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Text selection and the dimensions of literacy learning

When selecting texts, teachers need to draw on each dimension of effective literacy practice set out in Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8. They need to consider:

  • what they know about their learners’ literacy strengths, interests, prior knowledge, and learning needs
  • their expectations for their students’ literacy achievement in the context of an appropriate curriculum level
  • the learning partnerships between themselves and their students and the goals they have agreed on
  • how they will engage learners with the texts, including by taking account of the difficulty levels of the texts and the characteristics that may support or challenge individual learners
  • the purposes for which they intend to use the text, in relation to their developing knowledge of literacy learning as a tool for learners to access the curriculum
  • the instructional strategies and deliberate acts of teaching that they will use and how these will build on their students' lived experiences.

Guiding questions He pātai

  • What range of sources do you currently select texts from to meet your students' learning needs across the curriculum? Could you or should you widen this range?
  • How do you currently assess the difficulty level of these texts and identify which characteristics will provide supports and challenges for your students? How could the guidelines Selecting Texts for Students in Years 4 to 8 and the framework support you in this?

> References and other resources

  • Fountas, I. C. and Pinnell, G. S. (2006). Levelled Books K–8: Matching Texts to Readers for Effective Teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
  • Glasswell, K. and Ford, M. (2011). “Let’s Start Leveling about Leveling”. Language Arts, vol. 88 no. 3 (January).
  • Ministry of Education (2006). Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5–8. Wellington: Learning Media.

Matching texts to readers

Terms like “hard” or “easy” are always relative ... A book is easy or difficult only in terms of a particular reader or even a group of readers.

Fountas and Pinnell, 2006, page 2

Update 13 explains the processes used for levelling the texts in the School Journal and other instructional series for years 4–8.

No system of levelling, however, can take account of individual students’ learning needs, their interests, and their knowledge of texts and of the world. Characteristics of a text that support some learners can challenge others.

Therefore, when selecting texts for their students, teachers should use the levelling information accompanying the School Journal and other instructional series as a guide and starting point. Their final text selections will also take account of their students’ prior knowledge, interests, and backgrounds.

Teachers’ choice of text will also be influenced by the purposes for which the text is to be used – for example, to access ideas and information related to a particular curriculum area or to foster learners’ critical literacy.

Teachers will often decide to use a text for which no indication of difficulty or reading year level is available. As well as helping teachers to establish the relative difficulty of the text and to identify the characteristics likely to challenge their students, the guidelines will also help teachers to choose the most appropriate strategies and approaches for particular groups of learners. The guidelines will also help them to identify those learners who have the knowledge and skills to use the text independently.

Occasionally, teachers may decide to use a text that they know will challenge some learners. In this case, they will need to plan extra scaffolding and support, such as a shared reading approach followed by repeated readings of the text.

Text selection for students in years 1–3

In these early years, it is essential that texts selected for literacy learning are at an appropriate level of difficulty – neither too easy nor too hard in relation to the purpose for reading.

One thing is crystal clear: the teaching can be effective only if the text is right.

Fountas and Pinnell, 2006, page 48

Online support material for Ready to Read is currently being updated and will provide strong guidance on text selection in years 1–3.

Download the full print version: Issue 19: April 2012 (PDF, 2 MB)


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