Literacy Strategy in Learning | Assignment

Running head: LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
Contents
Portfolio Overview.............................................................................................................2
Written Texts.................................................................................................................2
Example 1: written persuasive text..............................................................................3
Teaching Strategy and curriculum links......................................................................4
Example 2: Poem...........................................................................................................5
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links....................................................................6
Spoken Texts......................................................................................................................8
Example 1: Documentary Clipping..............................................................................8
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links....................................................................8
Example 2: News Reading.............................................................................................9
Teaching Strategy and curriculum links......................................................................9
Visual texts.......................................................................................................................10
Example 1: Public signs...............................................................................................11
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links..................................................................11
Example 2: Comic Strip..............................................................................................12
Teaching Strategy and curriculum links....................................................................13
References.........................................................................................................................14
Appendix...........................................................................................................................16

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Portfolio Overview.
In education, literacy is one of the most fundamentally identifiable outcomes that each
student is required to achieve. The popular understanding of literacy is the ability to read and
write, also including alphabet recognition, word recognition, production of words and coherent
sentences, reading and writing (Swanson et al., 2016). Based on these attributes, the literacy
requirements change and evolve over the years and institutional curricula are addressed
appropriately in order to make subtle changes as the student progresses through the years to
provide them with slightly challenging literacy demands from the previous year. This portfolio
takes two examples from each of the three domains and highlights how these resources can be
used for improving the literacy understanding of the students. From these examples, the portfolio
will expand a range of teaching strategies for students of year 6. Each of the strategies will be
specifically catered for the students to be able to understand, analyse and reproduce the concepts
from the texts from written, spoken and visual domains.
Written Texts.
Written texts are the most widely used resources when it comes to literacy training. For
the students of year 6, it is understood that they have already achieved their primary skills and
attributes in reading and writing (Swanson et al., 2016). This portfolio therefore looks at two
texts, one piece of prose and one poem, in order to aid their understanding and analytical skills.

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Example 1: written persuasive text.
Fig 1: Persuasive text for year 6 (Teachwire, 2018)
This resource is an example of a written text that can be replicated and used in the
classroom. Persuasive writings are a form of writing whose primary objective is to promote an
idea to the audience or the reader to persuade them to the main theme or topic that the text is
trying to explain (Stapleton & Wu, 2015). In year 6, it is an important resource because it helps
the students understand the type of language that is being used in order to persuade people to
take a particular stand. At the same time, it also allows the students to learn new vocabulary
(Bearne, 2003).

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Teaching Strategy and curriculum links.
Teaching the students using this example can be done using a series of steps. Firstly, the
text will be presented to the students in the class (the highlighted portions as seen in Fig 1 show
how the text will look after a clean text is given to the students to study and analyse). The
students will be asked to read the text three times. In their first reading, they will use a
highlighter to highlight the questions asked in the text and the main argument that the text is
promoting. In their second reading they will highlight, using a different colour, what they think
are the supporting reasons for the argument and the questions asked. Lastly, they will use a third
colour to highlight the words that are unknown to them.
Once the students have finished highlighting the text, the teacher will ask the class what
the main question of the text is. The students will respond by saying “Should children be allowed
to bring mobile phones to the school?” Then the teacher will write the question down and ask
again what the supporting reasons are. The students will try to respond by stating as many
reasons as they can remember. The teacher will then ask the students to write down the points in
their notebook and explain why they are the supporting points for answering the question. Lastly,
the teacher will randomly ask one student to speak one word that he / she is unaware of. Through
discussion, the meaning of the word will be identified and the student will be asked to note it
doen in their notebooks.
According to the Australian Curriculum for year 6, three relevant content descriptors for
literacy development states the following:
a) Participate in and contribute to discussions, clarifying and interrogating ideas,
developing and supporting arguments, sharing and evaluating information,
experiences and opinions (ACELY1709) (ACARA, 2014).

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b) Analyse how text structures and language features work together to meet the purpose
of a text (ACELY1711) (ACARA, 2014).
c) Compare texts including media texts that represent ideas and events in different ways,
explaining the effects of the different approaches (ACELY1708) (ACARA, 2014).
Looking at these content descriptors, it can be seen that the example text provides the students
with opportunity to explore a new type of text in english, analyse it both in terms of grammar
and content, to see how the language is modified in order to meet the specific requirements of the
text (Byrnes & Wasik, 2019). This promotes the literacy development in an appropriate fashion
that is correlated with the curriculum as well. Teacher scaffolding also becomes an important
aspect in this case, particularly in the portions where new information is being registered, like
finding the meaning of the words. This can be used as an opportunity to teach the students how
to use a dictionary as well.
Example 2: Poem.
Poems are also an important resource when it comes to teaching literacy skills, as it
allows the students to explore and understand the concepts of figurative language use like similes
and metaphors (Byrnes & Wasik, 2019). The following poem is used for the purpose of
promoting the literacy skills of the students of year 6.
The Fish (Bishop, n.d.)
By Elizabeth Bishop
I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.

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He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down.
… (For the complete poem, please check Appendix 1).
This poem is used as an example in this context to primarily focus on the aspect of how
language modification makes associating meanings easier. The students will be able to use this
example as a resource to learn about figures of speech like similes and metaphors.
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links.
Teaching Literacy through this poem allows the students to explore how linguistic
variations make it possible to work with a seemingly normal topic and make it beautiful to read.

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At the same time they will also start to learn about figures of speech. The teacher will first ask
the students to read the poem with the objective to understand the content. Afterwards, the
teacher will highlight certain phrases from the poem like, “his brown skin hung in strips like
ancient wallpaper”. The teacher will then ask the students whose brown skin the author is talking
about and what it looks like. Based on this and other examples like “shapes like full-blown
roses” and “packed in like feathers” (Appendix), the teacher will explain the concept of similes
and metaphors and how they are used in poems as well as in the English language. It might be a
relatively newer concept for the students to grasp, hence appropriate teacher scaffolding can also
become quite necessary at times.
This resource adheres to the curriculum content that has been described above by
elaborating and building up on the previous knowledge of language use in the students. At the
same time, it addresses the literacy needs like advanced reading and understanding (Byrnes &
Wasik, 2019). Given that the outcomes are the same for all the students in the class irrespective
of diversity, the examples provided here appropriately address the concerns of diversity by
equating the teaching strategies as well as providing the students with a unified learning
resource.
Both the resources described above provide ample opportunities for evaluation and
assessment. While the first example tests their understanding of a coherent logical text, the
second example looks at the aspect of variable methods of expression of meaning. Taking these
elements as the observable outcome provides the teachers with the opportunity to test the
students based on their understanding of the content as well as the structure of the language.
Therefore the assessment can be done on accuracy of the produced material.

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Spoken Texts.
Oral literacy is also a crucial element for literacy outcomes (Genlott & Gronlund, 2013).
This section of the portfolio looks at two different types of spoken texts, a clipping of a
documentary from BBC Earth and a news reading. The first one is an ICT based resources and is
available on YouTube while the second one can rely on the choice of the teacher.
Example 1: Documentary Clipping.
Source: BBC Earth. (2020, January 23). Robot spy gorilla infiltrates a wild gorilla troop | Spy In
The Wild - BBC [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=rh9PwFvMS0I
This clipping is a part of a small 3 minute documentary on how a small robot gorilla
infiltrates a troop of gorillas. This video is narrated by English Actor David Tennant and can be
played in a class, given that the content is something the children will find fascinating.
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links.
After the video is played in the class, the teacher recollects the basic concept of the video
and asks one of the students to summarise what he / she saw in the class. Afterwards, the
students will be separated into groups of four or five, each student will be given a piece of paper
and a pencil / pen, and the group will be asked to hold a discussion where they will discuss an
alternative scenario where the robot gorilla was not accepted by the troop leader. The students
will write the points down and create a small group presentation / individual speech. After ten
minutes of discussion the students will be asked to present their alternate endings to the class.
This strategy can be very effective in helping the children explore the domains of
listening as well as speaking. Through listening the students will be able to exercise their skills
of understanding and reasoning, while the presentation section allows the students to practically

9LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
implement their spoken skills. Using spoken texts for literacy development implies an auditory –
cognitive engagement, hence the output of the students are also kept oral in nature. For this
example.
This example closely links to the following content descriptor from the Australian
Curriculum:
d). Understand that strategies for interaction become more complex and demanding as
levels of formality and social distance increase (ACELA1516) (ACARA, 2014).
This is primarily because the type of language used for narration in a documentary video
would be different from a news reading. The students will be able to understand this concept
through this example, and identify elements from the narration that will tell them what kind of a
language to use, where to take a pause, which tense to use and how to make the audience
anticipate the succeeding event, based on a video clip. Oral production on the other hand
provides the students with the opportunity to present their speaking skills as well as display the
understanding of the concept appropriately.
Example 2: News Reading.
There is no explicit example for this resource as the teacher’s freedom of resource
selection can enable them to chose what is appropriate for their students in terms of age as well
as the relevance with current events.
Teaching Strategy and curriculum links.
The teaching strategy for a news reading is fairly simple and can also be replicated from
the previous one. The teacher shows them a clipping of a news reading, either a studio recording
or a live on spot broadcast. Before showing them the video, the teacher must highlight the topic
of the news recording and ask the students to anticipate what the content could possibly be. The

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students are given five minutes to reflect on the theme and then the teacher plays the recording.
The teacher asks the students to focus particularly on the type of language that is being used by
the readers and how the readers modulate their intonation.
The students are then grouped into four each team. The students are given a specific topic
to focus on, based on which they will attempt to replicate the style that is used by the
newsreader. Focus remains on the content and the relevance of language use in order to
efficiently and succinctly explain the content.
Both these resources require light to moderate teacher scaffolding in terms of help with
the articulation, tone use and grammatical orientation as well as vocabulary. Once again the
aspect of diversity becomes relevant in this context as the examples do not differentiate between
the learning outcomes as well as the student engagement. Providing an equal opportunity to learn
with the added aspect of using group work to facilitate collaborative working of all the students
help to promote the notion of equality in diversity amongst the students. Both these resources
allow the students to produce oral outputs. The evaluation of the examples should also consider
the accuracy of oral outputs as the measurable factor.
Visual texts.
Visual texts refer to images, symbols etc. which are not explicitly textual in nature but
convey a certain meaning through visual stimuli. This section looks at two examples of visual
texts, a collection of public signs and a comic strip.

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Example 1: Public signs.
Fig 2: Collection of public signs (Barnes, n.d.)
Teaching Strategy and Curriculum Links.
This example can be used to promote the aspect of symbolic literacy. The teaching
strategy for this example includes the teacher showing the picture to the students and asking
them to look at each individual sign and discern the separate components from it. Then compare
each of the elements with the text written below it.
Afterwards, the students will be asked to elaborate on each of the signs in terms of what
they mean and what their purpose is. The students should be able to explain that each of the
symbols refer to an action that is specific to the location that they are kept in.

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Understanding and interpreting symbols is a crucial aspect of literacy development as it
allows the students to be able to confidently understand the meaning that the sign is attempting to
convey.
Example 2: Comic Strip.
Fig 3: Comic strip analysis ("2.1 Analysing visual texts: 2.1.4 Understanding comics",
n.d.)
This example shows the students a comic strip and allows them to understand the
different elements of a comic strip while at the same time also being able to interpret how the
comic strip is conveying the meaning (Connors, 2012).

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Teaching Strategy and curriculum links.
In order to effectively enhance the literacy development of the students the teachers will
show this image to the students and ask them to first read the comics in the normal manner. After
the students have read the comic strip, the teacher will hide the image from view and ask the
students to remember and list the objects that are visible in the comic.
Once the students have highlighted the items appropriately, the teacher will show the
comic strip once again, explain the elements of the comic strip in correlation with the role they
play in the comic strip in terms of conceptual understanding. The teacher explains the style of
writing in the speech form and why it is important in the comic strip. Afterwards, the teacher
sorts the students into groups of four each and each group is asked to draw a comic strip on a
story that they can think of.
In both these examples, teacher scaffolding will only be required in cases of explaining
the technical terminology of the comic strip elements. In terms of content, the comic strip helps
the students to differentiate between the different types of language use in different context. It
connects with the curriculum content descriptor b. as highlighted above (ACARA, 2014). The
two examples therefore significantly help in promoting the aspect of visual text literacy in the
students, while also addressing classroom diversity through group work. Evaluation and
assessment can be done on the basis of their understanding of the comic strip and effective
production of one through visual depictions.

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References.
2.1 Analysing visual texts: 2.1.4 Understanding comics. Retrieved 9 February 2020, from
https://www.philpoteducation.com/mod/book/view.php?id=222&chapterid=1350#/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2014). Foundation to year 10
curriculum: Language for interaction (ACELA1428). Canberra, Australia:
Commonwealth of Australia.
Barnes, B. Vector - Public Information Signs Collection 1 Transport [Image]. Retrieved from
https://www.123rf.com/photo_8599828_public-information-signs-collection-1-
transport.html
Bearne, E. (2003). Rethinking literacy: Communication, representation and text. Reading, 37(3),
98-103.
Bishop, E. (undated). The fish. John Sollid. Retrieved from: https://www.theschoolrun.com/7-
classic-poems-to-read-with-primary-school-children
Byrnes, J. P., & Wasik, B. A. (2019). Language and literacy development: What educators need
to know. Guilford Publications.
Genlott, A. A., & Grönlund, Å. (2013). Improving literacy skills through learning reading by
writing: The iWTR method presented and tested. Computers & Education, 67, 98-104.
Genlott, A. A., & Grönlund, Å. (2013). Improving literacy skills through learning reading by
writing: The iWTR method presented and tested. Computers & Education, 67, 98-104.
Stapleton, P., & Wu, Y. A. (2015). Assessing the quality of arguments in students' persuasive
writing: A case study analyzing the relationship between surface structure and
substance. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 17, 12-23.

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Swanson, E., Wanzek, J., McCulley, L., Stillman-Spisak, S., Vaughn, S., Simmons, D., ... &
Hairrell, A. (2016). Literacy and text reading in middle and high school social studies and
English language arts classrooms. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 32(3), 199-222.
Teachwire. (2018). 9 of the Best Free Model Texts for KS2 English Lessons – from Creative
Writing to Poetry and Non-Fiction. Retrieved 9 February 2020, from
https://www.teachwire.net/news/the-best-free-model-texts-for-ks2-english-lessons

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Appendix.
The Fish
By Elizabeth Bishop
I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three

17LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
rags of green weed hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
– the frightening gills,
fresh and crisp with blood,
that can cut so badly –
I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
– It was more like the tipping

18LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
of an object toward the light.
I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
–if you could call it a lip –
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.
I stared and stared
and victory filled up the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow

19LITERACY STRATEGY IN LEARNING
around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels – until everything
was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.