Genevieve Jones

Plan for the Teaching of a Reading Comprehension Strategy

TOPIC: History The nature of contact between Aboriginal people and the effects of these interactions
Year Level: 4
Time: 60 minutes approximately
This assessment task addresses the broad AC English: Content Descriptor from the Literacy SubStrand: Interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating. Use
comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts
(ACELY1692).
Relevant Elaborations: Making connections between information in print and images
During this lesson: Students will be learning how to establish links between what is written on the page and the accompanying visuals by explicitly explaining
how the different images relate to what is happening in the text. Students will need to draw on literal information within the text and illustrations, as well as
inferred meaning. Students will engage with the text and visuals to complete the 4WS activity to assist them in making observations, connections and
inferences, whilst the focus group will participate in reciprocal teaching to do so.
Shared Text for whole class: Jandamarra by Mark Greenwood and Terry Denton (See Appendix 1)

LESSON INTRODUCTION:
The Hook (1-5mins): Whole class
Zoom In gradual zooming out on the front cover image of the text, asking questions each time to engage students and make predictions.
- What do you think it could be? What makes you think that? What could it mean?
(See)
Literacy learning intention:
We are learning to use and link the pictures in the book with the writing, making connections to help us better understand what we have read.

Success criteria for whole class:

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I am doing well if I successfully complete the 4WS activity and identify what I can see on the page, what it reminds me of, what the artist and authors
purpose is and why it matters. I need to make connections between the images and words and identify certain aspects of the pictures and how they
directly relate to the text.
Whole class instruction/strategy: Shared Reading

BEFORE READING (5-10mins):

Inform students that the focus of the reading will be the comprehension strategy of linking visual information to written text. This means that students will need
to attend to the pictures throughout the book and consider how they support and are connected to the written information.
Activate prior knowledge by asking students questions which require them to consider what they already know about the topic. Also ask questions that will
enable students to make predictions about the text. The hard copy of the book will be displayed to the class so they are able to make predictions using the
front, back and inside covers.
(See Appendix 2.1).
DURING:
Students actively participate in the reading. They will read out loud, analyse and contribute to a discussion regarding the pictures and how they reflect and
connect to the text, answer any questions about the text and visuals and ask any questions they may have. (See Appendix 2.2)
To enhance the analysis of the images throughout the text, the pages will be individually displayed on the Interactive whiteboard (as photos in a PowerPoint).
This enables the students to observe and analyse the pictures at a greater depth, thereby providing for discussion in regards to how the illustrations reflect, link
and support the words on the page. The teacher will highlight the use of the illustrations and how they support the text, exploring what is explicitly present and
what is being implied.

AFTER (5-10mins):
1. Whole class activity/thinking routine to explore the text using the reading comprehension strategy
4WS activity
Once the class has participated in the shared reading, the teacher will focus the discussion on one page of the text page 16. In doing so, the teacher will
model how to answer the questions and complete the 4WS activity, with help from the class. These questions encourage the students to make observations
and inferences using the visual images, and are thereby aimed at linking the pictures to the text. This activity will scaffold students in making these connections
and will therefore extend their knowledge and understanding of the text. Students will then independently choose a page from the book that was read in class
and complete their own 4WS chart.
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(See Appendix 3)

2. Focussed teaching group

Success criteria for focus teaching group:
I am doing well if I make at least one link between the pictures and writing and contribute at least once to the small group discussion.
Members of group:
10906789, 31249379, 50582413, 61100916, 64139216, 99639783
Text for focus teaching group:
Jandamarra by Mark Greenwood & Terry Denton pages 24 & 25 (See Appendix 5)
Strategy: Reciprocal Teaching
This task provides students with significant support and scaffolding, focusing on their predicting, questioning and clarifying skills, as well as an increased
emphasis on the visuals throughout the book. Students will be concentrating on building their ability to make links between the text and visual information in
this activity, as this is the comprehension focus. The teacher will act as a facilitator, coordinating the discussion and asking questions to allow students to
develop their understanding and confidence, and also to ensure that each student is engaged and contributing. Students will use the same text that was read
with the whole class, however the focus will be on the next pages (pages 24 and 25) that they are yet to observe, and the hard copy of the book will be utilised
so students are able to see the images in context.
To assess the focus group, the teacher will take observational notes, paying specific attention to student participation, their contributions and whether or not
they successfully make a link between the pictures and the writing, according to the success criteria. Furthermore, students will be given the opportunity to
write in their journals at the conclusion of the lesson. They will write down anything they learnt during the lesson, one link between the images and text
discussed during the focus group, as well as anything else of interest or concern. The teacher will then refer to these journals to assess where students are at
in their ability to comprehend text by making connections between the images and written text, using the success criteria to determine this.
(See Appendix 4)

LESSON CONCLUSION (10-15 mins):

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Students reflect on what they have learnt from the lesson by sharing their 4WS activity with a partner. Students then volunteer to share their work with the
whole class, with the teacher encouraging the students from the focus group to also contribute.
Questions are then asked of the students to check and assess their understanding of the text and their capacity to link visual information to written text.
(See Appendix 7)

APPENDIX 1
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Zoom In
Create a PowerPoint presentation in which each slide displays a section of the front cover artwork, with each slide presenting an enlarged version of the one
before it. This means that the first slide will only be the horses face, whilst the final slide will be of the complete front cover image.

Display a small section of the image and invite students to observe it closely. Begin with observations and then move on to inviting students to develop
interpretations or ideas based on what they see.
o ask:
What do you see or notice?
What is your interpretation of what this might be based on what you are seeing?
Reveal more of the image and again ask students to identify anything new they are seeing and consider how this new information impacts on their initial
ideas.
o ask:
What new things do you see?
How does this change your interpretation?
Has the new information answered any questions you had or changed your previous ideas?
What new things are you thinking and wondering about?
Who do you think that man might be?
Where do you think he is?
What do you think the next section of the image will look like?
Repeat this process of revealing and interpreting until the whole image has been revealed, and encourage students to state any further questions they
may have. Furthermore, invite students to discuss how their ideas and interpretations changed as more of the image was shown.
o ask:
What lingering questions remain for you about this image?
How did your thinking change from the first section of the horse to the whole image of the man on his horse in what appears to be the
outback?

Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners.
San Francisco, USA: Wiley. Retrieved from http://ACU.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=706891

APPENDIX 2
Questions
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2.1 Before Reading

We are reading the first half of Jandamarra today. What do you think this book could be about?
Who do you think the man on the cover is?
What do you think the word Jandamarra is or means?
What do you know about Aboriginal people and what happened to them when the Europeans settled in Australia?
What do you think this image is? (inside cover)
What is it a map of?

2.2. During Reading

What connections can we see or make between the illustrations and the words?
Who do you think the people are sitting by the river? Which person in the picture do we think is the boy with the Bunuba name? What makes you think
this?
What is Pigeon doing with the sheep? How do you know this?
What is he doing on the horse? Does this image look like one weve seen before? (front cover)
Describe what is happening in the picture. How do you know that?
Do the line of chained men look happy? How do you think theyre feeling?
What is happening around the campfire? What makes you say that?
Why do the people near the butcher look unhappy when theyre looking at Pigeon? How do we know?
Again, this image looks familiar. What does it mean?
What is happening in this image? Why are they fighting?
What was Pigeons decision?

NB: Emphasis on asking students to explain how they know to establish that connection between the words and illustrations
3.3 After reading

What happened in the story? Did it match our predictions?

Did the pictures help us to understand what was happening in the story? Did they support or reflect what the writing said?
Did anyone notice any links between the illustrations and the text?
APPENDIX 3
4WS activity

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Students individually choose a page from the text and complete the table.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ccia-10-visual-literacy-strategies-todd-finley

APPENDIX 4
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Reciprocal teaching

Have students predict what they think might happen on this page (pages 24 and 25) using the images
o

ask:

What do you think might happen?

Why do you think that? How do you know?

Read the text to the students

Clarify terms and meanings what they think it means, look it up, use it in context
o

Are there any words on the page that youre not sure about? eg. rallied, ambush, devil horns

What do you think it could mean? Why do you think that?

Could we look at the pictures to help us?

Question students regarding what they think about the text

o

ask:

ask:

Im wondering what you think might happen?

Im wondering what youre thinking now?

Paraphrase or summarise the pages for the students, ensuring that the links between the visual information and the written text are identified

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APPENDIX 5
Conclusion Questions

Can someone tell me what happened in the part of the book that we read?

Who is the main character?

What did Pigeon do in the book?

Did the pictures help us understand the book?

Was the written information reflected or supported in the pictures?

Did we have to use the writing to understand what was happening in the images?

Was all the information there or did we have to sometimes have an educated guess about what was occurring in the pictures?

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Plan for the Teaching of a Reading Comprehension Strategy

TOPIC: The diversity and longevity of Australias first peoples and the ways Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples are connected to Country and
Place (land, sea, waterways and skies) and the implications for their daily lives.
Year Level: 4
Time: 60 minutes approximately
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This assessment task addresses the broad AC English: Content Descriptor from the Literacy SubStrand: Interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating. Use
comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating texts
(ACELY1692).
Relevant Elaborations: finding the main idea of a text
During this lesson: Students will be learning how to extract and organise information from a digital text. Students will watch the video twice, once for
enjoyment and familiarity, and another to practice the reading comprehension strategy, attending to specific semiotic systems to recognise the important pieces
of information that need to be obtained. Students will engage with the text to complete a headline activity, as well as to establish five Very Important Points
(VIPs), which will then be ordered.
Shared Text for whole class: Aboriginal Kangaroo dance of Western Australia by Australian Geographic.
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/history-culture/2014/11/aboriginal-kangaroo-dance-of-western-australia

LESSON INTRODUCTION: BEFORE READING

The Hook (1-5mins): Whole Class
Teach students a sequence of three moves/positions from an Aboriginal Traditional Dance. Ask questions to engage the students and make predictions about
what the sequence is and what it could mean.
- What do you think I just taught you? What could it mean?
Literacy learning intention:
We are learning to extract and organise information.

Success criteria for whole class:

I am doing well if I create a succinct headline that captures the main idea of the text, as well as identify five Very Important Points (VIPs) and put them
in order of importance. I need to recognise which pieces of information are important and those which are not crucial.
Whole class instruction/strategy preparing for reading the text: Shared Viewing

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BEFORE READING (5-10mins):
Inform students that the focus of the viewing will be the comprehension strategy of extracting and organising information. This means that students will have to
use their informed judgement to decide what the main ideas of the video are and to consider why this is so. Explain to students that they need to look for the
main ideas within the text so that they can organise them in order of importance after they have viewed it for a second time.
Activate prior knowledge by asking students questions which require them to consider what they already know about the topic, specifically relating it back to
the lesson on Jandamarra. Also ask questions that will enable students to make predictions about the text from the title and initial still image of the video.
Additionally, concentrate students attention on the semiotic systems that they will be exposed to and need to focus on to create more meaning from the video.
Develop a discussion focussing on these systems, asking questions that will enable students to realise the importance of these on the impact the video has on
them as the audience.
(See Appendix 1.1)

DURING:
Students actively engage in the viewing. They watch it once to become familiar with the content, layout and structure of the video, and then watch it a second
time to analyse the relevant semiotic systems and obtain the main ideas. Students will participate in a discussion considering what they believe to be the
important points of the video, and they will also answer any questions about the text and semiotic systems and ask any questions they may have. The focus on
the discussion about the semiotic systems will revolve around how the producer uses these techniques to elicit specific reactions within the viewer. Additionally,
students will explore how the semiotic systems assist in identifying the main ideas within the video.
(See Appendix 1.2)
To facilitate an in-depth analysis of the video, students will participate in the See / Think / Wonder thinking routine after the first viewing of the text. This routine
encourages students to describe what they literally saw, interpret what they saw, what they think it means and why, and then identify any wonderings they want
answered, perhaps during the second viewing. Students will write this information down in their journals.
(See Appendix 2)
Students then watch the video a second time, this time extracting and taking note of the important information and main ideas. They write down five VIPs, or
very important points, that they identify during the video.

AFTER (5-10mins):
1. Whole class activity/thinking routine to explore the text using the reading comprehension strategy
Headlines
Once students have observed the video twice, they create a Headline, a short phrase or sentence that captures the main idea of the text.
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(See Appendix 3)
Five Very Important Points (VIPs)
As mentioned above, students recognise five pieces of information that they believe to be integral to the text and write these down whilst watching the video
again. They then organise these points in order of importance, with the most significant idea being reflected in their Headline.
(See Appendix 4)
Students then share their Headlines and Five VIPs with a group of four. This allows students to realise that individuals interpret the ideas within a text
differently, however the main points obtained by the audience are similar as the producer uses the semiotic systems to induce certain responses and
emphasise certain aspects and ideas.
2. Focussed teaching group:
Success criteria for focus teaching group:
I am doing well if I identify the main idea of the video to create my own succinct Headline, and actively participate in ordering the Five VIPs with the
group.
Members of group:
10906789, 31249379, 50582413, 61100916, 64139216, 99639783
Text for focus teaching group:
Aboriginal Kangaroo dance of Western Australia by Australian Geographic

Strategy (15-20mins): Guided Viewing

This task provides students with significant support and scaffolding, focusing on their ability to extract and organise information, with an emphasis on the main
ideas within the text. Students will be participating in a guided reading session in which the teacher guides and supports them to establish an understanding of
how to extract the important points and then organise them in order of significance. The teacher will watch the video again with the students and lead the
session, coordinating the discussion and asking questions to allow students to develop their understanding and confidence, and also to ensure that each
student is engaged and contributing.

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The same text is used for these students as with the whole of the class, as are the activities. This means that the students in the focus group are included with
the rest of the class and are not isolated, aiming to motivate them to enthusiastically engage. The students are completing the same tasks, however they are
doing the Five VIPs activity as a group rather than individually. This allows for more support, scaffolding and explicit modeling on behalf of the teacher to
enhance understanding of the comprehension strategy.
To assess the students within the focus group, the teacher will take observational notes, paying close attention to student contribution and participation, as well
as to their ability to concisely extract and organise the main ideas in the text, closely following the success criteria. Moreover, students will be encouraged to
write in their journals at the conclusion of the lesson. They will write down anything they learnt during the lesson, their headline and main ideas discussed
during the focus group, as well as anything else of interest or concern. The teacher will then refer to these journals when assessing where students are at in
terms of comprehending the text by establishing the significant events and ideas in the video and organising them, using the success criteria to determine this.

LESSON CONCLUSION (10-15mins):

The teacher chooses three to four students, from the main group and the focus group, to share their work with the class. The students share their work,
explaining why they chose those ideas to have significant meaning.
Questions are then asked of the students to check and assess their understanding of the text and their capacity to extract and organise information.
(See Appendix 5)

APPENDIX 1
Questions
1.1 Before Reading

We are watching a video called Aboriginal dance of Western Australia. What do you think it could be about?
What might happen?

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How does it relate to our lesson on Jandamarra?
What do you know about Aboriginal dances?
Who do you think those men are?
What could they be doing?
How do camera angles in videos make us see and feel certain things?
Does music in a video have an impact on how we feel?
What impact do characters or peoples gestures and facial expressions have on you when you watch a video? How do they make you feel?

1.2 During Reading

What do you think some of the main ideas of the video are? Why do you think that?
Are there any other traditions that you can think of that Aboriginal people still commit to today?
How does the music at the start make you feel? Did it help you identify the important points?
How did Josh Whiteland look when he was describing kangaroos? Proud?
What kind of gestures are the dancers doing? What could they mean? Why are they doing them?
Why is it important to continue their cultural practices?

APPENDIX 2
See / Think / Wonder

Have students watch the video once, allowing sufficient time for close observation before any talk or discussion.
Ask students to state what they noticed, saw and heard. Emphasise that you only want what they observed rather than interpretations.
o ask:
What did you actually see or hear in the video?

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Can you describe what you saw or heard in the video?

What are some things from the video that you can actually put your finger on?
Students interpret what they saw. Ask students what they think is going on in the video and what it means.
o ask:
What kind of interpretations can we make based on our observations?
What do you think is going on? What do you think it means?
What else is going on?
What did you see or hear that makes you say that?
Ask the students what they are now wondering about based on what they have been thinking.
o ask:
What does it make you wonder? eg. what other traditional dances are there?
Share the thinking. Have students share their thinking at each stage along the way before moving on to the next one.

APPENDIX 3
Headlines

Students write a headline for the video that captures the most important part or idea behind it. It should be a succinct and concise phrase or sentence.

They then share their headlines with a partner (the person on their right), providing an explanation as to how the headline captures the main idea of the
text.

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APPENDIX 4
5 Very Important Points (VIPs)

Students write down five ideas that they believe are the most important in the video.

Students then revise their list and rate them according to their significance.

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They order their list, with the most important piece of information being number one, and the least important idea as number five. The number one idea
should be reflected in the headline.

Students then share their ideas with three other people (in a group of four), explaining their choices and reasons for their ideas and order.

After sharing their lists, students refine their ideas, taking into consideration any feedback or information they may have gained from sharing.

APPENDIX 5
Conclusion Questions

Can someone tell me what happened in the video?

What were the main ideas?
Why do Aboriginal people still participate in traditional activities?
What impact did European settlement have on Aboriginal culture and traditions?
Were there different techniques, such as music, that the produce of the video used to make us feel or respond in a particular way?
Did we capture the main ideas in our headlines and lists of Five VIPs?

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Did anybody have to refine or change their lists after collaboration?

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