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Literacy Professional Learning Resource – Teaching Strategies

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Literacy teaching strategies: VELS 1 & 2 | VELS 3 | VELS 4 | VELS 5 & 6

VELS level 4 – Teaching reading using the Four Resources Model: Code breaking

To become effective communicators, all learners need to be proficient in four interrelated and interdependent dimensions of language use. The Four Resources Model describes the resources students need to access in order to be literate. These are:

  • code breaking resources
  • text participating resources
  • text using resources
  • text analysing resources.

Students therefore become:

  • Code breaker – a practice which has to do with breaking the code of the letters used in texts
  • Meaning maker – making literate and inferential meanings of texts
  • Text user – the focus of text-user practices is the use of texts in real-life reading situations
  • Text analyst – involves readers in the critical analysis of texts in order to understand how texts work.

(Luke and Freebody 2002)

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Text code breaker

‘How do I crack this code?’

  • students know the relationship between the spoken and written language
  • students can interpret graphic symbols and their contexts of use

(Freebody, P., 2004 Text Next, PETA, NSW)

Key knowledge

  • letter/sound combinations
  • word/sentence structure
  • grammar and syntax
  • spelling, punctation and handwriting/keyboard skills
  • conventions of language vocabulary and specialised language/terminology
  • text type/genre
  • academic discourse
  • text design and layout

Focus questions for teachers

  • What knowledge of written language do students bring to this text?
  • What explicit teaching will support students in understanding the language and structure of this text?

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Possible strategies to support students as code breakers

The following strategies are from Literacy and Learning in the Middle Years: Major Report on the Middle Years Literacy Research Project, Deakin University, - Transforming Teaching and Learning p 74.

  • using headings, titles & illustrations to make predictions
  • pre-teaching vocabulary and specialised terminology
  • glossaries and taxonomies
  • skimming and scanning the text
  • graphic outline/text preview
  • think aloud/read aloud
  • Word Splash
  • focusing on phonics and word knowledge in context
  • focusing on literate language and writers’ linguistic choices.

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Word Splash

Word Splash provides a useful framework for eliciting students’ prior knowledge before reading. It also:

  • encourages and develops prediction skills
  • sets the scene
  • is designed to develop a sense of discovery
  • explores connections and speculates on possibilities
  • focuses in on topic or issue
  • is a useful tool for group/pair sharing
  • can be designed to support less capable students.

Procedure for creating a Word Splash

  1. Read through the text.
  2. Decide on key words, phrases and concepts in the text that will provide cues for your students or that may need clarification.
  3. Type or write these onto a sheet of paper (see example for Beneath the Sea).
  4. Copy these for individual students or small groups.
  5. Once distributed allow students a few minutes to read through and discuss with others the listed words and phrases. They may ask others for clarification or elaboration of some items. Allow them to make predictions about the text in their groups.
  6. Bring students back together and ask them for their predictions, encouraging all students to contribute.

Teachers may ask questions such as, ‘What made you think of...?’ The purpose of prompting questions is to encourage students to interact both to share and to extend their understandings of what the text may be about.

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Four Resources Model – more detail

The Four Resources Model provides a basis for discussion among teachers of the literacy teaching and learning strategies that can be used to develop the different literacy resources required for effective literacy and learning. This equips teachers with a shared language and a common conceptual framework for:

  • thinking about texts and textual practices
  • auditing their current practice and for
  • planning more systematically to engage and support students in developing independent literacy resources.

The four resources do not reflect a linear developmental sequence, and effective literacy strategies simultaneously address many – if not all – of the four resources. Nevertheless teachers may find they need to focus more on one aspect than others at different times according to the demands of the learning task, context or purpose.

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Professional learning

Teacher-generated Word Splash

A teacher-generated Word Splash may be used when students are reading a text on an unfamiliar topic. Students may also generate Word Splashes on texts or passages of texts.

The Word Splash activity supports students’ reading by helping to provide a purpose for reading. A Word Splash requires a group of students to draw on collective prior knowledge to discuss their predictions about the topic and the genre.

This is particularly useful when the text is challenging and code breaking is essential for understanding a new technical field. The teacher has control and can select words that will be essential for understanding. It also engages students’ interest in reading the text to confirm or correct their predictions.

After reviewing the words and asking why students have made certain predictions, the class can begin reading the text. Using the Word Splash the students will read with recently activated background knowledge and with purpose as they discover whether the understandings generated by the word splash can be confirmed or corrected.

Example of teacher generated Word Splash (PDF - 544Kb)
Download this document to support the activity below.

Discuss, predict and justify responses to the following questions:

  • What do you think this t ext is about?
  • What is the purpose of this text?
  • What is the intended audience for this text?

Text used to generate the teacher Word Splash is Learning 21 st century style (PDF - 58Kb).
Download this document to confirm the predictions you made.

Consider the advantages of this strategy to support students, prior to reading a text.

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