English Developmental Continuum P–10 – Speaking & Listening
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Conventions of language: scaffolding learning from 1.25
Indicators of Progress
- Students comprehend and begin to use the passive voice sentence form.
- Students comprehend and begin to use sentences that describe two familiar events where the order in which the events are mentioned matches the order in which they occur.
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 serial story Little Obie and the Flood written by Martin Waddell and published by Walker Books Ltd, London in 1991.
Use passive voice
Teachers use a concrete action context to describe events in a story to teach new grammar. Students act out an idea or see an idea acted out, describe it in familiar language and learn the new grammatical form. To teach the passive voice, students describe an action in one way and then learn to say it in different ways:
- A horse pulls the wagon. The wagon is pulled by the horse.
- The rain lashed the canvas. The canvas was lashed by the rain.
Students see an event acted out. They see Grandad leading the horse and complete the spoken sentence after the passive voice cue:
- The horse is…...(being led by Grandad).
- Grandad is……(leading the horse).