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VELS Level 4 – Reading Strategies for all VELS Domains

Reading strategies can be found in the English Continuum.

These strategies will support students to build their speaking and listening, reading and writing knowledge and skills to support their learning in all domains of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS).

Following are some examples that can be adapted to a single VELS domain or for programs that have multiple domains to support students in meeting the literacy demands of their learning.

The examples provide a structure for supporting students to read and comprehend texts in all domains of the VELS.

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Reading plans

Students develop and describe their reading plan. For example, their plan explicitly mentions at least some of the following:

  • before beginning to read the text in depth they will skim it to decide its likely topic and how it fits with what they know, what it might tell them and questions it might answer
  • students may need to decide why the text was written. That is, what the author’s purpose or intention was
  • what actions they might use while reading, what they might do if what they read does not make sense
  • plan where they will pause and review what the text has said so far
  • how they will keep track of key ideas as they read
  • the steps they will take to make sure they actually add new ideas to what they know.

A reading plan supports students in focusing on what they want to learn from a text before they begin reading the text. It makes reading more efficient and supports them in their thinking as they engage with texts.

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Developing a reading plan for online texts

Following is a generic example of developing a reading plan for online texts. As part of this process, support students to be clear on what it is they want to learn and how they will apply that learning. The domains of the VELS can be used to clearly articulate the learning.

  1. Open a page you have been directed to or decided to explore, skim and scan it to decide:
    • How is the information organised? If it has several sources of information, for example, tables, maps, pictorial data. What can you learn from each? How will you combine them?
    • What questions does it seem to answer?
    • How will you manage and direct your reading? What needs to be read? What can be skimmed?
  3. As you read through the text, decide how you will:
    • summarise each paragraph, table etc and identify the question/s it answers
    • keep track of key information, for example, write down key ideas
    • review and consolidate each paragraph, table etc
    • link up ideas across paragraphs and pages
    • decide when to pursue other (new) links.
  5. When you have read a page, review and consolidate what you know now and decide:
    • whether you need to re-read parts of it
    • whether you will pursue particular links provided
    • which information you will save.

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Describe the characteristics of texts and how well the texts achieve their purposes

Students can describe how reading helps them and is a useful activity, for example, to discover what other people are thinking and to teach new ideas efficiently.

They are able to distinguish between factual texts targeting different topics, for example, distinguish between scientific, sporting and historical texts and identify what each type of text might tell the reader and use these decisions to decide possible questions that each type of text might answer.

Student are also able to identify how a text is organised, distinguish between particular types of informative texts and use this to assist them to interpret texts that have unfamiliar ideas and information. They can:

  • distinguish between simple types of explanatory text, descriptive texts, fiction, opinions and persuasive text
  • say what they might know having read a particular type of text, for example, be able to describe how something happened or to explain why something happened
  • link this with actions they might take after reading the text, for example, tell someone else what happened or answer questions about why something happened.

They are able to describe how texts are written for particular purposes. They:

  • analyse a writer’s imagery, characterisation, dialogue, plot and setting
  • identify how language is used in different ways by different writers to represent characters, people and events in different ways
  • suggest the author’s purpose for writing the text and suggest how well the text achieved its purpose.

Students also identify how texts are constructed for particular purposes and how they present particular cultural or historical values and attitudes and analyse the use of:

  • imagery
  • characterisation
  • dialogue
  • point of view
  • plot and setting

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Skimming and scanning

When skimming and scanning, students are able to:

  • read the text independently, either silently or aloud as appropriate; they may switch from one mode to the other if necessary for comprehension or other communication purposes
  • skim and scan the text, use the headings and subheadings and any illustrations to paraphrase and visualise, to plan where they will pause and review, to predict and to infer
  • use underlining procedures to record the key ideas in the text as they read.

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Comprehension

Students can work out the meanings of unfamiliar words by synthesising text information across sentences in factual text and gradually refining their understanding of a particular term as they continue to read.

They display literal, inferential and evaluative comprehension to analyse selected texts and support their interpretations with evidence from the text, for example, evidence that relates to different cultural or historical perspectives.

Students can use sentence comprehending strategies such as combining visualising and paraphrasing to understand the meanings of general statements. The can use various paragraph comprehending strategies in an integrated way to:

  • select key ideas
  • paraphrase a paragraph consisting of more complex sentences and use the summary of a paragraph to predict events and infer possible consequences
  • review and summarise paragraphs and synthesise summaries across paragraphs
  • synthesise meanings across sentences in paragraphs
  • infer the main idea of a paragraph by reading the topic sentence, paraphrasing it and inferring what the paragraph might mean and using the paragraph level questions to integrate the meaning of the text.

Students are also able to show literal comprehension in a range of ways. They can:

  • retell the key ideas in the text
  • answer questions about the key ideas, using several strategies to locate, select and record key information from texts
  • support their interpretations with evidence drawn from the text
  • implement simple and direct action sequences.

They show inferential comprehension in a range of ways. They can:

  • infer possible antecedent motives and characteristics
  • answer questions that ask readers to infer cause and effect across paragraphs
  • read between the lines and infer the cause and nature of possible changes;
  • answer questions that ask readers to infer, ‘What would happen if......?’, by changing ideas in the text
  • identify and synthesise concepts and events across several paragraphs, suggest why concepts, characters and events are described in particular ways and suggest what might be alternative ways of describing them
  • identify how socio-cultural values, attitudes and beliefs are presented in particular texts.

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Word level knowledge

Word Level Knowledge means students are able to:

  • use vocabulary enhancement strategies to work out the subject-specific meanings of unfamiliar topic words by noticing when each is first mentioned and other concepts they know that accompany it,
  • paraphrase and visualise the sentences and link the ideas with the new word and say what it might mean.
  • use a dictionary or glossary to check or modify their understanding in the specific context
  • read accurately familiar multi-syllabic words
  • review and automatise what they have learnt about letter patterns and clusters and how they can read and predict the meanings of words using them.

Reference

English Developmental Continuum P–10 English Continuum (Victorian Department of Education, 2006)