Conventions of Language: Scaffolding Learning From 1.0
Indicators of Progress
- Students use knowledge of oral language in a range of areas for purposeful communication.
- Students say and comprehend word meanings: how to use grammar and to link sentences in larger meaning units.
- Students use sentence structure and grammar that is expanding rapidly in accuracy and complexity, for example, correct use of past tense for regular verbs and the plurals of nouns, with many spontaneous self corrections made.
- Students effectively use the active voice and begin to elaborate some sentences by using conjunctions.
Teaching Strategies
During speaking and listening: Tuning in to ideas
The learning and teaching approach for speaking and listening is illustrated for students responding to the story The Little Red Hen.
Link sentences
Students learn to elaborate some sentences by using conjunctions to link two events. In The Little Red Hen they look at the picture and see the dog is asleep under the tree and the mice are laughing at the dog. The children learn to combine two events using while or and. They can repeat this for the event when the goose was gossiping to the pig, and the rabbit and was leaning on the gate.
Use oral language knowledge
Read a page of the story. Ask students to:
- Tell the story shown on the page in their own words.
- Pretend they are the Little Red Hen. How would you feel finding the wheat? What might you do with it? How do you think the wheat might have got there?
- Take turns to recall more of the actions. The first student says, I am Little Red Hen and I am digging. The second student says, I am Little Red Hen and I am digging and smoothing…
Read the next page. Ask the students, What do these pages tell us about ? Ask students to act out being the Little Red Hen asking each of the other animals for help. Have the students review their mental pictures of the last four pages and say what the pictures showed. Say to the students, Pretend you are the Little Red Hen. How would you feel when your friends said they wouldn’t help you? What do you think you might do now?
Use grammatical rules
Students practise using grammatical rules such as adding “-ed” to regular verbs in past tense and speaking in complete sentences. Show students pictures on the pages. Ask them to say the action shown in each picture in a complete sentence.
Answer and ask simple questions based on a picture
Students learn and practise asking simple questions. Show a picture and ask them to suggest:
- a who question such as, Who is on the bridge?
- a where question such as, Where is the Little Red Hen?
- a why question such as, Why has the Little Red Hen stopped?
Link sentences
Students learn to elaborate some sentences by using conjunctions to link two events. Have them look at the picture and see the Little Red Hen smoothing the soil and the worms watching her. Students learn to combine two events using while or and. They can repeat this on another page when the Little Red Hen is pointing to the wheat, the goose is gossiping to the pig, and the rabbit and dog are sleeping.
After speaking and listening: Consolidate and review
The learning and teaching approach for speaking and listening is illustrated for students responding to the story The Little Red Hen.
Identify new language
Students identify the new language knowledge they have gained in The Little Red Hen. Ask the cue questions, What new ways of saying things have I learned? What new words were in the story? They can review:
- some of the new words they have learned, such as tiny cottage, a gossip, chatted, napped and suggest synonyms for them
- using regular verbs by adding “-ed” in past tenses
- talking in complete sentences about pictures they are shown.