Embedding academic success in democratic classrooms
David Rose
The Language Education Forum 27 - 28 October 2014, Helsinki
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Finland is a world leader… • Finland continuously tops the international comparisons of national
performance
• Finland is the second best OECD country in PISA reading literacy assessment
• Finland currently has the 3rd highest graduation rate, percentage of graduates to the population at the typical age of graduates in the OECD
• It was ranked the best country in the world in the 2010 Newsweek survey based on health, economic dynamism, education, political environment and quality of life
• It has also been ranked the second most stable country in the world and the first in the 2009 Legatum Prosperity rating
• In 2010 the World Economic Forum deemed Finland the 7th most competitive country in the world
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So how can Reading to Learn be useful to Finland?
- useful in the classroom
- useful for teacher education
1 Equity
- closing the gap
2 Effectiveness
- accelerating all students
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Inequality in the classroom
Mostinvolved:topstudents
Someengagement:averagestudents
Leastengaged:failingstudents
Applying knowledge about language
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1 Knowledge about pedagogy
Unequal participation in the classroom
2 Democratising the classroom
Designed interactions in Detailed Reading
3 Language in context
Genre, register, discourse, grammar, phono/graphology
4 Analysing knowledge genres
Written texts & their structures
5 Designing curriculum genres
Learning activities & their structures
whole class
individual
independent guided guidance
grouping
Types of pedagogic practices
Teacher guided whole class activity
(teacher guides/ students do)
Guided group/individual
activities
Independent practice
Teacher presentation (lecture, demonstration,
explanation, reading, video…)
T Long ago in a far away land lived a widow and her son Jack.
1 T What’s a widow? Focus It looks like a lady to me. [pointing to picture] Prepare What’s a widow? …Rhianna? Focus
Ch An old woman. Propose T Well she doesn’t look too old. Reject
2 T Is there a daddy there? [pointing to picture] Focus
Chn No. Identify
3 T What do you think has happened to the daddy? Focus
Ch Looks like… a cow. Identify
T David? Focus
Ch It’s it’s it’s a little cow. Identify
T No no. Reject
4 T When there’s a widow, something’s happened to daddy. Prepare
Ch He died? Miss, he died? Propose
T Yes that’s right. Affirm
A widow means that her husband has died. Elaborate
sentence
text paragraph
word
syllable
letter pattern
context
word group
teaching ‘content’
drilling sounds & spelling
memorising vocabulary
drilling grammar
Disintegrating the language task
studying textbooks
Learning systems from texts
system
text
system
text
system
text
system
text
…by attending to text-in-situation a child construes the code, and by using the code to interpret text s/he construes the culture. (Halliday 1994/2004).
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Stages & phases
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Title The Water Cycle
Phenomenon Water is found in many different forms on Earth and is constantly moving from one place to another. As it moves it changes state in cycles, from liquid water, to water vapour, sometimes to ice, and back to liquid again.
Explanation step 1
The Sun evaporates water from the surface of rivers, lakes and streams, and from the soil. This change from liquid water to vapour is called evaporation. Other water vapour comes from trees and other plants through the process of transpiration.
step 2
Winds may carry this water vapour high into the atmosphere where it can become so cold that is forms clouds, which consist of tiny droplets of liquid water. The change from vapour to liquid is known as condensation.
step 3
When clouds become saturated, the water falls as rain, or even hail or snow. This is known as precipitation. Precipitation returns water to the land where it can seep into groundwater, or flow into streams and rivers.
step 4
Some water may have travelled thousands of kilometres, or some may have returned straight back to an ocean or lake where the Sun’s heat once more causes evaporation. In this way the cycle starts again and the pattern can be repeated. These changes are known as the water cycle.
Preparing for Reading whole text
Detailed Reading
short passage
Sentence Making
one or more sentences
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Designing pedagogy: three levels of support