Using the Resource: teaching and learning components
It is extremely important to understand that the ELIP Resource is not a collection of texts to be taught in isolation. The texts should be used as part of well-scaffolded units of work. For example, the Stage 2 text about Antarctica for the Language Outcome - Reading, understanding and responding to an information report - should be taught as part of a unit on Antarctica. In several of the Example Text pages, there are references to websites which contain many useful supplementary resources at a range of reading levels. Some of these are additional units of work on related topics. Others are video clips which illustrate concepts or phenomena described in the text, such as wind turbine operation, or hurricane movement, or the Solar System. There are also a number of websites which provide illustrations and information to support the literature referred to in the Example Texts, such as ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’, ‘Whale Rider’ and ‘The Pearl’. ESOL Online has materials related to a number of the texts in all strands of the ELIP Resource.
Also, these units should integrate the three strands of Oral interaction, Reading, understanding and responding, and Writing. Many of the texts in these three strands can complement each other and be used interchangeably, although the emphasis of the Teaching Components will alter according to the strand. The Orientation to Learning strand assists the development of independent learning.
Orientation to Learning
These outcomes describe the types of behaviours which are required from learners in Years 7-13. Not all learners will require to be taught all the learning behaviours, but those with no prior formal schooling will need to have the Foundation and Stage 1 behaviours explicitly and firmly established in order for them to be able to learn in the classroom. The Stage 2 and 3 Orientation to Learning outcomes lead students towards being independent learners. It is important to supplement these outcomes with a pro-social skills training programme for students who are not used to formal schooling and social interactions. Examples of pro-social skills training modules are Anger management or Finding a friend: pro-social skills micro-modules might include “how to interrupt politely”, “how to ask for the teacher’s help”, “how to disagree politely”, “how to give praise to a peer”. Many students need explicit help with these interactions.
Oral Interaction
These texts are examples of the types of oral texts that learners are required to comprehend and produce in a variety of contexts, including community contexts. At Foundation and Stage 1, they include example of interactions necessary for communicating at school. The written ELIP Resource Oral Interaction sections were supplemented by an oral resource which was sent to schools from 2004 onwards. The Oral interaction texts in the folder can also be used as role plays by students.
At Stage 3, the Teaching Components, in addition to a continuing focus on pronunciation, promote fluency and effective delivery of oral texts.
Reading, Understanding and Responding
These outcomes apply to both silent reading and reading aloud, as the Teaching Components indicate. It should be remembered that silent reading is only possible when the text is at the independent reading level of the learner or when it is at instructional level and carefully supported with a variety of guided reading scaffolds, such as an advance organiser, or a set of question prompts. At Foundation and Stage 1, the Teaching Components strongly suggest a phonemic awareness programme, so that sound letter correspondences (including clusters and blends) are firmly established for both individual letters and vowel and consonant blends.
The Teaching Components at Stage 2 include drawing attention to syllabification and chunking text to promote fluent reading. In addition they encourage building understanding of prefixes, suffixes and word stems to increase word knowledge. At Stage 3, the Teaching Components draw attention to knowledge needed to respond to different aspects of text, including literary devices. All texts promote a focus on word, sentence and whole text analysis.
Writing
The Foundation Stage of Writing explicitly demonstrates the fundamental skills and understandings that learners will need to have established in order to begin to manage classroom learning. The Stages 1-3 then model text structures and describe language features of typical classroom tasks. There are likely to be many learners who will enter school at Years 7-13 already competent in these skills. Diagnostic and placement assessments will determine this. The content of texts used in Stages 1-3 as writing models is, like that of the texts for Oral interaction and Reading, drawn from a number of curriculum contexts.