‘T shaped literacy skills’
explained
(*has also been referred to as ‘Wide and deep with a narrow focus’)
Aaron Wilson & Rebecca Jesson
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
“Why wide reading?
The benefits of wide reading in general are well known. There are practice effects that build endurance and resilience (Allington, 2012). Wide reading is also one of the key ways that learners develop word and world knowledge (Herman, Anderson, Pearson & Nagy, 1987). Wide reading also provides opportunities to learn about new types of texts including multimodal texts.” (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Thoughts about using the tool:
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
To enable the “wide” part of our model we promote the use of text sets, rather than focusing on single texts. As a basis for this, we draw on the known advantages of wide reading, and the potential for transfer from increasing levels of abstraction. We identified four types of text that might be included in a text set. While all these types of texts might be possible, not all text sets would necessarily have each type included, there may be more than one text of each type, or one text might fit into multiple categories.
T shaped literacy - wide and deep (but with a narrow focus)
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
We argue that it is not helpful to try to cover everything about every text….Often, as teachers, we endeavour to cover too many aspects: students studying a novel might cover the plot, and major characters and minor characters, and themes, and language, and structure and setting, and conflict. These elements would have more or less the same weight afforded to them. Therefore, the “narrow” implies that learners would read a wide range of texts but with a fairly narrow focus. This narrow focus could be an idea, content or theme focus. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
T shaped literacy continued...
2. continued… Reading widely around that topic will help to build vocabulary and background knowledge (scaffolded)
3. Read selected passages to learn close reading skills and build specific knowledge (deep talk about texts with teacher)
4. Synthesise to make knowledge transfer
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Learning design needs to:
Why multiple texts?
More reading requires synthesis and comparison
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Wide reading, general understanding
Multiple texts
Text type 1: Scaffolding text
Can be read independently
Supplies some prior knowledge for the reading
Introduces some of the ideas/vocabulary
Text type 2: Complementary text
Offers more information or additional examples
Main ideas accessed independently
Text type 3: Tension/ challenge text
Offers a different point of view
Offers conflicting information
Offers a counter argument
Text type 4: Student selected text
Sources independently
Links to known text
May link to Out Of School knowledge
Identifying what is an appropriately challenging text is a very complex undertaking as it is not just determined by quantifiable features such as lexiles, but by multifarious factors including students’ prior knowledge and interest in the topics at hand, their motivation to read, the extent to which the task is purposeful (and they see it as purposeful). We believe that one affordance of text sets, as opposed to single texts, is that the range of texts used increases the likelihood that all students will find at least one text that is challenging and all students will find at least one text that is accessible. Text sets might therefore be seen to spread the risk that one text would be too easy or too hard. Achieving the balance between high and deep, wide and narrow is likewise a very fine balancing act, and what is the appropriate balance is always contingent on the students’ strengths and needs and the purpose and context. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Developing transferable reading knowledge
Wide reading
Deep
but
narrow focus
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Another aspect of the T-shaped approach that requires sophisticated teacher knowledge is in identifying what the narrow focus should be. The stakes are raised here because of the narrow focus – there will be considerable class-time dedicated to fostering deep learning about a fairly narrow aspect so it is vital that it one worth dedicating that amount of time and energy on. Of course, what is important is contested and contingent and will depend on the local content and the strengths and needs of the students at that point in time. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Begin the text with wide reading activities:
E.g. ‘The turning point in this story was when..”
E.g. Record yourself reading the most exciting page
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Developing transferable reading knowledge
Wide reading
Deep
but
narrow focus
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Dedicate teacher time to close analysis:
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Synthesis is regarded as a higher order thinking skill which requires people to bring knowledge from different sources together to create new meanings (LLP, 2009). It features in various well known taxonomies such as Bloom’s (1971) and SOLO (Biggs and Collis, 1982). It is increasing important in a digital context because readers build understanding by reading (parts of) multiple texts and because readers have to reconcile differences and tensions across texts (Goldman, Braasch, Wiley, Graesser & Brodowinska, 2012). There are very few tasks in higher education or in life where a person should rely on just one information source. Even reading online for a very specific purpose will typically involve synthesis across multiple texts. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Developing transferable reading knowledge
Specified knowledge about an aspect
(close reading)
Specific aspect
Text 1
Specific aspect
Text 1
Specific aspect
Text 1
Close reading of the key parts of the text
Close reading to compare and contrast across texts
Specific aspect
Text 1
Specific aspect
Text 2
Specific aspect
Text 3
ANZAC - Focusing question 1:
What ideas do the texts develop about suffering and care in WW1?
AFTER COMPLETING the TABLE on the NEXT SLIDE...
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
What ideas does the text develop about: | Chunuk Bair | First World War Mascots | NZ at War | Timeline | Own text: … | Across text synthesis | |
Suffering | Military | | | | | | |
Non-Military | | | | | | ||
Care | Care that was needed | | | | | | |
Care that was given | | | | | | ||
Motivations to care | Individual | | | | | | |
Collective | | | | | | ||
Within text synthesis | | | |||||
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
In our hypothetical unit on this topic, students would read, view and listen to a wide range of texts about a topic (our example is WW1). The specific focus would be for students to understand how the texts show the ideas of suffering and sacrifice. By reading a range of texts, they would see that the suffering and sacrifices experienced by soldiers were wide spread and multi-faceted. Suffering was not limited to one type by one soldier in one text, but encompassed many different types experienced by many different soldiers in many different texts. Students would also see that suffering and sacrifice was not just limited to soldiers, but also experienced by their families, medical professionals, conscientious objectors and even animals. In this way, deep reading of an important but narrow aspect of multiple texts would help the students develop more complex and abstract understandings of suffering and sacrifices associated with war. They would learn these ideas recursively as some of the texts would overlap. It is important to note that such an approach does not mean that other elements of the texts are ignored. Rather, the specific focus is what is foregrounded; the other elements are backgrounded. Clearly, to understand how either suffering or sacrifice is shown in the texts, students would also have to consider plot, character, setting, language and so forth: framed in relation to the focus. Thus, a text set would include texts which allow students to see the concepts from a range of relevant perspectives. (wilson and Jesson, 2019)
ANZAC Focusing question 2:
How do the texts evoke strong feelings from the reader about suffering and care?
AFTER COMPLETING the TABLE on the NEXT SLIDE…
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
How do the texts evoke a strong response from the reader about suffering and care? | Chunuk Bair | First World War Mascots | NZ at War | Timeline | Own text: … | Across text synthesis: How did different authors use this type of language to evoke a strong response from readers? | |
Using relatable characters and incidents | Suffering | | | | | | |
Care | | | | | | ||
Verbs and adverbs | Suffering | | | | | | |
Care | | | | | | ||
Vivid adjectives | Suffering | | | | | | |
Care | | | | | | ||
Emotive language | Suffering | | | | | | |
Care | | | | | | ||
Figurative language | Suffering | | | | | | |
Care | | | | | | ||
Within text synthesis: What were the most powerful ways this writer used language to evoke a strong response from the reader about suffering and care? | | | |||||
The Fire-raiser by Maurice Gee
He was a square-built man with an ugly face: nose like plasticine dented by a thumb, eyes that went one this way, one that, but saw well enough, and mouth like a leather purse, full of crooked teeth. His skin was pitted from some childhood illness and one of his ears mauled as though by a cat. Children had been known to cry at the sight of him, but those in standard six, his class, were proud of his ugliness. He had been at Jessop Main School twenty years, five as headmaster.
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
The Twits, by Roald Dahl
Synthesis within and between text(s):
How authors reveal their characters’ personalities | Headmaster | Mr Twit | Self selected character introduction | Comparison statement |
Zoom | | | | |
Images | | | | |
Author’s attitude | | | | |
Comparison statement | | | | |
Example table: Rebecca Jesson
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Tables, such as that presented in Table 1, offer a visual model to support synthesis. Importantly, they also serve as a useful tool to structure that thinking. We are drawn to the table format because it allows students to collect the “raw ingredients” they need from each individual text in one place which they can then mix or remix by looking across rows to develop within-text syntheses as well as down columns to support across-text syntheses. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
When students are learning to read extended texts
A deep but narrow focus means that you don’t try to cover every element of a text.
Rather, select some IMPORTANT aspects that are particularly interesting in the texts, and important for students to learn, and explore those in depth.
Talk becomes about NOTICING the author’s decisions and CONSIDERING effect of those.
Text type 3: Tension/ challenge text
Discussion around how we celebrate and remember people? stories?
Text type 4: Student selected text
Matariki Breakfast
Listen to this text: here
Lower primary sample text set:
For this year level - a list of texts?
Box of books?
What would you add?
Making connections to what we know about Matariki and whānau celebrations | Who do they celebrate with? | What do they share when they are celebrating? |
Matariki breakfast | | |
Grandpa’s Birthday | | |
White Sunday in Samoa | | |
Diwali | | |
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
An ongoing tension teachers face is how much scaffolding to provide. The fact that the answer should always be, “Just enough”, shows how complex this is to get right. The four key features of effective scaffolding are: that it is contingent (i.e., based upon student responses), faded over time, with increased student responsibility for the task at hand and, based on diagnostic strategies to reveal students’ conceptions (van de Pol, Volman, & Beishuizen, 2010). Therefore, the amount of support/specificity built into the tables should change depending on the interaction of the individual students’ current strengths and needs, the complexity of the texts and the task. We would hope that over time, students learn to develop their own tables (or preferred tools) rather than wait to be provided one by their teacher. We would also hope that for some students in some circumstances the specificity of the elements could be stripped back (or even left blank), whereas for other students more guidance would be provided. The golden rule is to provide the minimum level of support an individual student needs to read the texts and complete the task at that point in time. (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Text type 1: Scaffolding texts
Text type 3: Tension/ challenge texts
Living without the supermarket shop - article
Ditching plastic storage - article
Text type 4: Possible Student/Other selected texts
Upper primary sample text set:
Sample text set: by Selena Meiklejohn-Whiu
Mahinga Kai Crusaders (Level 3)
Pōha: A Clever Way of Storing Food (Level 2)
Kai collection and storage - then and now:
Our model for considering text sets in designed to support a focus on critical literacy, by providing supplementary, multiple and resistant texts. (wilson and Jesson, 2019)
From a dialogic perspective it is from interaction and negotiation among different voices that meaning and understanding emerge. Dialogic approaches have been associated with a range of positive outcomes for students including improvements in reading comprehension writing (Wilkinson & Son, 2011), writing (Jesson et al, 2018), understanding of curriculum content (Hennessy, Warwick, & Mercer, 2011), and affective outcomes, including feeling more confident and valued as members of the classroom community (Hunter & Anthony, 2011). (Wilson and Jesson, 2019)
Developing transferable reading knowledge
Wide reading
Deep
but
narrow focus
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Text type 1: Scaffolding text
Can be read independently
Supplies some prior knowledge for the reading
Introduces some of the ideas/vocabulary
Text type 2: Complementary text
Offers more information or additional examples
Main ideas accessed independently
Text type 3: Tension or challenge text
Offers a different point of view
Offers conflicting information
Offers a counter argument
Text type 4: Student selected text
Sources independently
Links to known text
May link to Out Of School knowledge
Reintroducing Wolves
Focusing questions
Secondary sample text set:
Sample text set: by Aaron Wilson
Synthesis within and between text(s):
First impressions count
Technique | John Connor | The Terminator | Sarah Connor | Comparison statement |
Costume | | | | |
Soundtrack | | | | |
Dialogue | | | | |
Synthesis statement | | | | |
Example table: Aaron Wilson
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu
Senior Secondary English example
Text type 1: Scaffolding text
Can be read independently
Supplies some prior knowledge for the reading Introduces some of the ideas/vocabulary
Text type 2: Complementary text
Offers more information or additional examples
Main ideas accessed independently
Text type 3: Tension/ challenge text
Offers a different point of view
Offers conflicting information
Offers a counter argument
Text type 4: Student selected text
May link to Out Of School knowledge
Sample text set: by Cynthia Orr
Wide reading, general understanding multiple texts: Film: The Black Panther
The Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu / Woolf Fisher Research Centre is in a Research-Practice Partnership with the Manaiakalani Education Trust to provide data analyses for clusters of schools and individual schools who are part of The Manaiakalani Programmes.
Presentations developed by Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu / The Woolf Fisher Research Centre, The University of Auckland should only be used for the purposes for which they were commissioned. If it is proposed to use this presentation for a different purpose or in a different context from that intended at the time of commissioning the work, then the Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu / Woolf Fisher Research Centre should be consulted to verify whether the content of the presentation is being correctly interpreted. In particular it is requested that, where quoted, conclusions from the Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu / Woolf Fisher Research Centre should be stated in full.
Te Pūtahi Whakatairanga Hapori Ako Angitu