Learning with Ms Riley Lanyon High School English

1. Learning with Ms RileyLanyon High School English Starring the hands of students in Year 9 English Level 2

2. Pedagogical Approaches to English Year 9 • Cooperative Learning Groups • Cooperative Reading (4 resources model) • Essay Scaffold & CQ Rubric • Placemat • Functional Grammar Retrieval & Poetry From this… to this…

3. My ClassroomCooperative Learning Groups • The year 9 English classroom is set up in cooperative learning groups. (4/6 classes in this space) • Gen Y likes collegiate support but planned pairing of students supports nervous learners and facilitates ‘New Learning’ • Most learners appreciate a helping hand but instructions about degree of help need to be explicit to avoid ‘free loaders’. • All learners learn well but gives an opportunity of leadership or ‘coaching’ to more capable students • Weaknesses – encourages social interaction – strong classroom management needed. • Works in all situations except where individual assessment is required. Year 9 English Classroom in cooperative table groups

4. Cooperative Reading4 Resources Model - Allan Luke & Peter Freebody • Cooperative Reading is a strategy used in the school from Yr7 to Yr10 and helps students to think critically about a text from 4 different perspectives by using the 4 roles. • Reciprocal teaching gives students agency. Text Participant – how do I participate in this text? Text Analyst – what does this text do to me? Code Breaker – how do I make sense of this text? Text User – how do I use this text? • Students formulate their own ‘fat’ questions and write a reflection about their shared learning. • Strengths are the same as for cooperative learning. • Weaknesses – some students need to be encouraged to write more than ‘token’ questions. • Senior students all reflected that they learnt more deeply about the text. • This kind of strategy works best with practice - teachers need to really understand the roles and the kind of questions generated by each - professional development recommended. Cooperative Reading of ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E. Hinton

5. Essay Scaffold & CQ RubricPEC Paragraphs (Point, Evidence/Elaboration/Explanation, Concluding sentence) Criteria Quality Rubric • The Essay Scaffold explicitly reminds students about the structural expectations of essays. • Strategies like the ‘5 Whys’ aid students in gathering ideas for the elaboration. • Paragraph boxes remind students to stick to one idea per paragraph and the amount of space sets the expectation for paragraph length. • A great way to get students to draft their work. • Purpose is to break the essay into steps • a strategy highly recommended for students • with special needs eg. Autism • Strengths - are the expectations of structure • are explicit – everyone on the same ‘page’. • Weaknesses – some students become • overly reliant on the ‘look’ of the scaffold. • Senior students all reflected that they • appreciated knowing exactly what was • expected - CQ is even more explicit! • This kind of strategy just really works! Students using Essay Scaffolds to write essays on ‘The Outsiders’

6. Placemat • The Placemat is a collaborative thinking tool. • It values the individual first by allowing everyone space to record what they know or think. • Collaboration begins when negotiation about the ‘main idea’ happens and is recorded in the central oval of the worksheet – a synthesis or distilling of ideas – sometimes just ‘in common’. • Purpose is to value everyone and then • encourage collaboration. • Strengths - everyone feels valued. • Weaknesses – some students rely solely on • what their neighbour wrote – need to • encourage students to work ‘alone’ first. • Everyone can do this one – achievable • learning for everyone. • This kind of strategy works well for initial • impressions of a topic or to reflect at the • end of a unit or any kind of brainstorm. The Placemat at work…

7. Functional Grammar RetrievalPoetry and the ‘WHY’ factor • The 3 aspects of Functional Grammar are: • Mode (What is it?), Field (Where is it?) & Tenor (Impact) • Explicitly teaches the ‘rules’ of creating texts. • Helps students to understand how they are being positioned by a text. • Retrieval chart is simply a neat way to record their findings. • Strengths – students engage in higher • order thinking – the step beyond • ‘what is it?’ • Weaknesses – is there a downside to • higher order thinking and deep knowledge? • Instead of just giving students the criteria • to construct a text they go on the journey • of investigation themselves – much more • meaningful, memorable and powerful! Functional Grammar Retrieval of Literary Devices in Sonnets