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
Most involved:
top students
Some engagement:
average students
Least engaged:
failing students
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Inequality in the school
before Reading to Learn
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Closing the gap in the classroom and school
before Reading to Learn
after Reading to Learn
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Two sets of tools
1 Knowledge about pedagogy
2 Knowledge about language
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Applying knowledge about language
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
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1
Knowledge about pedagogy
- unequal participation in the classroom
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Types of pedagogic practices
grouping
whole class
guidance
Teacher presentation
(lecture, demonstration,
explanation, reading,
video…)
independent
Teacher guided
whole class activity
(teacher guides/
students do)
Independent
practice
guided
Guided
group/individual
activities
individual
Hierarchies in teaching practices
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Supporting all students at the same level
‘IRF’ cycles
response
response
initiate
feedback
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Shared Book Reading – year 1
Jack and the Beanstalk
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- exchange in Shared Book Reading
from Williams 1995
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pedagogic exchange analysis
Task
Prepare
Focus
Propose/
Identify
Evaluate
Elaborate
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Task
Focus
Prepare
Evaluate
Elaborate
T Long ago in a far away land lived a widow and her son Jack.
1 T What’s a widow?
It looks like a lady to me. [pointing to picture]
What’s a widow? …Rhianna?
Ch An old woman.
T Well she doesn’t look too old.
2 T Is there a daddy there? [pointing to picture]
Focus
Prepare
Focus
Propose
Reject
Focus
Chn No.
Identify
3 T What do you think has happened to the daddy?
Ch Looks like… a cow.
T David?
Ch It’s it’s it’s a little cow.
T No no.
4 T When there’s a widow, something’s happened to daddy.
Ch He died? Miss, he died?
T Yes that’s right.
A widow means that her husband has died.
Focus
Identify
Focus
Identify
Reject
Prepare
Propose
Affirm
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
genre &
register
discourse
grammar
sounds &
spelling
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Levels of comprehension in reading
interpretive
inferential
literal
‘decoding’
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Patterns of patterns
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Disintegrating the language task
teaching
‘content’
studying
textbooks
drilling
grammar
memorising
vocabulary
drilling
sounds & spelling
context
text
paragraph
sentence
word group
word
syllable
letter pattern
Learning systems from texts
system
text
system
text
system
text
system
text
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…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).
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
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.
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5 Designing Curriculum genres
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Design principle: structure of learning activity
Prepare
Focus
Task
Evaluate
Elaborate
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As teaching/learning cycles
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Designing pedagogy: three levels of support
Preparing
for Reading
whole text
Detailed
Reading
Sentence
Making
short
passage
one or more
sentences
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Level 1: Embedding language learning in the curriculum
whole text
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Level 2: Detailed Reading and Rewriting
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
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Where to find out more
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www.readingtolearn.com.au
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