Literacy Professional Learning Resource

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VELS Level 5 and 6 – Detailed Reading: A Teaching Strategy for High Level Support in Reading and Writing

Detailed reading is a teaching strategy that provides high level support for students. It involves three phases:

  • text marking
  • note making
  • rewriting.

This strategy can be used at the paragraph or sentence level.

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Paragraph level

Detailed reading involves marking key information in each paragraph, note making and rewriting; and making connections between paragraphs to understand the text.

Select a text for students to explore in small groups.

Text marking

The purpose of text marking is to identify key information in each paragraph, after it has been read and discussed.

Prepare by telling students where they could find the words and phrases that will give a sense of what the paragraph is about.

  • Most paragraphs begin with a topic that is located towards the end of the first or second sentence. The topic tells the reader what the paragraph is about.
  • Many paragraphs come to a point, towards the end of the paragraph. The point is what the author has to say about the topic.
  • Some paragraphs do not come to a point, but consist of an explanation or argument sequence. In this case each main step in the explanation or argument may need highlighting.

As one or more students identify and say the relevant words make sure all students have found them and marked them.

It is important to demonstrate to students how to highlight the minimal information they need when note making.

Note marking

Words that students highlighted during the detailed reading are the key information in each paragraph.

Students take turns to scribe the key words.

Rewriting

Point out patterns and key elements in the notes. Ask students to articulate new ways of saying the key idea, by:

  • drawing attention to notes
  • suggesting alternative words and phrases
  • further discussing the topic.

Support students to check grammar, letter cases, punctuation and spelling, and encourage critical discussion of the original text and how they may reconstruct it.

Paragraph-by-paragraph

Repeat the above process for each paragraph. Combine the key ideas from each paragraph. Then:

  • students take turns to scribe the key ideas that have been highlighted from each paragraph
  • as this occurs discuss new words, concepts, patterns and key elements in the notes.

This teaching strategy supports all learners to use the literary language of the accomplished author they have been reading, at the same time as creating a new story.

This process can be used to support future research and writing in response to texts that are relevant to all domains.

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Sentence level

Detailed reading sentence by sentence involves marking key words in each sentence.

Select a short passage or paragraph for students to explore.

Text marking

Students read each sentence in a short passage or paragraph. The three cues which are provided to prepare them when reading are:

  • the meaning of the sentence in general
  • the location in the sentence of the key word
  • the meaning of the word within the sentence.

Students find a key word or words, and highlight. The key word may be elaborated on, including:

  • definitions of new or technical terms
  • explanations of new concepts.

Note making

Students act as scribes to document the key words. They use dot points to represent each sentence, with a dash between each word.

Students and the teacher:

  • say what is in the notes in their own words
  • suggest alternative words and/or phrases and write these
  • clarify the topic further through discussion and writing.

The teacher elaborates by:

  • rephrasing for students
  • supporting them to check grammar, letter cases, punctuation and spelling
  • encouraging critical discussion of the original text, and suggestions to reconstruct it.

Rewriting

Students brainstorm what they want to write in response to the paragraph.

All ideas are scribed.

The teacher challenges and supports students to follow the patterns of the original text as they write.

This teaching strategy supports students to use inferential comprehension strategies with a small, focused text.

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Adaptation of the teaching strategy

The selected paragraph is written onto card. The teacher guides students to identify and cut out words or phrases in each sentence. Students can then put the sentences and paragraph back together, mix them up, rearrange them and construct new sentences.

This will provide additional support for students to:

  • recognise and understand the key words in the passage
  • manipulate words to create meaningful sequences without the added load of writing
  • focus on the spelling of key words.

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Focus on spelling

Assess that students can recognise and spell words in and out of the sentences. They could be asked to write key words from memory and then encouraged to self correct.

Students can cut words into letter patterns, including syllables.

This repeated practice of letter patterns and whole words, whose meanings are familiar, rapidly enables students to remember how to spell them. The practice with letter patterns then enables them to transfer this knowledge to recognising other words. This is particularly powerful for technical words aligned to the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) domains.

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Professional learning

Identify a small group of students with similar needs, such as students who:

  • identify most of the whole paragraph and find it challenging to identify the main idea
  • have difficulty getting more than one idea from a sentence (such as cause and effect)
  • miss key vocabulary that is crucial to the meaning (such as missing the word 'scant' from 'scant evidence').

Select a text these students would be interested in and work through the process of:

  • preparing
  • note making
  • elaborating

As you work through this process with the students, identify key teaching points and questions to challenge students.