English Developmental Continuum P-10 – Reading
English Continuum Home | Reading | Speaking & Listening | Writing
Text Level Knowledge: scaffolding learning from 1.50
- Indicators of Progress
- Text characteristics
- Teaching strategies for Fiction texts
- Teaching strategies for Non Fiction texts
Indicators of Progress
- Students decide the likely topic of a text by using fewer illustrations and more written text information, for example, notes on the back cover. They can predict appropriate words that the text might use and can say in sentences what it might say.
- Students read the text aloud independently and recognise when what they have said does not make sense, and they self correct. They can identify when they say errors that are inconsistent with the meaning or topic of the text, the grammar of the sentence read or the letter cluster information.
- Students identify and change pitch for common punctuation marks and textual features.
- Students recognise and self correct grammatical errors while reading.
- Students recall, in order, some of the main ideas or events in a text they have read.
- Students display in their reading aloud reading patterns modelled by others, for example, they display changes in pausing and stress patterns modelled by others.
- Students apply particular sentence reading strategies when these are scaffolded by others, for example, they make a picture of sentences they read when cued, and then describe the mental picture.
- Students begin to use independently the reading strategies that were previously cued and scaffolded by others.
- Students display literal comprehension by: (1) retelling what they have read using the text as a prompt if necessary; (2) answering questions that relate to information stated explicitly; and (3) retelling the key points.
- Students display inferential comprehension by using the cover, the title and the text they have read so far to predict what might be said on later pages, how the text might end, and to suggest who and what questions the text might answer.
- Students, having read a short text, infer possible events that might have occurred before the story began.
- Students infer how characters may have felt in the context and how they may have felt had events been different.
- Students infer the motives of characters.
- Students infer the reason why the text was written.
- Students infer how some characters in a text may perceive or feel about other characters in a text and suggest how these feelings may influence how characters behave.
- Students link events and the feelings of characters in the story with the experiences of readers.
- Students review and consolidate what they have read both when part of the way through the text and after having read it.
- Students infer how alternative endings or outcomes would be possible for a text they have read.
- Students suggest possible meanings for unfamiliar words in the text by using its context, the sentence context and its letter pattern.
- Students describe how reading examples of rhyming text has a different outcome from reading examples of prose.
- Students engage in early silent reading activities, for example, matching sentences and phrases with referent pictures, arranging sentence cards in order to tell a story, and completing simple cloze activities without reading aloud.
- Students talk about how they felt while reading and how reading helped them.
Text characteristics
- Texts have varied sentence patterns
- Texts use written language structures
- Texts contain complete story development
- Texts use literary language
- Illustrations provide a low level of support
- Texts provide opportunities to extend readers' understanding of words and their relationships
- Texts contain specialised vocabulary for some topics
Teaching strategies for Fiction texts
Before Reading: Getting your knowledge ready for reading
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is A Strange Visitor by Mary O’Toole, published by Macmillan Company of Australia.
Describing the cover
Students say in sentences what they see on the cover.
Modelling reading
The teacher or students can read aloud each sentence in the paragraph on the back cover. Each sentence may be read twice. The class may need to be told that Scotland is a place far away.
Predicting text
Students look again at the text on the back cover. Ask: Which word is in capitals? Why? What things might it tell us?
Investigating content and vocabulary
One of the things the old lady does is to make wool. If possible, show the class what wool looks like before and after it has been spun.
Introduce the word ‘spin’ and ‘spun’. Ask students to predict how these words would be spelt.
Describing the pictures
Students look at a page and say what they see in sentences, for example:
- A lady is putting bottles at her door.
- There is a light on in the house.
Answering questions about the pictures
Students answer and ask questions about the first page:
- Does it look scary?
- Are there other houses nearby?
- What sort of house is it? Do you see houses like this where you live?
- Where could the house be? It could be in the country because it has a huge tin can or tank for collecting water the lady will use.
During Reading: Tuning in to the text
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is A Strange Visitor by Mary O’Toole, published by Macmillan Company of Australia.
Inferring feelings relating to what they see
Students may be asked questions such as:
- How would you feel if you lived in that house?
Predicting repeated text
Students identify the aspects of the text that are repeated and use this to predict what might be repeated on later pages.
Students review pages 2-3 and 4-5 and identify the parts that are repeated, that is, “And so she sat …. someone to come.”
Reflecting and summarising
- The reader retells and summarises the pages read so far. For example, they respond to Say what the pages have told us. What questions does it answer?
Students practise reflecting on the mental pictures they have made so far of the text and talk about what has happened.
Predicting future events
Students anticipate the next pages and infer what they might say. They extend their understanding of the text into the next few pages.
The teacher may ask
- Some foot bones came into the old lady’s house. What bones might come into the old lady’s house next?
- What sentences might be said again in the next pages?
After Reading: Consolidate and review the text
Paraphrasing text
Having heard the story students can say in their own words what they heard and answer the questions:
- Who is the story about?
- How did she feel? What does ‘lonely’ mean? How would they feel if they were lonely?
- What did she want?
- When did someone come to visit her?
Teaching Strategies for Non Fiction texts
Before Reading: Getting your knowledge ready for reading
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is Penguin Rescue by Katy Pike, published in the Go Facts series by Blake Education.
Reading the back cover
The students read the text after it has been modelled for them.
The teacher or students can read aloud the sentence on the back cover. It may need to be read at least twice.
The students can be assisted to say the ideas in other ways: What would happen in an ‘oil spill?’ You could show on a plate of water what an oil spill looks like. Students can visualise what would happen if you were a bird swimming in the sea when there was an oil spill close by.
The readers predict what the text might tell them
The students could be asked prompting questions such as:
- What might have caused the oil spill?
- Where did the oil come from?
- Why was there an oil spill?
- How were the penguins affected?
Integrating the title and the picture
The students read the title page and say in sentences what the picture shows.
Ask clarifying questions such as: Are these adult penguins or baby penguins? What does the nest look like? Where do you think the parents are?
Reading the contents page and discussing key ideas
Discuss with the students what “Contents” means; it tells us the main ideas in the book. Read the four chapter headings and have the students read them at least once after you. Have them describe the picture accompanying each heading and guess at what the section might be about. Have them talk about what might happen in the story:
| A ship loses its oil. | - | The penguins are moved. | - | The penguins are cleaned. | - | The penguins are safe. |
Visualising, retelling and ordering events
The students collate what they know about the text and form a mental image of what the text might tell them. They recount their images. They use their beliefs about the list of contents to infer the order of events in the text.
Collating what they know
The students collate what they know about the text and form a mental image of what the text might tell them. They recount their images. They use their beliefs about the list of contents to infer the order of events in the text.
They think ahead by suggesting questions the first few pages might answer. These are collated, for example:
- Why did the ship lose its petrol?
- Where were the penguins when it lost its oil?
- How many penguins were hurt by the oil?
During Reading: Tuning in to the text
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is Penguin Rescue by Katy Pike, published in the Go Facts series by Blake Education.
Modelling reading
Students hear each sentence read and then one or more students can read it for a second time.
Understanding key vocabulary
Students work on the meanings of unfamiliar words:
- What does ‘sank’ mean?
- What does an oil tanker do ? What are other words you could say for it?
- What does ‘washed up’ mean ? What caused the oil to wash up onto the island?
Describing images
Students describe the picture they have made of the text they have read.
Identifying questions they can answer
Students say the questions they can answer, for example:
- How was the oil spilt in the sea?
- What was the name of the ship that spilt the oil?
- Where were the penguins that were caught by the oil?
Infering feelings
The students explore questions such as:
- How would you feel if you were one of the penguins?
- What would you want to say?
- Who would you want to say it to?
After Reading: Consolidate and review the text
The text used to model these teaching and learning strategies is Penguin Rescue by Katy Pike, published in the Go Facts series by Blake Education.
Suggesting questions
Students can think ahead by suggesting questions the next few pages might answer. These are collated, for example:
- How will the penguins be saved?
- How will people get to their island?
Retelling the text
Having heard it, they can say in their own words what they heard and answer the questions:
- Who is the story about?
- How would the penguin feel if it was caught in an oil spill?
- What would happen to its food?
- Would it be able to swim as well?