Embedding academic success in democratic classrooms

David Rose

The Language Education Forum 27 - 28 October 2014, Helsinki

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Finland is a world leader… • Finland continuously tops the international comparisons of national

performance

• Finland is the second best OECD country in PISA reading literacy assessment

• Finland currently has the 3rd highest graduation rate, percentage of graduates to the population at the typical age of graduates in the OECD

• It was ranked the best country in the world in the 2010 Newsweek survey based on health, economic dynamism, education, political environment and quality of life

• It has also been ranked the second most stable country in the world and the first in the 2009 Legatum Prosperity rating

• In 2010 the World Economic Forum deemed Finland the 7th most competitive country in the world

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So how can Reading to Learn be useful to Finland?

- useful in the classroom

- useful for teacher education

1 Equity

- closing the gap

2 Effectiveness

- accelerating all students

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Inequality in the classroom

Mostinvolved:topstudents

Someengagement:averagestudents

Leastengaged:failingstudents

Inequality in the school

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before Reading to Learn

Closing the gap in the classroom and school

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before Reading to Learn

after Reading to Learn

Two sets of tools

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2 Knowledge about language

1 Knowledge about pedagogy

Applying knowledge about language

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1 Knowledge about pedagogy

Unequal participation in the classroom

2 Democratising the classroom

Designed interactions in Detailed Reading

3 Language in context

Genre, register, discourse, grammar, phono/graphology

4 Analysing knowledge genres

Written texts & their structures

5 Designing curriculum genres

Learning activities & their structures

1 Knowledge about pedagogy

- unequal participation in the classroom

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whole class

individual

independent guided guidance

grouping

Types of pedagogic practices

Teacher guided whole class activity

(teacher guides/ students do)

Guided group/individual

activities

Independent practice

Teacher presentation (lecture, demonstration,

explanation, reading, video…)

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Hierarchies in teaching practices

Supporting all students at the same level

‘IRF’ cycles

response response

initiate feedback

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Jack and the Beanstalk

Shared Book Reading – year 1

- exchange in Shared Book Reading from Williams 1995

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Prepare Elaborate Focus Evaluate Task

Propose/ Identify

pedagogic exchange analysis

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Prepare

Task

Evaluate

Elaborate

Focus

T Long ago in a far away land lived a widow and her son Jack.

1 T What’s a widow? Focus It looks like a lady to me. [pointing to picture] Prepare What’s a widow? …Rhianna? Focus

Ch An old woman. Propose T Well she doesn’t look too old. Reject

2 T Is there a daddy there? [pointing to picture] Focus

Chn No. Identify

3 T What do you think has happened to the daddy? Focus

Ch Looks like… a cow. Identify

T David? Focus

Ch It’s it’s it’s a little cow. Identify

T No no. Reject

4 T When there’s a widow, something’s happened to daddy. Prepare

Ch He died? Miss, he died? Propose

T Yes that’s right. Affirm

A widow means that her husband has died. Elaborate

- Elaborations build knowledge

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2 Democratising the classroom - designed interactions

in Detailed Reading

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- elaborating shared understanding: interpreting metaphor

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3 Language in context

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Language in social context

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genre & register

discourse

grammar

sounds & spelling

interpretive

inferential

literal

‘decoding’

Levels of comprehension in reading

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Patterns of patterns

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sentence

text paragraph

word

syllable

letter pattern

context

word group

teaching ‘content’

drilling sounds & spelling

memorising vocabulary

drilling grammar

Disintegrating the language task

studying textbooks

Learning systems from texts

system

text

system

text

system

text

system

text

…by attending to text-in-situation a child construes the code, and by using the code to interpret text s/he construes the culture. (Halliday 1994/2004).

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An integrated approach

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4 Analysing Knowledge genres

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Knowledge genres Language as Social Power

1980s

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Knowledge genres in secondary school Write it Right

1990s

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Knowledge macro-genres (multimodal)

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Explanation genre (sequential)

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Stages & phases

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Title The Water Cycle

Phenomenon Water is found in many different forms on Earth and is constantly moving from one place to another. As it moves it changes state in cycles, from liquid water, to water vapour, sometimes to ice, and back to liquid again.

Explanation step 1

The Sun evaporates water from the surface of rivers, lakes and streams, and from the soil. This change from liquid water to vapour is called evaporation. Other water vapour comes from trees and other plants through the process of transpiration.

step 2

Winds may carry this water vapour high into the atmosphere where it can become so cold that is forms clouds, which consist of tiny droplets of liquid water. The change from vapour to liquid is known as condensation.

step 3

When clouds become saturated, the water falls as rain, or even hail or snow. This is known as precipitation. Precipitation returns water to the land where it can seep into groundwater, or flow into streams and rivers.

step 4

Some water may have travelled thousands of kilometres, or some may have returned straight back to an ocean or lake where the Sun’s heat once more causes evaporation. In this way the cycle starts again and the pattern can be repeated. These changes are known as the water cycle.

5 Designing Curriculum genres

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Prepare Elaborate Focus Evaluate Task

Design principle: structure of learning activity

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As teaching/learning cycles

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Preparing for Reading whole text

Detailed Reading

short passage

Sentence Making

one or more sentences

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Designing pedagogy: three levels of support

Level 1: Embedding language learning in the curriculum

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whole text

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Level 2: Detailed Reading and Rewriting

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whole text

short passage

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Making notes from highlighted information

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Using notes to construct a new text

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R2L sequence and levels of language in context

Where to find out more

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www.readingtolearn.com.au