Standard 2; Evidence #1

Standard 2: Know the content and how to teach it

EDLA309: Literacy Education 2.
This assignment required planning two sessions to develop reading comprehension for Year 4
students. It needed to include both a fiction and non-fiction text, as well as one multi-modal text. I
was then required to write a rationale for the lesson plans.
Excerpts from Lesson Plans:
Learning Intention:
By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to demonstrate comprehension of the
text by drawing conclusions and inferences from the visual, audio, gestural and spatial cues,
by providing possible linguistic cues.
Australian Curriculum:
Use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content
knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts (Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2013).

Partly Cloudy video:





Excerpts from Rationale:
To develop comprehension in primary aged students, teachers need to employ a range of
instructional approaches to effectively teach a variety of comprehension strategies. The
instructional approaches used above include modelling, reciprocal teaching, read to and
think pair share.
Reciprocal teaching is an appropriate strategy to teach reading comprehension because it
allows students to be taught four explicit strategies (Ministry of Education, 2013, pg. 101;
Comment [N1]: Here, the learning
intention is directly related to the
Australian curriculum standards for grade
four, which shows that I can competently
use curriculum to design learning
sequences and lesson plans (focus area
2.3).
Comment [N2]: Using a video
expanded learning opportunities for
students, as it catered for students who
were not strong readers and showed me
that they can still comprehend texts (focus
area 2.6).

Comment [N3]: This shows that I know
and understand literacy teaching strategies
and how to apply them in literacy lessons
Standard 2; Evidence #1

Fellowes & Oakley, 2010, pg. 279). These strategies include formulating questions, clarifying
ideas, predicting what might follow and summarising information (Ministry of Education,
2013, pg. 101; Fellowes & Oakley, 2010, pg. 279). During the process, teachers need to use
materials or texts that are in the students zone of proximal development (Fellowes &
Oakley, 2010, pg. 280). Reciprocal teaching allows students to become independent in
comprehending texts (Fellowes & Oakley, 2010, pg. 280), a quality that is important to
develop in grade four students.
Reading aloud to students should be a daily activity in the classroom (Ministry of Education,
2003, pg. 91), as it develops skills in listening comprehension and critical thinking (Ministry
of Education, 2003, pg. 92). The benefits of reading aloud include providing a good model
(Ministry of Education, 2003, pg. 92) and demonstrating good reading behaviours and a
positive attitude towards reading (Annandale, 3004, pg. 11). Reading aloud to children
daily is an effective way to demonstrate how competent readers use various strategies to
help them engage with and comprehend a text (Menner, 2007, pg. 35).
The most influential and one of the most used strategy when teaching reading is modelling
(Ministry of Education, 2003; Annandale, 2004). Menner (2007) suggests that demonstrating
modelling daily is needed to ensure optimal comprehension. Furthermore, students who
struggle with reading can benefit from seeing modelling and another instructional strategy
simultaneously (Ministry of Education, 2003, pg. 80). Other ways to make modelling most
effective include combining it with directing or explaining (Ministry of Education, 2003, pg.
80) and thinking aloud throughout the process (Fellowes & Oakley, 2010).

Comment [N4]: This shows that I have
knowledge of how to apply the strategy of
reciprocal teaching in the classroom (focus
area 2.5).
Comment [N5]: This paragraph
emphasises the importance of reading
aloud, which is a key teaching strategy in
literacy (focus area 2.5).
Comment [N6]: This paragraph
emphasises the importance of modelling,
which is a key teaching strategy in literacy
(focus area 2.5).