Literacy+Strategies


 * =Introducing students to new vocabulary/ concepts:= ||
 * **Concept Circles**

How to use concept circles Draw circles divided into four sectors. Each sector stores information about a concept such as the term, the definition written out in full, the symbol, and the name of the unit OR in each section there is a word associated with the topic and connected in some way with the other words in the circle. The teacher fills in two or three of the sectors and the students work independently to fill in the missing information AND work out and explain what the relationship is between the words/ information. The students then work in pairs discussing answers using the language of the curriculum area. The students focus on the answers that are different and also on the reasoning behind the answers that are the same. This is followed by full class discussion if needed. **Benefits of concept circles** Concept circles can be used at the beginning of a unit to clarify to both students and teacher what is known and what needs to be learned. They can be used during and at the end of a unit for revision. A visual summary of concepts can be a useful memory promt.  || || Give each student a list of key words with two blank columns alongside. After the **first reading** of the text the students write the meaning of each word or what they guess the meaning is for each word. As they come across the word later during the lessons the students can revise their original definition. At this point the answers can be discussed and clarified in the whole class. This then becomes the “expert definition”.
 * **Vocabulary Jumble**
 *  Vocabulary Grids

The benefits of Vocabulary Grids are that they:  W e need to **explicitly** teach the students these strategies, so that they can tell us what the strategy is and why they should use it (See the grey box below). Over time the students should be able to independently choose the right strategy to use for each situation and tell you why that particular strategy should be used. ||
 * focus attention onto key words;
 * provide opportunities for students to actively work out word meaning;
 * help students become independent learners of new words by using strategies such as context clues.
 * **Interactive Cloze**

A cloze passage is one where some words have been deleted and the students are asked to fill in the gaps. This is a task teachers regularly use to test knowledge of content or specialist words. However, if the specialist word is left in the sentence and, instead, a word that contributes to the meaning is left out, this activity can be a powerful way to help students use context clues to decide which word will fill the gap. This then becomes a language activity rather than a testing device, involving discussion of words and contexts. It also provides students practice in reading key words and using them orally. **The Benefits of Interactive Cloze Activities ** **How To Prepare a Cloze ** **<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">How To Use the Cloze ** <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] OR  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brainstorming possible replacements for the blanks is the students' first task in an interactive cloze activity. As its name implies (interactive cloze), the brainstorming (and the tasks that follow) is done in small groups (or pairs, at a minimum). At this stage in the interactive cloze activity, students are encouraged to be "free ranging" in their thinking; they're asked to generate several alternative replacements for each blank without making value judgments about a single best replacement. In determining possible replacements, students will be paying attention to syntactic and semantic clues in the text and drawing on their prior knowledge, two "habits of mind" characteristic of good readers. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a period of brainstorming, students, still working in small groups (or in pairs), are asked to decide which of their possible replacements they prefer for each blank. Students prepare to present their vision of the text to the class (possibly a "dramatic" presentation of their text) and to explain the reasons for their choices, providing evidence both from the text and from their prior knowledge and personal experience. These explanations are essential because, in essence, they make available to others the students' processes of, or strategies for, making sense of text. Showing students how readers work is a fundamental goal of the interactive cloze. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">After all student versions have been presented, the teacher presents the author's version of the text and invites students to give their responses to the different versions (including which word choices they now prefer and why) and to speculate about the author's choices (why, for example, they think the author might have made his/her word choices). Exploration is the goal at this stage - not leading students toward a meaning, an interpretation of what the text "is" about. <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">[] **Sample Texts:**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teaches the skill of using context clues in working out unknown words.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Emphasises active reading for meaning, not word by word reading.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gives students practice in predicting and understanding language structures in expository text.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Makes students more aware of the reading process - the predicting and confirming process and the use of background knowledge.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gives students experience in using clues to the sentence and paragraph structure such as signal words and connectives.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Encourages students to notice and use information presented on a page such as headings, sub-headings and graphics.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Discussion following the exercise gives students opportunities to use words orally in context, discuss concepts and actively process information.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gives the teacher valuable information on individual student's ability to handle language.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Select carefully the words to delete, making sure there are clues in the text for each missing word. A good way to check is to draw an arrow between the selected word and the clue.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Delete a mixture of words, not just 'content' or specialist words; not only nouns; choose at least one which signals the sentence or paragraph structure such as //because, secondly, subsequently//.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Try to delete some words for which there are several alternatives. This will promote discussion.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Give each student a copy of the prepared text and explain how to fill the gaps.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Students work on their own to write one word in each gap.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">In pairs or small mixed groups students discuss their responses and decide which alternatives are better.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Facilitate a class discussion, using students' responses. Possible alternatives are discussed and useful strategies pointed out such as using context to work out an unknown word or using headings and graphics.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Emphasis is placed on words which make sense and are appropriate rather than the 'correct' words.

* <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Flowering Plants] See also: [|English Education Models - Interactive Cloze Activity: Overview]. || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;"> <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">﻿ ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Year 11 Science: Genetics and Variation]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|Year 9/10 Maths: Measurement Cloze]
 * [|Rounding Numbers]
 * There are also cloze activities at the [|Assessment Resource Bank] for English, Maths and Science
 * =Reading strategies:= ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">After reading: summarising ideas - from Aaron Wilson
 * =Writing strategies:= ||
 * [] Use text organisers to help students with the writing process. These are interactive online or can be downloaded and printed. ||