English Developmental Continuum P-10 – Reading
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Text Level Knowledge: scaffolding learning from 1.75
- Indicators of Progress
- Text Characteristics
- Teaching Strategies for Fiction texts
- Teaching Strategies for Non Fiction texts
Indicators of Progress
- Students decide on at least two likely topics of a text and ‘sharpen’ or refine their prediction. They can suggest appropriate words that might be encountered in the text and can say in sentences what it might say.
- Students read the text aloud with fluency and recognise when what they have said does not make sense, and reread to self correct. They can identify when they make errors that are inconsistent with the meaning or topic of the text, the grammar of the sentence read or the letter cluster information, and increase their self-correction strategies using these three sources of information.
- Students transfer the integrated use of the meaning or topic of the text, the grammar of the sentence read or the letter cluster information to silent reading contexts and spontaneously self correct using these three sources of information.
- Students talk about the picture they make while reading a text.
- Students recall, in order, the main ideas or events in a text they have read and use connectives to link the main ideas, for example, first, and then.
- Students continue 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 and including key ideas; and (2) answering questions that relate to information stated explicitly.
- Students display inferential comprehension by using the cover, the title and the text they have read so far: (1) to predict whether the text is more likely to be imaginative or reality based and what might be said; (2) to suggest who, when, where, how and what questions the text might answer; (3) to infer the feelings of characters; and (4) to review and consolidate what they have read both when part of the way through the text and after having read it.
- Students infer other possible endings for the text read, giving alternative ways of resolving the issue(s) developed in the narrative.
- Students infer the feelings of characters, how they may have felt had events been different, infer their motives and reasons for doing what they did, and infer why the different characters in a narrative may have had different feelings about the same event.
- 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 identify how the language used in the text helps readers to have particular feelings or to have particular beliefs about the text.
- Students describe how reading verse has a different outcome from reading prose.
- Students suggest synonyms for words in the text and possible meanings for unfamiliar words in texts by using their context, the sentence, and one or more of the letters in the given word.
- Students engage in silent independent reading activities, for example, they read silently for short periods of time and retell the stories in their own words, do the actions described in sentences without reading them aloud, arrange sentence cards in order to tell a story and complete simple cloze activities.
- Students talk about how they felt while reading and how reading helped them.
Text Characteristics
- Elaborated episodes and events
- Extended descriptions
- Links to familiar stories
- Book language
- Illustrations provide minimal support
- Unusual, challenging vocabulary
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.
Inferring from the picture
Students imagine how they would feel if they lived in the house
- How would you feel if you lived in the house?
- People are not nearby, it might be lonely.
Developing images from the text
- Students describe the images they have in their minds from having read the blurb and title page.
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.
Defining new words
Students talk about the meanings of alone, lonely, spin, spun, squeaked.
Reflecting on how the writer presents the main ideas
Students are asked:
- How would you describe the old lady?
- Does the writer make her seem happy or sad?
Cueing an emotional response to the text
Teachers encourage students to ask themselves:
- How did I feel while reading the story?
- What made me feel that way?
- How would I like to change the text so that it was more interesting?
After Reading: Consolidate and review 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.
Retelling the story
Students reflect on the mental pictures they have made of the text and talk about what happened. They
- retell the story in their own words and suggest other ways of saying particular phrases that are repeated, for example, ‘short legs’, ‘big feet’, ‘wide hips’
- say the questions they can answer having read the story.
Identifying key actions used while reading
Students ask themselves: What things did I do to help me understand the story? Students identify some of the key actions they used when reading the chapter and develop a list.
Things I do while I read:
- I keep track of key ideas as I read
- I reread when things don’t make sense
- I ask questions as I need to
- I update my ideas as I read
Reviewing vocabulary
Students identify the new words they have learnt by reading the story.
Students in pairs locate as many words as they can that describe how things are, for example, long, cold, big, wide, fat, broad, thick. They can suggest opposites for as many of these as possible.
Infering feelings
Students consider how they would feel if they were the old lady seeing more and more parts of the body coming into her house?
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.
Predicting text
Students suggest appropriate words that may be encountered in the text and can give sentences it might say.
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.
Imagining and describing
Students imagine they are on the island with the penguins covered in oil. They describe what it is like and how the penguins feel.
Reflecting on the text
Students practise reflecting on the mental pictures they have made so far of the text and talk about what has happened.
Responding emotionally
Students are encouraged to ask themselves:
- How did I feel while reading the story?
- What made me feel that way?
- How would I like to change the text so that it was more interesting?
Extending their understanding of the text
Students extend their understanding of the text and infer what might follow. A question that assists them in this process might be:
- What sentences might be said again in the next pages ? It might tell us how people help get the oil off the penguins.