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VELS Level 4 – Teaching Reading Using the Four Resources Model: Text Analysing

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 to be literate: code breaking resources, text participating resources, text using resources and text analysing resources.

  • Code breaker: these practices have to do with breaking the code of the letters used in texts.
  • Meaning maker: meaning maker practices are to do with 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: these practices involve readers in the critical analysis of texts in order to understand how texts work.

(Luke and Freebody 2002)

Text analyst

“What does this text do to me?”

Text analysts know that texts position readers differently, and both constrain and influence them. (Freebody, P., 2004 Text Next, PETA, NSW)

Key knowledge

  • recognition of the ways texts positions authors and readers
  • attention to what is included and what is excluded from the text and why
  • writer’s linguistic choices/critical language awareness
  • relationship between this text and other similar texts/intertextuality
  • alternative readings/writings and responses to text.

Focus questions for teachers

  • What knowledge do students bring of the ways this text is designed to represent particular views and interests?
  • What explicit teaching will support students in developing critical language awareness of the ways language works to create particular meanings?

Possible strategies to support students as text analysts

  • four corners debate
  • writing on reading
  • multiple perspectives
  • resistant reading
  • problematising/interrogating the text.

Literacy and Learning in the Middle Years: Major Report on the Middle Years Literacy Research Project, Deakin University, - Transforming Teaching and Learning p 74

Four corners debate

Students engage in an exchange of ideas in response to a text read, elaborating and justifying their responses to the text.

  • the teacher develops a controversial statement/question from curriculum texts
  • students adopt one of four positions: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree
  • students move to the designated corner of the room in support of the position they have adopted
  • they develop arguments to support stance
  • students write a reaction to the position they adopted.

Writing on reading

Students research, document and present an area of inquiry for a specified audience, in response to a text.

  • Select a text to read and discuss with the students eg. Newspaper article
  • Invite students to make statements about the text to identify and write a response to an area of inquiry
  • Brainstorm strategies and resources for seeking information - list key ideas on class charts
  • Support students to progressively develop and refine guiding questions relevant to the area of inquiry
  • Clarify expectations of the writing task including: an awareness of audience and purpose, knowledge of various perspectives relevant to the issue and ability to sort, organise and present relevant information in an appropriate way.

The following vignette from the Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL) illustrated this strategy:

Jacqueline teaches a year 6 class. As part of a Sustainability unit, Jacqueline reads newspaper extracts and introduces photographs illustrating land use along the local waterway. She invites all students to make statements about the waterway, its uses, threats and future, on the classroom Graffiti Wall.

Students are supported to suggest areas of inquiry. They brainstorm strategies for seeking information and sources that are in the community. Key ideas are listed on class charts. The students then progressively develop and refine guiding questions.

Jacqueline utilises a rubric to clarify expectations and define important components of the project. From her prior experience with rubrics Jacqueline feels confident that they will also scaffold a common language with students and enhance dialogue and action.

The students plan walks along the waterway and nearby tributaries and flood plain. Using the internet, the class researches the responsible management agencies and what they are doing about the issues.

They invite people who use the waterway and appropriate experts to meet them during the walk to explain key features and land uses. The local environmental group explains the waterway’s health, possible threats and solutions. Students make a visual record of the waterway with the digital camera.

At school, students continue to develop their area of inquiry. They undertake simple water quality tests and research additional information in the library and online. The unit of inquiry culminates in students preparing a report to present to their local council, identifying features they would retain, threats to the waterway and what they consider to be suitable solutions.

References

Literacy and learning in the Middle years: Major Report on the Middle Years Literacy Research Project. Transforming Teaching and Learning Middle Years Literacy Research Project - Full Report (PDF - 884Kb)

PoLT Online Professional Learning Resource Principle 6 - Vignettes: Middle Years Level 4 English - Sustainability: Land Use

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
  • 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.