Você está na página 1de 5

Standard 3.

3
EDLA369: Literacy Education 2
Assessment Task 3
Rationale:
The five literacy sessions were based around the My Place video titled, The Dough
Machine retrieved from the website http://www.myplace.edu.au/home.html and the
information from the 19th century episode 14| 1878: Henry. The Dough Machine video
was selected for year five students to study as it offers numerous rich themes for
exploration such as inventions, electronic media, chores, business, employment and
expectations. The video presents opportunity for students to build on their personal
learning and thinking processes in level five of AusVELS (VCAA, 2014). Students
develop their personal learning as they explore strategies to assist their learning such
as the use of graphic organisers and seek feedback from peers. Students develop their
thinking processes as they pose questions about people beyond their own
experiences (VCAA, 2014) and develop logical arguments. Over the five literacy
lessons I aim for students to take on the perspective of a character from My Place and
construct a persuasive argument text.
Justification:
Throughout the five literacy sessions various instructional strategies and thinking
tools are applied to each lesson to support students in developing skills and
knowledge to create a persuasive text. Emotive language and fact and opinion are the
two language features that were selected to explore over the two oral language
lessons. Oral language has great significance in literacy success, as Snow and
Dickinson (as cited in Hill, 2006) found that literacy success is enhanced when
students are exposed to opportunities that extensively develop communication skills
such as speaking and writing and explore challenging oral language experiences.
Exploring the two language features, emotive language and fact and opinion through
oral language prepares students to independently construct a persuasive argument.
Think aloud, cloze exercise, graphic organisers and the thinking routine what makes
you say that? are used within the oral sessions to enhance literacy learning with a
large amount of English as a second language (ESL) learners. Research literature has

informed and challenged the decision to use selected instructional strategies and
thinking tools within the literacy unit.
Think Aloud is an instructional strategy used in the two oral language session
focusing on emotive language and fact and opinion. Thinking aloud involves
verbalising thoughts and ideas that wouldnt usually be spoken aloud. It is used to
model how thoughts, ideas and responses can be thought about and recorded
(Wing-Jan, 2009, p.102). Literature informed the decision to use a think aloud in the
oral lessons as thinking aloud develops learners metacognition skills and provides

Advantage of
teaching
strategy

prompting questions to assist students whilst independently engaging in the task


(Dori, 2007). It makes thinking visible as students express thoughts and ideas through
oral language. The think aloud strategy is used in the first oral language lesson to
demonstrate the thinking processes required to engage in the cloze exercise. Using the
instructional strategy, the teacher is able to model how to select an appropriate
emotive language feature that enhances the quality of the persuasive text. The think
aloud strategy is also used in the second oral language lesson to distinguish the
difference between fact and opinion and to demonstrate how to formulate an oral
debate. Research has suggested that explicit modelling of the think-aloud strategy
encourages students to engage in the process of metacognition even when they are not
instructed to do so (Ebner & Ehri, 2013). Literature from Ebner & Ehri (2013)
informed the decision to use the think-aloud instructional strategy in both oral lessons
as this displays to students how the strategy can be used and adapted to all tasks.
The decision to incorporate a cloze exercise in the oracy focussed literacy session was
shaped by the large portion of (ESL) learners that make up the class. Cloze exercises
are a highly valuable resource as it develops higher-order thinking skills as students
are challenged to identify the meaning of the text and words that are semantically,
grammatically and contextually appropriate (Isaac, p. 19, 2002). The cloze exercise
was selected to teach emotive language as Isaac (2002) states that the pedagogical
tool is used to encourage critical thinking and facilitate the teaching of vocabulary
knowledge. The decision to use the tool cloze exercise as part of the oracy focussed
literacy session was informed by Hirvela (as cited in Isaac, 2002) as she states that the
effectiveness of the tool is enhanced through oral language. Hertzberg (2012) concurs
with Isaac (2002) that sharing of ideas through oral language during cloze exercise is

Advantage of
teaching
strategy

strongly encouraged as it allows for rich learning experiences. The literacy session
promotes group discussion about the content and displays to students the openness of
the task, the numerous possibilities of emotive language features and provides peer
support in developing ideas (Hertzeberg, 2012).
The inclusion of a graphic organiser used in the oral literacy session to teach the

Advantage of
teaching
strategy

language feature opinion and fact was shaped by the literature of Simmons, Griffin
and. Kameenui (1988). Graphic organisers present an effective spatial arrangement
used to structure and organise expository material (Simmons et al., 1988). Students
within the oral language session use a graphic organiser to identify main arguments
with their partner, order strongest arguments and use the graphic organiser as a visual
stimulus for oral communication during the debate (Chin-Wen, 2012). In the teaching
focus group, learners are scaffolded as the teacher explicitly prompts students through
each step of the graphic organiser, which involves presenting an argument and facts to
support. The initial decision to use a standard T-Chart in teaching the fact and opinion
was challenged by research presented by Dexter (2011), as findings suggested that
graphic organisers should be well-planned and well-instructed. This informed the
decision to adapt the T-Chart to suit the task and needs of students by modifying the
T-Chart to create a self-generated T-Tree-Chart. The T-Tree-Chart shows students that
there can be many arguments for and against an issue and more than one supporting
evidence per argument.
The thinking routine what makes you say that? is used in the second oracy session
with the teaching focus group. As students are prompted through the graphic
organiser, the teacher uses the thinking routine what makes you say that to
encourage students to verbally support their argument or opinion by asking students
to elaborate on the thinking the lies behind their response (Ritchhart, Church &
Morrison, p.165, 2011). The thinking routine was selected as part of the oracy session
as it allows students to develop their oral language skills through verbally justifying
their response. It prepares ESL students for the debate as a debate involves providing
supporting evidence for an argument. The thinking routine was selected as it also
allows other students in the focus group to recognise how the learner is constructing
an understanding of a complex idea (Ritchhart et al., p. 167, 2011).

Advantage of
teaching
strategy

In the second oracy lesson, a debate was selected for students to learn about the
language feature of a persuasive text, opinion and fact. The decision to incorporate a
debate in this lesson was influenced from Wing-Jan (2009) and Hill (2012). Through a
debate, students are able to use their topic knowledge explored in previous lessons to
present arguments and supporting evidence. Students develop their extended
discourse through a debate, as they are required to use knowledge and understanding
of 1878 to present appropriate arguments (Hill, 2012).
The gradual release of responsibility model (GRRM) is used throughout the literacy
unit. The GRRM moves along a continuum of four stages where the teacher has all of
the responsibility in demonstrating the task, the teacher and students share the
responsibility and finally the students take full responsibility during independent tasks
(Fisher & Frey, pp. 42, 2008). The model is incorporated into the literacy sessions as
it provides opportunity for students to develop the required skills, strategies and
understanding to effectively complete the task. The GRRM is used in the first oracy
lesson focussed on emotive language. The teacher uses the think-aloud strategy to
model how to select an appropriate emotive language word to complete a cloze
exercise. The teacher and students complete a cloze exercise together and then work
in groups of four to undertake the cloze exercise using verbal communication. The
gradual release model is used in the second oracy lesson focused on opinion and fact.
Using the think aloud strategy, the teacher demonstrates how to use the graphic
organiser to identify an opinion, argument and supporting fact. The teacher and
students complete an example together and then students work in pairs to identify
their opinion, argument and supporting fact using the graphic organiser. Research
informed the decision to incorporate group work within the sessions. Lin and Cheng
(2010) found through their research that students preferred to work with peers than
their teacher. As group work provides a valuable learning experience this shaped the
decision to have students work in groups or pair. The GRRM provides the necessary
support prior to undertaking a task independently, which enhances understanding and
achievement.
A large amount of ESL learners make up the literacy class and require scaffolding,
instructional strategies and tools to create a persuasive text. Amongst the ESL learners
however are also a group of students that require extending prompts to enhance

learning opportunities. To cater for the mixed ability class, in the first building text
knowledge session, the teaching focus group is made up of students who require
extended learning. It is vital to ensure that all students are provided with the
appropriate level of support to stimulate ongoing learning.

Você também pode gostar