The Reading to Learn teacher resource package includes:
- Ten modules, in the form of course books:
- Preparing for reading and writing
- Reading and writing stories and factual texts
- Detailed lesson plans
- Assessing students reading and writing
- Selecting and analysing texts across the curriculum
- Planning lessons across the curriculum
- Language patterns in sentences
- Language patterns in texts
- Reading and writing in the early years
- Scaffolding maths
The Reading to Learn teacher resource package includes:
- Training DVD, including five demonstration lessons, with voice over and subtitles:
- Early Years Reading and Writing
- Reading and Writing Stories
- Reading and Writing Factual texts
- English as a Second Language (ESL)
- Academic Literacy
- Full colour wall poster of the Reading to Learn teaching strategies
This teacher resource package can be ordered at $AUD120
Reading to Learn is a literacy teaching program designed to enable all learners to read and write successfully, at levels appropriate to their age, grade and area of study. The teaching strategies have been consistently independently evaluated to accelerate the learning of all students at twice to more than four times expected rates, across all schools and classes, and among students from all backgrounds and ability ranges.
The program has been developed over ten years with teachers of primary, secondary and tertiary students across Australia and internationally, to integrate reading and writing with teaching the curriculum at all year levels. The strategies apply cuttting edge research in classroom learning, and language across the curriculum, in a form that is accessible, practical and meets the needs of teachers and students.
Reading to Learn is coordinated by Dr David Rose. Dr Rose is an Associate of the Faculty of Education and Social Work, and of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. Dr Rose´s work has been particularly concerned with Indigenous Australian communities, languages and education programs, with whom he has worked for 25 years. He is a speaker of Pitjantjatjara, a language of Australia's Western Desert, and a member of the Western Desert Indigenous Law. In addition to literacy pedagogy and teacher education, his primary research interests include language and cultural contexts and language evolution. He is the author of numerous scholarly papers and books, including The Western Desert Code: an Australian cryptogrammar, Working with Discourse: meaning beyond the clause (with J.R. Martin), and Genre Relations: mapping culture (also with J.R. Martin).
Some of the participants in the recent Reading to Learn forum in Sydney, left to right: Paul Baker, Curriculum Coordination, Dept of Education Victoria, Grampians Region. Dr Ahmar Mahboob, Dept of Linguistics, University of Sydney. Suanne Tikoft, Literacy Coordinator, Yirara College, Alice Springs. Cheryll Koop, Reading to Learn in Murdi Paaki Consultant, NSW Dept of Education, Bourke. Claire Acevedo, Senior Education Officer, Catholic Education Office Melbourne. Dr David Rose, Reading to Learn Director. Sarah Culican, Reading to Learn Consultant, Catholic Education Office Melbourne, Dept of Education Victoria, Association of Independent Schools Victoria. Sally Milburn, Literacy Consultant, Dept of Education Victoria. Brendan Franzone, Literacy Consultant, Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia. Nellie Kostiw, Manager, Teaching and Learning, Dept of Education Victoria, Western Metropolitan Region. Mike Hart, Faculty of Education, University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Frances Tolhurst, Aga Khan Foundation, Afghanistan, Charles Darwin University. Kevin Lowe, Inspector of Aboriginal Education, NSW Office of the Board of Studies.
Cheryll Koop. Claire Acevedo. Lyndall Harrison, Literacy Consultant, NSW Dept of Education, Western Region. Kathy Rushton, Faculty of Education, University of Sydney. Frances Tolhurst. Suanne Tikoft. Jenny Wills, Quality Teaching Literacy, Aboriginal Education and Training Directorate, NSW Dept of Education.
Professional Learning Program
The Reading to Learn professional learning program for teachers is ideally delivered over four terms, with a two-day workshop each term, and teachers implementing the training between workshops, using detailed support materials and training DVDs.
The first workshop introduces the strategies, using videoed demonstration lessons, and supports teachers to practise with detailed lesson plans for teaching specific texts. The second workshop reviews and expands teachers " command of the strategies, and introduces techniques for planning scaffolding lessons independently. The third reviews and expands teachers " experiences with lesson planning and delivery, and introduces techniques for selecting and analysing texts for planningplanning lessons across the curriculum. The final workshop consolidates the skills in scaffolding literacy and planning lessons, and assesses students writing improvements.
This in-depth program provides teachers with the expertise to train others in the strategies. Teachers may be accredited as practitioners and as mentors for other teachers learning the strategies. Accreditation may also be converted to units of degree study.
Background
Building on two decades of research in literacy and language learning in Australia (Martin & Rose 2005), the Reading to Learn program emerged from action research with Indigenous education programs (Rose, Gray & Cowey 1999, McRae et al 2000), and has since been deve loped with practising teachers at primary, secondary (Culican 2006, Rose & Acevedo 2006, Carbines, Wyatt & Robb 2005) and university levels (Martin & Rose 2007b, Rose, Lui-Chivizhe, McKnight & Smith 2004, Rose, Rose, Farrington & Page 2007), across Australia and internationally. It is coordinated by Dr David Rose of the University of Sydney (see biography below).
Independent evaluations
"Average literacy gains across all schools and classes, and among students from all backgrounds and ability ranges, was consistently more than...double the expected rate of literacy development. Furthermore, 20% of students made gains of...four times the expected rate of literacy development." (Learning to Read: Reading to Learn, A Middle Years Literacy Intervention Research Project, Final Report. Catholic Education Office Melbourne 2006)
"The average improvement in reading and writing was 2.5 [National Literacy Profile] levels... At the same time, teachers have noted a range of student learning outcomes that are more difficult to measure, like an increased level of student engagement in their learning." (What has worked, and will again: the IESIP Strategic Results Projects. Australian Curriculum Studies Association 2000)
"The model was seen as superior by practising teachers in relation to other previous professional development experiences...teachers witnessed a general improvement level in all students irrespective of reading ability and literary experience...A work ethic became evident among those students that had never previously been able to engage for anything more than very short periods...attendance had elevated from 50% to 86% attending on a regular basis." (Evaluation of the Years 7-10 English Aboriginal Support Pilot Project, Final Report to the Office of the NSW Board of Studies. Erebus International 2005)
Some typical teacher feedback:
I was thrilled to see them get so much enjoyment from the lesson. This enjoyment came largely from the confidence they gained from really understanding what it was all about.
Students who are usually invisible in the mainstream class are confident and engaged in the process.
The structure and information the students used in their post-scaffolded writing, compared with their pre-scaffolded writing, was excellent.
It is great to have positive results and examples to show parents of students who have always struggled with literacy.
It was pleasing to sit back and listen to the discussion between students, generally considered to be weak in literacy, on the features of language and what makes sense and why.
(from teachers in NSW Western Region)