LEAP - Language and school

LEAP explores language teachers use in classrooms and the special characteristics of classroom language.

About this resource

This section of the Language Enhancing the Achievement of Pasifika (LEAP) resource looks at how language is used in learning and classroom settings. Inclusive language choices are promoted.

Teachers can explore their practice through:

encouraging oral participation
having a caring and inclusive classroom environment
affirming Pacific languages in the classroom
helping students integrate their learning
discussing what academic language is
exploring ideas and tools for reading, writing, and speaking.

Reviews

LEAP: Language and school

Language and school
What students need to know about language
Ideas and tools for reading, writing, and speaking

The language used in classrooms and by teachers has characteristics not found in everyday speech.

Effective teachers observe the classroom language environment and make changes to provide the best curriculum and language learning environment for their students. Academic language is the new language all students must be taught at school to succeed in learning. This is true when reading, discussing, and writing about curriculum material. To develop students’ academic language, teachers talk about language and how to teach vocabulary and language skills.

Interaction between students is a powerful source of language learning. Teachers can organise the interactions in their classes to provide favourable conditions for bilingual Pacific students. This includes maximising opportunities to use their Pacific languages in their learning.

How do we use language in school?

Effective learning environments for all students ensure that:

there is a focus on important features of language
students process language forms and meaning
students know what they are doing and why.

Effective learning environments for bilingual students enable them to use both their languages in increasingly complex ways.

Who could be marginalised?

Minority students, or those whose home language is not the medium of instruction, could be marginalised and silenced in the classroom. Teachers must be alert to processes that could make students feel excluded from what is going on at school.

What researchers revealed

Camille Nakhid set out to explain the failure of schools to address the lack of academic achievement of Pacific students in New Zealand education. She talked in depth to five New Zealand teachers and 12 students about their perceptions of schooling.

The Pacific students talked about how they felt:

different from the non-Pacific students, who were confident about speaking up in the class and talked easily to the teacher 
they were not as articulate as the non-Pacific students and did not feel able to respond to the teacher in the same way as the non-Pacific students
as if the teachers and non-Pacific students made it seem that they worked harder and were faster learners than Pacific students. This came about because of the way their requests for further information or clarification about the lesson were responded to.

Difference in perceptions

The students had perceptions that were quite different from the teachers’ perceptions. One example was that the teachers believed the students valued specific individual attention and one-on-one opportunities with them. In fact, the students expressed considerable discomfort about classroom practices that singled them out and “exposed them to the class as ‘less capable’ students” (Nakhid, 2003, p. 218).

In her 1991 work, At School I’ve Got a Chance, Alison Jones examined the different experiences offered in New Zealand classrooms. She found a disparity between the skills many learners had, and the skills schools rewarded.

Jones found a situation like Nakhid's. The Pacific girls she worked with thought there was no point in engaging in discussion with teachers. They felt that there was something about the way Pākehā girls related to schooling that was different and more successful, although both they and the Pākehā girls spoke English and worked hard.

The teachers in Jones’ study wanted to get the Pacific students to engage in learning behaviours that would help them be more successful. They would say, for example, “You need to work this out for yourself.” Unfortunately, the teachers failed to establish a successful dialogue with the students to find a common understanding.

Sources

Jones, Alison.  (1991).  "At School I've Got a Chance": Culture/Privilege: Pacific Islands and Pakeha Girls at School.  Palmerston North, NZ:  Dunmore Press.

Nakhid, C. (2003). "Intercultural" Perceptions, Academic Achievement, and the Identifying Process of Pacific Islands Students in New Zealand Schools. Journal of Negro Education, 72, 297-317.

Patterns of interaction and discourse

Why do Pacific students who have had all or most of their schooling in New Zealand feel uncomfortable with classroom interactions? One answer may lie in the effects of a European tradition that began nearly 2500 years ago. For example, consider this exchange:

Parent: What’s that over there?

Child: Dak.

Parent: Yes, it’s a duck, isn’t it? Do you think it’s going to swim across the pond to eat our bread?

Child: Bwet.

Parent: Our old bread.

This common European question-and-answer session involves getting knowledge from students through skilful questioning. Parents use it; when babies are too young to speak, parents provide the answers as well as the questions.

Initiation, response, feedback

In the example above, the parent uses a technique called the "IRF pattern" (initiation, response, feedback). Teachers might use this technique in the classroom. Sometimes the feedback is an evaluation, for example, "Good" or "No". Other times, the teacher may elaborate on the student’s response, as the parent does in the example.

It is understandable that some children of Pākehā backgrounds feel comfortable when the teacher does the same thing their parents and other caregivers have done.

Some children are also used to interrogating adults at length. 

Child: Why isn’t that train going?

Parent: It’s waiting for the other one to go past.

Child: What other one? Where’s the other train?

Parent: You can’t see it. It’s further up the line. The signal is red, and that tells the driver not to go yet.

Child: Who makes the signal red?

Pākehā children are generally encouraged to ask questions like this. However, in other cultural groups, it may be impolite or unacceptable for anyone to question in such a direct and persistent manner, and this may especially apply to children.

Alternatives to the encourage-to-ask-questions approach

Consider these examples of important approaches other social groups might use.

Children are trained in different types of oral performance.
Children are encouraged to observe quietly and to copy.
Children are directly instructed.
Children are talked to mainly by older children.

All these methods and others allow children to learn to speak, interact, and solve problems in the manner of their community. Despite this, the patterns of interaction described above are often the norm in New Zealand classrooms.

Armed with this information, you can see why some students might feel excluded if they have not been brought up to engage in this type of interaction.

Exploring your practice: Who talks in class?

Find out who contributes most and least in your whole-class sessions and in small groups by observing class interactions for a day. You may need help to carry out this activity.

Put a tick next to a student’s name each time they speak in a whole-class session.
Put a cross next to the name each time a student speaks to you one-on-one or in a small group about curriculum content.
Identify those who spoke most and those who spoke least. 
- Do those who spoke the most have anything in common? 
- Do those who spoke the least have anything in common?

Encouraging oral participation

The following techniques are good ways to encourage everyone to speak. 

Taking turns, everyone speaks

This works best for topics where everyone can either express an opinion or feeling or contribute an experience. Keep in mind that this approach might pressure students to answer a difficult question or to decide quickly. So choose topics carefully. Select ones that will result in everyone being willing and able to contribute.

In addition, create an inclusive space and establish a supportive tone. Include rules that keep others from mocking or contradicting what has been said. Strive for a space where all answers are accepted with interest, empathy, or insight.

Individual Pair Group (IPG) technique

IPG is one method that helps students prepare to speak publicly. 

To begin, ask a question or set a problem. Then, get the class to work in three stages.

First, students individually write their “first thoughts” – what they first thought when they heard the question or problem.

Next, students work in pairs. With a partner, they talk about their first thoughts.  

Finally, the pairs join to form groups of four to six students. The groups discuss the topic further. After some time talking together, the group chooses a spokesperson to report to the whole class.

Note: This approach is like Think, Pair, Share (TPS).

Each student as a spokesperson

Over the course of a week, each student should have the same number of turns at being the spokesperson. You might have to establish a turn-taking system to ensure this.

Make the number of times students talk equal

To equalise the talking roles, give each student three "talking chips".

Each time a student speaks, they put one chip in the centre.

When their three chips are in the centre, that student has no more speaking turns until all the students in the group have put all three of their chips in the centre.

Nominate a friend

The students each nominate a friend - someone they know has something to say.

To be effective, this technique requires good relationships in the class. If unity is present in your learning community, students who are hesitant to volunteer may be more willing to speak if a friend asks them to do so.

Have a management role

Reciprocal teaching of reading develops students’ ability to lead and take part in an exploratory discussion about a text. In this activity, the students take turns in roles that rotate. The roles include:

Summarising: The summariser says the main ideas of the text. This person can also ask the other members if the summary was accurate and if they agree with the points made.
Predicting: The predictor says what they expected to happen. They tell the others if these did or did not take place in the text and explain their thoughts about this. The predictor could ask others what they expected to happen in the text.
Clarifying: The clarifier says what was good, bad, interesting, or confusing about the text. This could include word choices, how the text was organised, the writing style, and so on.
Questioning: The questioner says what questions readers might have asked themselves as they read. Also, the person in this role could ask the group a question that makes them think deeply. For example,
- Why does [this] matter?
- What can this text teach us about [an idea from the text]?
- What is another way to look at [this issue]?

"Be an expert": Jigsaw learning

Each student has responsibility for a part of the content matter. This means the whole group depends on that person to inform them about part of what they need to know.

Jigsaw learning, where students have different pieces of information to work with, uses this approach. 

To find out about Jigsaw learning:

A caring and inclusive classroom environment

Many studies highlight the importance of caring and inclusive learning environments, especially when there are students from diverse backgrounds. Without this attention to caring relationships, students are sometimes marginalised (pushed aside as unimportant or powerless) in class, subjected to racist attacks, or bullied by peers.

“The quality of the classroom ‘climate’ is crucial to the students’ emotional and social well-being and to the progress that they make. Students need to feel that they are part of a warm and supportive classroom environment where it is safe and appropriate to take risks in their learning. “

("Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8", p. 195)

Peers and teachers create a quality climate in the classroom. Make this part of curriculum learning, for example, in the learning areas of social studies, health, and physical education.

Exploring your practice

Find out what support exists, is desired, or should be added

Find out how well your students feel supported by you and their classmates. Over a week, your students could work in small groups on a grid like the one below. Tell students to fill in the types of support and an example of that support. They could think about what support they would like and what support they could give to other people.

To support bilingual students in using both their languages in your classroom, have the class think about how languages are involved in supporting others. Ask the students:

 how they feel when they use their first language for learning
 how they would feel if they could not use their first language for learning
 whether they support and encourage other students to use their first language, and if so, how?

Helping each other in our school

Ask ākonga, “What supports us in our learning?” and have them write down the kind of support with an example for each of these people:

Our teacher, for example:
- when the teacher notices that we’re having trouble and comes to help
- when Miss Baker asked Mica if she wanted to see an example of how the report should be written
Other students in our class
Other students in our school
Our whole school community.

Repeat the same exercise, including the people above, with these questions:

What do we do to support others?
What could provide better support?
How could it be done?

A starting point for adding support

If your bilingual students say they would like more support, try out some new approaches, such as cooperative learning. You could try some of the many approaches to establishing caring learning environments suggested in Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis.

The benefits of cooperative learning

Through cooperative learning, group members develop positive relationships, gain social skills, and get better at face-to-face communication. Group members also learn how to:

take responsibility for their own actions
work together to find solutions
think about their contributions or improvements.

Engaging in cooperative learning activities can help students to:

understand that the teacher: 
- cares about them and about their learning
- wants them to do their best
- wants to see students' work so they can give feedback on it.
be: 
- motivated to work with other students
- willing to help and be helped by other students.

Cooperative learning and academic achievement

A positive association exists between academic achievement and students' awareness of a teacher's support during cooperative learning. Similarly, students' motivation is positively correlated with an awareness that teachers care about them.

Some guidelines

Help students gain experience working with a variety of others by randomly mixing groups for each activity.

Make sure:

individual and shared learning outcomes for each group are set
it is likely that all group members can succeed in meeting their learning outcomes
the groups share materials
the groups divide the work among themselves.

Observe and record:

to what extent all students participated equally
any differences between the processes the groups used
the ways and time taken for students to carry out interactive speaking, relevant reading, and writing
how well the groups and individuals achieved their learning outcomes.

Affirming Pacific languages in the mainstream

Key to affirmation

Become familiar with the range of Pacific materials available.
Organise and add to the Pacific materials in your school.
Give your Pacific students easy access to these materials.
Introduce learning practices that will help your Pacific students use and set goals for their Pacific language(s).
Help your students integrate their Pacific language, English, and curriculum learning.

Other benefits

A multilingual learning environment is interesting and valuable for both teachers and students. Having a good understanding of how language works supports all students’ curriculum learning. By participating in a classroom where several languages are used, students who know only English will learn about language and how it works. It may also give them the confidence and interest to learn other languages.

Exploring your practice

Affirming Pacific languages

Part 1

For this investigation, work with as many colleagues as possible, including the person with library responsibility. 

Find ways of collecting and using materials in Pacific languages, and do this regularly so that you become familiar with using these materials.
Find ways to become more familiar with the content of Pacific material in the school so that you can give students information about it.

Some sources of information include: 

student reading materials in Pacific languages and the teachers’ notes that accompany them 
your students and other students in the school
bilingual and ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) staff
family and community members.

Part 2

Try some of these ideas, taking note of how students use their languages, and follow-up with your colleagues to discuss your observations.

Easy access to resources in their first language (L1)

Have plenty of printed and audio materials in the students’ first languages in the classroom. Display the material well and classify it to help students select what they want.

Ask the person with library responsibility to help you ensure that all the school’s Pacific material at appropriate levels is accessible to your students.

Use ICT resources, including websites, to help students access more L1 materials.

Create or find listening material in the students’ L1s to be recorded and available for use.

Tuakana–teina buddy system

Encourage older Pacific students in your school to write material for younger students.

Arrange for Pacific staff or people in the community to:

bring in L1 materials and help you organise them
speak to your students or record short audio for them.

  Helping your students use their L1

Ask the students to take home L1 material and read it to members of their family or tell them about it. 
Encourage the students to refer to any L1 material that is directly relevant to their curriculum learning and to share what they discover with the rest of the class.
Provide students with L1 dictionaries and other reference support.
Ask students to get family members to explain or discuss L1 material with them.
Arrange for Pacific staff or people in the community to respond to students’ questions about L1 material. They could do this by recording questions digitally, writing them on paper, or emailing them.

Helping your students to integrate their learning

Ways to boost language skills

When it serves an authentic learning purpose, encourage your students to:

compare first language (L1) material and English language material on the same topic
engage in information transfer activities based on texts in English and in their L1 
produce visual work (such as charts, diagrams, or poetry) in bilingual versions
translate material from their L1 into English for the rest of the class
translate and/or proofread simple material (like captions for pictures) from English into the L1 for the younger bilingual Pacific students in the school
build up bilingual lists of key vocabulary from their curriculum learning
talk to their peers about their skills and knowledge in their first and second languages.

Incorporating first-language texts

Look through some first-language texts and find an item that relates to some of the curriculum learning your class is going to cover. No worries if you cannot understand the text; your Pacific students can still work with it! Ask all the students, Pacific and non-Pacific, to look at this material as part of their work on the topic and include some reference to it in their responses.

The Pacific students may be able to use it as a basis for bilingual discussions and produce bilingual written or spoken responses. 
Other students can respond to the visual material and recognise or predict the meanings of some words. They can also make observations about similarities or differences between the Pacific material and materials in English.

Thinking about the effects of using first-language material

Observe how your students make use of the Pacific material, talk about it, and write about it. With all students, discuss how using the Pacific material has affected their learning.

What is academic language?

The language used in classrooms ("academic language") is different from everyday language and takes significantly longer to learn. Academic language is more abstract (an idea rather than a concrete thing), more formal (follows the rules), and has a more specific vocabulary than everyday language. Language used in academic settings is less common than language used in everyday life.

All students need to learn academic language, but bilingual students face challenges when learning it in their second language. Some patterns of classroom talk (for example, how to ask questions in class) may also be new to bilingual Pacific (and other bilingual) students.

Be aware of these language differences. Teaching these in a clearly expressed way to bilingual students (actually, to all students) is more effective than assuming they will "just get it".

Exploring your practice

Turning academic language into simple language 

Choose a section from a book you plan to use for curriculum-related purposes. Examine the section and find examples of academic language. Note these down, and then rewrite the section in ordinary, conversational English.

Ask your class to do the same thing. Divide the class into groups and get them to examine the section of text for meaning.

What structures, sentences, concepts, or words do they understand or not understand?

Note what the students identify. Use it to teach specific academic language or the characteristics of academic language.

Ask them to rewrite the section of text as they understand it in ordinary English – as if they were explaining what it says to a friend or relative. Compare and contrast this with your own rewritten section to identify your students’ needs in this area.

Examining your classroom habits

How much exploratory talk goes on in your classroom? Ask a colleague to observe how you ask questions in class, to whom, and how often. Alternatively, record your own lesson; afterwards, listen to the talk that occurs.

Questions to consider could include:

Which students are most often "called upon" to speak? If so, to what degree?
To what extent do you allow for exploratory talk among students?
In which contexts does exploratory talk occur (if it does)?

Having undertaken this analysis, examine and discuss the patterns that exist in your classroom. Consider how these might need to be changed to foster more exploratory talk, particularly for bilingual students.

For ideas based on good practice, refer to Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8. Go to the sections on classroom conversations (pp 94–95), expanding students’ vocabulary (pp 126–127), and meeting many needs (pp 127–130).

Chapter 2 of Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9 to 13 has information and ideas for secondary school teachers about teaching academic vocabulary. Trial one or more new patterns that you think would be appropriate for your class.

This information explores the traits of language, how many and which words students need to know, how to analyse vocabulary, ways to explore your practice, materials for vocabulary analysis, and extracts for measuring readability.

Characteristics of language

Knowledge and use of a language or languages grow throughout our lives. This is often easy to notice when we encounter different contexts for language use, such as education, family, employment, and so on.

The use of different contexts for language is also known as language domains. Learning to use language(s) appropriately in varied contexts takes time and practice.

Language use in the education context

Each subject requires students to develop a deep understanding of specific language registers and terminology. In addition, they must know the different settings and tasks that link with using the language modes. For example, transactional writing, descriptive writing, reading, and public speaking.

A child develops second language (L2) conversational ability or surface fluency in about two years. For academic language to take root, it requires five to eight years – or longer, in some cases. This is called the second language learning delay. It means that bilingual students who have highly developed conversational skills might perform poorly in school if their academic language skills remain underdeveloped.

Effects of second language delay

Some teachers might be unaware of this circumstance – the effects of second language delay. Some may assume that if a bilingual student has good conversational English, they will easily handle the curriculum content in mainstream classrooms. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Students who fail to acquire academic English find it harder to do well at school.

This situation, a pattern for many bilingual Pacific students in mainstream New Zealand schools, perhaps explains why Pacific and other bilingual students are disproportionately represented in statistics for low achievement for literacy.

Characteristics of academic language

It takes significant time to learn the academic register of a language such as English. Bilingual or L2 students might find this more difficult than first language (L1) speakers.

This is because academic language is more formal than conversational language. It tends to use more passive constructions than conversational language. For example, ”It has been argued by X … ” rather than “X argues that … ”.

In addition, academic language often lacks context, which means it provides fewer illustrations that can be used to aid in understanding or interpreting it. Also, it is more abstract – that is, compared to conversational language, academic language has more words that refer to ideas that lack a concrete form.

Another factor is that academic language has a more difficult and less common vocabulary than conversational language.

How many words should my students know?

... between 1000 and 2000.

The number of English words your bilingual students need to understand and use to make good academic progress depends on what they need the words for.

First, for general everyday life and interaction with schoolmates, the students need to be able to use between 1000 and 2000 different words.

Second, they need to develop and expand their academic vocabulary. At all school levels, include a focus on academic vocabulary.

You can also look at the words in your own materials and those that your students produce to build up a picture of their current and required vocabulary.

Which words do students need to know?

High-frequency words

The vocabulary students need to use in academic work, particularly in reading and writing, is different from what they may use for everyday interactions. For everyday interactions, a student at any level can probably get by with about 2000 words. This group of words is often referred to as high-frequency vocabulary.

Vocabulary studies have shown that a basic 2000-word vocabulary of high-frequency items accounts for about 80 percent of the words in an academic text. This seems like substantial coverage of the vocabulary needed for reading. However, for easy reading, students need to know at least 95 percent of the words in a text.

What are the additional learning goals for vocabulary?

At all levels, students need to extend their basic vocabulary and learn the words that are useful for academic work and likely to appear across the range of academic texts they need to learn to read and create.

Academic words

The Academic Word List (AWL) is a well-recognised list of academic words. This list comprises 570 word families. The list does not include the 2000 most-frequent-words-of-English. Professor Averil Coxhead developed the AWL.

Academic Word List (AWL) – read more about AWL, its principles, word lists, and sublists. Some topics, such as sublists, have downloadable PDFs.

Word family

A "word family" is a group of words that share a common base or root word. If students know the stem (also known as an affix), they can recognise other words in the “family”. From this, they can figure out the meaning of a word. For example, students may be familiar with the word “analyse”, and from that, they can work out the meaning of “analytical”.

Some other examples of the most frequent base words that have extended "families" are "concept", "data", and "research". Some examples of the least frequent ones are "forthcoming", "adjacent", and "collapse".

The words in Coxhead’s list can account for as much as 10 percent of the remaining words in a text. The most frequent of her words in the AWL occur, on average, once every 4.3 pages of adult academic text.

A few facts about AWL

The words in the AWL are likely to be:

more than one syllable long
abstract rather than concrete.
derived from Latin, French (through Latin), or Greek.

Because half of all high-frequency words and two-thirds of all academic and technical words are derived from the above, learning the meanings of roots, prefixes, and suffixes is important. Learning these basic elements makes it easier to learn new words.

In addition, teachers should help students say and use in writing:

abstract concepts, such as "ideology", "capacity", and "phenomenon"
descriptions, such as "ethnic" and "compatible"; processes, such as "decline"
aspects of academic tasks, such as "define", "demonstrate", and "contrast".

Technical words and low-frequency words

The remaining vocabulary-learning challenges for students are the relatively small number of subject-specific or technical words, and the small number of low-frequency words. While these words may appear several times within one text, they are not likely to appear in other texts for a long time.

Think of a word like "behemoth" as an example of low-frequency vocabulary. Some of your students (even the very young ones) will know a few very low-frequency words because of their experiences and interests.

Secondary teachers can refer to Chapter 2 of "Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9-13" (Ministry of Education, 2004) for information about teaching academic and other vocabulary in secondary schools. Primary teachers can refer to the section on expanding students’ vocabulary on pages 126-127 of "Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5- 8" (Ministry of Education, 2006).

How to analyse the vocabulary levels

You can do this analysis by using the Text Inspector, a free online service that gives feedback on texts designed for teaching, assessing, and learning English.

Your students may enjoy using the tool themselves.

The words will show up in four different colours, according to how difficult or uncommon they are. The programme will tell you how many word "types" the text contains and how many times each occurs based on the following four frequency levels.

the list of the most frequent 1000 word families
the list of the second 1000 word families
the Academic Word List
the words that do not appear in any of the preceding lists

Exploring your practice

How many words should my students know?

Vocabulary researchers have compiled word lists from the words students identified as unfamiliar to them. Identifying such words can be a worthwhile activity for you and your students.

Which words are unfamiliar to your students?

Choose a time when your students need to read a curriculum-related text.

Ask them to underline words they:

do not know the meaning of
find difficult
are not sure about.

Use the Text Inspector site to compare the students’ selection of items against an analysis of word levels. 

Ask yourself:

Where do your students’ difficulties lie? 
Are they mainly with words at a particular level
Are they words from a particular list?
To what degree do all your students share the difficulties? 
Do they fall into any identifiable groups with common difficulties?

Assessing word levels

For students
Another way to assess the level of words students are having difficulty with is by using a test, such as Paul Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (Productive). The test has three versions, and students can take the tests themselves. Older students may enjoy setting vocabulary learning goals based on their results from using these web-based tools.

For teachers
Check out your understanding of concepts related to vocabulary, on the site Learning vocabulary in another language: A test of teachers’ knowledge.

Materials for vocabulary analysis

NOTE: These examples are "as is", that is, they include student errors. 

Stories along the River

From the level 1 writing exemplar, Stories along the River

Monuments 

So we can remember people who die and thing that happened by the Waikato River a long time ago. So people do not forget things that happened at places. 

Telling Story 
people write story so the person who read them can remember about the Waikato River and what people used to do on the river. 

Maps 

People can find important places to go to and find there and so we do not get lost. It could lead you to something that belongs in the Waikato River. It might be a taniwha. 

Waiata 

You can sing about the Waikato River. You make up songs to do with the River to tell other people about Special Places, and why they are special. 

Photos 

photos tell you about the olden days at the Waikato River so We can see the changes of the river and the places along the river 

Water Woes

From the level 5 social studies exemplar, Water Woes

In third-world or developing countries such as Ethiopia, Cambodia and Jordan, there are often many issues over gaining and maintaining access to safe water and sanitation. However there are some successes. Some of the issues that restrict people's access are harmful chemicals from factories, financial issues, the location, and landscape of where people live, and last of all, people using most of the water in a river before it gets down to villages lower down so that the lower villages have none left …

The location and landscape of where people live can be a big issue of how much water someone gets. The amount of rainfall and fresh water available may determine how much daily safe water they get, as there are not many pipes, taps, pumps or wells that people can look to for help. In Cambodia, if a village is not near fresh water, it is almost impossible for the women to fetch fresh water. Although there is not much poorer countries can do to change nature, Jordan is thinking of building a canal to the ocean to get more water, and also building pipes from lakes in Israel, with financial assistance from Israel …

Parihaka, Past and Present

From the level 5 social studies exemplar, Parihaka, Past and Present

A: My whanau return to Parihaka regularly for the kohi mate on 18–19 of the month. People come by the busload to remember and help us young ones learn what occurred in the past. The grief of losing our land in 1881 is like an open wound which continues to weep. On 5 November each year when Pakeha celebrate Guy Fawkes, we remember our tupuna who lost their lives and their land at Parihaka.

B: My family have leased this land since 1935. We have had a long-term lease but our rentals have gone up a lot lately. We have worked hard to make this land productive. This is where my family belongs. How is the government going to sort out this mess? This is my home, but Te Ati Awa say it is still their land. These issues go on and on and need to be settled for New Zealand to move into the future.

C: My ancestor Te Whiti has long been called a peacemaker. When the English constabulary started storming Parihaka, he knew that he and his people were greatly outnumbered. It was a wise move that he took in getting the adults to lay down their arms and encourage his people, even the tamariki, to welcome and offer hospitality to the invaders. But despite that, Te Whiti and Tohu were taken prisoner and spent 18 months being taken from gaol to gaol in the South Island. The anguish on the faces of the people in the photos we saw remind us of the grief of Parihaka and why Māori continue to fight for justice over land and seabed issues.

See Materials that come with this resource to download Lists from Student Texts, Level 1 and 2, Social Studies (.pdf) for the list of words used in student texts in level 1 and 2 social studies curriculum exemplars.

Measuring readability

Extracts for analysis

Up to level 2

A is an academic text for school students working up to level 2 of the national curriculum

Kinleith Forest is a very busy place. During the day, forestry workers hack and saw noisily. Big trees crash to the ground. And logging trucks thunder along wide roads through the forest. At the same time, other workers are busy planting new trees. But when the sun goes down, things are just as busy. It is then that the night animals wake up. One of these is the long-tailed bat. I'm a scientist who studies long-tailed bats. There aren't many of these bats around. We're worried that they might all die out. To help save these bats we need to … [100 words]

(Moore, 2002, pp 20–21)

Up to level 4 of the curriculum

B is intended for up to level 4 of the curriculum

Ferns are usually very easy to identify from their leaves. Known as fronds, fern leaves tend to be very long. They’re often divided into leaflets that are attached along a central stalk. Each leaflet is sometimes divided into even smaller leaflets. … In their leaves ferns harness the energy in sunlight to make simple sugars from carbon dioxide and water. Well, that's hardly big news in the plant world, but let's look more closely at the back of those fern leaves. There we often find sporangia, which are reproductive organs. In fact sporangia are so interesting that they deserve their own article. [100 words]

(Alchin, 2002, pp. 10–11)

Year 9 and 10 students

C is intended for students in years 9 and 10

Vitamin D is essential for bone growth and health at all ages because it helps the body to absorb ingested calcium and to deposit calcium, with phosphate, into the skeleton. One natural source of vitamin D is exposure to sunshine. Vitamin D deficiency occurs in many regions of the world, including the northern European countries, northern Canada, and the Arctic. People who stay inside a lot (for example, elderly people) may also suffer from it.

Any calcium supplements should also contain vitamin D to ensure maximum absorption.

What is the influence of physical activity?

Young bones respond more to physical … [100 words]

(Osteoporosis New Zealand, 2001, pp. 35–36)

University students and graduate teachers

D is an academic text for university students and graduate teachers

Orientation refers to how learners view a task, the nature of the goals they form in order to perform it and the operations they use to carry it out. The particular orientation learners adopt determines the kind of activity that results. In part, how they orient to the task will reflect their previous experiences not just with similar tasks but with the kind of activity they associate with the particular setting in which they are communicating. In this way, how learners orientate to a task is socio-historically determined. Hall describes how the linguistic resources participants bring to an interaction and… [100 words]

(Ellis, 2003, p. 187)

This information shares effective tools for helping students read, write, and speak languages. The focus is on English language and academic language.

The section also has ideas for helping students:

make hard sentences easier
tap into knowledge of text structures and features
find information in complex texts
scaffold writing
extend their vocabulary 
explore generic texts
and more.

Purposes and patterns in written language

Like oral language, written language fulfils different purposes. Those purposes arise again and again. For example, wanting to tell people what happened. It is common for language features and text structures to be repeated to express specific purposes. These repetitions are referred to as generic patterning.

The distinctive patterns recognised in written texts are referred to as genres or text types.

What makes sentences hard for learners?

You can compare the reading difficulty of texts based on word and sentence length. Longer sentences are usually more complex than shorter sentences.

How to better understand sentences

Teachers and students can pinpoint challenges within sentences and understand them better by:

breaking up sentences - if a sentence is too long, there is a greater chance it will be misunderstood
joining sentences - teach students to combine sentences and through practice they may be better able to understand what complex and compound sentences are (they can also learn about punctuation and capitalisation)
studying groups of words in sentences and how together ("as one") form meaning.

Language becomes more complex

As academic studies become more advanced, the language usually becomes more complex. The increased complexity includes the following changes:

The series of words that make sense (and that have a subject and a verb) is longer.
The words are longer and more abstract (unclear, without an easy-to-understand meaning).
The sentences are longer.
The sentences are more complex in structure (the sentence is put together in more complicated parts).
The sentences contain a larger number of basic ideas or propositions (suggestions or possible plans of action).

Other factors that can also make texts hard to read:

students are unfamiliar with the content or topic
the text has a complex structure
there is a lot of supporting material
the layout of text and images and the size of the print

Helping students understand text structures and features

Whatever the genre (type) or combination of genres used in a particular text, making its features and structure clear to students will help them understand and remember the text.

However, be aware that bilingual students may have a knowledge of generic patterning from their first language (L1) that differs from the patterns common in English.

This applies to bilingual Pacific students whose main contact with English genres is through school. Keep that in mind when you interact with those students. Find out what they already know about generic patterning. See if there is a way to build off that knowledge.

Helping bilingual students grasp unfamiliar texts

Assist bilingual Pacific students in their learning about new and unfamiliar text types.

First, build on their existing literacy learning in both English and their L1. Encourage them to read a lot in both languages.

Next, give them English reading that is at the right level – not too hard and not too easy. Encourage them to ask for clarification when they do not understand something.

Continue to find opportunities to develop their knowledge of English and how it works (structurally and grammatically).

Then, have them read authentic texts that are accurate for their age level and for their cognitive abilities and development.

Selection series

Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga The Ministry of Education’s Selections series for new learners of English in Years 7–13 includes a variety of curriculum-related texts at easy reading levels.

The teachers’ notes that accompany them provide a clear analysis of the language features and text structures, along with suggestions for using the texts to teach these features and structures to English language learners.

Finding information in complex texts

Teachers often present a succession of texts over a series of lessons. The texts may be closely aligned in topic or theme. Furthermore, they may include a range of text types. For example, one text may be a description, another may be a narrative, while another may offer an explanation.

A teacher may also introduce two or more texts at the same time, for example, when their students are learning to recognise and use similarities and differences in text content or structure.

Embedded texts

Many of the materials students work with embed texts (have a text within a text). The embedded text may contain additional information. Or, it may have curriculum content in other text types. Sometimes embedded texts are used to engage an audience and keep them reading. You might, for example, find a description embedded in a narrative (story).

Mini texts

Students might find two or more texts at the same time if a page or section of a text they are reading contains mini texts with different purposes, features, or structures. Frames or boxes often mark the boundaries between these mini texts. At times, one or more of the mini texts may be a visual text such as a diagram, a flow chart, or a graph.

When items of information are chunked separately in this way, the reader needs to know how to find the connections between them. Help your students recognise and make sense of mini texts.

Texts in different media

The material on a printed page may be complex, yet print is not the only kind of written language that students need to work with. They also meet a wide variety of other sources of information in curriculum learning, for example, videos, computer software, and hypertext on the Internet.

Navigation through such multiple linked texts can be quite challenging, with or without graphics. This is particularly so for English as a second language (ESL) students, who are unlikely to have a full command of the Academic Word List and the technical words essential in content areas.

Another challenge is that the reader might not know how these text types are typically organised.

Scaffolding students’ writing

All students, and especially ESL students, benefit from learning activities that scaffold (help them organise) their production of written text.

Scaffolding activities – such as oral rehearsal, where students can say out loud and "hear" their writing – give students a change to try out ideas, grammatical structures, and vocabulary. Other helpful scaffolding tools are writing frames based on genre or text structure, which help students produce well-organised texts.

Preparing students for writing: Oral rehearsal

Speaking activities play an important role in preparing students for writing. Most teachers will be familiar with brainstorming, concept mapping, and so on. These are good ways to generate vocabulary and key ideas for writing.

PMI (Plus Minus Interesting)

In the PMI brainstorming technique, students’ ideas are categorised as being:

plus – in support of an idea
minus – against an idea
interesting – other interesting points that come up.

This is good preparation for writing an argument.

Cubing

Are your students preparing to write a report? They can use cubing to think about the topic from six different perspectives: describe, compare, associate, analyse, apply, and argue.

Describe it
Physically describe the topic. What does it look like? What is its colour, shape, texture, and size? Identify its parts.

Compare it
How is the topic like other topics or things? How is it different?

Associate it
What other topic or thing does the topic make you think of?

Analyse it
Look at the parts. How are they related? How are they put together?

Apply it
What can you do with the topic? What uses does it have?

Argue it
Argue for or against it.

Students can do this orally. In a group context, one student throws some dice. Then, each person says or performs (shows in drawing or action) one of the six perspectives.

Using self-questioning scales

A self-questioning scale is a checklist for content. This tool is like a technique familiar to primary school teachers – having the students ask themselves questions beginning with "4 Ws and an H" (Who, What, When, Where, How).

Students can apply self-questioning when they explore text structure.

Self-questioning scales: links between reading and writing

When they are reading a text, students can use a self-questioning scale to check that they have located the information they need. They can also use the scale when writing to check that they have included all the necessary information. This means that self-questioning scales help students make the links between reading and writing.

Self-questioning scale example

The following example of a self-questioning scale was designed for an explanation text. Notice that the teacher could have included an intermediate step of filling in an information transfer grid to make the link between reading and writing.

The curriculum-related topics for the text:

“What did Sir Āpirana Ngata see as the major problems facing rural Māori in the 1920s and 1930s?"
"How did he attempt to solve these problems?”

Ask yourself these questions to locate information in your reading text(s) to prepare you for writing. Then check that your own writing answers the questions.

Participants – who/what group was involved?
Location – when/where did the situation take place?
Conditions – what factors were originally present?
Effects – what happened to change these conditions, or as a result of these conditions?
Event – what was the result of these factors, or what is now different from the original condition?

Using writing frames

"Say It", PMI, and Cubing are all useful activities to prepare students for writing.

Once students are prepared to write, a writing frame helps them structure their language and content based on the purpose of their writing. Different genres (types) of writing use different formats (ways of organising the information and ideas in the writing).

Writing frames are one way of helping students use knowledge of text structure to support their writing.

Which words do my students need next?

Reading materials at curriculum levels 2 and 4

Use Text Inspector (a web-based language analysis tool to find out and think about the difference between reading materials at curriculum levels 2 and 4.

To begin, copy and paste into Text Inspector the first passage from measuring readability. Then, do the analysis.

After that, copy and paste the second passage and do the analysis.

Next, fill in the table below with the percentages shown in the analysis. 

Finally, look at the results and compare the two passages.

What differences do you notice?
What does this mean for students as they progress from level 2 to level 4?

	Level 2 Bats	Level 4 Ferns
First 500 words
First 1000 words (1–1000)
Second 1000 words (1001–2000)
Academic words (from AWL)
Off-list words

Off-list words
The off-list words are those that are infrequent in general use (in the first 2000 words) or across many academic areas. They are mostly technical words, such as "forestry", "logging", "bats", "ferns", "leaflets", "fronds", and "sporangia".

In stories, they may be unusual descriptive words, such as "gleaming" or "quiver".

How do vocabulary levels relate to reading levels?

More complex texts will have:

more specific vocabulary
more complex sentences.

Although vocabulary is only one of the factors considered in deciding the reading level of a text, it is a significant one. Comparing the vocabulary in texts you know your students can understand with the vocabulary in a text that you might use will indicate whether the new text is at the right level.

Because readers need to understand at least 95 percent of the words in a text to read it easily, consider the following.

What teaching practices can help your bilingual Pacific students work well with texts where more than five percent of the words are unknown?
How can you help your bilingual Pacific students learn the words they need to know?

Students’ writing and speaking at curriculum levels

Reading and writing: Curriculum levels 1, 2, and 3

In the materials that come with this resource, you can find a list of all the different words students used in speaking and writing in the social studies curriculum exemplars at levels 1 and 2. You will also see a list for full written text from level 1.

Copy and paste these into the Text Inspector programme and look at how students at curriculum levels 1 and 2 use words in their writing and speaking.

You will see that those students:

mostly use the first 1000 words
are already using some more difficult words from the second 1000 words
are beginning to use words from the academic list
use many off-list words as well.

After that, you could put in some texts from level 3 exemplars and see whether there is a large increase in the number of academic words used. The material students produced in the exemplars suggests vocabulary targets for bilingual Pacific students as well as for students who know only English.

Analyse some texts that your Pacific students have produced and see if their vocabulary use is close to the patterns shown in the relevant exemplars.

Bilingual people generally have well-developed language skills. Thus, with appropriate support and guidance, your students should progress quickly towards typical levels of vocabulary acquisition for their age. 

Writing: curriculum level 5

Use Text Inspector to think about students’ writing at curriculum level 5.

First, cut and paste the level 5 social studies curriculum exemplars from Materials for vocabulary analysis, into the Text Inspector.

After that, compare the Water Woes text with the Parihaka text, My ancestor Te Whiti.

How many academic and off-list words do these two students use?
How do the different patterns of use relate to the different style and effect of the writing?

Next, look at the three Parihaka texts together.

You will see that, taken together, the three Parihaka texts use a wider range of different words (types) than any one of the individual texts. This reinforces the idea that when students share what they say and write across the whole class (rather than working individually or with one other student), there is a rich source of input and a wider vocabulary for students to learn from. 

Extending students’ vocabulary 

Most teachers, aware of the importance of vocabulary, teach content words. It takes a lot to learn a new word. Students need to extend their understanding and use of the words they already know and they need to learn new words.

You may find it helpful to use and adapt this checklist.

Some aspects of knowing a word	What students need to do
form	Can the students recognise the word when they hear or read it on its own?
	Can they say the word easily, and write and spell it?
	Can they recognise other members of the word family (for example, "compare": "comparing", "comparison", "comparatively")?
meaning	Do the students know what the word means?
	Can they give a definition or an example?
grammar	Can they understand the word in a sentence?
	Can they use the word correctly in a sentence?
collocations – two or more words that are commonly associated in a particular language, such as "read about" or "white lies".	Do they recognise other words and phrases that often occur with the word? (This is important for understanding how the meaning of texts is built up and holds together.)
	Can they use the word with other appropriate words?

Planning vocabulary learning with your students

Students are likely unaware of how many new words they need to learn to understand and use, or what these words are. Tell them to set vocabulary goals. Work with them as they construct their language-learning goals.

Using the Text Inspector, show them how vocabulary can be analysed. This should raise their awareness of the nature of vocabulary and suggest to them where their next word learning needs to occur.

Keys to learning vocabulary

Students need to learn to use about one new word every day – seven each week. They need to learn to understand the meaning of a second new word each day – one that they may not use themselves.

They should make a noticeable (planned) effort to extend the range of different words they use. They should gradually learn to use and understand all the words on the Academic Word List. This includes concrete words (words you can picture or that have a clear meaning) and abstract words (words you cannot picture or those without an easy-to-understand meaning).

Examples of concrete words

adult
community
computer
vehicle

Examples of abstract words

access
available
despite
issue
maintain
occur
valid

Support from classmates

The class can be a learning community, one that gives input to each member, shares word knowledge, and supports individuals to practise and try new skills with words. Refer to the section on expanding students’ vocabulary as a classroom community on pages 126–127 of "Effective Literacy Practice in Years 5 to 8" (Ministry of Education, 2006).

Extending Pacific languages

Use the same vocabulary goals as those described above to develop Pacific language use. Your bilingual students can work together to construct shared goals and check their progress in their Pacific languages.

You may be surprised to know that translation is one of the best ways to learn words. 

Bilingual students can make bilingual vocabulary lists and records and learn from them. This is one of the benefits of the "interdependence" of languages.

How can I help students deal with complex sentences?

When students are having difficulty with the material they need to read for their curriculum studies, teachers need to teach them how to read that material. Students who lack challenges may not move on to more advanced learning. 

Three ways of analysing complex sentences are:

breaking sentences into parts
restating parts of sentences in more familiar ways
putting parts together into more complex sentences.

You can use the same methods to help students learn to understand such sentences and develop their ability to use complex sentence structures themselves.

Generic patterns in texts

Helping primary students recognise generic patterns in text

Primary teachers could help students identify the structure and features of a new type of text they need to become familiar with during a shared reading session.

The shared goals could be to:

identify and build on all students’ prior knowledge of the text content and structure
use the identified structure and features to aid comprehension during the reading of the text
discuss, after the reading, how the identified structure and features support the writer’s purpose.

Check that the text and instructional strategies you choose enable your bilingual Pacific students to:

build on their existing literacy learning in both English and their first language (L1)
read the text in the context of the approach you use and ask for clarification when they do not understand something
develop their knowledge of English and the culture that underlies it
experience cognitive challenges and discuss their understandings with other students in one or both of their languages.

Can you use this again to develop students’ confidence with another important text type or combination of text types?

Helping secondary students recognise generic patterns

Secondary school teachers could refer to Chapters 4 and 6 of "Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9 to 13" (Ministry of Education, 2004) for suggestions about using shared and guided reading and writing to identify the structures and features of the texts they use in curriculum learning.

Check that the text and instructional strategies you choose enable your bilingual Pacific students to:

build their existing knowledge of literacy and curriculum content in both English and their L1
read the text in the context of the approach you use and ask for clarification when they lack understanding
develop their knowledge of English and the culture that underlies it
experience cognitive challenges in relation to the relevant curriculum area and discuss their understandings with other students in one or both of their languages.

Two student stories

Look at these short texts. They are the stories of two Sāmoan weavers. They tell the story of how each woman came to be a weaver (what motivated them and how they learned to weave), and they inform the reader about weaving, for example by explaining the significance of weaving today. (Text extracts from Mallon, 2002.)

Vivealava Vaepae
My name is Vivealava Vaepae, and I live at Lepuiai at Manono. I began weaving when I married my husband. My mother died when I was very young, so I taught myself after watching other women weave, because I wanted to improve my family. I love to weave. I will weave anything. I really started to weave because when I got married, having no mother, I didn’t have any mats to bring with me to my husband’s family. Sāmoan women should know how to weave. It’s an art that belongs to them. It’s their purpose in life. Mothers should teach their daughters how to weave. It’s their purpose … I think that weaving is still very important in Sāmoan society today. It’s the matafaioi …

Emma Kesha
I was born in Sāmoa and came to live in New Zealand in 1958 when I was only 18 years old. My mother is Apaua from the village of Fale Apuna and my father is Fuatavai from the village of Fusi Salofata. I learnt to weave from my mother and grandmother. Weaving is an everyday thing that goes on in the village life and I remember when I was a little girl going to school and coming home to see my mother and grandmother weaving. That is when I first started…. In 1983 I set up my own Multicultural Weavers Association and started teaching weaving. My aim is to preserve the art of weaving and share my knowledge with others. Weaving is an art …

Comparing stories

You could compare and contrast the information in the two stories by using this information transfer grid.

	Vivealava Vaepae	Emma Kesha
Where was she born?
Where does she live now?
Who taught her how to weave?
Why did she want to learn to weave?
How is weaving important to her now?

Reflection questions

What are your observations of the language in the two extracts? 
Look across each of the rows. 
- What is the nature of the items in the boxes? 
- Do they have the same form or are they different? 
- Is one way of expressing ideas more complex than another?
How do you think this method helps students to understand the texts better?

Classroom activity: Short text

Select a short text and prepare an information transfer grid for it. Get your students to fill in the grid. What do you notice about how the activity supports their learning?

Bilingual students who become familiar with using information transfer activities may like to work in groups to develop their own information transfer grids for texts in their Pacific languages. In doing so, they will be able to compare them with similar English texts and identify differences and similarities.

For example, the second sentence of Emma Kesha’s recount is a common feature of many Pacific texts. Your students could identify which text types normally have this feature and where it is usually located in the texts.

Finding information in complex texts

Examples from Kiwi Conservation Club

The Kiwi Conservation Club connects kids to the environment. The site has activities and provides resources for them. 

Notice the many different mini texts on the page. Some have two sets of bulleted points; others have two coloured texts. A resource might have one text in a box or frame or two diagrams (or drawings).

For example, "Make a climbing kōaro toy" gives instructions about how to make a climbing kōaro toy. It uses steps, descriptions, and images to explain how to make the toy.

Comparing texts

Choose two texts from the Kiwi Conservation Club activities page.

Help your students identify the following aspects of each text. (You can also add your own questions.)

What is the purpose of the writing?
Who is the target audience / who is likely to read this? The target audience could be an age group, certain reading levels or interests, or some other factor.
What kind of information is given?
Study diagrams or pictures.
- How do they relate to the text?
- What is their purpose?
- To what extent do these fit with or add to the understanding of the target audience?
Is the text simple, complex, or somewhere in between? 
Why do you say that? Ask students to give a reason for their choices.

Afterwards, talk about what they learned or relearned about language, text patterns, and so on.

NOTE: You could divide the task and assign "text one" to half of the class and "text two" to the other half of the class. Also, you could choose either texts that have the same topic (such as trees: "9 Activities for Discovering Your Tree Community" and Interview with the Author: Tree Beings) or texts that have different topics (for example, GAME: How do Plants Become Poisonous? and "Rethinking Our Choices").

What does a good reader do?

A good reader taps into prior knowledge ...

A student is reading a curriculum-related text. At some point, the student cannot comprehend the text. When this happens, the student must draw on their prior knowledge, their background knowledge, and their prior experiences with other texts. This helps them hold on to the ideas and key points from that text.

The more connections a student makes, the more memorable the text becomes.

Teachers can help their students make connections with their own prior knowledge. How? By using a technique such as brainstorming before and/or after reading or by setting aside time for students to read a text more than once (where appropriate). This approach is vital when teachers work with English-language learners.

Teachers can help their students make connections across texts by having them monitor their ongoing learning. To achieve this, students could keep a log where they write their understandings after reading new texts.

Information transfer tasks

Students could also use information transfer charts and inquiry charts; these will help them select, organise, and evaluate the information in different topic-related texts. 

Bilingual students who become familiar with using information transfer activities may like to work in groups to develop their own information transfer grids for texts in their Pacific languages. This approach will enable them to compare similar English texts, identify differences and similarities, and make connections when reading other texts in the future.

Explicit teaching

Students need explicit teaching to recognise the main points in complex texts, such as multiply-linked texts. For example, teachers can teach students to identify:

subheadings (in written text) or section headings (in hypertext) and to retrieve the information in them 
the writers’ purposes and the key points made to meet those purposes.

Teachers can also plan and implement learning activities that require students to comprehend the information they have, to take responsibility for it, and to share it with others (for example, split information tasks).

Using inquiry charts

There are three steps in using an inquiry chart.

Step 1: Before

Before students read a text, they record what they already know about a topic. They can either do this with other students or with the teacher.

What they already know should relate to the kind of information they will focus on.

An example of step one reading focus

In the following example, students are learning to retrieve information from a factual report.

Topic: Frogs

What do tadpoles eat?

What do frogs eat?

Where can frogs live?

What eats frogs

Other interesting facts

What we know

fish

flies

mosquitoes

bees

flies

mosquitoes

sea snails

under the water

in the pond

in lakes

on a lily pad

under a lily pad

spider

crocodile

shark

fish

eel

Sometimes they dry out.

The frog goes up to breathe.

Step 2: Use the same categories

In step two, students use the same categories of information to guide them in reading several different texts or other sources of information.

An example of step two "same categories" focus

This might look like the example below.

Topic: Frogs

What do tadpoles eat?

What do frogs eat?

Where can frogs live?

What eats frogs

Other interesting facts

Text 1

small water plants

insects

In a fishpond

birds

rats

hedgehogs

They go down in the mud when the cold comes.

Frogs have long tongues.

Text 2

plants

insects

worms

beetles

snails

on plants

in the pond

on grass

no information available

Some frogs are poisonous.

Step 3: Combine information

Finally, the students integrate (combine) the information and language under each of the headings to produce a summary statement for each.

Example of step three "Combine information"

Topic: Frogs	What do tadpoles eat?	What do frogs eat?	Where can frogs live?	What eats frogs	Other interesting facts
Summary	plants and insects	insects	in damp places	birds and small animals

Using inquiry charts like this help students to link the skills of speaking, reading, and writing.

Teachers keep a record of texts

If you are a secondary teacher, take your own curriculum area. If you are a primary teacher, take one of the curriculum areas and keep a daily log of all the texts students are given to read.

Using the following categories, note both the frequency of text structures and features and any challenges the students face.

One individual text:

one theme, one genre
one theme, mixed genres

Multiple texts:

thematically related, presented at different times
- same or similar genres
- different genres
thematically related,presented at the same time
- same or similar genres
- different genres

Suggestion for class inquiry chart activity

Design an inquiry chart that will help students navigate the Kiwi Conservation Club website and its links to information about other types of wētā.

(If this website is not appropriate for your students, you could find another website for this investigation and then reflect together on its usefulness for the intended curriculum and language learning.)