Unit rationale, description and aim
During the later years of primary schooling students must be able to use reading and writing as tools for learning in all content areas.
The focus of this unit is on research–based application to scaffold children’s learning and teacher assessment of both Receptive (reading, listening and viewing) and Productive (writing, creating, speaking) modes using increasingly more complex Imaginative, Informative and Persuasive texts and a variety of media (e.g. written, oral, and multimodal). Preservice teachers will also understand how to teach, plan, monitor, assess and integrate children’s composition and comprehension skills across a range of curriculum areas in years 3–6 whilst catering for diverse learning needs. Learning in this unit will require critical evaluation of a range of approaches to teaching literacy and assessment based on theories of children’s literacy development within the socio–cultural approach.
This aim of this unit is to extend pre–service teacher knowledge and understanding of English language, literacy and literature for teaching, pedagogy and assessment as applied in the Upper Primary and Middle years classroom. Pre–service teachers are required to scaffold children’s learning of more complex levels of reading and writing processes, cater for diversity and support upper primary students to become effective, analytical and critical readers and writers.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Apply theories of children’s literacy development ...
Learning Outcome 01
Select, organise and create a range of teaching co...
Learning Outcome 02
Apply content and pedagogical knowledge to program...
Learning Outcome 03
Explain effective assessment approaches, design of...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- A review of theories of the processes of reading and writing development and the ways in which these theories shape and construct literacy programs (e.g., socio-cultural, functional, cognitive in the later years of primary schooling)
- Metalanguage for examining and creating written and multimodal printed and digital texts of literary, factual and persuasive texts intended for older children in the English and Literacy as a General Capability, including supporting academic vocabulary development.
- Metalanguage for language for expressing and developing ideas, language for organising and structuring text and language for interacting.
- Strategies for promoting and motivating children’s literacy learning, including strategies for reading, viewing, writing and creating multimodal texts to develop competence and comprehension
- The theory, practices and strategies that support children to become effective, analytical and critical writers and readers of a variety of text types for different purposes.
- The range of reading and writing children do across learning areas and disciplines, and the integration of literacy and curriculum content learning.
- Assessment-related issues and the purposes, characteristics, and limitations of various types of assessments (diagnostic, formative and summative), including explicit writing feedback and metatalk.
- Effective methods of planning and sequencing activities and strategies that are intended to promote literacy and learning, monitoring and assessment across the curriculum
- Explicit pedagogies for teaching Reading/Viewing of printed, multimodal and digital texts.
- Explicit pedagogies for teaching Writing/Composing of printed, multimodal and digital texts.
- Strategies to differentiate Literacy instructions for diverse learners (for example: EAL/D; Gifted and Talented; Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander, and Autism Spectrum Disorder)
- Understanding the use of state and national curriculum requirements in planning literacy programs
- Literacy Learning Progressions
- Literary Literacies: Digital, Cultural, Narrative, Critical and Deep Literacies: The future
Assessment strategy and rationale
The assessment tasks and their weightings allow pre-service teachers to progressively demonstrate achievement against the course learning outcomes by demonstrating academic and professional standards. The unit focuses on developing an understanding of, and skills across the professional knowledge, practice and engagement needed to meet expectations of the Graduate Capabilities and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate level.
Assessment Task 1 focuses on preservice teachers’ ability to apply linguistic subject knowledge gained in their English units to distinguish delicate types of genres within major genre families (i.e. Imaginative, Informative and Persuasive) commonly encountered in the Year 3-6 English and other curriculum areas. Assessment Task 2 assesses preservice teachers’ skills to design activities to scaffold students’ reading and viewing texts to support their learning in English and other curriculum areas. Assessment Task 3 focuses on preservice teachers’ knowledge and skills to design a program to teach writing of multimodal texts with consideration for diverse student abilities. The three assessment tasks are sequenced to allow feedback and progressive development of content knowledge and skills to prepare pre-service teachers for pedagogical knowledge units in the sequence of language and literacy units.
A range of assessment procedures is used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate capabilities and professional standards and criteria consistent with University assessment requirements.
Minimum Achievement Standards
The assessment tasks for this unit are designed to demonstrate achievement of each learning outcome. In order to pass this unit, students are required to submit ALL assessment tasks and achieve an overall Pass.
To promote sustained learning, pre-service teachers are expected to complete weekly readings and practice tasks as assigned by teaching staff and submit ALL assessment tasks. Assessments in EDEN291 include two Critical Tasks:
- Assessment Task 2: Learning Activities for Reading and Viewing
- Assessment Task 3 Unit of Work for Writing
These tasks are core to the demonstration of a number of Australian Professional Teacher Standards. In order to pass this unit, pre-service teachers must demonstrate mastery of every summative standard listed in the learning outcomes and attain a score of at least 50% in Task 2 and Task 3 and achieve a Passing grade overall.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Portfolio Compose a portfolio ...
Assessment Task 1: Portfolio
Compose a portfolio of imaginative, informative and persuasive monomodal and multimodal texts in the English and other curriculum areas and critically analyse and evaluate them for their suitability to be used for literacy instructions.
30%
Assessment Task 2: Learning Activities for Readin...
Assessment Task 2: Learning Activities for Reading and Viewing
CRITICAL TASK
Select suitable resources (one written, one multimodal) for Year 3-6 English and/or another learning area and analyse them to support the teaching of critical comprehension incorporating the teaching of metalanguage.
Provide detailed lesson plans focusing on Before, During and After Reading/Viewing.
30%
Assessment Task 3: Unit of work for Writing CRITI...
Assessment Task 3: Unit of work for Writing
CRITICAL TASK
Design a writing teaching sequence to scaffold for composition of one text type in curriculum areas other than English. This writing sequence will incorporate explicit practices including modelling and scaffolded writing, as well as joint construction. Create a sequence of at least 5 weeks.
In your sequence, provide opportunities for students to independently write and incorporate the use of effective reflection, assessment and feedback approaches (diagnostic, formative and summative) along with the use of ICT to expand learning opportunities for all students.
Provide a detailed transcript of whole class (teacher-students) interactions from the teaching sequence to demonstrate the teacher’s facilitation for negotiation of meaning and language learning opportunities in a joint construction lesson. Critically analyse and evaluate your teaching sequence and teacher’s talk during joint construction based on relevant pedagogical theories introduced in the unit.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Teaching and learning in this unit is based on explicit pedagogies that emphasise the critical importance of the cultural and social aspects of learning and a deep understanding of the texts students must produce and learn from. Learning will be scaffolded through both explicit instruction and opportunities to engage in a range of interpersonal activities to enable students to learn from and with each other as active co-constructors meaning, skills and understanding. This approach is highly effective for the teaching of literacy in the upper Primary classroom and Middle Years. Learning will be supported by online activities and a range of current research delivered in ways such as reading, reflection, discussion, webinars, podcasts and other multimedia options.
This is a 10-credit point unit and has been designed to ensure that the time needed to complete the required volume of learning to the requisite standard is approximately 150 hours in total across the semester. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, pre-service teachers will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit, as described in the learning and teaching strategy and the assessment strategy.
The unit is hosted on a Learning Management System (LMS) site with resources and online links, announcements, and a discussion board to post questions and reflections that promote connection between content and educational experiences.
Mode of delivery: This unit may be offered in different modes to cater to the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants.
On-Campus
Most learning activities or classes are delivered at a scheduled time, on campus, to enable in-person interactions. Activities will appear in a student’s timetable.
Multi-mode
Learning activities are delivered through a planned mix of online and in-person classes, which may include full-day sessions and/or placements, to enable interaction. Activities that require attendance will appear in a student’s timetable.
Online unscheduled
Learning activities are accessible anytime, anywhere. These units are normally delivered fully online and will not appear in a student’s timetable.
Online scheduled
All learning activities are held online, at scheduled times, and will require some attendance to enable online interaction. Activities will appear in a student’s timetable.
ACU Online
In ACU Online mode, this unit is delivered asynchronously, online using an active, guided learning approach. Pre-service teachers are encouraged to contribute to asynchronous weekly discussions and receive regular and timely feedback on their learning.
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level
In connection to the learning outcomes, on successful completion of this unit, pre-service teachers should have developed the following industry specific knowledge based on the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - Graduate Level standards:
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of research into how students learn and the implications for teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of teaching strategies that are responsive to the learning strengths and needs of students from diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategies for differentiating teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1
Relating toDemonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of legislative requirements and teaching strategies that support participation and learning of students with disability.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge and understanding of the concepts, substance and structure of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2, LO3
Relating toOrganise content into an effective learning and teaching sequence.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toUse curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toKnow and understand literacy and numeracy teaching strategies and their application in teaching areas.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toImplement teaching strategies for using ICT to expand curriculum learning opportunities for students.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toSet learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toPlan lesson sequences using knowledge of student learning, content and effective teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3
Relating toInclude a range of teaching strategies.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate knowledge of a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in their learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO1, LO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate a range of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to support student engagement.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate broad knowledge of strategies that can be used to evaluate teaching programs to improve student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO3, LO4
Relating toIdentify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate an understanding of the relevant issues and the strategies available to support the safe, responsible and ethical use of ICT in learning and teaching.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2, LO3
Relating toDemonstrate understanding of assessment strategies, including informal and formal, diagnostic, formative and summative approaches to assess student learning.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO4
Relating toUnderstand the role of external professionals and community representatives in broadening teachers’ professional knowledge and practice.
Relevant Learning OutcomeLO2
Representative texts and references
Required text(s)
Relevant state and territory English curriculum documents
Derewianka, B., & Jones, P. (2022). Teaching language in context (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press
Recommended references
Asha, J. (2022). The potential of the visual: Teaching literacy with multimodal texts. Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Callow, J. (2023). The shape of text to come: How image and text work. (2nd ed.) Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Derewianka, B. (2022). A new grammar companion for teachers (3rd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Harper, H. and Feez, S. (2020) An EAL/D Handbook. Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Hayes, J. and Parkin, B. (2021) Teaching the Language of Climate Change Science. Primary English Teaching Association of Australia.
Henderson, R. (2019). (Ed.). Teaching literacies: Pedagogies and diversity (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Humphreys, S. (2017). Academic literacies in the middle years: A framework for enhancing teacher knowledge and student achievement. Routledge.
Humphrey, S., & Vale, E. (2020). Investigating model texts for learning. Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Chan, E., & Dalley-Trim, L. (2016). Literacies (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Layne, S. (2015). In defense of reading aloud: Sustaining best practice. Stenhouse
McDonald, L. (2023). A literature companion for teachers (3rd ed.). Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Myhill, D. and Newman, R. (2016) Metatalk: Enabling metalinguistic discussion about writing. International Journal of Education Research. 80. 177-187.
Parkin, B., & Harper, H. (2019). Teaching with intent 2: Literature-based literacy teaching and learning. Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA).
Rose, D. (2016). Engaging and supporting all our students to read and learn from reading. PETAA paper 202.
Spycher (2017) ‘Scaffolding Writing through the Teaching and Learning Cycle.’ San Francisco: WestEd.
Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum. Open University Press
Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P, Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2020). Literacy: Reading, writing and children’s literature (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Zbraracki, M. (2015). Writing right with text types. Oxford University Press.