Gila

Welcome colleagues to Exploring Effective Pedagogical Approaches in English. This presentation is proudly brought to you by the Primary Curriculum English Team. My name is Gila Adams and I co-lead this incredible team with my colleague, Vanessa Hewitt.

Okay, let's get started. Let's take time to acknowledge country. We recognise the ongoing custodians of the lands and waterways where we work and live. We pay respects to Elders past and present, as ongoing teachers of knowledge, songlines and stories. We strive to ensure that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learner in New South Wales achieves their potential through education.

In today's session, as participants, you will learn about explicit reading instruction. You will explore an overview of current reading research and understand how reading is positioned in the English K–10 Syllabus. You will also examine key considerations for intentional text selection, and we'll continue to model how to select and analyse a fluency and close reading passage. Further to this, we will work together to identify parallel content and experiment with planning for explicit reading instruction.

Prior to today's session, your facilitator would've given you a participant workbook. This workbook is designed to aid in note taking during the presentation and can be utilised in the facilitator-led discussions and activities. In the Term 1 sample units, we, the primary curriculum English team, provided the supporting teaching advice associated with the identified component and syllabus content. The Terms 2–4 English sample units do not include this level of detail, so the overall intention of this session is to further develop your capacity to program and plan for this content. I'm now going to hand you over to the wonderful Vanessa Hewitt who's going to start us in round the discussion of reading in 3–6.

Vanessa

Thanks, Gila. Engaging with texts is central to the study of English; the New South Wales English K–10 Syllabus states that across each year of learning teachers must give students daily opportunities to be read to, read decodable texts in K–2, provide opportunities for wide reading and in 3–6 deep reading as well as opportunities for wide writing. The single most effective pathway to fluent word reading is print experience. Children need to be able to see as many words as possible as frequently as possible. Quality examples of literature should be present in print and digital mediums as well as in multimodal, visual and spoken modes, including picture books.

Literature should be readily available to students in the classroom and updated regularly. The teaching of reading has long been a contentious and highly debated topic in education. Fortunately, in recent times, there has been an incredible number of new research studies undertaken to support an understanding of the reading process. Teachers now have more information and support than ever before to teach reading to the diverse range of students who come into their schools and classrooms each year.

The simple view of reading from Gough and Tunmer and Scarborough's Reading Rope help to organise reading as a highly complex cognitive process, which can be categorised into 2 components: word recognition and language comprehension. In this way, a person's ability to read is the product of their decoding abilities and their understanding of oral language and a deficit in either aspect will result in poor reading ability.

The K–6 component of the New South Wales English K–10 Syllabus reflects this model of reading. There is a clear shift from K–2 to 3–6 as students build on their ability to decode words with accuracy and automaticity and comprehend texts with increasingly complex language structures and in varying contexts.

The English 3–6 syllabus overview diagram that you can see on screen shows the gradual colour shifts and unbroken connecting lines around the focus areas representing how the component skills for reading are inextricably linked to both oral language and text creation. The main components of reading in 3–6 are organised as vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension.

On the screen are the 3 focus areas as well as the content groups that conceptually reflect the evidence base and organise the content in the syllabus. We'll explore these focus areas now. Vocabulary knowledge is vital for reading success. As a student who's able to decode words but is not able to understand the words enough to devise a mental model of what they are reading will lack the vital skills of comprehension. This means that for our students to be successful readers vocabulary knowledge, including breadth, contextual sensitivity and morphological awareness, needs to be explicitly planned for and taught in distributive ways.

Reading fluency is crucial for success in learning to read as it is the bridge to reading comprehension. Students need to develop the skills to read words with minimal effort adding prosody or expression to reflect the author's meaning. Within the primary years of schooling, fluency is an ongoing challenge for students as being fluent in reading one type of text does not mean a student will be fluent 2 years later in reading a different type of text. As a result, explicit fluency instruction needs to be deliberate and continuous across the primary years, as reflected in the way the 3–6 component of the English K–10 Syllabus has maintained a focus on fluency in both Stage 2 and Stage 3.

Finally, comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and requires a coordination of many cognitive skills and abilities. Reading comprehension depends upon an efficient and fluent decoding process that allows readers to translate text into oral language. Comprehension requires readers to possess sufficient amounts of knowledge of the text vocabulary, relevant background information, the relationship among words as indicated by sentence structure and the cohesive links that connect various parts of the text. This skill involves assimilating both explicitly-stated and logically-implied information from the text, integrating it with the reader's prior knowledge and forming a more detailed and meaningful understanding of the overall message conveyed by the text. These components are evident as content groups in the English K–10 Syllabus within the focus area of reading comprehension.

Many of us are familiar with models of instruction on how to teach reading comprehension. However, the syllabus highlights that reading comprehension is much bigger than a set of strategies. We'll now take a look at how the focus areas – vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension, come alive in practice.

When planning for evidence-informed reading instruction, we must consider the role of the Gradual Release of Responsibility model, also known as GRR. This model enables teachers to foster student autonomy through explicit scaffolding that helps students carry out reading tasks to a point of independence. The GRR model aligns closely with cognitive load theory and requires teachers to be responsive to their students' reading development.

Lessons following the GRR model usually begin with modelled reading where the teacher, as an expert reader, demonstrates a particular reading skill. They make learning intentions clear and explain or describe the skill concept or knowledge focus to students. One evident advantage of teachers reading aloud to their class is that as the most proficient reader in the room brings to life the text by modelling fluency, infusing meaning and introducing a dramatic element.

This practice not only conveys a love and passion for great books, but also enables students to engage with the text beyond their individual reading capabilities as the teacher assumes the role of interpretable authority for a text. The way teachers talk about the text can greatly affect how students think and understand the words on the page. Another method for high support scaffolding is the use of shared reading. This is an interactive reading experience with the teacher or expert continuing to model or demonstrate the skills concept or understanding that is the focus for the learning. However, the students are now invited to join the teacher in sharing the cognitive load. It is characterised by rich and authentic conversations amongst the community of readers as both the teacher and students discuss, pose ideas, ask questions and extend their thinking, handing over greater responsibility to students guided and collaborative instruction can be adopted.

Guided instruction is an important stage where the goal is for students to assume greater responsibility for their learning while receiving scaffolds and supports when they experience difficulty. This requires teachers to make many contextual decisions about how much guidance to provide and how quickly to release responsibility to students. If carried out effectively, guided instruction allows students to practice the new reading skill or strategy with the teacher's support, preparing them to carry out the practice independently.

When adopting collaborative instruction, students work directly with peers to consolidate new learning, solve problems and engage in peer-assisted tasks. The teacher assists students by questioning, understanding and reteaching where necessary. Organisationally, it usually takes place after whole-class guided instruction, but can occur at the same time if the teacher wants to offer explicit guidance to just a subset of the class. Finally, we can hand over the greatest amount of responsibility to students as they practice independently across varying contexts, the teacher may be present to observe and formally assess students. If carried out effectively, independent learning provides students with opportunities to solidify their new learning by applying, synthesising and transforming ideas and skills independently.

Two practices that support the teaching of reading and maximise instructional time in the classroom include close reading and repeated reading. Close reading focuses on comprehension and repeated reading focuses on fluency. These 2 practices support each other as improving reading fluency frees up the cognitive capacity, allowing the reader to concentrate on the meaning of the text and a deeper understanding of the text that enables the reader to read with greater fluency. Close reading involves thoroughly examining and discussing a short text in detail. This method requires reading the text multiple times with the first reading giving an overall understanding, and then subsequent readings involve focused discussions on specific themes, vocabulary, literary devices, plot points and other important aspects. Close reading naturally includes lively discussions about the text, while it might include written responses from students, the main driver for improving students' reading skills lies in the act of reading itself and having thoughtful discussions about the text. The aim is to support students to go beyond the surface-level understanding and delve into the deeper layers of meaning within the text. Repeated reading is an effective evidence-based approach to fluency instruction.

In repeated reading fluency lessons, the teacher reads the text aloud modelling elements of fluent reading. Unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts should be discussed before students form mixed-ability pairs and engage in partner reading. The idea is that every child will read the text aloud at least 3 times, aiming for greater fluency each time. Their partner is available for support and the teacher can move around the room briefly hearing reading pairs and pausing to provide that important positive feedback or correction as needed. For students who may have difficulties with meeting the learning intention, teachers can provide additional support prior to or following the whole class learning. Close reading and repeated reading practices initially fall in the ‘I do’ phase of the GRR model as they require a high level of scaffolding and modelling by the teacher.

Over subsequent days as the students become more familiar with the text, a greater level of responsibility can be handed over to the students. When selecting texts for instruction, we can use mentor texts to model how proficient readers use various reading strategies and skills. They're able to be explored, analysed, interpreted and appreciated as quality literature serving as a model when understanding and creating texts. When preparing to deliver mentor texts, teachers are encouraged to thoroughly explore the text for all its instructional affordances.

Following this introductory section of the presentation, we will explore explicit instruction vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension through a focused analysis of a selected passage from a mentor text. This passage extracted from a longer text serves as a basis for an in-depth study emphasising those ever-important foundational skills with relevant teaching points and examples. This approach highlights the significance of quality literature linking foundational skills to broader English conceptual understandings. Analysing a chosen passage encourages students to delve into the author's choices for effective writing.

To conclude this section of the presentation, we ask that you take some time to complete this first activity and reflect on the content that has been discussed. Use the 3 guiding questions as you record your thoughts in your workbook and then share these with your colleagues.

We are now going to consider how excerpts from a mentor text can be utilised for effective instruction and will model the process of selecting and analysing a fluency and close reading passage. Firstly, let's review a key message evident in the English K–10 Syllabus.

The syllabus clearly identifies the need for structured and explicit teaching of syllabus content. This key message is highlighted through this syllabus teaching advice, which provides the key research and evidence for each of the focus areas. Within the teaching advice, we see the clear recommendation for explicit and systematic instruction.

This recommendation is echoed through the majority of focus areas. Explicit teaching is a systematic structured approach to instruction that involves specifically teaching students the content or skill to be learned. Explicit teaching follows a planned sequence starting with simple concepts and progressing to more advanced ones.

The sequence begins where the students have demonstrated competence and teaching is carried out in manageable sections. As a part of our New South Wales Plan for Public Education, we agree to deliver effective teaching practices including explicit teaching and effective feedback underpinned by high expectations.

Explicit instruction is recommended for the development of foundational skills in English. The 3–6 component of the syllabus calls for the deepening and enriching of foundational skills established across K–2, and this can occur through explicit instruction and regular systematic and repeated practice. There are multiple ways to include explicit instruction in your English program.

The structure of component A and component B within the 3–6 sample units models one way of structuring learning to ensure the explicit and systematic instruction of syllabus content. In this structure component A is the designated time for the continued development of foundational skills through explicit instruction. We recognise that each school context is different and schools plan in different ways.

However, what should be common across all schools is the systematic and explicit teaching of content? In this session, we will unpack how to facilitate explicit instruction in vocabulary, reading fluency and reading comprehension through the use of a fluency and close reading passage. This is a focused passage selected from a longer text for a detailed study and analysis. Through study of a passage, foundational skills can be developed using meaningful teaching points and examples from the text. This reinforces the importance of quality literature and connects the learning of foundational skills with conceptual understandings of English.

Study of a selected passage can ask students to think deeply about the choices an author has made to make their writing effective. Often a passage is chosen from the mentor text. However, there are times when it may be beneficial to use passages from supporting texts. This might be for the purpose of developing background knowledge about a topic within a text, comparing text with similar themes or topics or understanding the creation of a text by learning more about the author. When selecting a fluency and close reading passage, there are several key considerations. Firstly, it is important to select a passage that has a clearly identifiable purpose within the longer text. For example, the passage might provide an orientation to the story, outline an event that sets up a problem, provide key information or highlight a particular perspective. Instructional priorities are another key consideration.

We intentionally choose a passage that exemplifies the outcomes and content we are intending to address. This provides us with high-quality examples that can be used as a part of our explicit instruction. A fluency and close reading passage should also provide students with the opportunity to appreciate the careful crafting of written work. This can include the way a passage is structured, the literary devices used or the deliberate language choices made by the author. We want students to recognise that specific techniques have been used with intent to achieve a certain effect and that these are the same techniques that can be adopted by students for use in their own writing.

When selecting a passage, we also need to consider the level of challenge that it presents for students. We are intentionally choosing a passage that is high challenge and is beyond the individual performance level of students. The passage may be complex in terms of language, structural themes, and will extend students' reading and writing abilities. We can select a high challenge passage as it will be studied in a high support environment with a teacher modelling and scaffolding to ensure students achieve the learning goals that were identified.

A final consideration could be the length of the fluency passage. Repeated reading and evidence-based approach to fluency instruction requires the same text to be read multiple times in a session, and so the chosen passage should be short enough to be read 3 or 4 times in a 15-minute session. As a good rule of thumb, a fluency passage should be somewhere between 150–300 words. These 5 factors can be taken into consideration when selecting a fluency and close reading passage. We balance these factors when deciding upon a passage, seeking a passage that will be the best fit for our students.

We are now going to see the use of these factors in action as we hear from Laura and her Year 6 team at Matilda Public School. They'll explain the process they work through in order to select fluency and close reading passage and then use the passage to plan for explicit instruction as a part of their English program.

Laura

Hi, my name is Laura and today I am working alongside my colleagues Amir and Lee, and we are Year 6 teachers at Matilda Public School. Our school is located in a metropolitan area with 3 Year 6 classes each with a diverse range of abilities.

This includes high potential students as well as students working towards Stage 2 outcomes. Additionally, our school has a significant population of EAL/D students. For the first half of Term 2, we are using the department sample unit, Stage 3 Unit 11, and are adapting this unit to suit our context. This unit focuses on the textual concepts of characterisation and narrative and uses the mentor text Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief by Katrina Nannestad. Because all the sample units use the component A and component B structure, we know that component A is the time we dedicate to deepening and enriching foundational skills through explicit teaching.

In our component A planning session today, we are working through the planning and programming phase of the teaching and learning cycle. As part of this, we are following a process to plan for explicit instruction so that we clearly and systematically teach our students skills and content in a structured way. The diagram on the right of the screen illustrates the process we are going to work through. This includes the selection and analysis of a fluency and close reading passage. This passage will be used in component A of our unit to drive teaching and learning.

To begin, we need to identify syllabus outcomes and content points that we will explicitly teach in component A. To identify the syllabus outcomes and content points, we dive into sample unit 11 and draw out the content points intended to be covered in component A. The outcomes and contents table shows us what will be taught in the unit and when.

The letters A and B in the header refer to the components A and B, and the numbers 1–5 refer to weeks in the unit. The use of 'X' in these columns indicates where the content points are intended to be addressed and in which week. Looking at the focus area of vocabulary, we see that there are 3 content points in this unit. They are all intended to be taught in both component A and B, but for Week 1 there is only one content point for explicit teaching in component A, that being 'Identify and use words that convey subjective, emotive, and persuasive meaning in texts'. Then we move on to looking at the focus area of reading comprehension.

We can see that there are 9 content points to be taught in the unit, and we identify the 5 content points that are to be explicitly taught in Component A in Week 1. This includes 2 content points which fall under the reading fluently content group, which in Stage 3 becomes part of the reading comprehension focus area. We continue looking through each of the focus areas and identify the content to be addressed as part of our explicit instruction in component A.

Once we have finished looking at the focus areas, identifying the outcomes and content points, we can pinpoint the list of content points to be addressed in week 1. Today our focus is on how to plan for teaching the connected content of vocabulary and reading comprehension. From here we go to our scope and sequence. We use the Stage 3 scope and sequence from the department's website as this scope aligns with the sample units. The scope and sequence shows content at the point of introduction. Looking here, you can see the reading comprehension section from the scope and sequence, and it shows that 3 reading comprehension content points are being introduced in this unit, meaning the other 2 reading comprehension content points have been previously introduced and are included in the unit for revision and consolidation.

We will take this information into account as we plan for explicit instruction. At this time we also use our student assessment data to determine if there are any additional content points that we also want to include for revision and consolidation purposes. When looking at the focus areas of spelling, handwriting and digital transcription and creating written texts within the scope and sequence, we also consult the department's instructional sequences. These documents align to the sample units and help to further guide our planning by providing a clear sequence of learning and additional information that supports our teaching.

Now that the content for explicit teaching is identified, Lee, Amir and I discuss each of the outcomes and content points. We want to make sure that we have a good understanding of the skills and knowledge required for each point. We use the syllabus glossary to help define key terms such as mental model and also look at the syllabus examples to help clarify our understanding.

We are now confident in our knowledge of the content to be taught using explicit instruction in component A. We keep this information at the forefront of our minds as we move into the next stage of our planning process, which is selecting a fluency and close reading passage. In week 1 of Unit 11, chapters 1–4 of Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief are read as well as an online blog which provides information about the author. We read these chapters of the text and the blog post for the purpose of selecting a fluency and close reading passage.

As we read, there are several key considerations for passage selection that we take into account. We must consider the purpose of the passage, the outcomes and content we need to address, any text and language features we'd like to showcase, the level of challenge for our students and also the length of the passage. When choosing a passage, we keep these considerations in mind and choose a passage that will be the best fit for the week and aligns with the majority of our objectives. We're aware that we can use other parts of the mentor text explored throughout the week to address additional content points.

As we read, we find 3 potential passages for use. We then discuss which passage will work best as part of our explicit teaching. This passage has a strong purpose within the longer text as it introduces the main character, Sasha, who is a 10-year-old boy in a Red Army Hospital in Berlin. He's been taken back to his bed by the sympathetic nurses after he's found stabbing a pillow. The nurses are trying to understand his actions, but Sasha refuses to talk and remains silent. The passage also has many examples of the content we want to address and will provide a high level of challenge for our students due to the background knowledge and vocabulary required to comprehend the passage. When choosing this passage, we discuss the use of visuals to scaffold learning, particularly for our EAL/D students.

After selecting a passage, our next step in planning and programming for explicit instruction involves the analysis of the selected fluency and close reading passage. Analysing the passage is a planning exercise and is essential for us in developing a deep understanding of content, author intent, text structure and language features. We begin the fluency and close reading passage analysis by identifying the author's intended purpose of this section of the text. This is an important step because it can explain why the author chose specific language features and text structure. When we as teachers understand this, we can then scaffold our students to reach in the same understandings.

We've chosen this passage as it serves a clear purpose within the longer text of introducing the main character, Sasha, and a key setting in the text. Next, we unpack the passage further by analysing the text structure. We pay attention to just this section of the text, thinking about the paragraphs and sentences and why the author might have included them. We consider what meaning they make and what meaning would be missing if they were left out.

We note that the author alternates between describing the action of the nurses leading Sasha back to the bed and then Sasha providing his thoughts. We consider the impact that this has. For example, hearing Sasha's thoughts helps the reader to connect with the main character and describing the action contributes to building suspense as the reader is left questioning why Sasha has stabbed a pillow and why he is refusing to speak.

After this, we then review the content points we are intending to address as part of component A to identify examples that we can use in our explicit instruction. As we are doing this, we also consider any additional language features that appear in this section of the text that may be worthwhile discussing with our students. We grab our highlighters and pens and start annotating on a copy of the passage.

We begin by looking at the vocabulary content point, identify and use words that convey subjective, emotive, and persuasive meanings in texts. We firstly identify examples of subjective language in the passage. For example, when Sasha says 'It's Irena, my favourite. She's young and pretty and talks a lot', we then discuss the impact that the subjective language has. In this case, it shows the character's personal feelings and helps the reader to better understand the character. We also find some examples of emotive language. For example, when Nurse Irena says, 'Poor boy… It was bad enough when we found you wandering in the street', we consider how the author's use of emotive language evokes a sense of sympathy and concern for what may have happened to Sasha before they found him. We then move on to reading comprehension and the content group of reading fluently. Amir, Lee and I identify words that could be used to teach students how to read multisyllabic words such as Siberia and pyjamas, as well as words that require more phonemic knowledge to read words accurately such as lieutenant and bravery.

We discuss the needs of our students recognising that using 1- or 2-syllable words may be more appropriate for some of our learners. Still focusing on reading fluently, we identify that the passage provides opportunities for students to adjust their prosodic reading, to enhance meaning and engage an audience. The use of expression and intonation could be practiced in the sections of dialogue between multiple characters. And at the end of the passage, we see a section of text where pausing could be effectively utilised to show that the other characters are waiting for Sasha to speak. During our discussion, we consider the varying abilities of our students and discuss reducing the length of the passage to support some learners when independently practising their reading fluency. Still focused on reading comprehension, we identify sections of the passage where language, background knowledge and vocabulary are drawn upon as students build a mental model of the text. Lee emphasises the importance of students having some background knowledge of World War 2 and vocabulary knowledge of words such as Siberia, Red Army Hospital, and Berlin to fully comprehend the text.

Amir identifies how the author's use of descriptive language such as describing the pillow as soft and plump helps create a vivid mental model and also identifies that the author's use of language is often reflective of the point of view of the 10-year-old main character, such as describing the sergeant as having a forehead that is as wrinkled as his pyjamas. We continue this process of identifying examples and teaching opportunities related to each content point until we end up with an annotated passage.

Now we have our fluency and close reading passage selected and teaching opportunities and examples identified. Through this thorough analysis, we have deepened our understanding of the text and this will assist us to create robust explicit instruction for our students. It's over to you now to have a go at selecting and analysing a passage for your English program.

Gila

After seeing the process Laura and her team just worked through, you now have the opportunity to follow this same process and select and analyse a passage from a mentor and supporting text. In your workbook, you will find the process diagram as well as some guiding points to assist you through the passage selection process.

Start by identifying the unit you're about to teach or one you could use a unit you are already familiar with. Once a unit of work has been selected, start working your way through the process of planning for explicit teaching and learning, completing steps 1, 2 and 3 to select a passage for use in one week of the unit.

To complete this activity, you will need a unit, the mentor and supporting texts, access to various materials including the syllabus, scope and sequence, instructional sequence, as well as the participant's workbook. Collaboratively select and analyse a fluency passage for use in one week of teaching and learning.

Once the passage has been chosen and analysed, the next part of this presentation will look at how the passage can be utilised for explicit instruction. This section we'll focus on planning and programming evidence-based strategies. In the previous session, we unpacked points 1–3 on this diagram as you can see on screen.

Now, we're going to take a look at points 4, 5 and 6. Now that you have selected a passage, the next step is to identify parallel content. This involves using the identified content points for the week while considering opportunities to connect learning. Some content points have multiple elements, not all elements need to be taught in each lesson. Distributing learning could provide further opportunities to integrate other content points. This will be unpacked in the following slides.

After this, teachers move to exploring evidence-based strategies and planning for teaching, learning and assessment. This involves using the syllabus to explore content examples and of course NESA’s teaching advice. Remember that the syllabus glossary will be able to provide further clarity of key terms and concepts.

The department's lesson advice guides can also be used as each document provides teachers with guidance on the components of an explicit lesson. Teaching strategies and learning activities will target the identified content points. Remember to consider a range of assessment of strategies to monitor individual student progress and offer ongoing student feedback.

The final step is to record and document learning. This involves mapping content for the week and aligning learning experiences. It is recommended to use the department syllabus mapping tool to track content points. On this slide, we take a closer look at part 4 of the planning and programming process, that is, to identify parallel content. This is where you can identify opportunities to connect content points to be taught in parallel. The highlighted sections indicate content that can be taught in parallel to develop students' reading comprehension and vocabulary.

Teaching content points in parallel demonstrates the interconnectedness of skilled reading. This approach supports students’ comprehension skills and fosters a more sophisticated engagement with an analysis of the text. Specifically, the selected reading passage contains a mode of language that is reflective of the World War 2 content of the text. The parallel content will develop students' understanding of how language is used to describe a character's experiences and the impact of emotive language on prosodic reading.

Now that parallel outcomes and content points have been identified, the next step is to consider how the content can be mapped across the week. The example here shows how the parallel content points for reading comprehension, including reading fluently and monitoring comprehension and vocabulary have been mapped across 4 days in week 1. It is important to note that some content points have multiple parts and that not all parts need to be taught in each lesson. The content points in the example have multiple parts. Each part is being bolded to indicate what will be addressed each day. Learning is gradually built over the week allowing students to develop their skills and understanding.

These content points will be repeated in the following weeks with different texts. This will ensure students gain a rich understanding and ability to apply skills to a broad range of texts over time.

On day one, reading fluency is modelled. An additional focus on building background knowledge allows students to integrate new information into their existing mental model of the text and its context. A focus on emotive language further support students to build and adjust their mental models and to develop prosodic reading, which displays their comprehension of the text.

On day 2, building vocabulary knowledge along with identifying words that convey the emotive meaning of words is continued. This allows for students to build upon and transfer skills.

Day 3 sees explicit unpacking of inferences in the passage, which are again linked to the students' developing mental model. Opportunities for prosodic reading are continued.

On day 4, the focus is on how language background and vocabulary knowledge and inferencing are used together to build a mental model prior to and during reading. This ties together the learning that has been completed throughout the week.

Remember that the content points need to be revisited numerous times throughout a stage. This is important as the skills needed to read and comprehend one type of text may be very different to the skills required when reading and comprehending a different type of text. Ultimately, students are working towards achieving the syllabus outcomes.

Using content points to distribute learning is one way to support students to acquire a comprehensive understanding of each outcome. This makes it important to consider a range of rich assessment strategies to monitor and track individual student progress, inform future directions for student learning and provide ongoing feedback to students. This allows teachers to be best placed in deciding when and how to revisit or select new syllabus content.

Exploring evidence-based approaches and strategies will support planning explicit teaching and learning activities. To address these content points in parallel, close reading and repeated reading can be used to develop both reading fluency and reading comprehension.

As mentioned earlier, the gradual release of responsibility model or ‘I do, we do, you do’ can support students to become skilled independent readers. Let's explore this model some more. In the 'I do' phase, the teacher will use a range of strategies including modelling fluent reading, explicitly supporting students to understand words and their meaning, facilitating rich, critical and authentic discussions about the passage, including an understanding of the author's intent and how the textual concepts are represented. This may include open-ended questions such as 'What are the characters thinking or feeling?', 'What is the author saying here, and why do you think that?' In the 'We do' phase, the teacher uses choral reading to support reading fluency.

The teacher also uses a graphic organiser like the one you can see on the screen to explore multiple definitions and use of a selected word so that students deepen their vocabulary knowledge and understand the contextual application. In the selected fluency passage from the text, Rabbit, Soldier, Angel, Thief, Nurse Irena states, 'Poor boy'. Her use of the word poor reflects her emotional connection to the main character, Sasha. Discussions through questioning can also be facilitated to explore the subjective use of the word. For example, ‘Why would patients in the hospital describe Sasha in the same way and what words might they use?’

The teacher could also use a word mat to narrow in on the emotive and subjective use of words. A word mat allows for the exploration of definitions, synonyms, antonyms and diverse contextual uses. Continuing with the 'We do' phase, a word cline can also be used to illustrate the nuances and flexibility of word use. Word clines show variations and subtle shifts in meaning, intensity or degree for a particular word. In the 'You do' phase, students apply their learning.

Reading fluently is practiced when students engage in independent or paired reading. Students work in pairs to annotate the close reading passage and underline any other subjective or emotive words. Students independently use a graphic organiser to explore multiple definitions or use of an identified subjective or emotive word. Students could also use a word cline to demonstrate an understanding of the impact of more interesting and complex vocabulary. A 'quick write' strategy can allow students to demonstrate their understanding of the background knowledge and vocabulary that supported them in building a mental model during reading.

In this example, we have explored how reading comprehension and vocabulary outcomes and content points can be taught in parallel. You can also see how the teacher has chosen a range of simple yet highly effective evidence-based approaches and strategies to build students' reading fluency, comprehension and language knowledge.

After planning for explicit teaching by selecting evidence-based strategies and considering assessment opportunities, the next step is to record and document learning. The K–6 Syllabus Mapping Tool from the department's website is one way to record content that has been covered across a week, unit, term and year. This document supports teachers and school leaders to monitor multiple syllabus elements when planning and programming.

Consider the current ways that your school documents or records learning and assessment and how this can be incorporated into your explicit reading instruction to inform future directions for learning. There is now time for you to stop and reflect and apply what you have learned in this session. On screen, we have provided you with a 'Where to next?' You might take the time to discover and learn more. Below there are links provided with additional learning resources.

That brings us to the end of our presentation, but there has been a lot of content covered today and we know that you're going to need to take the time to digest, unpack and discuss what you've heard here. We have some suggested links to provide further information and advice around the content that we've spoken about. Please refer to your workbook for these links.

You might also like to join the Primary curriculum Statewide Staffroom if you're not already a member, and we specifically encourage you to join that English channel.

If you'd like further information, you can contact Vanessa or myself on the English K-6 mailbox, which you can see there on screen. We very much value your feedback. We ask that you please complete the 'Exploring effective pedagogical approaches in English 3-6' evaluation. This will help provide us further support.

You can use the QR code that you can see on screen.

Finally, on behalf of Vanessa and myself and the entire Primary curriculum English team, we'd like to thank you for joining us for this session and, as we've said, please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or wonderings.

We look forward to hearing all of the wonderful stories that you and your schools are engaging in as you work together to unpack and implement the New South Wales English Syllabus.

[End of transcript]