Literacy Now

by Paul Morsink

Of all the instructional concepts in the experienced ELA teacher’s toolbox, one of the most important and practically useful is the Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, 1978). Together with scaffolding and differentiated instruction, it provides the conceptual foundation for the experienced teacher’s daily labor of intellect and love—continually adjusting instruction and supports so as to maximize each individual student’s learning.

The key insight here is that it is essential to keep each student in his/her personal ZPD, tackling tasks whose level of difficulty is such that they are too hard to accomplish independently, but can be accomplished with support. Otherwise, if the work is too easy, students learn nothing new and become bored. At the other extreme, if the work is much too hard, they learn nothing and become frustrated.

In this graphical representation of the Zone of Proximal Development, tasks in the white band (between the red and the green areas) are tasks a given learner can complete with appropriate assistance.

The experienced ELA teacher is thus continually performing an intricate balancing act—and doing it as many times and in as many ways as he/she has students with different learning levels and profiles. Each student’s ZPD is slightly different or very different from her classmates’. Also, the experienced teacher knows that scaffolding must be varied: particular types of scaffolding are more and less effective for different students.

For example, an experienced teacher knows that a little just-in-time verbal coaching works well for one student (let’s call him Shane). If Shane receives this coaching, he will succeed in creating an outline for the paragraph he’s about to write, and with an outline in hand, his writing is going to be much more coherent. (Someday soon, Shane will internalize this coaching and create an outline on his own.) In another case, Lauren’s teacher knows that reading with her partner Courtney is a powerful scaffold. Lauren pays close attention to the text and follows Courtney’s lead in asking probing questions about characters’ motivations. And so on down the line.

Which brings me (together with a group of K-12 teachers with whom I’ve had the pleasure of discussing these issues) to the question we’d like to pose to this blog’s readership: How has this ZPD-centered dynamic been affected by the digital revolution we’re currently living through? Specifically, what new steps or issues does a teacher need to consider when—inspired by reading a TILE-SIG article—he/she decides to bring a new digital tool into the classroom?

(We thought this blog would be a particularly appropriate place to raise this question—given that we’ve so often had this experience of reading here about a new literacy web tool and then rushing back to our classrooms with plans to have our students use it.)

To seed what we hope will be an ongoing conversation, we’ll share four brief observations.

1. Just as each of our students has his/her individual ZPD for reading complex texts or writing expository text, so we’re finding that each of our students has his/her own individual ZPD for learning how to use a new digital tool. What is challenging for one student may not be challenging for others, and the scaffolding that is helpful for one student may differ from what is helpful for others.

2. The upshot of (1) is that, as we think about introducing our students to a new digital tool, we find ourselves having to consider a greater number of ZPDs than ever before! As well, when we introduce a new digital tool not for its own sake, but rather to support and scaffold a larger reading or writing activity, we’re looking at a situation where one ZPD (for using a tool such as CiteLighter, for instance, to conduct and annotate research online) is in a sense superimposed on another ZPD (for taking notes from sources, for example).

 

3. In light of (1) and (2), we find ourselves becoming more and more expert at telling apart those digital tools that appear to match up well with our general needs and preferences, as well as with the varied types of scaffolding we expect to provide to get every student “up to speed”. For example, we become more skilled at not inadvertently disadvantaging some students who happen to take longer to learn how to use a new tool because of their starting level of expertise with computers and the available scaffolds within that tool.

4. Finally: it is important to note that we are not striving to develop our students’ expertise with digital tools for the sake of learning about the tools themselves and how they work (e.g., how it’s possible, technically, to apply yellow highlighting to a webpage). Rather our goal is to scaffold their understanding about such things as taking notes and the difference between summary and paraphrase. Thus, because of these ideas, we have coined a new term: the “Digitally Enhanced ZPD” or “DE-ZPD.” What we’re looking for in the digital tools we use in our classrooms is quick evidence that they will enhance our students’ existing ZPDs—for learning how to take notes, for example, or for writing research papers. That is, we seek to capture evidence that our students’ understanding of the curriculum is facilitated, deepened, and/or accelerated. We are less excited about the reality of having to deal with the multiplication of ZPDs (as described above) that will then require us to monitor and plan for these complexities with additional scaffolds and supports. This feeling is especially acute in the case of complexities that derive from the idiosyncratic design of a particular digital tool. 

This "before" and "after" graphic depicts what teachers hope for when they introduce a new digital tool to support students' work on a particular activity to develop particular skills. The graphic depicts that, when this student started working with the tool (scenario #2), he was able to complete more tasks than before without other assistance. With appropriate assistance (and the digital tool), the student was able to complete a greater number of more challenging tasks.

Do these observations resonate to some extent with ones you are making in your classroom? We hope so. And we hope you will chime in and share your thoughts and observations—in comments to this blog and/or in conversations with colleagues in your building.

References

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Paul Morsink is a doctoral student in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University, morsinkp@msu.edu.

TILE-SIG Feature: Curating and Sharing Your Toolbox of Digital Reading Supports with PLEs and PREs by Paul Morsink

TILE-SIG Feature: Exploring Teachers’ Perceptions of Digital Tools for Writing Instruction

What is your favorite subject?
What is your favorite genre?
What career do you imagine for yourself in the future?

These are the types of questions we should ask our students at the beginning of every year, starting in kindergarten, to get a sense of their interests. Depending on their age, we can have our students draw a picture, compose an answer, orally communicate thoughts, or complete a written survey. Each child's individual responses should be used to gear instruction by focusing on career readiness skills in grades K–12.

p: Kate B. Harding via photopin cc

Teachers can effectively use this information to create units of study in science, social studies, and health. Choosing topics like agriculture, government, animals, and the circulatory system allow children to explore a variety of subjects finding out what they really like and don't like. Based on this concept, we make educational and developmentally appropriate lessons that enable students to start inventing their future.

Elementary school teachers should select leveled texts for small group guided reading instruction that match the academic strengths and weaknesses as well as the groups' favorite topics and genre. We need to use high-interest level books to increase engagement and academic success. We should also incorporate content area literacy throughout the day to expose our students to fiction and nonfiction texts that teach not only the standards, but also current events and real world experiences. With this style of instruction, curious children should start to wonder what career path is just right for them.

A schoolwide literacy emphasis is an extremely effective way to promote career readiness skills. This begins with teaching the foundations of reading in kindergarten and first grade, which is necessary for children to become independent, fluent readers in upper grades.

The ultimate goal of reading is of course, comprehension, which also requires strategy based teaching for our students to be thinkers. We should showcase the value of inquiry. Children of all ages need to be encouraged to not only answer questions but ask questions about content area text, with a specific emphasis on informational text. Six-year-olds should include who, what, when, where, why, and how in their daily language and conversations. Questions should continue to increase in levels of complexity as students progress throughout their schooling career to only create broader ranges of knowledge.

The same thing goes with vocabulary. Depending on a child's background, they will enter kindergarten with a range of 500 to 1100 words. We need to incorporate daily readalouds at least one grade level ahead to increase vocabulary and utilize new words in conversation. Listening and speaking are two standards to teach oral language, but are also lifelong communication skills. Use nonfiction books, especially in science, history, and social studies are key to expanding knowledge. Reading and writing throughout all content areas opens the doors for higher level thinking and reflection.

To foster independent thinkers, we need to teach children to understand other perspectives and cultures and to determine meaning. We want to provide children with a variety of primary and secondary sources to teach children about people, places, and events. We also should teach fact and opinion in both fiction, nonfiction, and current events. Encouraging children to research facts and expressing opinions on a variety of topics is a powerful teachable moment.

In addition to subject matter, there are many things we need to teach our students to be career ready in the future. A large focus is on technology and how to implement it effectively to increase academic success. “Twenty-first century learning skills” is certainly a buzz phrase today, but it describes how we should educate the children of the 2000s so they can be successful adults in the future. Some of these skills including independence and initiative; these may be natural characteristics of some students, but are ones we have to model and teach others. Punctuality, attendance, positive attitudes, and a willingness to work are also factors that should be commended at an early age so they recognize their value throughout life.

Other career readiness skills that should be implemented during the school day include problem solving and teamwork. Problem-based learning is just one style of instruction that promotes inquiry, problem, and solution. Teamwork and collaboration should also be a part of your daily routine for the students. This will enable them to learn to work together, share, lead, and be team players.

In order for children to choose a career pathway just for themselves, they have to recognize their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. They also have to possess the lifelong skills to succeed. We should provide all of our students an educational experience that will allow them to be career ready for the future.

Kathryn Starke is an urban literacy specialist, children's author, and the founder/CEO of Creative Minds Publications. Visit www.creativemindspublications.com to learn more about her global educational company.



To Raise Achievement, Let’s Celebrate Teachers Before We Evaluate Them

Practice Makes Perfect, Especially in Reading

Bullies are a part of life at any age. Bringing the topic to the forefront and leading discussions on bullying as a preventative measure is always better than dealing with a significant bullying incident after the fact. Although bullying is never going to go away, awareness can go a long to way stopping many incidents before they happen. Literature can be a strong venue to help get the topic out into the open.

Bullying is not an isolated incident but happens over time. The definition of bullying includes three parts: the bullying behavior is intended to do harm, the behavior happens repeatedly and continues over time, and there is an inherent imbalance of power. When we think of bullying we often think about name calling or beating someone up on the playground, but with the growth of the internet the scope of bullying has grown larger. We now have to worry about cyberbullying, including the posting of YouTube videos, Facebook taunts, and viral text messages. 

The following are a list of books across grade levels that address the topic of bullying without being didactic. Some are straightforward books that show the impact of face-to-face bullying, and others include the repercussions of online events.

There are a few websites that are excellent resources to find books and activities related to bullying, including choosekind.tumbler.com, www.bulliesinbooks.com, and lesson plans on www.readwritethink.org.

The Engage blog also featured a series on preventing bullying last October. Posts included: 

• In Other Words: One Author’s Personal Journey to Address & Prevent Bullying
• Bullying: Policy and Practice Meet in the Literacy Classroom
• Teaching Tips: Stand Up in Silence
• Stop Bullying the Bully Preventers
• Reading for a Bullying-Free School
• Fun Look at Our Serious Work: Stop Bullying the Bully Preventers
• 5 Questions With... Lesléa Newman (OCTOBER MOURNING)
• 5 Questions With... R.J. Palacio (WONDER)
• 5 Questions With... Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones (DEAR BULLY)

 

GRADES K-3

 

Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. (2013). Bully. New York: Roaring Brook Press.

With the master craftsmanship Seeger is known for, every detail in Bully, from start to finish, tells the story of Bully the bull and his rise and fall from foe to friend. Stark black lines on the cover depict the bold outline of an angry-looking bull. The front endpapers tell his background story; young Bully is bullied by his father. Sometimes the bullied becomes the bully, as Bully diffuses his hurt feelings by hurting others. He goes through the book taunting other animal characters, growing larger and larger on each successive page he bullies others. One day they turn on him and call him “bully,” and Bully sees what he has become. His character shrinks down, barely filling the page, portraying how he has folded in upon himself. This simple-seeming picture book, with its bold lines and stark colors, shows the arc of the bull’s perspective without seeming didactic. Its simplicity makes it the perfect discussion starter for all ages.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University

 

Dewdney, Anna. (2013). Llama Llama and the Bully Goat. New York: Penguin.

Dewdney’s latest installment of her Llama Llama series tackles the topic of bullying without taking away from the characterization for which she is known. Even though Llama Llama has a lot of school friends, he is the target of Gilroy Goat’s teasing, which makes him feel small. Rather than going straight to a teacher, Llama Llama and his friend first try to stand up for themselves, showing the importance of standing by your friends and working together. Although this is more instructional in tone, this picture book is not overly moralistic but provides a solid base for discussion. The standard rhyming words and rich sharing of emotion make this an accessible book for the preschool age.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

Leathers, Phillippa. (2013). The Black Rabbit. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

A little rabbit enjoys frolicking outside on a sunny day, until he finds that a great black rabbit is following his every move! He runs from one hiding place to another, trying to outrun the pursuer. But when the little rabbit runs into the woods, he is confronted with another terror, a wolf! How will he survive? Readers will love knowing that the second rabbit is only his shadow, and watch to see how the size of the shadow ultimately scares away the wolf. With just enough fright to keep children on the edge of their seats, the play of light and shadow, depicted in textured watercolors, provides just enough edge for readers to follow the story and come away with a feeling of safety and friendship.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

GRADES 4-5

 

Starkey, Scott. (2013). The Call of the Bully: A Rodney Rathbone Novel. NY: Simon & Schuster.

Rodney was convinced he was going to have the best summer ever with his friends, until he finds out he has to go to summer camp with the class bully, Josh. Rodney feels betrayed and on edge as he waits for the bullying from Josh to start. But Josh is nothing besides fellow camper Todd Vanderdick, the true camp bully who is protected by his father’s money. When it comes down to Rodney to save the day, he and his friends pull together in one epic moment to save the camp from shutting down. Although the characters and situations are stereotypical, this is a fast-moving read for all struggling readers or fans of Starkey’s previous book.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

GRADES 6-8

 

Patterson, James, Tebbetts, Chris, & Park, Laura. (2013). Middle School: How I Survived Bullies, Broccoli, and Snake Hill. NY: Little, Brown and Company.

The fourth book in the Middle School series shows our hero Rafe ready to tackle summer camp, until he finds out it is not summer camp but summer school camp! He immediately makes friends with his cabin mates, one of whom is brunt of the other boys teasing. Ridiculous happenings ensue, with Rafe ultimately sicking up for his friend. He learns that not everyone is always what they seem from the outside. Told with his signature humor, Patterson puts us in the shoes of Rafe and his hijinks, encouraging gross-out humor and laughter throughout.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

Lawlor, Joe. (2013). Bully.com. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Jun Li likes to fade into the background in his junior high school. He keeps his head down, is quiet, and throws himself into his studies. When he is falsely accused of being the perpetrator of a cyberbullying attack on a popular classmate, Jun either has to prove it wasn’t him or be expelled from school. Jun moves from a unknown student to one in the limelight; one who is now the target of bullying himself. As Jun and his friend work to solve the mystery of the true person behind the cyberbullying attack, they uncover the motivations of why people bully and how bullying may be a protective mechanism in and of itself.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

Britt, Fanny. (2013). Jane, the Fox, and Me. Illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault. Translated by Christine Morelli and Susan Ouriou. Groundwood Books.

Originally published in France, Jane, the Fox, and Me is a graphic novel that tells the story of Hélène, a girl who is now ostracized and picked on by her former friends now that she is overweight and has a body odor problem. She finds solace in her favorite book Jane Eyre until the day the bullying goes too far. Hélène begins to believe that what the other girls say about her is true and she sinks into a depression until a new girl moves to town and they begin to form a friendship. The detailed lines of the graphic novel add depth to words and together show a powerful picture of cruelty, friendship, redemption, and learning to believe in oneself.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

GRADES 9-12

 

Medina, Meg. (2013). Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

Piddy Sanchez was a strong student with a bright future until the day someone tells her that the roughest girl in school, Yaqui Delgado, thinks she is stuck up and threatens to beat her up. Piddy finds out that Yaqui doesn't think she is Latina enough, so Piddy becomes the target of vicious verbal and physical threats and it takes over her life. She stops going to school and begins to live in constant fear. After a particularly horrifying episode that was posted on YouTube, Piddy enlists the help of adults as her horror unfolds, but sometimes support simply isn’t enough. Medina’s writing is honest and compelling and pulls us into Piddy’s world as she tackles issues of body image, ethnic and racial identity, safety, and violence. The topics tackled in this book could have lent themselves to the problem novel genre, but Medina was able to tackle serious issues in a sensitive and compelling way.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

Hubbard, Jennifer. (2013). Until it Hurts to Stop. New York: Penguin.

Throughout middle school, Maggie was bullied mercilessly by her schoolmates and was at the bottom of the school social order. She grew to accept the taunts, that she is pathetic, ugly, stupid, and unworthy of true friendship. Now Maggie is a junior in high school, and although her primary tormentor had moved away years ago, she is always prepared for another attack. The only time she feels safe is when she is out hiking with her best friend Nick, but lately, Maggie has been developing feelings for him. How can she expect him to ever love her if she doesn’t love herself? This novel is powerfully written, and the Maggie’s words haunt the mind. The reader walks in Maggie’s shoes and experiences the fear, heartbreak, and hope as Maggie progresses through the story.

- Melanie Koss, Northern Illinois University 

 

These reviews are submitted by members of the International Reading Association's Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) and are published weekly on Reading Today Online. The International Reading Association partners with the National Council of Teachers of English and Verizon Thinkfinity to produce ReadWriteThink.org, a website devoted to providing literacy instruction and interactive resources for grades K–12.

 

Rosie Revere, Engineer (Abrams, 2013)
Written by Andrea Beaty and illustrated by David Roberts
Pre-K through Grade 4 

In ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER, a young girl learns to follow her dreams no matter what else happens.

Rosie Revere is a young girl who sees beyond the trash and finds treasure. At school, she is very shy and hides her talents; at home, when no one is looking, she makes amazing creations. She hides out in the attic and creates all sorts of gadgets until she’s too tired to continue working. Why does she hide her fantastic inventions? When she was younger, Rosie made a hat to chase off snakes for her favorite uncle…who laughed at her invention. This reaction caused Rosie to be self-conscious and withdrawn from following her dreams.

She continues with this fear of creating until one day in the fall, her oldest aunt shows up to visit with her. The great-great-aunt, Rose, worked on planes and as a young adult had adventure after adventure. She admits she has one desire that had never been quenched: Aunt Rose (a.k.a. Rosie the Riveter) has always wanted to fly.

Rosie contemplates the stories and her aunt’s dream to fly. As soon as she wakes the next morning, she begins to build and create a cheese copter to test. But when she tests the machine for flight, it does not do well. Her Aunt Rose begins to laugh, and Rosie’s confidence shrinks again. Rosie begins to think she should give up inventing, but Aunt Rose reminds her with a hug that she has made a beginning and the only thing to do is try again.

This book illustrates the power that our words have on others and the ability to choose any career desired. Girls can choose science; boys can choose fashion. Careers are not built on getting everything right the first time, but rather on persistence and perseverance in the face of obstacles.

Cross-curricular connections: Science, Art, Social Studies, English

Ideas for Classroom Use: 

Career Day

The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to make connections with real life events and the story. After reading ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER, discuss Aunt Rose’s career and how that was different for women of her generation. Show pictures of some of the Rosie the Riveter women that helped during the time of crisis in war. Discuss how these women were strong enough to choose to help even though society frowned upon it at first.

After this discussion, encourage students to think about what job they may like to have when they grow up. Encourage them to think outside the box and consider careers that might not be generally accepted for them. Have the students write or dictate a short speech on why they would choose that particular career and how it might be challenging for them.

Hold a career day in which each students comes dressed as their chosen career worker. Allow students time to explain why they would choose the career and how it would be challenging for them.

(Re)Invention

The purpose of this activity is to explore the concept of inventing along with the process of recycling. Ask parents to save “clean” garbage to donate to the class before the project begins. Discuss inventions and creating ideas out of materials that are unlikely to be used. Read the book about Rosie Revere and then discuss the inventions she created. Allow students to work independently or in small groups using that material that were donated.

Have students explain their inventions to the classroom. Encourage students to give positive feedback and constructive criticism to each invention.

Sticks and Stones

The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to think about their choice of words and actions in respect to others around them.

After reading ROSIE REVERE, ENGINEER, ask students to think about how Rosie felt. What actions and words made her happy? What actions and words made her sad? What actions and words made her quit doing what she loved? Why were her reactions different with Aunt Rose laughing than when her uncle laughed?

Brainstorm ways to encourage people and list ways we discourage people. As a culminating activity, allow students to journal write about a time when they felt discouraged because of the actions of others. Have them include a way that they could have reacted differently like Rosie did at the end of the story.

Allow students to share as they feel comfortable, in small groups or as a whole class. With young children this may best be completed as a small group discussion and activity, with the teacher taking dictation of their stories. Do not force any student to share because of the personal nature of the stories. Read and respond to each one in writing to help encourage students to build confidence and stand up for themselves.

Additional Resources and Activities:

How Stuff Works: History of Rosie the Riveter
This site has an easy to understand description of the history of the Rosie the Riveter campaign during World War II. Pictures, descriptions, and a list of several links that explain the work force for women and men of that time, more information about World War II, and links to additional sites about the Rosie the Riveter campaign are all available through this link.

Job Exploration
This website created by Kids.gov is set up in three sections. Learn about jobs, play games about jobs, and videos about jobs all give easy to understand information designed for the lower elementary level, teens, and adults. Students can view a list of jobs by category or by skill. The jobs include a range from chef to veterinarian. Videos showcase several of the jobs to reinforce their skills and interest levels. The links to games provides a range of interactive activities for students.

Andrea Beaty…Children’s Author
The ROSIE THE REVERE, ENGINEER author’s website has information about the author herself and includes links to teacher resources connected to the book. The teacher resources include cross-curricular activities as well as a downloadable paper airplane for students to create. The author also includes links to several other books that are career related, INCLUDING IGGY PECK, ARCHITECT.

Kathy Prater is a Reading Specialist who works with students with dyslexia, an Adjunct Professor at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus, Mississippi, and a full time pre-kindergarten teacher at Starkville Academy in Starkville, Mississippi. Her passions include reading, writing, tending her flock of chickens, and helping students at all levels to find motivation for lifelong reading and learning. She believes that every child can become a successful reader if given the right tools and encouragement. 

by Beverly Derewianka
University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
September 12, 2013

A generation ago Bernstein (1971) suggested that much educational failure is primarily linguistic failure. Do the educational challenges facing our students result largely from lack of control over the language of schooling? If we agree that access to curriculum-specific language resources is critical to academic achievement, then what are the implications for curriculum and pedagogy?

In many countries we have seen an increasing emphasis on the explicit teaching of knowledge about language (metalinguistic knowledge) in school classrooms. In Australia, for instance, the new Australian Curriculum: English places at its core ‘a coherent, dynamic, and evolving body of knowledge about the English language and how it works’ (ACARA, 2009: 6).  Similarly, in England knowledge about language was reintroduced as part of the National Curriculum for English (NCE) in 1989 and its significance has been repeatedly reinforced ever since. In the United States, the Common Core State Standards make it clear that an explicit knowledge about language contributes to college and career readiness:

These initiatives assume the importance of metalinguistic understanding for the development of literacy. While some early studies (e.g., Hillocks, 1986) concluded that there is little or no positive benefit on students’ literacy from the teaching of conventional grammar (Andrews et al, 2004), decades later there have been significant advances in our appreciation of what is meant by metalinguistic knowledge, in the development of a more relevant, contemporary, functionally-oriented theory of language, and in our understanding of more dialogic, engaging pedagogies.

There is recent evidence of the beneficial effects of increased knowledge about language on students’ literacy outcomes from primarily qualitative studies.

In the UK, Myhill (2011a, 2011b), for example, found an improvement of 20% over a year in the writing of secondary students who had been involved in a programme with a contexualised language focus. In the US, researchers are providing evidence of the value of explicit teaching about language from a functional perspective (e.g. Enright, 2013; Fang & Schleppegrell, 2010). Achugar, Schleppegrell & Oteiza (2007), for example, report that students whose teachers participated in a major project on the language of History made significantly greater gains on the state exams than students whose teachers had not participated, and ELLs were among those who showed greatest benefits.

Similarly, data from a study in Massachusetts indicate that SFL-based pedagogy supported emergent ELL writers in analyzing and producing more coherent texts reflective of written as opposed to oral discourse, with fourth graders analyzing the genre and register features in Puerto Rican children’s literature to create their own narratives and fifth graders researching the benefits of recreation to make an argument for reinstating recess in letters to their principal (Gebhard & Martin 2010).

And in Australia, numerous studies over the years have reported that even very young students are able to effectively deploy a shared metalanguage to explore, appreciate, interpret and evaluate the language resources found in a range of genres and to apply those understandings in their own writing (e.g. Williams 2004, 2005). 

What all of these studies have in common is a view of language as a resource for making meaning rather than simply a set of rules. Knowledge about language is taught in the context of substantial curriculum content, with a focus on those language features that are relevant to the particular task. Such knowledge is built up incrementally over time through explicit instruction as students engage in curriculum activities. The metalanguage operates at the level of the whole text through to the paragraph, the sentence, the phrase and the word, emphasizing the function that language plays at each of these levels and the interconnections between each level. The teacher’s role is seen as constantly expanding the students’ repertoire of choices in a classroom climate that fosters exploration, experimentation, discussion, choice and decision-making.

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