LaN In Focus

1

• LaN In Focus
• Short Power Point presentation

2

• INTRODUCTION
• assessment for learning
• essential literacy skills
• National Literacy Benchmark skills
• meet needs of students and teachers
• The Materials
• Strategies for supporting students with test
  processes
• Sample analysis of test items
• Teaching and learning strategies
• Teaching and learning sequences
• Proformas
• Metacognition

3

• A ORIENTATION TO THE TEXTS
• Strategies
• Look at key features of LaN test question
  booklet
• Look at key features of LaN test magazine
• Match each text with the section in the question
  booklet
• Review

• Notes for students
• Orientation
• Look at the question booklet
• Find the beginning of each section
• Look at the magazine
• Name text types eg story, report, recipe
• Match each text with the section in question
  booklet

4

• B KEY VOCABULARY
• Students need to be familiar with key vocabulary
• From the question stems in the Reading section
• From the Language section
• Technical vocabulary
• Familiar words with multiple meanings
• Teaching strategies
• ? incorporate / highlight the key words
  in regular
• activities
• ? make a chart listing key words and
  their
• definition or use

5
C MULTIPLE CHOICE PROCESS Teaching
Strategies Orientation to each item Multiple
choice answering a question Multiple choice
completing a sentence

• Notes for students
• Multiple Choice
• read the question stem once
• read the question stem again and underline /
  circle key words
• read through the choices
• read/scan text
• eliminate obvious incorrect answers
• read the text/section more carefully
• colour the correct choice

6
D SHORT ANSWER PROCESS Teaching Strategies

• Notes for students
• Short answer questions
• read the stem once
• read the stem again and underline / circle key
  words
• read/scan text
• write answer

7

• E SCANNING FOR KEY WORDS / CUES
• levels of complexity
• Scan for the exact key word
• ? Scan for key words and the related words
• ? Find the answer before or after the
  matched word
• ? Find a key word or related word and
  find the answer in the
• previous or following sentences

8
Model of language
9

• Can you get any meaning from this text? Why?
• Culturally familiar context
• Recognise the role of statements and questions in
  relation to the context
• Recognise the words within the statements and
  questions
• Decode the letters to sounds
• Recognise the punctuation and layout

A Next please. B Can I have those two? A Yes.
This ones one forty five and this ones one
twenty five. B Have you got any whole ones? A
Yes. How many would you like? B Just one. A
Right. Thats ten dollars twenty altogether. B
Here you are. A Thankyou. B Thankyou.
10

• Can you get any meaning from this text? Why?
• Culturally familiar topic
• Recognise that statements are being used to
  convey information
• Decode the letters to sounds
• Recognise the punctuation and layout
• Structure of sentences

Data reveals that the greatest consumer spending
traditionally occurs during the pre Christmas
period. A consequence of this spending is debt.
The publicity for and expectation of a gift laden
Christmas has lead some families to incur debts
beyond their means of immediate repayment,
leading to the additional and spiralling cost of
interest fees. A substantial education program is
required to reverse this trend.
11
The publicity for and expectation of a gift
laden Christmas has lead some families to incur
debts beyond their means of immediate repayment,
leading to the additional and spiralling cost of
interest fees.
Questions
What is beyond immediate repayment?
Noun group
What cost increases?
Noun group, Synonym for spiralling
What causes debts?
Synonym for cause, Noun group
What is a solution to
increasing debt?
Understand causal relationship
implied by has lead
12
text in context meaning words and structures
sounds / letters

13

• Where can reading breakdown
• Culturally unfamiliar topic / context
• Sentences and questions not used in a congruent
  way
• Complex structure of sentences
• Complex vocabulary
• Unfamiliar punctuation and layout

14
(No Transcript)
15

16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Teaching and Learning Strategies
23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
Teaching Strategies

• When working with familiar texts
• Identify notable visual layout / format of
  individual genres eg a report uses subheadings I
• Identify and name the genre of a text
• Match texts to genre labels
• Identify the structure of a text
• Compare structure, purpose, context of two
  different texts
• Reconstruct whole texts from the cut-up sections
  of two different texts and identify the clues for
  the reconstruction
• Link genre with purpose (eg advertise, describe,
  entertain, inform), audience and context eg an
  information report for children about snakes
  could be found in a childrens encyclopaedia
• Identify the typical vocabulary patterns of
  individual genres eg a narrative uses descriptive
  language

26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
For your information A clause A group of
words with only one verb is a clause. A sentence
which is a single clause is a simple sentence.
Examples Mosquitos wriggle through the water
pipes. A new born blue whale is seven or eight
metres long. Conjunctions can be used to join
clauses. The choice of conjunction determines the
relationship between the clauses. Linking
conjunctions a small set of conjunctions (eg
and, and then, or, but, so) that join two clauses
forming a relationship of independence, for
example We went shopping and then we did our
homework. Here the choice of conjunction also
forms a relationship of sequential action. If
the subject of the clauses is the same, it can be
ellipsed, for example We went shopping and then
did our homework. Generally the order of the
clauses is fixed. These sentences are often
called compound sentences.
29
Binding conjunctions a large set of conjunctions
(eg because, if, as, since, after) that join two
clauses forming a relationship of dependence. For
example, We went shopping. We did our
homework. can become one sentence with the use of
the conjunction after, creating a time
relationship between the clauses. We did our
homework after we went shopping. The bound
clause, including the conjunction, can be moved
After we went shopping we did our homework.
Here the dependent clause (also know as the
subordinate clause) has become the sentence
beginning instead of We. Sentences with
dependent clauses are often called complex
sentences Relative pronouns pronouns (who,
which, that, whose, whom) whose function is to
relate a clause to primary information. A
relative clause can be used to focus attention.
The relative clause in The boy who won the
competition is over there. defines which boy.
This kind of a clause is called an embedded
clause. A relative pronoun can also introduce a
clause which provides additional information eg
That girl, who is three years younger than me,
has won the music prize. This kind of a clause
is called an interrupting clause. Intonation and
pausing when reading or speaking the sentence is
a strong determiner of whether a relative clause
is an embedded clause (and does not require
commas) or is an interrupting clause (and
requires commas). A sentence with an interrupting
relative clause is also a complex sentence.
30

• Teaching Strategies
• When working with familiar texts
• Find conjunctions in a sentence and identify the
  relationship created by the conjunction
• Year 3 Example Drought
• He turns the tap and starts to laugh
• There are tadpoles swimming in their bath!
  (sequential action linking conjunction)
• Year 5 Example Morris Gleitzman
• I rewrote chapter one and it certainly was more
  interesting.
• (additional information linking conjunction)
• It ended up longer because the bike couldnt
  travel so fast.(reason binding conjunction)

31
CONJUNCTIONS I rewrote chapter one I was
uncomfortable with the result. I rewrote
chapter one .. I was comfortable with the
result.
32
(No Transcript)
33

• For your information
• connect information within and across sentences
  and across paragraphs.
• avoids the repetition of the noun group.
• important for the comprehensibility of a text for
  both reading and writing.
• reference items
• pronouns I you he she it they we me him her it
  them us
• possessive pronouns my your her his its their
  our mine yours hers its theirs yours ours
• reflexive pronouns myself yourself himself
  herself itself themselves ourselves
• demonstrative pronouns here there
• pointers the this that these those
• reference point can be forwards or backwards from
  the reference item or outside of the text.
• reference item needs to agree with their
  reference points with regards to being human /
  non human and singular / plural.
• pointers and nouns can combine to create
  reference items for longer pieces of text.

34
1. Track reference
In narratives Year 5 example The red web Smokey
watched the car disappear down the street as she
peered from behind Timothys bedroom curtains.
She knew she finally had the house to herself
and licked her lips with delight.
In reports Year 5 Example Flesh eaters Animals
that eat flesh are called carnivores. Some are
active hunters. Others, called scavengers, feed
on dead or injured animals.
35
What is motion capture? What knowledge of
reference is required to answer this correctly?
What is a motion capture system? What knowledge
of reference is required to answer this correctly?
36
(No Transcript)
37
For your information Writers use synonyms to
build connections in a text. For readers the
synonyms contribute to the richness of the
reading experience. Students need to be aware
of and understand the synonyms used within a
text.
What are the synonyms used in this text?
Year 7 Example Aquatics The existing Aquatics
facilities are being redesigned and adjusted in
order to meet the Games time requirements. The
alterations consist of enlarging venue seating
capacities building a new pool for Synchronised
swimming redesigning and adding springboards
Year 7 Example Aquatics The existing Aquatics
facilities are being redesigned and adjusted in
order to meet the Games time requirements. The
alterations consist of enlarging venue seating
capacities building a new pool for Synchronised
swimming redesigning and adding springboards
38
For your information Writers use synonyms to
build connections in a text. For readers the
synonyms contribute to the richness of the
reading experience. Students also need to be
aware of and understand the synonyms used across
the questions and answers.
Year 7 Example Aquatics The existing Aquatics
facilities are being redesigned and adjusted in
order to meet the Games time requirements. The
alterations consist of enlarging venue seating
capacities building a new pool for Synchronised
swimming redesigning and adding springboards
39
(No Transcript)
40
For your information A group of words in
which the central idea is a noun and all the
other words help to define or further describe
the noun is called a noun group. These words can
be both before and after the central idea (also
called the head noun). a gigantic red wool
design is a noun group. The head noun is
design. Here the words defining this noun are
only in front of it. the extraordinary,
imaginative world of Weslandia is also a noun
group. Here there are words both before and after
the head noun world. English has a specific
order for the words in front of the head noun.
41
Examples
of seabirds
feathers
the
42
Where is Weslandia? What knowledge of noun
groups is required to answer this correctly?
43
For your information Technical Vocabulary
Texts vary in their degree of technicality from
everyday to specialised to highly
technical. In order to move into specialised or
technical fields, students will need to have and
interpret a range of increasingly technical
terms. Nominalisations Nominalisation is
the process of changing non-noun elements into
nouns. Nominalisation allows the writer / speaker
to create a more static world, for example
verb recycle recycling
adjective sustainable sustainability modal
ity may possibility conjunction
because reason preposition during
duration The use of nominalisations may raise
the level of technicality of a text.
Year 5 Example SCRAP Since it began in 1991,
schools involved with SCRAP have recycled 50 000
tonnes of paper- a feat thats saved 650 000
trees! SCRAP now combines paper recycling with
other recycling.
44
In a sentence in the active voice, the subject of
the sentence is the doer / agent.
Cows eat
the grass. (subject
agent) (action) (object / goal)
In a sentence in the passive voice, the subject
is not the doer but the object / goal. The doer
/agent can be placed at the end by adding by
The grass
is eaten by the cows.
(subject object / goal)
(action) (agent) The passive voice
is appropriate where the agent is not known or
not the focus. The
seeds were sown in January. The passive is
formed with the verb to be past participle.
Auxilliaries can also be used with the passive eg
will be sown, can be sown, could be sown. In
some cases the verb to be can be ellipsed tiny
shrimp called krill tiny shrimp which are
called krill Here both the relative pronoun which
and the verb to be (are) have been ellipsed.

45
4. Convert sentences from active to passive
voice

• You could replace the heading Likes with
  Favourite things.
• The heading Likes could be replaced with
  Favourite things.

b) The women weave the colourful cloth by hand.
The colourful cloth is woven by hand by
the women.
46
(No Transcript)
47
(No Transcript)
48
(No Transcript)
49
(No Transcript)
50
A SAMPLE TEACHING SEQUENCE - READING
51
(No Transcript)
52
(No Transcript)
53
A SAMPLE TEACHING SEQUENCE - WRITING
Being clear about the product that the students
are to produce is important for the selection of
activities in a teaching and learning plan. The
assessment criteria of the independent
construction will assist in determining which
activities to undertake.
54
(No Transcript)
55
a teaching learning cycle
Building the Field
Independent Construction

• prior knowledge
• discussion
• grouping
• experiential activities

• set the context
• independent construction of text

• read a model text
• deconstruct the text
• exercises

• jointly construct a text using a proforma and
  model

Joint Construction
Modelling and Deconstruction
56

• The teaching-learning cycle is useful because
• provides a rationale and a framework for
  decisions about the type and sequence of teaching
  and learning activities
• considerable talk about texts, drawing on
  shared understanding of the schematic structure
  and grammatical patterns of the genre under focus
  learning about language
• ensures that by the time learners write
  independently, they have a clear understanding of
  the language choices they make and why they make
  them.
• the underlying pedagogy (scaffolding) moves
  students gradually from being highly supported in
  the learning process to becoming independent
  learners
• it is flexible

57
 
                                                 
   
PLANNING WRITING NARRATIVE PROFORMA A
How many?
Personality traits
Changing the complication
Descriptions
Where?
Names
Characters
Who?
Setting
Descriptive words
When sequence order of events
Actions/thoughts/feelings
Perspective
Complication
Introduction/ Orientation
STORY TITLE/ THEME
START HERE
   
Conclusion
Storyboard for the complication/plot
Resolution
Lesson (coda)
 
58
SAMPLE PROFORMA FOR PLANNING WRITING
NARRATIVE Proforma 1 Think about the complication
first, and then go back to setting.
Characters
Setting/Orientation
Events/Complication
Resolution
59
SAMPLE PROFORMA FOR PLANNING WRITING
NARRATIVE Proforma 2

• ORIENTATION (introduce character and setting)
  (when, where, who, what, why?)

• COMPLICATION and EVENTS IN ORDER (whats the
  problem and what happened?)

• RESOLUTION (solve the problem)

• CODA OPTIONAL (whats the lesson?)

60
SAMPLE PROFORMA FOR PLANNING WRITING PERSUASIVE
TEXT
INTRODUCTION (belief statement, preview of
arguments)
ARGUMENT 1 (reason, example, elaboration)
ARGUMENT 2 (reason, example, elaboration)
ARGUMENT 3 (reason, example, elaboration)

• CONCLUSION (restatement of belief)