Learning and Teaching Sequences for Reading

Fiction and Non-fiction texts – VELS levels 1-6

Introduction
Phases of Reading Activity
Developmental Overviews
Levels

Introduction

These materials recommend procedures for learning and teaching reading for fiction (narrative) and non-fiction (prose) for students progressing towards each of the Levels 1 to 6. The Eight Areas of Literacy Knowledge are targeted in the teaching and learning activities at each level. In addition, the three Phases of Reading Activity provide a structure for organising the learning and teaching activities within each level. The English Developmental Continuum P–10 has excerpts of the following sequences to highlight some of the key strategies related to the Indicators of Progress.

Further information

Phases of reading activity

The three phases provide a structure for organising the learning and teaching activities in a systematic, explicit and coherent way and model to students how they can organise their learning activity and themselves as learners.

Before Reading
Students get ready or orient what they know for reading; they focus and collate what they know about the topic. This helps them to ‘make sense’ of what they read.

During Reading
Students read the text in a meaning-focused way; processing the text in depth using a range strategies while reading.

After Reading
Students participate in post-reading strategies; consolidate or review their understanding of what they have read, identify new literacy knowledge, link it with what they already know, automatise aspects of it to achieve fluency in its use and to respond to it with a positive attitude.

A Teaching and Learning Structure is provided below for planning and implementing learning and teaching activities. It serves both fiction and non-fiction contexts. The structure specifies typical student activities for each phase outlined. It illustrates the types of self talk about literacy learning strategies that students learn to use to guide, manage and direct their literacy learning activity.

For a comprehensive exploration of these phases view online: Teaching and Learning Structure (PDF - 38Kb).

Three phases of reading: Before, During, After

Developmental overviews

Each developmental overview will be divided into three key sections. Each section addresses the learning and teaching sequence as follows.

Teaching strategies

Students are gradually taught to use various reading strategies or actions, in a systematic way, with the ideas for each type of text. They practise using these strategies and gradually learn to use them more independently.

Word level knowledge

Students are taught to display the listed outcomes for the increasingly complex types of texts read in each phase.

Student reading behaviours

Students gradually improve their knowledge of letter cluster patterns. This trend is scaffolded in part by changes in their phonological knowledge, their concepts about print and their letter name knowledge.

The learning and teaching sequences presented are reflective of, and responsive to, developmental stages of learning. Teachers are advised to identify and select learning and teaching activities in response to identified student learning needs.

The Indicators of Progress for each of the stages of the English Continuum will support teachers in identifying and monitoring student progress towards the progression points and standards of the English domain of the VELS.

In the list below the Developmental Overviews are available as downloadable PDF files. The text titles link to sample units based on the developmental overviews.

The overviews presented at each level can be applied to other fiction and non fiction texts at this level. Teachers can vary the sequence of teaching activities to reflect the specific strategies and knowledge outcomes targeted at any time.

Levels

The samples which follow will use this template to generate the learning and teaching approaches at each of the Levels 1–6. They recommend procedures and reading strategies for learning and teaching reading for narrative and factual prose at each of the Levels 1 to 6.

Level 1