READING TO LEARNPreparing for Reading and Writing1

Contents of Book 1

What is Reading to Learn? 1

Closing the gap with R2L 2

Guidance through interaction: learning cycles 4

Types of teaching practices 6

Tasks in reading and writing 8

The Reading to Learn program 12

Programming for success 14

Preparing for reading factual texts 16

Note Making from factual texts 20

Joint Construction of factual texts 21

Preparing for reading stories 22

Joint Construction of story texts 23

Joint Construction of argument texts 24

Independent Writing and Assessing reading and writing 26

Lesson planning proforma 28

Further reading 30

ReadingtoLearn-Book1-Preparingforreadingandwriting 1

What is Reading to Learn?ReadingtoLearnorR2Lisasetofstrategiesthatenableteacherstosupportallthestudentsintheirclassestoreadandwriteatthelevelstheyneedtosucceed.

Thestrategiesvaryaccordingtotheneedsofstudents,theiryearlevels,thesubjectarea,andthekindsoftextstheyareexpectedtoreadandwrite.Buttheaimisforallstudentstobereadingandwritingatthelevelstheyneedtosucceedintheirgradeandsubjectareas.

Inthefirstyearofschool,thestrategiessupportallchildrentobecomeindependentreadersand towritesuccessful texts.Theyuse the illustratedstorybooks thatteachers readwith their classes, to teachall the skills involved in readingandwriting, such as comprehension, word recognition, spelling, letter formation,sentence construction and storywriting. Because these skills are learnt in themeaningful, engaging context of shared reading books, children can acquirethemmuchfasterthanthroughtraditionalearlyyearsactivitiessuchasalphabet,phonicsandsightworddrills.

Early years strategies are described in Book 6.

Intheprimaryschool,thestrategiessupportallchildrentoengageinreadingandwritingstoriesforpleasure,tolearnfromreadingandwritingfactualtexts,andtoevaluate texts, issuesandpointsofview in their readingandwriting.Theyusetextsinthesubjectareasthattheclassisstudying,toteachskillsinreadingandwriting,atthesametimeaslearningthecontentofeachsubjectarea.Theysupportallstudentstoreadandwritetextsatthesamehighlevel,ratherthengivingthemtextsatdifferent‘abilitylevels’.Inthiswaytheyensurethatallstudentsarereadytosucceedinsecondaryschool.

Inthesecondaryschool,thestrategiessupportallstudentstolearnthecontentofeachcurriculumareathroughreadingandwriting.Theyusethetextsthatstudentsareexpectedtoreadineachsubjectarea,toguidethemtolearnthroughreading,and to demonstrate what they learnt throughwriting. They enable teachers tobalance the curriculum demands for ‘covering the content’, with teaching theskillsthatstudentsneedtoindependentlylearnthecurriculumfromreadingandwriting.Theyaredesignedtoensurethatallstudentsarewellpreparedforfurthereducationafterschool.

Primary and secondary school strategies are described in Books 1, 2, 5 and 9.

Infurthereducation,includinguniversityandvocationaleducation,thestrategiesaredesignedtoembedskillsinreadingandwritinginteachingandlearningthecurriculumcontent.Theyenabletertiaryteacherstosupportallstudentsintheirclassestoreadacademictextswithcomprehension,andtousetheinformationtheylearnfromreadingtowritesuccessfultextsforassessment.

StrategiesforacademicreadingandwritingaredescribedinarticlesunderFurtherReading(p30),andcanbedownloadedfromwww.readingtolearn.com.au.

ReadingtoLearn-Book1-Preparingforreadingandwriting2

Closing the gap with R2LThewritingsampleson thispageshow thekindsofgrowthyoucanexpectwithina fewmonthswithReadingtoLearn.

Early years

Thewritingby‘JohnSi-mon’ to the left is typi-cal for low achievingstudents after the firstyear of normal early

years literacy practices. Without R2L, this studentwould probably have continued in the failing rangethroughout primary school. Within 2 months of R2Lteaching,thesamestudenthasindependentlywrittenadetailed,coherentandlegibledescriptiononatopictheclasshasstudied.

Middle primary

Thewriting to the left is typi-calforlowachievingstudentsinmiddleprimary.Itisanun-finishedrecountbasedonthemovieShrek.The text belowabout‘kangaroos’waswrittenindependently by the samestudent, after 2 months ofR2L.Itismodelledonaliter-arydescriptionstudiedinde-tailbytheclass,butthecon-tentcomesfromthestudent’sownimagination.

Junior secondary

The little text to the toprightwaswritten by a lowachievingstudent in juniorsecondary. It isabookre-sponse with just two sen-tences.The text belowon“The Recruit” was writtenindependentlybythesamestudent after 2 monthsofR2L. It is the first pagefrom a two page book re-view, that discusses thebook’s themes, charactersandliterarytechniques.

ReadingtoLearn-Book1-Preparingforreadingandwriting 3

Tracking students’ literacy growthIntheR2Lprogram,teacherstracktheirstudents’literacygrowthbyassessingtheirwritingeachterm.Thechartsbelowshowtheresultsoftheseassessmentsacross80schoolsinNSWin2010.ThefirstchartshowsthescoresbeforeR2Lteachingforthelow,middleandhighgroupsineachschoolstage.Thesecondchartshowsthescoresforeachstudentgroupandschoolstage,after3termsofR2Lteaching.(TheR2Lwritingassessmentisoutofatotal42,seeBook3.)

AtthestartofKindergarten,allchildren’sliteracyisnearzero,andthegapbetweenlowandhighachievingstudentsissmall.BythestartofYr1/2,thehighgrouparenowreadingandwritingindependentlybutthelowgroupisstillnearzero.Thegaphastripled.Thisgapthencontinuesthroughouttheyears.Thehighgroupstaysinthehighaveragerange,themiddlegroupinalowaveragerange,andthelowgroupinthefailingrange,nearzero.Thisisthenormalpatternacrossyearlevels,asexperiencedteachersallknow.

After3termsofR2Lteaching,averagescoresinKindergartenhaverisenby70%,andthe

gapbetweenlowandhighachievinggroupshashalved.Intheotheryearlevels,growthis30-40%(doublethestandardgrowthrate),andthegapisreducedto20-30%.

In addition, 80% of students accelerate at 2-4 times average growth rates, and 80% ofteachers achieve this growthwith their whole classes (Report forWesternNSWRegion2010).ThesearetypicalresultsforR2Lprograms(seeFurtherReadingbelow).