacy across the Teaching reading comprehending John Munro

Literacy + learning in secondary classes Van Gogh knew that colours can produce moods, emotions and feelings in those looking at paintings. Night Life in Arles by van Gogh has colours that lead to strong feelings. He referred to these colours are ‘blood red’ and ‘pale sulphur’. He used them to form an atmosphere that he said was like ‘a devil’s furnace’… to express the powers of darkness in a low bar’. His paintings were strong through this use of colours. Although magnetic videotape has the advantages of being cheap and easy to record and re-record on, it is easily damaged when stored near magnets. Magnets can change the pattern that has been stored on the tape. • The films that you see at the cinema are different from videotapes. Chemicals create the picture on the cinema film. The film used in cinemas, like that used in normal cameras, cannot be re-recorded on and is more expensive to make. Cinema films last much longer and produce higher quality pictures. Before reading Like other ancient civilizations, the civilization of ancient Egypt developed around a river — the Nile. It is the country’s lifeblood. Some 6000 kilometres long, it flowsfrom the wet highlands of central Africa through the desert Red Lands, and finally empties through a long delta into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile’s water, the plants and palms that grew on its banks, and the birds, fish and mammals that lived in and around it all helped to sustain the society of the ancient Egyptians. Solve 5x+7 = 37 5x+7-7 = 37-7 5x = 30 5x ÷ 5= 30÷ 5 x = 6 After reading

What is literacy ? Literacy is the knowledge students use to convert written information to knowledge

How do you read? Read the text. Your goal is re-tell it. As you read, reflect on what you do. • There are two types of being; the eternal and the transient. The eternal need to return is not exemplified within the collective drama of history, nor can it be nurture through organization. Produce as it will, the eternal is not oriented towards produce. The transient, by its very nature, will end; they want to die, not live eternally. • The struggles and education of man in social history had meaning for Marx such that the goal of a body politic free from class conflict so that man might develop as man.

Things you do You look for sentence meanings You look for the topic meaning You look for the topic meaning You look for sentence meanings Comprehending strategies : readers use employ a range of actions to comprehend text and to learn from it (Munro, 2002). You look for sentence meanings You look for sentence meanings You look for discourse meaning – text thread You look at word meanings What is the difference between comprehending and comprehension ? You look for discourse meaning – text thread

Things you do Why do you need to do a range of actions like this ? What readers do as they read a text is to try to build a representation or a model of it in their heads ?

Importance of vocabulary for literacy and learning We are going to read about the rules of indoor soccer / living in ancient Egypt. What do you think of /see in your mind when you hear this? • 40 ideas 4 ideas

Link between vocabulary and text comprehension Between 40% and 50% of the spread in comprehension here is due to vocabularly NAPLAN Comprehension Score

Extract 2: Read aloud these ‘ba’ words. Comment on the knowledge and strategies you use to read these words:

Developing the letter cluster generator Teachers often need to help students • become aware they have a ‘letter cluster generator’ that allows then to learn new letter cluster patterns. • link these with matching sound patterns. • see themselves as ‘self teachers’.

What do these ‘ba’ words mean ? Read aloud the following text and work out what they might mean. What do you do to work out their possible meanings. The trees in the orchard were bacciferous. The berry pickers worked without pause. The basket of baft into which they deposited their conquests were placed abraded their bare arms. If only the farmer had invested in containers made of more expensive and softer fabric. Conversation with the other pickers was difficult. Their baragouin was largely incomprehensible. However, there was no mistaking the batrachophobia shown by the barbigerous giant nearest to them. The first sight of the tree frogs froze him to paralysis. Even his well endowed beard failed to mask the intense fear the batrachian creatures induced in him. The bardocucullus he wore was reminiscent of the outer garmet of sixteenth century monks. The hood exacerbated his baryecoia and he did not hear much of the speech of those around him. This did not mean, however, he was baryphonic; he had no difficulty speaking with the other pickers. Taken from (Munro, 2002)

The meaning making motor tells you to • note the meaning features that might go with the new word • try to combine them into an image • guess at what the word might mean • check your understanding by reading the text again • modify your definition if necessary • check your impression with what the dictionary says.

Our self teaching capacity. The trees in the orchard were bacciferous. The berry pickers worked without pause. The basket of baft into which they deposited their conquests were placed abraded their bare arms. If only the farmer had invested in containers made of more expensive and softer fabric. Conversation with the other pickers was difficult. Their baragouin was largely incomprehensible. However, there was no mistaking the batrachophobia shown by the barbigerous giant nearest to them. The first sight of the tree frogs froze him to paralysis. Even his well endowed beard failed to mask the intense fear the batrachian creatures induced in him. The bardocucullus he wore was reminiscent of the outer garmet of sixteenth century monks. The hood exacerbated his baryecoia and he did not hear much of the speech of those around him. This did not mean, however, he was baryphonic; he had no difficulty speaking with the other pickers. Note our self teaching capacity. What do your students know about this ? Do they know that they can do this ? how to do this ? when and why to do it ? How often each week do they Work out collaboratively the meanings of new words ? Talk about the actions they use to do this ? Learn to make increasingly more complex links between ideas in the text ?

How we think ahead when we read

Tom’s day in the gym weight lifter Work with weights Goal to strengthen muscles Heavy weight Light weight Shoulder pull downs Do exercises with weights Bench press Wear particular gear Exercises change how their body looks Gym singlet Taken from (Munro, 2002)

How well did you think ahead ? Tom was a tired weight lifter. He had worked hard on the weights for quite a while. It was tiring work. Finally, his coach pointed to a set in the corner: "That's the last for you today". As Tom walked towards it he thought "This barbell looks light", but as he moved closer, he was that it was dark. "I'll need to paint this one too", he said. The flow-on to linked ideas predict, infer, anticipate

Tom’s day in the gym Weights need to be painted weight lifter Weights can be dark colour Work with weights Goal to strengthen muscles Heavy weight Light weight Shoulder pull downs Do exercises with weights Bench press Wear particular gear Exercises change how their body looks Gym singlet

What knowledge does the reader need to comprehend the text ? What do the words and phrases in thetext tell me ? What is it about ? What is its topic ? Integrate the outcomes What does each sentence tell me ? What does it tell me ? What is the text about altogether ? What do I know now that I didn’t know earlier Manage and direct the reading activity What does each paragraph tell me ? What is the ‘story threat’ ? What is the purpose or disposition of the text? What is its genre ? Reader

We use these types of knowledge simultaneously • We use these ways of thinking simultaneously • words • sentence meanings • paragraph meanings • topic • disposition New Information When we read we • use several types of knowledge at once • may give priority to one or more at any time • use most types automatically.

What do you do to understand the text ? We use a range of comprehending actions What is its topic ? How will I use this to link what I read ? What does ‘multiphase method’ or ingredient mean ? What does each sentence mean ? What does this picture tell me ? What is the main idea of this paragraph ? Review and consolidate the ideas in the text What do the three paragraphs tell me ? We learn more about the text we read

What do you do to understand the text ? What is its topic ? How will I use this to link what I read ? What type of text is this ? What does ‘learn to track’ or annoyance mean ? What does each sentence mean ? What do the paragraphs tell me ? What is the main idea of this paragraph ? Review and consolidate the ideas in the text

What do you do to understand the text ? We change our reading activity as we read • Early in reading activity • What is its likely topic ? What type of text is this ? • How will I use this to link what I read ? • While reading • What does each sentence mean ? Read it aloud to self, parapahrase, use grammar visualise, question, link with topic, predict. • Work out word meanings. • What is the main idea of this paragraph ? Link sentence meanings, summarise, predict, question answered by paragraph. • What is discourse meaning. Link the set of paragraph meanings. Review and consolidate the ideas in the text What are the main and supporting ideas in the text ? Store in memory How will I use them ? Reflect on ideas, answer questions

What knowledge does the reader need to comprehend the text ? Vocabulary, word meanings Meanings of sentences Integrate the outcomes What does it tell me ? Topic of text Meanings of paragraphs, network of concepts Purpose, disposition of text Manage and direct the reading activity Reader

An Egyptian King is buried in a Pyramid. Literacy knowledge : converting information to knowledge OUR MODEL OF LITERACY Words ? Sentence meanings ? Paragraph meanings Topic ? Disposition ? New Information

How the VELS English Developmental Continuum describes text comprehension knowledge For each six month interval: • The comprehending strategies students should be able to use independently and with scaffolding • The types of texts students are expected to comprehend independently The types of comprehension outcomes you can reasonably expect for able readers, the types of understanding or interpretations they can form of the types of text

The comprehending strategies or skills The comprehending strategies or skills are organised into three phases, based on what the readers need to do • towards the end of reading a session • early in reading a text while reading it Each is matched by an Indicator of Progress for Text Comprehension

The strategies and the matching indicators of progress for getting knowledge ready • Orienting strategies: early in the reading activity readers • work out or decide the likely topic of a text and use this to organise their understanding as they read. • form a reading plan; they show this in the reading actions they say they will use as they read. use its genre to infer it focus or the purpose for which it was written; they show this in the ideas and events they predict it might mention and suggest questions it might answer.

The strategies and the matching indicators of progress for while reading • respond emotionally to the activity of reading and engage with it while reading • read part of the text at a time, aloud or silently. While reading strategies: during the reading activity readers • infer and predict from the text read so far what might be said. comprehend sentences, using strategies such as paraphrasing and visualizing as they read • form a discourse meaning; link the main ideas in each paragraph with the topic and identify the emerging perspective of the writer • identify or work out the meanings of words in the context. • form paragraph meanings; link sentence meanings and extract main idea in a paragraph by summarising. • say questions answered by particular sentences and paragraphs in the text .

The strategies and the matching indicators of progress for getting knowledge ready • Reviewing strategies: periodically during the reading activity readers • review and consolidate what they have read so far. • review their emotional response to a text and to themselves as readers. review the actions they use while reading.

The comprehension or ‘reading outcomes’ for the texts • respond emotionally to the activity of reading and engage with it while reading • comprehend the text literally; they locate, select, link and record information from texts. students form interpretations of the texts by using the comprehending actions • identify and analyse the use of language in the text comprehend inferentially in various ways • analyse the text in various ways. • synthesize ideas in the text • infer the author’s purpose for writing a text in various ways. evaluate the text in various ways. • You can use the developmental sequence to locate students who have reading difficulties. The indicators saywhat you need to teach next and how you can monitor their learning progress.

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge • Students read short fiction and non-fiction texts that describe less familiar ideas and experiences, in written language forms with reduced supporting illustrations and varying sentence forms and informative prose about familiar topics, with a higher level of unfamiliar vocabulary. The text characteristics are indicative of Reading Recovery levels 12 to 14: • varied sentence patterns and written language structures, • the development of a complete story, • literary language, opportunities to extend readers’ understanding of words and their relationships and specialised vocabulary • illustrations that provide low level of support.

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge Reading comprehending strategies : for these texts, students Orient their knowledge, get their knowledge ‘ready’ for reading

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge Reading comprehending strategies : for these texts, students Use ‘while reading strategies

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge Reading comprehending strategies : for these texts, students Review and consolidate what they have read

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge Reading comprehension outcomes : for these texts, students

VELS 2.75 Text level knowledge • Students independently read and respond to longer imaginative texts (for example, chapters in narratives about less familiar ideas), plays, poetry and other verse, informative texts of up to 6 paragraphs or sections and expository-persuasive texts. • language: descriptive words and phrases, some specific terminology with support, mainly simple sentences with more compound sentences, shift from natural language to book language, increased use of direct speech to carry action, first person, less familiar structures. • layout : texts organized into “readable chunks”, print size medium or smaller, illustrations moving away from text support, paragraphs have several sentences and more than one idea, longer chapters, headings, sub-headings with several ideas, contents page and simple glossary contain detail. • content : clear story structure with several ideas, main ideas linked into more complex relationships around a theme, characters developed in greater detail, sometimes with thoughts and feelings that add depth, less familiar concepts supported by familiar vocabulary.

VELS 1.75 Text level knowledge Use ‘while reading strategies

VELS 3.75 Text level knowledge • Students independently respond to range of written and multimodal text types and forms. The texts have a range of cultural purposes, for example, to amuse or interest, to inform and to persuade and have associated linguistic structures and features. Types of texts include fiction and nonfiction, film and digital texts, newspapers and magazines and poetry. They have the following characteristics • language : use complex sentences, vocabulary that may be culturally and historically referenced, figurative and metaphoric language. • layout : lengthy text blocks, paragraphs vary in length, complexity and purpose, longer chapters, detailed contents and glossary, complex diagrams and maps, graphs and tables, with complex labelling. • content: texts comprise complex conceptual sequences that involve contexts that change in time, culture and history. The conceptual relationships are unfamiliar to students and unusual characters and are differentiated. Fiction, verse and expository texts include explore an examination of themes of interpersonal relationships, motives and moral /ethical challenges in a range of real and virtual contexts. Nonfiction texts explore a range of relevant factual topics.

VELS 3.75 Text level knowledge Reading comprehending strategies : for these texts, students Use ‘while reading strategies

What do you do to read this?

What do readers need to do to use question to show comprehension? What do you need to do to interpret the expression ? Interprets an expression in a persuasive text. Identify the main purpose of the text ? What do you need to do to work out the purpose of the text ?

Which comprehending actions do you need to use to show comprehension? Recognise a synonym Summarise the text, extract the main idea from the paragraph ideas and infer why the text was written

Teaching Literacy across the