Generations of genre: the global development of genre-

based literacy pedagogy

Keynote for Multilingual Research Institute, Stockholm

David RoseLinguistics & Education, University of Sydney

Generations of genre based pedagogies

1980s writing in the primary schoolWriting Project

1990s writing across the secondary curriculum

Write it Right

2000s reading across the curriculum

Reading to Learn

Generation 1: writing in the primary school

Teaching-learning cycle (from Rothery 1994)

T ...Filippa?

Filippa I strongly believe that children should go to school for these main reasons... um, and I’m going to list them all.

T Sorry, say that again.

Lisa For these main reasons.

T For these main reasons. Who can think of a different word other than main?

Sts For the following reasons.

T For the following reasons. Who can think of another word?

Loukia Listed.

T For these listed reasons, um. Who can think of another word?

Filippa For these reasons shown here.

T For these reasons written here. O.K. Who thinks main reasons. Hands up. Quick. A show of hands. Main. These listed. I’ve forgotten what the other ones were.

Sts Following [in unison]

T OK. Looks like following.

Sts For the following reasons.

T For the following reasons [scribes]. Now, trying to think, um, before we go on, before we list all of them, we want to include those things that you mentioned for that introduction, don’t we? So how can we talk about that? Who can think? I strongly believe children should go to school for the following reasons. Filippa?

Filippa You could, um, learn a wide range - a wide range of subjects and um religions and um...

T Right. Who can keep going from that? ...

‘Closing the gap’2008 NSW results: top and bottom student cohorts

averaged across all classes, Years K-9

growth = 21%

(B to A)

growth = 74%

(E to C)

gap = 83% gap = 47%

E

C

B

A

Theoretical foundations

Reading to Learn

Social learning theory

- Vygotsky

Pedagogic discourse- Bernstein

Educational linguistics

- Halliday & Martin

Working with DiscourseChapter 1 Interpreting social discourse

Chapter 2 APPRAISAL - negotiating attitudes

Chapter 3 IDEATION - construing experience

Chapter 4 CONJUNCTION - connecting events

Chapter 5 IDENTIFICATION – tracking participants

Chapter 6 PERIODICITY – information flow

Chapter 7 NEGOTIATION - interacting in dialogue

Chapter 8 TACKLING A TEXT

Chapter 9 CONNECTIONS

Pedagogic genre

pedagogic relations: success/failure,

inclusion/exclusion

pedagogic activities: doing/ studying

pedagogic modalities:

spoken, written visual, manual

projecting

instructional field:knowledge & skills

Education can have a crucial role in creating tomorrow’s optimism in the context

of today’s pessimism. But if it is to do this then we must have an analysis of the

social biases in education. These biases lie deep within the very structure of the

educational system’s processes of transmission and acquisition and their social

assumptions.

…

The school must disconnect its own internal hierarchy of success and failure from

ineffectiveness of teaching within the school and the external hierarchy of power

relations between social groups outside the school.

How do schools individualize failure and legitimize inequalities? The answer is

clear: failure is attributed to inborn facilities (cognitive, affective) or to the cultural

deficits relayed by the family which come to have the force of inborn facilities

Bernstein 1996:5

Pedagogic relations: ‘hierarchy of success and failure’

Pedagogic modalities: the reading curriculum

Pedagogic activity: scaffolding learning cycles

Curriculum programs

Lesson activities

Classroom interactions

Scales of activity

The reading and writing task

Complexity of the language task

‘balanced approach’

Integrated approach

Shared big book reading

Spoken and written words

Word groups in sentences

Sound and letter patterns

Forming letters

Writing words

Writing sentences

Writing texts

Curriculum,

Text Selection,

Planning &

Evaluation

Preparing before Reading

(Deconstruction)

Join

t

Cons

truct

ion

Independent

Writing

DetailedReading

Join

t

Rewri

tin

g

Individu

al

Rew

riting

Sentence Making

Sentence

Writing

Spel

ling

Integrating activities: scaffolding lesson cycles

building

tension

Teacher So if we look at that very first sentence, the writer begins by describing the

sound to us, OK, and just where the sound came from.

So if we have a look at it, it says, It started with a long low roar that seemed to

be approaching from the north of the city.

Prepare

[sentence]

Teacher So in that very first sentence, right at the beginning, it tells us what the

earthquake did. What did it do? Chanila?

Prepare

[wording]

Student It started with a long low roar. Identify

Teacher That’s great, fantastic. So It started. Affirm

So let’s highlight It started. Highlight

Elaborate discourse semantics

Teacher Now I used the word earthquake, because we know its an earthquake.

What have they used instead of earthquake?

What’s the word they’ve used there to begin that paragraph? Bonita?

Prepare

Student It. Identify

Teacher It. Affirm

And we can use It because we already know what It is. Elaborate

It is…? Prepare

Student The earthquake. Select

Teacher OK, fantastic. Affirm

Teacher Now, so the earthquake started, now when it started what sort of sound did it

make?

It tells us it started with something. What was it that it started with? Chanila?

Prepare

Student Long low roar. Identify

Teacher Fantastic. Affirm

So let’s highlight long low roar. Highlight

Elaborate field

Teacher Now can you think of something else?

What else do we associate with that roar sound? What do you think?

Prepare

Student A lion roar. Select

Teacher OK, a lion roars. Affirm

What else do we associate with a roar? Another thing?

Student The sea can roar. Select

Teacher The sea, Affirm

on a really stormy day. Yes it does give a bit of a roar. Elaborate

Teacher Justin?

Student A tornado? Select

Teacher Yes. Affirm

Those other natural disaster types of sounds. Yes. Elaborate

Teacher Ever heard a jet? Oh, you’ve all been to the airport. The roar of the engine? Prepare

Student An airshow. Select

Teacher The airshow, exactly. Affirm

The whole ground starts to shake. Elaborate

Exactly. Affirm

So that sound vibration even makes the ground move, doesn’t it? Elaborate

Yes, fantastic. Affirm

Elaborate discourse semantics

And it starts off low, and builds up, doesn’t it?

So we have this roaring sound, but it starts off long… low.

1 Curriculum unit

from Core Science 1

2 Lesson unit

3 Detailed Reading

Rewriting from Notes

CONTEXT

Purpose 0-3

Staging 0-3

Tenor 0-3

Field 0-3

Mode 0-3

DISCOURSE & GRAMMAR

Phases 0-3

Lexis 0-3

Appraisal 0-3

Conjunction 0-3

Reference 0-3

Grammar 0-3

GRAPHIC FEATURES

Spelling 0-3

Punctuation 0-3

Presentation 0-3

TOTALS 42

Writing assessment: integrating KAL with evaluation

Integrating metadiscourse and metapedagogy

Curriculum field

Metadiscourse

about language &

curriculum

Democratising su

ccess

Designed activities:

macro/micro

Focus

on

readin

g

usin

g spoke

n, v

isua

l,

manu

al m

odalit

ies

References

Most of these papers and reports can be downloaded at www.readingtolearn.com.au

Carbines, R., Wyatt, T. & Robb, L. 2005. Evaluation of the Years 7-10 English Aboriginal Support Pilot Project, Final Report.

Sydney: Office of the NSW Board of Studies http://ab-ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/english-literacy-7-

10/evaluation-of-the-project

Christie, F. (1993) Curriculum Genres: planning for effective teaching. In Cope, B. & Kalantzis, M. (eds.) The Powers of

Literacy: a genre approach to teaching writing. London: Falmer, 154-78

Culican, S. (2006) Learning to Read: Reading to Learn, A Middle Years Literacy Intervention Research Project, Final Report

2003-4. Catholic Education Office: Melbourne. http://www.cecv.melb.catholic.edu.au/Research and Seminar Papers

Koop, C. and Rose, D. (2008) Reading to Learn in Murdi Paaki: changing outcomes for Indigenous students. Literacy

Learning: the Middle Years 16:1. 41-6

McRae, D., Ainsworth, G., Cumming, J., Hughes, P., Mackay, T. Price, K., Rowland, M., Warhurst, J., Woods, D. and Zbar, V.

(2000). What has Worked, and Will Again: the IESIP Strategic Results Projects. Canberra: Australian Curriculum Studies

Association, 24-26 www.acsa.edu.au (current 2009)

Martin, J.R. (2006). Metadiscourse: Designing Interaction in Genre-based Literacy Programs, in R. Whittaker, M. O'Donnell

and A. McCabe (eds) Language and Literacy: Functional Approaches. London: Continuum, 95-122.

Martin, J.R. & Rose, D. (2005). Designing literacy pedagogy: scaffolding asymmetries. In R. Hasan, C.M.I.M. Matthiessen and

J. Webster (eds.) Continuing Discourse on Language. London: Equinox, 251-280

Martin, J.R. & Rose, D. (2007a). Working with Discourse: meaning beyond the clause. London: Continuum (1st edition 2003)

Martin, J. R. & Rose, D. (2007b). Interacting with Text: the Role of Dialogue in Learning to Read and Write, Foreign

Languages in China. 4 (5): 66-80

Martin, J.R. & Rose, D. (2008). Genre Relations: Mapping Culture. London: Equinox

Rose, D. (1999) ‘Culture, Competence and Schooling: Approaches to Literacy Teaching in Indigenous School Education’, in

F. Christie (ed.) Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes. London: Cassell. pp217-

245

Rose, D. (2004). Sequencing and Pacing of the Hidden Curriculum: how Indigenous children are left out of the chain. In J.

Muller, A. Morais & B. Davies (eds.) Reading Bernstein, Researching Bernstein. London: RoutledgeFalmer, 91-107

Rose, D. (2005). Democratising the Classroom: a Literacy Pedagogy for the New Generation. Journal of Education, 37:127-

164 www.ukzn.ac.za/joe/joe_issues.htm (current 2009)

Rose, D. (2006a). Scaffolding the English curriculum for Indigenous secondary students: Final Report for NSW 7-10 English

Syllabus, Aboriginal Support Pilot Project. Sydney: Office of the Board of Studies http://ab-

ed.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/english-literacy-7-10/evaluation-of-the-project

Rose, D. (2006b) Literacy and equality. A. Simpson (ed.) Proceedings of Future Directions in Literacy Conference. University

of Sydney 2006, 188-203 http://www.proflearn.edsw.usyd.edu.au/resources/2006_papers.shtml

Rose, D. (2006c). Reading genre: a new wave of analysis. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 2(2),185–204

Rose, D. (2007). A reading based model of schooling. Pesquisas em Discurso Pedagógico, 4: 2, 2007

http://www.maxwell.lambda.ele.puc-rio.br

Rose, D. (2008). Writing as linguistic mastery: the development of genre-based literacy pedagogy. Myhill, D., D. Beard, M.

Nystrand & J. Riley Handbook of Writing Development. London: Sage, 2008, 151-166

Rose, D. and Acevedo, C. (2006) ‘Closing the Gap and Accelerating Learning in the Middle Years of Schooling’, Australian

Journal of Language and Literacy. 14(2): 32-45 www.alea.edu.au/llmy0606.htm

Rose, D., Gray, B. & Cowey, W. (1999). Scaffolding Reading and Writing for Indigenous Children in School. In P. Wignell (ed.)

Double Power: English literacy and Indigenous education. Melbourne: National Language & Literacy Institute of

Australia (NLLIA), 23-60

Rose, D., Lui-Chivizhe, L., McKnight, A. and Smith, A. (2004) ‘Scaffolding Academic Reading and Writing at the Koori Centre’

Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 30th Anniversary Edition, 41-9 www.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie,

Rose, D., Rose, M., Farrington, S and Page, S. (2008) Scaffolding Literacy for Indigenous Health Sciences Students. Journal of

English for Academic Purposes 7 (3), 166-180