Engaging learners with texts (archived)

Engaging learners with texts is one of a set of professional development modules designed to support school leaders as they lead professional learning about the National Standards for years 1–8 within The New Zealand Curriculum. The modules are suitable for use during the cycles of professional inquiry that leaders and teachers engage in to improve outcomes for their students.

See Engaging learners with mathematics, which is an equivalent module for mathematics.

Introduction to the module
Key outcome of the module
Reflective questions for school leaders and teachers
Leading shifts in practice through focused activities
Resources and references

Introduction to the module

The focus of this module

This module focuses on deepening teachers’ understanding of how they can engage learners with texts in relation to the reading and writing standards for years 1–8.

The structure of this module

This module has three main sections.

Key outcome of the module, which:

• states what the module aims to help school leaders and teachers achieve
• lists indicators that describe what to look for as evidence that they have achieved the outcome
• provides a rationale for the key outcome.

Reflective questions for school leaders and teachers, which:

• helps determine the professional learning needs of the whole staff, syndicates, or individual leaders and teachers
• can be used within activities for leaders and teachers (see next section).

Leading shifts in practice through focused activities, which:

• outlines some professional development activities that relate to the reflective questions
• can be used flexibly to help meet identified needs
• draws on existing resources and professional development opportunities.

A final section, 'Resources and references', lists texts cited or quoted in the module along with resources that include useful information about engaging learners with texts.

How to use this module

School leaders can use this module to identify and explore shifts in practice that might be needed as their school works with the National Standards.

Teachers can use the reflective questions and/or activities to guide them through any changes they might need to make as they work with the National Standards.

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Key outcome of the module

The key outcome for this module is that teachers use and combine knowledge of their students, of expected outcomes, of the curriculum demands, and of the opportunities that specific texts offer. This enables them to support their students in developing and using reading and writing as 'interactive tools' in all curriculum areas.

Indicators

Indicators that this outcome is being achieved include the following:

• Teachers select reading and writing texts and tasks, based on learner needs, to meet the demands in all curriculum areas, and they can justify these selections.
• Students have a repertoire of knowledge, skills, and strategies that they can use flexibly to meet the reading and writing demands of the curriculum.
• School and class programmes provide opportunities for students to use their developing knowledge of reading and writing, and their skills and strategies for reading and writing, with increasing independence.

Rationale for the key outcome

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Reflective questions for school leaders and teachers

The following questions are designed to help school leaders and teachers understand their school’s current practice in relation to engaging learners with texts. They can then make comparisons with the practices embedded within the reading and writing standards.

Use the reflective questions to identify areas for further exploration through the activities that follow.

1. How do the texts that we select and the tasks that we plan support students’ development and use of reading and writing as interactive tools?
2. How do we use texts and tasks to explicitly teach the knowledge, skills, and strategies that students need?
3. Do the programmes and texts that we use reflect the needs of different groups of students? For example:

• Do our programmes and texts reflect the languages, cultures, and identities of all our students?
• Do our programmes and texts build on the experiences that students bring with them?
• Do we as teachers have specific knowledge about the features that make texts and tasks easy or difficult for particular groups of students, such as English language learners? Refer to the module Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners.
• Do we provide differentiated instruction with opportunities for students to choose different texts and tasks to meet their different needs?

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Leading shifts in practice through focused activities

Select activities to help the school community deepen its understandings about texts and tasks that engage learners.

The activities can be used in a variety of ways for whole-staff, syndicate, group, or individual inquiry. For example, teachers working with years 1–3 may use activities differently from those working with years 4–8.

The activities in all of the modules, including this one, are based on the core resources listed in the Overview. Refer to these as appropriate when exploring practice through the activities.

Activity 1: Selecting texts for years 1–3

1. Use a reading example for years 1–3 from the Reading and Writing Standards.

• Explore an example at a particular year level. In years 1–3, literacy learning is emphasised more than curriculum learning, although curriculum areas are often used as a context. Note that the examples for years 1–3 (unlike those for years 4–8) don’t describe a specific lesson but show a range of expected student behaviours across a variety of reading purposes.
• Compare the key characteristics of texts in the standard for this level with those in the text of the reading example. A single text will not contain all of the key characteristics, but it’s important to be able to identify key characteristics that will support learning.
• Find and read a complete copy of the sample text. Also refer to the associated Ready to Read - Teacher Support Material. Then discuss the following questions:
  • Why would a teacher choose this text? Consider the ways in which our choices of texts affect our students.
  • What makes this text easy or difficult? Think about particular students or groups of students.
  • What features would make this text easy or difficult for English language learners? How much support would we expect to give an English language learner with this text? What instructional strategies or approaches (such as shared or guided reading) might we use? How might English language learners use their first languages and prior experiences to support making meaning and thinking critically?

2. Use a writing example for years 1–3 from the reading and writing standards.

• Explore the example by identifying the demands of the task and the literacy learning that students would gain from that task. Compare the key characteristics of texts in the standard for writing at this level with those of the text in the writing example.
• How would this task and learning change at a year higher than the one we chose?

3. Use The Literacy Learning Progressions: Meeting the Reading and Writing Demands of the Curriculum (2010) to identify key shifts in the development of reading and writing from school entry to year 3.

• Discuss the ways we can use both the standards and the progressions to support teaching and learning.
• Use examples of writing and/or Ready to Read titles to develop further examples that illustrate the reading and writing standards.

Activity 2: Selecting texts for years 4–8

1. Use a reading example for years 4–8 from the reading and writing standards.

• Select an example at a particular year level and identify the knowledge, skills, and strategies required to achieve the standard (by referring to the Literacy Learning Progressions).
• Compare the key characteristics of texts in the standard for reading at this level with those in the reading example. A single text won’t contain all of the key characteristics, but it’s important to be able to identify key characteristics that will support learning.
• Explore the example. What is the curriculum learning focus? What is the literacy learning task? For example, in the year 4 sample, the teacher chose the text because of the story’s theme, which related directly to the curriculum area being studied (safety in the outdoors).
• Find and read a complete copy of the sample text. Complete the task that was set for students, then consider the following questions.
  • How did we do the task?
  • To what extent would we expect students at this level to do the task in the same way that we did it? What is a reasonable expectation? (Refer to the Literacy Learning Progressions.)
  • What could make this text easy or difficult for our students, particularly in terms of the curriculum task? Consider specific students, taking into account that the example includes only a part of the whole text.
  • What specific instructions would our students need in order to complete this task?
  • What features would make this text easy or difficult for English language learners? How could they use their first language and lived experiences to support making meaning and thinking critically?
  • What are the implications for us as teachers? What instructional strategies and approaches (such as shared or guided reading) would support our students’ learning?
  • What could we explore in more detail, for example, identifying the theme of a story or identifying key characteristics of texts?
  • How and why are we choosing certain texts? How could we do this better?

2. Use a writing example for years 4–8 from the reading and writing standards.

• Explore the example by identifying the curriculum learning focus and the literacy learning of the task. Compare the key characteristics of students’ writing at this level with those in the writing sample.
• How would we consider a piece of writing in an English learning context differently from one in a science, mathematics, or social studies context? For example, is a simile used for dramatic effect or to express an idea with greater clarity?

3. Use the teachers’ notes for individual School Journal titles and/or samples of students’ writing to develop similar examples at the level explored above.

• How would these examples change at a year higher than the one chosen?
• How can the Literacy Learning Progressions help us to identify the gradual development of reading or writing skills in years 4–8?
• Discuss the ways we can use both the standards and the progressions to support teaching and learning.

Activity 3: Teaching specific knowledge, skills, and strategies

1. Explore a range of texts and tasks used in the school at two or more consecutive year levels. Depending on the levels chosen, choose one or more of the following tasks:

• Explore the content of the reading and writing standards at each level and think about the strategies that students would need to use flexibly, as they engage with texts and tasks, in order to meet the standard.
  • What knowledge, skills, and strategies do students need in order to locate and evaluate information and ideas? (See the Literacy Learning Progressions and the English Language Learning Progressions and refer to the reading matrix on page 19 of the ELLP books for year 1–4 and year 5–8 teachers).
  • How do our students use and combine their knowledge, skills, and strategies to make meaning?
  • Does this indicate that the ways in which we currently teach these need to change?

• How do the texts and tasks used in earlier years support students in building the knowledge, skills, and strategies that they need in the years we are exploring?
• How do our students in years 5–8 use reading and writing to help them access content across the curriculum? What text characteristics support this?
• Consider a specific text-related task. How do the features of the task, together with the content, theme, and design of the text, provide opportunities for teaching and learning about reading and writing?
  • In years 1–3, teachers can closely examine the characteristics of a text at Green (or another) level.
  • In years 4–8, teachers can closely examine a text in terms of the literacy learning and curriculum learning opportunities that it offers.

Activity 4: Transition points for reading and writing

At certain points, the development of students’ reading and writing skills are particularly dramatic; at other points, they are more complex and subtle.

Year 3 and 4 students usually progress from building literacy skills to using their literacy skills as interactive tools to access the curriculum (see the reading and writing standards for years 1–8).

The developments that occur between years 5 and 6, and between years 7 and 8, are subtle but significant. The Literacy Learning Progressions provide details of these changes.

It’s important to remember the age differences that are involved, as the standards (and the Literacy Learning Progressions) move from 'after three years at school' to 'by the end of year 4'. For some students, this may be only a six-month gap.

• Select one of these transition points (the year 3–4 progression, the year 5–6 band, the year 7–8 band, or the transition from years 6 to 7) and examine the examples from the reading and writing standards.
  • What do we notice about the changes in the literacy and/or the curriculum demands? What would be the biggest challenge for our students and teachers?
  • What are the implications for teaching and learning in our school?
  • What evidence about a student’s performance on the illustrated tasks could be used to contribute to forming an overall teacher judgment of the student’s achievement in relation to the standard?
• Find examples in your school of reading texts (or writing samples) that teachers would typically use (or expect to see) across one of these transition points. Identify the ways in which the literacy and/or curriculum demands change over time. Use the Literacy Learning Progressions and the English Language Learning Progressions to support this exploration.

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Resources and references

This section lists some key texts for teacher reference and some for student use, which will be helpful to users of this particular module. The full list of core resources that relate to the National Standards is available in the Overview.

For teachers

• Brown, S. (2004). Shared reading for grades 3 and beyond: Working it out together. Wellington: Learning Media.

• Clay, M. (1991). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Auckland: Heinemann.

• Davis, A. (2007). Teaching reading comprehension. Wellington: Learning Media.

• English language intensive programme resource units (ELIP Resource Units)

• Macfarlane, A. H. (2004). Kia hiwa ra! Listen to culture – Māori students’ plea to educators. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

• Ministry of Education (2003). Sound sense: Phonics and phonological awareness. Wellington, Learning Media.

• Ministry of Education (2009). Making language and learning work 3: Integrating language and learning in years 5 to 8. Christchurch: Cognition Consulting. [DVD]

• Ministry of Education (Pasifika Education). (2006). Connections and conversations: Making links for learning. Wellington: CWA New Media.

• Ministry of Education (2009). Learning through talk: Oral language in years 1 to 3. Wellington: Learning Media.

• Ministry of Education (2009). Learning through talk: Oral language in years 4 to 8. Wellington: Learning Media.

• Ministry of Education (20010). The literacy learning progressions: Meeting the reading and writing demands of the curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.

• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2005). 'The definition and selection of key competencies (DeSeCo)'.  

• Picking up the Pace

• Ready to Read - Teacher support materials

• School Journal - Teachers’ Notes

• SELLIPS (Supporting English Language Learners in Primary Schools)

• Sounds and Words website

For students

• Ministry of Education. Connected series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Electronic Storybooks series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Figure It Out series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Fōlauga series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Junior Journal series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Ready to Read series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. School Journal series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. School Journal Story Library series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Selections series. Wellington: Learning Media.
• Ministry of Education. Tupu series. Wellington: Learning Media.

Effective practice

Professional learning modules

• Overview
• Establishing shared expectations
• Building effective partnerships
• Knowledge of the learner
• Knowledge of literacy learning
• Knowledge of mathematics learning
• Engaging learners with texts
• Engaging learners with mathematics

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