Literacy Professional Learning Resource – Teaching Strategies

English home | Literacy Resource home | Overview | Assessment | Key Concepts | Teaching Strategies

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

VELS level 4 – Further speaking and listening strategies

Explanation of some strategies that can be used to develop student speaking and listening skills during reading and writing activities.

In the English Developmental Continuum P-10 you can:

• view the teaching strategies for communicating orally, Speaking and listening: 3.50 as illustrated by students responding to the story Danny the Champion of the World.

• view the teaching strategies for text level knowledge, Speaking and listening: 3.25 as illustrated by students responding to the fiction text: Blabber Mouth by Morris Gleitzman, published by Pan MacMillan in 1992.

• view the teaching strategies for text level knowledge, Speaking and listening: 3.25 as illustrated by students responding to the non-fiction text: Early days in Sydney Town.

See also: VELS level 4 – Speaking and listening strategies.

• Debating
• Book Discussion Groups
• Jigsaw

 

Debating

Debating is a teaching strategy that provides a framework for students to explore and develop a range of views over an issue.

See also:

VELS level 3 – Speaking and listening.

 

Book Discussion Groups

Book discussion groups involve a small group of students meeting to share their insights and responses to a text through discussion.

Book discussion groups support students to:

    - read with a clear purpose
    - share their feeling, insights and responses to a text with a small audience
    - develop their listening skills
    - justify their opinions of a text
    - participate in discussions
    - gain an understanding of different interpretations of text from a range of readers.

Steps:

1. Prior to forming book discussion groups, the class creates a list of highly effective questions and comments for discussion after reading a text. The list can be creating in an ongoing manner. The list can be recorded in a T chart.
2. The students form the book discussion groups. These can be student or teacher generated groups.
3. The teacher selects sets of texts to match the students’ needs and interests.
4. Within the classroom program, the groups meet regularly, such as twice weekly.
5. The students are introduced to the text at the first session and begin to read.
6. At the end of each session the students decide how much they will read and select questions from the class made T chart as their focus for the next discussion.

Options:

• To begin, model the strategy by having the whole class meet as a book discussion club.
• At the end of the text the book discussion group writes a review of the text for future audiences.

Jigsaw

Jigsaw is a co-operative learning structure that promotes responsibility to share insights and ideas to enable an understanding of a text.

The teaching strategy of jigsaw supports students to:

    - read and share with an authentic purpose
    - comprehend a part of the text at a level of understanding to present to others
    - listen effectively to gain a whole understanding of the text.

Steps:

1. The students form a ‘home group’ and each student receives a section of the text to be introduced.
2. Students leave their "home" groups and meet in "expert" groups.
3. Expert groups discuss the section of the text and brainstorm ways in which to present their understandings to the other members of their “home” group.
4. The experts return to their “home” groups to teach their section of the text and to learn from the other members of their “home” group.
5. The students can evaluate the strategies used by the expert groups. Peer assessment and feedback would be suitable.