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Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 239 Chapter 6 Language and literacy support Your core task The core task of almost all TAs is

Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 239 Chapter 6 Language and literacy support Your core task The core task of almost all TAs is to support students language and literacy development. Helping students to interact and communicate with the world around them is probably a TAs most crucial task. TAs help children to interact and communicate with the wider world by teaching them to write, read, view, speak and listen. They also help students apply a critical lens to recognise the techniques used to manipulate, persuade and influence them. To achieve this, TAs first need to learn a few simple strategies, such as active reading and repeated reading. TAs who implement such strategies can help students reach higher levels of achievement (Gottfried, 2018; Johnson, 2018; Vadasy et al., 2007). Recent research from Denmark showed that high-quality TA support helped to improve reading skills by 13% (Andersen et al., 2020). TAs can be effective in helping students to improve their reading fluency, decoding skills and word recognition (Vadasy et al., 2006). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 240 Success in all subject areas depends on, and is limited by, a students language and literacy skills. This is why early childhood teachers devote so much time and energy to phonics. Phonics is about learning to use letters and sounds. Its an essential skill that needs to be mastered before a person can learn to read and write proficiently. Without a doubt, mastery of phonics is the foundation of a successful education. Even subjects such as maths and science are highly language-dependent. Imagine you were a Year 2 student and couldnt read or write in the language of instruction. Maths becomes rather tricky when problems look like this: Si Daniel at Jacob ay nagmamaneho galing sa kanilang bahay papunta sa kanilang kaibigan at pabalik. Ang bahay ng kanilang kaibigan ay 100 kilometro. Gaano kalayo ang kanilang biyahe? This problem is written in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines. The problem is straightforward, and most primary school students could easily do it. The difficulty lies not in the maths per se, but in the language and literacy components. Luckily, you have already learnt to read in English, so to you the maths problem is this: Daniel and Jacob are driving from their home to a friends place and back. Their friends house is 100 km away. How far do they go in total? You can think of language as the bits and pieces of English. This includes the alphabet, sounds, words, rules and meanings. Literacy, on the other hand, is how these bits and pieces are put together for real-life purposes. Literacy involves sending, receiving and processing messages. It's about creating and analysing texts to complete practical tasks. Its the ability to use language and other modes of communication (e.g., images) to interact with the world around us. This includes friends, family, the local community and desired target audiences. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 241 Improving your English language skills Improving your language skills is an incremental process that wont happen overnight. However, the more you work on it, the faster you will improve. A few minutes now and then is more than enough, provided you stick with it. Even the best writers habitually learn new words and ways of expressing their thoughts. Make learning and improving your skills a part of your weekly routine. Here are a few simple ways to improve your English language skills: 1. Aim to incrementally improve your skills over time. 2. Regularly take the time to read and write. Note new words, spelling etc. 3. Set aside half an hour each week to watch online video tutorials. 4. Work through chapters from practice books to cover the basics. NAPLAN books are inexpensive and readily available. 5. Identify the gaps in your abilities and write SMART goals, such as spelling the 200 most common English words by the end of the term. People regularly claim that childrens literacy skills are poor compared to previous generations. But is this true? As an experiment, ask a friend the following: 1. Spell the word definitely. 2. Spell a lot. 3. Is there anything wrong with this sentence? There are less people in the shop than yesterday. 4. What is the difference between effect and affect? 5. There are two dogs and one bone. Is the following sentence correct? The dogs bone is over there. 6. Which word fits this sentence: their, there or theyre Students often need help with ______ spelling, especially when learning new or unfamiliar words. Answers: 1. As spelt above this is one of the most misspelled words. 2. As spelt above often incorrectly written as a single word. 3. It should be fewer, not less, as the noun (people) can be counted. 4. Effect is a noun. Affect is a verb. (Note that there are some exceptions.) 5. There is more than one dog, so the apostrophe goes after the s, i.e., dogs. 6. Their all TAs must know the difference between these three. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 242 Defining literacy A literate person can successfully interact with the world around them. The TA's role is to help children achieve that goal. Before learning how to support students in improving their literacy skills, we first need to define literacy to know what were ultimately trying to achieve. A literate person has traditionally been defined as someone who can read and write to a certain level. In terms of reading, as a rule of thumb, a person who can read and understand a newspaper is considered literate. The person does not need the ability to write a newspaper article to be considered literate. In terms of writing, being literate means being able to complete basic day-to-day tasks such as filling in a form. Most people define literacy in relation to reading and writing, although other literacies (such as digital and financial) are becoming increasingly vital. Lets take a step back and think about reading and writing in fundamental terms. When a person reads something, they are using a system to interpret a bunch of symbols. Their brain is interpreting that the first symbol has this meaning, the second symbol has this meaning, and together they all have a specific purpose. For this system to work, there must be a shared understanding that everyone will interpret these symbols similarly. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 243 For example, we all agree on the rules of the alphabet and that each symbol in the alphabet is a character or letter. We agree that d and og can be combined to form a word. We all agree that a word represents something, such as the name of an object, and that multiple words make a sentence. No one disagrees that d+o+g is written as dog and that this word is pronounced in a certain way. Next, we need to agree that these letters have an associated sound. To make things more complicated, groups of letters can have slightly different sounds when combined. Finally, everyone agrees that the word dog and the sounds we make to say this word means something specific. For example, a border collie is a dog, but a wolf is not a dog. This is the case even though wolves and domesticated dogs are very similar, and even when a wolf is kept as a pet alongside dogs. These definitions are constructed by communities of language users and are a product of historical and other forces. While slight variations are allowed (accents, subtleties of definition, handwriting etc.), there is broad consensus across the entire community of speakers. This agreement is necessary for people to communicate. We also agree that swapping these sounds changes the words meaning. For example, the words dog and log have no relationship regarding their respective meanings. While two of the three symbols in these words are the same, the meaning is not two-thirds the same. When both the reader and the writer agree on what a combination of symbols means, they can then communicate in more elaborate and detailed ways. This is why literacy is best defined as the ability to interact successfully by sending, receiving and decoding messages. The idea of sending and receiving messages is not that difficult to understand. We send a message by writing a sentence and giving it to someone to read. We receive a message when we read what someone else has written. Decoding is the crucial part in the middle and its when a person makes meaning from the symbols, sounds, words, sentences and other information provided. In keeping with this definition, to interact in todays modern world, our literacy skills must be expanded beyond just pen and paper. For example, we need to know how to decode phishing and other scam emails. Being able to determine whether an email is legitimate Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 244 or not requires a high degree of literacy. The skills needed for this decoding include the following: 1. Reading skills Does it read as it should? Is it professional, or are their errors? 2. Spelling Are their any misspeled words? 3. Vocabulary Are there any words that are out of place or technically incorrect? 4. Digital literacy Are there any technical clues such as the reply email address? 5. Critical literacy Is the language stylistically as we would expect? In this example, a person needs extensive language and literacy skills to decode the text in order to take appropriate action. This example further shows that defining literacy is problematic because it mostly depends on the context. A highly literate person in the 1990s would be utterly illiterate in this situation had they not improved their digital literacy skills. Hint Research in Queensland showed that many TAs struggled to define reading and had difficulties explaining the purpose of learning to read (Harris et al., 2015). Having read so far, why do you think learning to read is important? Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 245 Traditional literacies Reading, writing and oral language skills are often taught together. In this lesson, children read the text, write and practise new words, and talk about the story. There are five fundamental literacy categories. We call these five areas traditional literacies because children need to learn them before developing their literacy skills in other areas (such as media or game literacy, digital literacy, cultural literacy and financial literacy). Students need to obtain proficiency in these traditional areas before they can excel academically. The five areas are below: 1. Reading the ability to see, process and decode a system of symbols. 2. Writing the ability to use writing tools to organise symbols systematically. 3. Speaking the ability to coherently enunciate a set of oral sounds. 4. Listening the ability to hear and decode the sounds that constitute language. 5. Viewing the ability to see and decode visual information. You may have noticed that many texts require a person to simultaneously use a range of literacy skills, such as reading, viewing and writing, at the same time. For example, a student using the internet to learn how to install a computer game might call on literacy Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 246 skills from each of the five traditional literacy areas: Writing the student will select terms and refine their search to maximise the chances of a web search returning useful results. Reading the student will read and analyse the top search results to choose the link which will provide the best information. Viewing and listening the student follows a step-by-step online tutorial to complete the task. These five traditional areas are strongly linked. For example, about 40% of a persons writing skills come from their skills and experiences with reading (Pamuji, 2015). When we read, we are exposed to model examples, new words, different ways of expressing ourselves, and persuasive elements such as metaphors and analogies. Its only logical then that reading more will improve our writing skills. The correlations dont end with reading and writing, however. There is also a link across subjects. Students who struggle with reading almost always struggle in other academic subjects. One study showed that reading tests could accurately identify students at risk of low achievement in mathematics (Truckenmiller et al., 2016). Linking viewing and reading a quick activity Its easy to see the link between reading and writing or listening and speaking, but what about less obvious ones like viewing and reading? This activity demonstrates how a high school English teacher might plan a quick exercise to show students the various techniques used to create a highly visual text. The posters below share many similarities (title, two characters, set at night, light snow). However, despite these similarities, each targets different audiences. Compare the two posters and then answer the questions below: 1. What effect would swapping the titles have? 2. How important are facial expressions in determining the content of each film? 3. How relevant is your existing knowledge, e.g., knowing the actors/characters? 4. What would happen if the characters were swapped over? Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 247 5. Why are the characters happy in one text but not the other? 6. Why is there a helicopter in one poster and lanterns in the other? 7. Why were these props chosen? What do they symbolise or indicate? 8. Why do some characters look directly at the camera but others to the side? Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 248 Language, literacy, and the Australian Curriculum We introduced you to the Australian Curriculum and briefly examined its purpose and structure in Chapter 5. If you recall, TAs dont need to know much about the Australian Curriculum other than the basics, e.g., the main subjects and whether its used in your jurisdiction. This section expands your knowledge of the Australian Curriculum by providing a selection of essential extracts specific to language and literacy learning. We couldnt include everything, so here is a sample to get you started. Dont worry if some of this doesnt make sense at this point in your training even teachers struggle to understand the Australian Curriculum, so youre not alone. You are certainly not expected to master it any time soon. The Australian Curriculums definition of literacy is below (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2022). Considering what you have read, what do you notice about this definition? In the Australian Curriculum, students become literate as they develop the knowledge, skills and dispositions to interpret and use language confidently for learning and communicating in and out of school and for participating effectively in society. Literacy involves students listening to, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating oral, print, visual and digital texts, and using and modifying language for different purposes in a range of contexts. Success in any learning area depends on being able to use the significant, identifiable and distinctive literacy that is important for learning and representative of the content of that learning area. Definitions are interesting, but not all that helpful when figuring out what students need to know or what they should be learning in school. The year-level descriptors and content descriptions from the Australian Curriculum give insight into what students should learn. This information might come in handy later in your career, even if only to generate ideas for activities. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 249 Samples from the Australian Curriculum, English Year 1 Level description sample Year 1 students create short texts whose purposes may be imaginative, informative and persuasive. These texts may explain simple procedures, recount actual or imagined events or experiences, report and describe learning area content, retell stories, express opinions, and describe real or imagined people, places or things for an audience. Achievement standard sample: By the end of Year 1, students interact with others, and listen to and create short spoken texts including recounts of stories. They share ideas and retell or adapt familiar stories, recount or report on events or experiences, and express opinions using a small number of details from learnt topics, topics of interest or texts. They sequence ideas and use language features including topic-specific vocabulary and features of voice. Content descriptions (samples from phonics and word knowledge) Write words using unjoined lower-case and upper-case letters. Understand that a letter can represent more than one sound and that a syllable must contain a vowel sound. Spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns. Read and write an increasing number of high-frequency words. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 250 Your role in language and literacy support Supporting students language and literacy learning is the bread and butter of the modern TA. In primary schools, language and literacy sessions are often referred to as reading and writing blocks. More time is devoted to these two blocks than any other subject. In high schools, language and literacy are pertinent to all subjects, especially English classes. The common language and literacy tasks that TAs undertake include the following: Help students learn and practise ways of interacting with the world. Support students to learn and master sounds, letters, sight words and numbers. Support students in improving their general reading and writing skills. Help students to improve their word knowledge, spelling, vocabulary and expression, e.g., how to describe or explain something. Help students develop their technical knowledge of language, such as rules and patterns. Help expose students to different text types, genres, styles, authors, creators, perspectives, ideas and, most importantly, how language is used. Support students to develop their skills in the traditional literacy areas. Support learning in modern literacy areas such as digital literacy. Emphasise language skills in other subject areas such as maths and art. Encourage students to enjoy and feel confident using language. Encourage students to develop a love for reading and confidence in writing. Support learning in one-on-one, small group and catch-up sessions. Assist the teacher in developing resources and ensure their availability. Use formative assessment to identify issues and gaps in skills. In all activities, TAs should use best-practice instructional strategies (Causton-Theoharis et al., 2007; Lushen et al., 2012). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 251 Language and literacy development from K to 12 The chart below shows the key stages of students language and literacy development, the main focus of each stage and the applicable year levels. It has been generalised for training purposes. Critical stages of students language and literacy development. Phonological awareness Rhyme, alliteration, sentence segmentation, syllables, onset-rime, phonemes (phonemic awareness) Kindy/Pre-Primary-Year 2 Phonics Letters and sounds Years 1-3 Sight words Sight words (top 200 high-frequency words by Years 1-2) Years 2-4 General reading and writing Improve vocabulary, spelling, reading and writing in general Years 3-8 Subject-specific literacy Learn language and literacy skills for different subject areas Years 7-12 Critical literacy Text deconstruction, analysis and evaluation, intertextuality Years 11-12 Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 252 Phonological awareness Phonological awareness is a critical skill for all students literacy development and a predictor of later reading and spelling success. Phonological awareness refers to oral language and is the understanding of the different ways that language can be broken down into smaller parts. (New South Wales Department of Education, 2020, para. 1). Phonological awareness is the first step that children take in their formal language and literacy education. Phonological awareness is all about oral language and involves many games, singing, talking, story time and other verbal interactions. At the tail end of phonological awareness is the most challenging part phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness (not to be confused with phonics) is when children learn the basic sounds of the English language. This stage prepares them for the next step phonics. Phonics teaches children the link between sounds and their corresponding letters. Stages or levels of phonological awareness The stages of phonological awareness. Rhyming and alliteration Sentence segmentation Dividing sentences into words. Syllable Blending and segmenting syllables, i.e., making a word from two sounds. Onset and rime Blending and segmenting onsets and rimes, i.e., changing the first sound. Phonemic awareness Blending, segmenting, deleting and replacing a sound to make a new word. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 253 As you can see from the above diagram, phonological awareness is usually thought of as having five stages. Rhyming is when two words have similar sounds at the end, such as cat and bat. At this point, children are starting to learn that languages contain patterns. Alliteration is similar to rhyme, except that the first sound in both words is the same, such as the P in Peter Piper. Sentence segmentation is knowing that sentences can be divided into words. The concept of syllables is eventually introduced. Students learn to divide words into parts and combine sounds from different words to make new words (blending). Thinks of a syllable as a sequence of short sounds usually with a vowel but not always. The next step is onsets and rime. Onset is the first sound in a word, whereas rime is all the sounds that follow. For example, do in dog is the onset while g is the rime. At this stage, children learn that words have a first and last sound, and sometimes a middle sound. Phonemic awareness is the final stage of phonological awareness, and its arguably the most critical. At this point, students are comfortable with words and can manipulate sounds to change their meaning. They will have developed an expressive vocabulary of around 2000-3000 words and a receptive vocabulary many times that amount. Like adults, there are many words that they understand but cannot use themselves. Children learn the 44 sounds of the English language. While students already know many of these sounds, teachers systematically teach each one to ensure there are no gaps. Any issues are diagnosed and treated systematically. Unaddressed gaps at this point will stunt progress at the phonics stage, so teachers take great care in making sure no student is left behind. If youre confused at this point, remember that its not the TAs role to develop phonological awareness programs or diagnostic tests most teachers follow a predesigned tool anyway. TAs need to know that phonological awareness is a five-step learning progression and they need to know each of those five steps. There are practical reasons why this is the case. Knowing, for example, that students are learning onset and rime is vital if youre looking for resources or creating an activity. In general, however, TAs follow the lead of the teacher (do what they do). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 254 Phonemes and graphemes For a sound to be written on paper so anyone can read it, some sort of symbol has to be created to represent it. These symbols have developed and changed over thousands of years some more recently than others (for example, the letters J and U were added to the Roman alphabet about 500 years ago). At some point in history, these symbols were written in a particular order to express the entirety of the writing system. A system such as this is known as an alphabet. The modern English alphabet is made up of 26 symbols. Each symbol is called a letter. A sound can be represented visually as a single letter or by combining multiple letters. A phoneme is the technical term for a sound, and there are 44 of them. A grapheme is the written representation of these 44 sounds (either individual letters or multiple letters in a set order). There are many more graphemes than phonemes because sounds can be written in various ways, e.g., the y from try is the same sound as igh from sigh. There are about 250 graphemes. Did you know? Until around 1837, & was the 27th letter of the Roman alphabet and it was pronounced the same way we say and. The symbol has evolved for over 1000 years to what we use today. The word ampersand has its origins in how the alphabet was recited children would sing X, Y, Z, & per se, and.. In those days, per se was sung to clarify that the symbol & when used alone means and. Say the bits after Z fast enough (pronouncing & as and) and it sounds like ampersand this eventually became a new word in English. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 255 20 Vowel Sounds 6 short vowels a e i o u oo u cat beg sit stop tub book put 5 long vowels ai ay ee ea ie igh oe ow oo ue paid stay see meat tie high foe flow soon true 3 r controlled vowels ar er ir ur or far her bird fur pork 5 other vowels ow ou oy oi eer ear air ere our town out soy void peer fear stair where sour 1 unstressed vowel Schwa sounds the uh sound in the Adapted from The Department of Education and Training. (2019). The 44 Sounds. Victoria State Government. https://tinyurl.com/a5sbfsa6 Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 256 24 Consonant Sounds 6 stops p b t d g k pet boy top dot go car 3 nasal m n ng met nest sing 9 fricative f v th th s fix van thin this six z sh ge h zoo show beige hat 2 affricates ch j chime just 3 approximants and 1 lateral* w r y l* went rest yell leg Additional consonant sounds: k + s = x k + w = qu box quilt Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 257 Phonics Phonics is a part of early childhood language learning from pre-primary to Year 2. It becomes the central focus once students have finished their phonological awareness learning (usually in Year 1). Phonics is a method of teaching students about the link between phonemes and graphemes, i.e., how symbols represent sounds. In other words, children learn to read. The ultimate goal of phonics is for students to be able to read, write and manipulate phonemes and graphemes for various purposes. Phonics is often taught in stages, with the easier sounds and letter combinations first. At the same time, students continue to play around with words just as they did in each phonological awareness stage. In phonics, however, words are explored in both their written and oral format. Children develop the ability to delete, replace and add new letters to make different words. Activities might include segmenting words and combining graphemes in different ways. For example, students learn that the letter t sounds different when combined with another, e.g., t + h sounds different to t + e. There are three general rules to remember when teaching phonics: 1. Phonics should be taught in the least complicated way possible. For example, when teaching vowel sounds, its not helpful to use terms such as short vowels and long vowels. Children dont need to know these technical terms. 2. Immediately following a model example, students should practise (repeat after me, read a short story etc.). 3. A multimodal approach should be used to reinforce learning. This means exposure to language from various sources and text types. Texts used for reading should be engaging, age-appropriate and visually appealing. High-frequency words High-frequency words are common words that we use every day. They are used in speech as well as in written format. Children start learning high-frequency words (such as the and was) quite early. They must become fluent in reading high-frequency words because they come up so often. Not being able to recognise these words instantly inhibits Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 258 reading comprehension (the ability to make meaning instead of just pronunciation of graphemes). As students master high-frequency words, they read with less frustration, at a faster pace and can practise reading on their own. By not needing adult support, fluency increases as they clock up hours of reading experience. Sight words Sight words are words that students learn to instantly recognise, so no effort is required when reading them. This means students spend time focusing on more challenging words that dont come up as often. Sight words are short such as and and the. All sight words are high-frequency words, but many high-frequency words (such as longer ones like library) are not sight words. There is a lot of debate in the education world over sight words, mainly how the brain reads shorter words the science is not settled. Regardless, even though students learn to see and say a sight word without hesitation, all sight words are initially taught with a phonics approach, i.e., sounding it out. Whole word learning was an alternative to phonics, where children were taught to see words as shapes. This method has not been used in mainstream schools for decades and should not be confused with the concept of sight words. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 259 Test yourself: Do you know the difference? Phoneme The smallest unit of sound used in a language, such as s and sh. Grapheme A symbol that represents sounds such as s and sh. Phonological awareness Familiarity with fundamental building blocks of oral language, including rhyme, sentence segmentation, syllables, onset and rime, and phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness Ability to manipulate the sounds of a language, such as by combining or swapping sounds to make a new word. Phonics A method of teaching children the link between phonemes and graphemes (sounds and their symbols). Highfrequency words Most common words used by English speakers. Students need to read and say these words without hesitation. Sight words Words that children easily recognise without having to sound them out. Also known as word recognition. A standard way of teaching and reinforcing high-frequency words is by playing games with flash cards. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 260 Reading comprehension Phonics provides children with the skills necessary to expand their reading capabilities. Once students can easily connect sounds with letters and vice-versa, they have the prerequisite skills to read and comprehend whole texts independently. Over time, more complex and challenging texts can be introduced as their skills improve. Phonics instruction finishes around Year 3, besides the occasional revision in Year 4 of 5. At this point, students are no longer learning to read but are practising and improving their reading skills. Children now know how to read most words, even if they dont know their meaning, so the issue becomes whether they understood the text after reading it. This is called reading comprehension, and its an essential skill. While students comprehend sentences and stories early, reading comprehension typically refers to a persons ability to make meaning from longer and more complex texts. In longer texts such as novels, readers must connect multiple pieces of information to understand the text. At the sentence level, students combine the meaning of 8-12 separate words to form a single idea. Then at the paragraph level, students combine multiple sentences to form a broader understanding or message. From there, they need to consider the meaning of whole chapters and multiple chapters combined. Finally, Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 261 students must add all the chapters together to make meaning of the text as a whole. While phonics provides the skills to read and pronounce individual words, making sense of the 5000 or so sentences that make up a book is a different ball game. This is the skill of reading comprehension. The 3-step approach to reading comprehension While there is no shortage of reading programs, the basic strategies used to teach reading are simple and easy to apply once you are aware of them (Marinaccio, 2012). The primary method that TAs use is the before-during-after approach. All teachers and every commercial reading program apply a version of this strategy, so TAs need to know how to work with it. The three-step approach is used to develop independent reading and comprehension skills. Dont rush the first step (many do). Avoid treating the final step as an assessment. Before Linking/activating existing knowledge Predicting Looking for cues Scanning/skimming During Active reading Check for understanding at natural stops Visualisation Re-reading, scanning, skimming After Self-questioning Summarising Comparing Retelling Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 262 Before reading Proficient readers take the time to prepare themselves for each reading task. They predict what they might read, what language they expect to see, where they might have problems and what information they are looking for. They search for cues from the genre, title, author and images to predict what they are about to read. This takes only seconds for proficient readers but needs much more time when learning to read. An everyday before-reading activity is to help students link their existing knowledge with the content of the text. This makes the text more accessible and less unfamiliar. For example, if students are reading a book about Vikings, they can expect to come across names of characters and places that are hard to read. However, if they spend time beforehand thinking about this, they know to expect strange names and titles and what to do, e.g., briefly attempt to read the word but not worry about it. Its also a form of revision on relevant words they have learnt in the past, e.g., words that we might expect in a Viking story include boat, ship, sail, ocean, sword, English, Britain, fishing, travel and voyage. Thinking about a texts context and subject matter before reading it enables students to predict what unfamiliar words might mean. This makes reading more enjoyable and accessible, and increases comprehension. For example, a TA might have students watch a short video clip explaining who Vikings were, where they were from, their culture etc. A question-and-answer activity would often suffice. Primed with knowledge of the historical context, a challenging short story or other text about Vikings would make more sense. During reading When students read, encourage them to actively search for key pieces of information. This is known as active reading. Do this for every reading activity in all subjects never have students read a text without guidance on what information they are searching for (note that read and summarise is not sufficient direction, as writing a summary is very challenging even for adults). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 263 Children should also be encouraged to regularly check their understanding at natural points, such as at the end of a page or a paragraph. They need to re-read sections that are confusing or when comprehension is lacking. Another strategy is for students to read the ending first unless they are reading a story for enjoyment. There is no rule that says a text must be read from start to finish. Select the best sections that help the child to achieve their learning goals. This may mean repeatedly reading a single paragraph or multiple unrelated areas, e.g., page 4 (para. 1, 2) and page 12 (para. 1-4). Find sections that do not have technical or foreign words, and where sentences are short and simple. Introductions can be challenging to read as authors use various creative elements to hook readers, such as flashbacks, abstract links, intertextuality, comedy or metaphor. Find more accessible sections to build confidence. Remind students to use images and any clue they can find to assist their reading, especially when guessing the meaning of a word. TAs should model this by reading aloud. Proficient readers also know they can skip words if they dont understand them. They know that doing so on occasion doesnt affect comprehension. Struggling readers, on the other hand, get stuck on relatively unimportant words, and their reading fluency falters. Hint When students finish reading a text, they often cant remember what they just read. This is known as passive reading, and it occurs even though they can easily read every individual word. When passive reading, students say things such as, I read it twice but still dont know what happened or I dont understand any of it. The solution to passive reading is active reading. Hint One active reading technique is to have students predict what might happen, e.g., predict five things that will happen. Then they read the passage to confirm whether their predictions were correct or not and tick or cross each prediction. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 264 After reading Once a passage has been read in its entirety, proficient readers check their understanding. They self-question to find gaps in their comprehension and then use strategies such as re-reading, scanning, skimming and seeking help to locate missing information. Students might summarise the text mentally or on paper; however, be careful to explain what you mean by a summary: you dont want a general summary of the text be more specific in terms of the information students were searching for. Other useful activities such as graphic organisers, retelling and repeated reading can aid comprehension. Retelling is where a student provides an oral recount of the text, usually to a friend. TA promoting cultural awareness via reading activities. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 265 The levels of instruction Learning to read starts with a model example. If you recall the instructional strategies from Chapter 5, you might remember modelling, guided learning, shared learning and independent learning. These strategies are known as the levels of instruction. While these strategies can be applied to any subject or skill, they are commonly used in reading activities (hence terms such as guided reading). The fifth level, self-directed learning, is not as useful in reading, and we do not cover it here. For simplicity, guided and shared reading are often combined under one term (shared reading), which leaves three levels in practice: modelling, shared reading and independent reading. Hint When teaching children to read, remember to use the basic instructional strategies from previous chapters, e.g., the 3Ps, withholding answers, targeted correction, think-alouds, graphic organisers and systematic prompting. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 266 Here is a quick recap of each level in terms of how they apply to reading instruction. Modelling The teacher or TA demonstrates how to read a passage. Sometimes this is a stand-alone activity and children simply relax and listen. This is known as reading to students. Sometimes students repeat words or sentences after the reader or are involved in other ways, i.e., OTRs. The teacher or TA demonstrate how they would use the beforeduring-after process. Shared reading The TA or teacher shares the reading task with students, such as by helping out when a student is stuck and providing prompts. The TA does some of the reading, but students do most of it depending on the text and the childs abilities. This might mean helping with the occasional word (90% student), reading most of it (90% TA) or anywhere in between. Independent reading Students will no longer need guidance at some point as they can practise their reading skills independently. The TA or teacher still has an important role to play, however. They help students to select texts and set goals, remind them of specific reading skills, such as prediction, and facilitate post-reading activities, such as checking for understanding. The ultimate goal of independent reading is for students to gradually read more challenging texts independently. When they reach this level, students can read more texts, more often and at a targeted level. This means children gain valuable reading experience at a faster rate. For example, in a shared learning oral group activity, students might read 30 sentences in half an hour. When reading independently, however, a 10- year-old can easily read 150 words per minute or about 500 sentences in half an hour. By way of simple exposure and practice, particularly with high-frequency words, reading skills improve faster than ever before. For this reason, getting students to this level is a key goal. Hint An easy way to remember these three strategies is I do, we do, you do. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 267 Re-reading, repeated reading and retelling No discussion about reading instruction would be complete without briefly exploring these three mainstay strategies. Re-reading is where a student reads a text for a second or third time. Sometimes this means reading the entire text again, but usually it means re-reading a specific section, such as a paragraph or a few pages. Older students can scan the text and skim-read. With each pass of the text, the students comprehension improves (they have a better idea of what the text is about). This strategy is often used in combination with active reading, i.e., read and look for X, then read again and look for Y. Repeated reading is more suitable for younger children and those struggling to read fluently. The student reads a short passage aloud until they can comfortably do so with no mistakes or fumbles. This means reading the same short passage over and over. Repeated reading passages are usually short (a few paragraphs or so), and each session takes no more than 15-20 minutes, as it is tiring. Retelling is basically a verbal summary, except students can include any details they remember or deem necessary. As retelling is an oral activity, students have to organise information, so it makes sense to listeners. Retelling can also be used as an active reading strategy (read to find critical information for retelling). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 268 Learning to write Now that we know how to support phonological awareness, phonics and reading, we focus on writing skills. Teaching students to write is almost the same as teaching students to read. Writing instruction follows the three-step approach of I do, we do, and you do, the same as modelling, guided and independent learning. Also similar to reading, before, during and after activities are necessary. Take care not to rush the before (pre-writing) and after (post-writing) steps. These are just as important as the writing task and can take longer. TAs can be eager to get students working and dont spend enough time on the before activities. Part of this is the incorrect assumption that if students are writing, they are learning to write. Another reason is the belief that the teacher wants to see students writing or expects a large amount of writing by the end. Ask your teacher what they expect because these assumptions are often incorrect. Some writing sessions involve only a tiny amount of writing, which is perfectly fine. Pre-writing activities include modelling, brainstorming, questioning, planning and doing other short preparatory tasks to scaffold learning, i.e., having students write simple sentences, making a list of words, and drawing characters, settings or timelines. An everyday pre-writing activity is talk time, which is a question-and-answer activity. Suppose students are about to write a short passage. The TA might spend 15 minutes on a combination of modelling, explicit teaching, discussions and questions such as, What are you going to write about? and What information are you going to include in each paragraph? The actual writing task may only take 10 minutes, while post-writing activities, such as answering questions, self-assessment and reflection, take 15 minutes. The actual writing task was only about one-quarter of the 40-minute writing lesson. Another standard pre-writing option is to examine a model text which students can attempt to emulate. For example, students might search a short story to identify the beginning, middle and end. Another option is for students to make changes to a model text. This is a useful shared or we do before activity because students see a model Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 269 example and then have the opportunity to play around with it. They might change the text to describe characters differently or add new characters. An old-school favourite is having students write an alternative ending or completely change a character. The next step after phonics After phonics, students learn the technical aspects of the English language, and their writing becomes more complex. This period starts around Year 3 and continues until Year 6 (the final year of primary school). Some of the critical skills that students learn during these years include: rules for word building prefixes and suffixes multisyllabic spelling homophones and homonyms word origins technical and precise vocabulary. These skills are practised and reinforced in reading and writing tasks on a daily basis. The teacher will introduce, model and explain each point at the whole-of-class level before students practise on their own or with a friend. These skills gradually become more advanced as students gain confidence. The TAs role is to help students to learn, practise and incorporate these language skills into their daily reading and writing practice. Students continue to study English in high school (Year 7 onwards) under the instruction of an English teacher. At this point, however, the focus of learning moves away from the technical aspects of language and toward critical literacy. Writing to learn Writing to learn is a casual, free-writing activity. Students can write about any topic without worrying about spelling, grammar, sentence structure or other similar aspects that adults tend to focus on. The most important rule for supporting this type of activity is to refrain from commenting on the technical aspects of language. If you correct students in this way, their focus will shift to meet your expectations, thereby defeating the purpose of Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 270 writing to learn writing as much as possible. A fun activity is having students write without punctuation or purposefully make spelling errors. In writing to learn, students write about a topic for around 6-10 minutes, usually as the first writing activity of the day. This allows students to practise writing each day in a stressfree way. Students can select their own topic or the teacher can give them ideas such as what I did on the weekend or my strengths and weaknesses. Spelling, punctuation and grammar While its not possible to teach students how to spell every word, they can learn the habits and techniques of proficient language users. Students who acquire these habits can develop their spelling, vocabulary and general language skills much faster and with less reliance on adults. Some of the common spelling mistakes that students make include: spelling words incorrectly, perhaps due to writing how a word sounds not applying basic spelling patterns i.e. using sort to spell port not knowing words that are exceptions to spelling patterns or rules writing the wrong word or a word that sounds similar mixing up words that sound the same, e.g., their and there writing words that arent actually words. Hint If students struggle with sentence construction, instruct them to only write short sentences like those commonly used in newspaper articles. To use the previous sentence as an example, its much easier to write three sentences of 6-8 words than one sentence of 20 words. Here is the same sentence divided into three: Students often struggle with sentence construction. To combat this, have them write short sentences. Newspaper articles mostly consist of short sentences. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 271 Some of the common punctuation mistakes include: not using punctuation symbols in the correct location, or using none at all mixing up punctuation symbols not writing a punctuation symbol correctly or legibly overusing punctuation marks such as commas and apostrophes. Some of the common grammar and expression issues that students make include: using words that mean something else skipping words in a sentence placing words in the incorrect order using words that have a double meaning without being aware of it structuring a sentence in a way that makes it hard to understand using long sentences when shorter sentences would do using the wrong style for the text type or audience switching from one tense to another (past, present or future) using incorrect words or phrases such as should of instead of should have using colloquial (slang) words in formal writing. You can think of grammar as the rules of language. Grammar is best taught via a combination of strategies such as explicit instruction (i.e., telling children about grammar), reading (exposure) and writing (experimenting with language). Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 272 Common concepts Some standard terms you may encounter in a language and literacy classroom are explained below. These concepts form the foundation of a persons critical literacy skills, which you will read about soon. While some of these concepts are touched on in primary school, they become a key focus in high school. Many other concepts could have been included here, but we chose these to get you started. Text A textbook is something that students carry around, and a text message is sent from a mobile phone. When you read something, you are reading a text; when you hear something, you are listening to a text; when you watch something, you are watching a text. All of these texts have the same goal to communicate a message. You will regularly come across this term in schools, especially in high schools. This book uses the word text nearly 200 times! Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 273 Think about how the following text types can be used to design an engaging reading or writing activity: A blog on a website Labels on a can Ancient drawings A TV show or series Comments on a forum Blurbs in an ad Hieroglyphs on a tomb A retail catalogue Text messages A restaurant menu YouTube videos A poem Emails Song lyrics Facebook posts Short stories An article on a website A magazine article A series of tweets A speech Instructions in a PDF document A police report A movie Sports commentary Purpose All texts are created with a purpose, and we should assume that every text was designed deliberately nothing is accidental. Purpose is crucial because it helps us understand the creators decisions and intent, whether conscious or otherwise. Texts are created for various purposes, including: personal and reflective reasons, such as a journal social reasons, such as a text message business or work reasons, such as an email scientific reasons, such as a report cultural reasons, such as stories political reasons, such as a speech financial reasons, such as a budget educational reasons, such as an essay. Target audience Creators of texts want their message to influence a group of people. This could be an entire country, culture, subculture, location or another group that shares common Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 274 attributes. It could be a particular age group or gender, for example. When a text creator wants to target a specific group, they must make design and language decisions to appeal to that group. What works on one target audience may not work on another. Working backwards, we can analyse the elements of a text to determine its target audience the creator most likely wants to influence. Texts are never created to influence everyone they always have a target audience in mind. Genre Text types can be divided by genre. For example, movies (a text type) can be divided into genres such as action, horror and comedy. Rap and pop are genres of music. Gothic is a genre of literary fiction. Each genre has notable characteristics. For example: All action movies have a hero, a villain, action scenes and a climax where the hero beats the villain. Horror movies typically begin with young, happy, innocent characters enjoying life, e.g., a road trip. Then something terrible happens, people try to escape, and some or all of the innocent characters are caught and killed. Crime movies usually revolve around a detective who must operate outside of the law to get justice. They are partnered with a comical sidekick, and together they solve cases while dealing with a few personal issues at the same time. Style Style is best described as the textual elements common to an individual creator or a group of like-minded creators. For example, some authors might have a light-hearted style, Hint The denouement is the part of a text (particularly a film), where all the loose ends are resolved after the climax. It may be set a few weeks or even years into the future. In the denouement scene, everyone is happy (except the bad guys) and there is often a wedding or other event showing that the main character lived happily ever after. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 275 while others may deliberately select a darker or more humorous style. Two basic styles of writing are formal and informal. When selecting books for children to read, consider factors such as style, genre and linguistic devices. Linguistic and literary devices Linguistic and literary devices are tools that creators use to make their texts more effective, engaging, enjoyable, authoritative or easier to understand. When you come across a linguistic or literary device such as those listed below, ask yourself why the creator decided to use it and what effect it has when consuming the text: choice of language i.e. an evil person vs a bad person selection of detail i.e. what to leave out of the text allegory i.e. the hidden meaning or message colloquialism i.e. very informal language such as Howdy simile (uses like a or as a to compare) i.e. He laughed like a hyena metaphor (like a simile but less direct) i.e. He is a lion by nature idioms (describes a situation) i.e. To kill two birds connotation and insinuation flashbacks Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 276 foreshadowing (alluding that something bad is about to happen) formatting, font size and type, colours, structure images, diagrams and links intertextuality (linking to another text that the reader is likely to be aware of) irony, wit, sarcasm, humour jargon (using lots of technical language) juxtaposition (putting two things side by side) onomatopoeia (a word is pronounced similar to the thing it designates, e.g., bang) repetition, rhyme and alliteration symbolism. Note that you are not expected to remember or use all of these devices, although its certainly handy to know some of them. There are many others. Cues A cue is like a clue. When we dont fully understand something (such as a word or a series of words), we can use cues from the text to figure out its meaning. Adults are good at using cues to figure out unfamiliar words, and we use this strategy to decode texts without knowing it. Because of their limited vocabulary, people who need to learn a second language become very skilled at using cues. Cues include pictures, images, music, voice-overs, titles, font type and size, communication mode and the platform, e.g., YouTube. Users can also consider background information and intertextuality (information from other texts). Other aspects, such as the style, genre, purpose, target audience and previous knowledge, are also used to make meaning. Consider a student who doesnt know the meaning of a word. An experienced reader might call on their knowledge of similar words to solve this problem. They could check nearby words to see if that helps, completely ignore the word, or scan images, diagrams or other design aspects for a hint. Children often dont know how to use cues as adults do they need to be taught this skill. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 277 Critical literacy Critical literacy is a vexing term, particularly in relation to the purpose of education in the 21st century. Its mainly relevant to high school students, but TAs will encounter aspects of critical literacy even in early primary school. Critical literacy is a persons ability to deconstruct a text to pull it apart and to look at it from different angles and in different ways. When someone creates a text, they try to influence or persuade us. For example, journalists might omit specific facts while emphasising others. They do this to convince us to adopt their beliefs. Critical literacy is a persons ability to combat these influences by understanding how texts are constructed. In terms of reading, critical literacy means thinking about how an authors intentions, decisions, motives, contexts, biases, influences, and literary and linguistic decisions influence our interpretation of the text. Many see critical literacy as a study of how authors attempt to control our thinking regarding political, social and other issues by using subtle cues and other devices. Imagine a government announcement about a new submarine. One journalist believes the government should increase military spending to combat growing international threats. In contrast, a second journalist believes that money is better spent on social issues like public housing. Both journalists report the same news but from distinct perspectives. They both try to convince readers that their views are the most valid. Which of the headlines below is the most accurate depends on your beliefs, values, perspective etc. Both can claim to be factual. Australia unable to defend itself as politicians underspend on defence Billion dollar bonus for defence industry while public houses crumble Children must learn to analyse, interpret, decode, and deconstruct texts to operate in todays complex world. Critical literacy is taught by teaching children to ask questions of every text, such as: Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 278 Why did the author use that image? Why did the author choose that title? Why did the author use that word, sentence, punctuation or style? Why did the author describe the scene in that way? Why did the author choose that particular word? Why did the author repeat that word, message, idea or fact? Why did the author include that character and describe them in that way? Why was the character given those traits or attributes? Why did the author choose that ending? How do the authors cultural, political or other beliefs influence their work? Why did the author write the text in the first place? Why did the author choose that theme, sub-theme or world view? Why did the author include a particular fact or statistic while omitting others? What is the author trying to convince us of? What are the counterarguments? How could the same text be created from an opposing point of view? Apart from trying to convince us of something, could the creator be lying? The foundation of critical literacy is the belief that creators have options, make choices and seek to influence or convince us in some way. Creators do this consciously or subconsciously (or a bit of both) using various methods such as imagery. Imagery is how something (an object, person, place, feeling, idea etc.) is described. The same image can be described in many different ways, depending on the message the creator wants to send. An essential aspect of critical literacy is selection of detail what the creator is and is not telling us. Not every detail can be included in a text due to limits such as word count. This means creators must decide what information they want to include and exclude. Sometimes the reasons behind these decisions are innocent (e.g., information is not relevant), while at other times, creators are knowingly deceitful. For example, a news channel may claim to be unbiased while at the same time airing twice as many negative stories about one politician compared to another. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 279 Suppose there is a newspaper article about a TA fired for injuring a young child with a disability. The articles headline reads, TA violently assaults vulnerable child. There are hundreds of online comments condemning the TA. Unfortunately, this headline may not tell the whole truth, it may be written from a particular perspective, or it could be downright deceitful. While its not technically incorrect, its only one of many possible headlines. A critically literate person would think about what details might be missing from the article or headline. Was the student on any medications for behavioural reasons? Does the student have a history of violence? Has the same student attacked other TAs or teachers? How big was the student compared to the TA? What happened before the attack? Was the TA trained to restrain students, and did they follow the correct procedure? Was the student aggressive, or was this unprovoked? Did the student have a weapon? What is the TAs perspective? In this example, the article could have used a neutral heading such as Violence in schools on the rise or even been pro TA with a title such as, TAs under attack! or TA subdues violent attacker. These headings could have been chosen, and all might be equally factual. The next step is to think about why the author was trying to convince the reader of their perspective what is their worldview? The point of critical literacy is to recognise that all creators have a perspective and seek to convince us of the validity of that perspective. There is no such thing as unbiased it is simply not possible. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 280 Summary Language is an agreed set of rules used for communication. It is constructed using sounds, symbols and rules. Literacy is the ability to successfully interact with the world by sending, receiving and decoding messages. There are many ways to improve your language and literacy skills, such as by daily reading and noting how others use language. There are five traditional literacy areas: reading, writing, speaking, viewing and listening. Modern literacy areas include digital, cultural and financial. The first step in language learning is phonological awareness, which includes rhyme, alliteration, sentence segmentation, syllables, onset-rime and phonemes. Phonics connects symbols (graphemes) with their assigned sound (phonemes). Phonics is taught in stages following phonological awareness. Teachers focus on high-frequency words in Years 2-4 so students can easily see and say common words. Reading comprehension is about making meaning from texts. Reading and writing are taught with the before-during-after approach. Active reading is when a person reads to find specific information. The levels of instruction appropriate for reading include modelling, shared and independent reading, also known as I do, we do, you do. Repeated reading requires the student to orally re-read the same short passage until they can do so error-free. Re-reading is when a student reads the same text multiple times to find different information with each pass. Retelling is where a student orally recounts a text. To improve students spelling, teach them what good spellers do. Other common concepts include target audience, purpose, genre, style, selection of detail, imagery and literary devices. Critical literacy is the ability to deconstruct a text to determine how and why a creator seeks to manipulate or influence us. Providing Quality School-Based Learning and Support Services 281 Review activities True/false 1. The core task of almost all TAs is to support students language and literacy development. 2. You can think of language as the bits and pieces of English. 3. The five traditional literacies are reading, writing, acting, singing and dancing. 4. Phonics is usually taught in stages starting in about Year 3. 5. Phonics is the linking of sounds to symbols. 6. There are 55 phonemes in the English language, depending on accent. 7. Reading comprehension skills are taught using the four-step approach of before, during, after and repeat. 8. Before-reading activities are also known as pre-reading activities. 9. A standard process for teaching writing skills is we do, you do, I do. 10.TAs should t

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