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Secondary English Teaching Resources: English Activities for Years 7 to 12 | Tes

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The Tes range of secondary English resources includes grammar worksheets, reading activities and more to help bring your English lessons for Years 7-12 to life!

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Welcome to AATE - AATE - Australian Association for the Teaching of English

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English Teachers Association of Queensland

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english teachers association of queensland

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The English Teachers Association of Queensland is the professional association for support & advocacy for teachers of English in secondary schools

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The Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA) is an independent professional association dedicated to literacy and English language learning from early childhood through all stages of schooling and tertiary education contexts. ALEA recognises the critical role literacy plays in learning and communicating in all curriculum areas, and for effective participation in society.

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ALEA - Australian Literacy Educators' Association - ALEA - Australian Literacy Educators' Association

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The Australian Literacy Educators' Association (ALEA) is an independent professional association dedicated to literacy and English language learning from early childhood through all stages of schooling and tertiary education contexts. ALEA recognises the critical role literacy plays in learning and communicating in all curriculum areas, and for effective participation in society.

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Having Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in learning environments is vital when teaching about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. This is especially meaningful when learning about your local area.

Non-Indigenous people may not have the authority to speak about certain parts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. They can't speak for or about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's experiences. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices must be included in these learning experiences.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can advise on how their voice is included. They can also guide non-Indigenous teachers and educators to include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives respectfully and appropriately.

There are often already Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working in education settings, such as teachers, educators, administrative staff or Indigenous Education Workers (IEW). First Nations teachers should not be expected to share their stories or unfairly shoulder the load of reconciliation in their school communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents, family and others in the community may also want to contribute to learning activities.

It's also important to acknowledge educational settings outside of the school or service as places of teaching and learning, and that the 'classroom' shouldn't be isolated to a single fixed location.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Islander people have unique skills and knowledge to share with students and children. Spending time getting to know your community can lead to sharing experiences and skills and developing genuine relationships.

Students and children will also enjoy getting to know and learning from new people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices can be present in the learning environment in person or in many innovative ways, including:

Video conferences

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Pre-recorded webinars, videos or podcasts

Stories or articles written by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

For example, Sydney Opera House's free-to-register Guwanyi Walama: Aboriginal Perspectives of Bennelong Point experience.

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aboriginal torres strait islander people classroom reconciliation action plan rap narragunnawali schools early learning education

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in the Classroom

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Enhance teaching and learning activities by engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people within the school or early learning service community.

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The annual course reset of the Disability Standards of Education e-learning and NCCD for school leader e-learn modules will be scheduled on 15th December 2023. If you intend to complete the course you must do so before 15th December 2023 5 PM AEDT, as your progress cannot be carried over to the next year.

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Nationally Consistent Collection of Data for School Students with Disability

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The NCCD is an annual collection of information from all Australian schools on the numbers of students with disability and the adjustments they receive. The NCCD portal provides resources, the process model and case studies to assist schools to understand

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One of the world's most powerful literacy programs

Enabling all learners at every level of education to read and write successfully.

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What is Reading to Learn (R2L)

R2L is a set of strategies that enable teachers to support all students in their classes to read and write at the levels they need to succeed. It has been in development globally since the early 2000s at all stages of education. R2L responses to the growing and urgent needs of marginalised learners and can rapidly improve reading and writing for educational access and success.
Early years
R2L supports all children aged 4-6 to become independent readers and to write successful texts. Using illustrated story books, teachers use R2L to improve skills such as comprehension, word recognition, spelling, letter formation, sentence construction and story writing. Because these skills are learnt in the meaningful, engaging context of shared reading books, children can acquire them much faster than through only using standalone alphabet, phonics and sight word drills.
Primary years
For children aged 7-12, R2L is designed to engage them in reading and writing stories for pleasure, factual texts and to evaluate texts, issues and points of view. Teachers select and use texts in the subject areas that the class is studying to teach skills in reading and writing, at the same time as learning the content of each subject area. R2L enables all students to read and write texts at the same high level, rather then giving them texts at different 'ability levels'. This ensures all students are ready to succeed in secondary school.
Secondary years
Those aged 13-18 are supported by R2L to learn the content of each curriculum area through reading and writing. Teachers use the texts that students are expected to read in each subject area, to guide them to learn through reading, and to demonstrate what they learnt through writing. R2L enables teachers to balance the curriculum demands for 'covering the content', with teaching essential skills that students need to read and write independently. R2L ensures that all students are well prepared for further education, work and life in general.
At home
R2L can be used by caregivers to support their children become independent readers and to write texts successfully. Just like in the early years classroom, caregivers can use illustrated story books to improve skills such as comprehension, word recognition, letter formation, sentence construction. As the child grows, caregivers can use more complex texts and support their child's developing understanding of concepts such as inference, perspective and audience.

After implementing R2L in my classroom I have seen amazing development in my students' reading and writing. Everyone of them have benefited greatly from the program!
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This has been the single most important professional development I've ever had! I am now planning and developing explicit and systemic lessons with specific purpose and focus. I have a much better understanding of how to narrow the gap between my students.
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Thank you! My knowledge of literacy teaching has improved along with my understanding of R2L. Gladly, it is showing through the results of my students.
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Enabling all learners at every level of education to read and write successfully. Buy Teachers Resources What is Reading to Learn (R2L) R2L is a set of strategies that enable teachers to support all students in their classes to read and write at the levels they need to succeed.

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Expanding the four resources model: reading visual and multi-modal texts Frank Serafini
Abstract
Freebody and Luke proffered an expanded conceptualization of the resources readers utilize when reading and the roles readers adopt during the act of reading. The four resources model, and its associated four roles of the reader, expanded the definition of reading from a simple model of decoding printed texts to a model of constructing meaning and analysing texts in sociocultural contexts. This article continues the reconceptualization of the four resources model to four resources or social practices for reading-viewing multi-modal texts. Drawing on research and theories from visual culture, semiotics, critical media studies, grammars of visual design and multi-modal analysis, the expanded four resources or social practices are reader-viewer as (1) navigator, (2) interpreter, (3) designer and (4) interrogator. Each resource-practice is described in detail and the interpretive repertoires required of reader-viewers transacting with multi-modal texts from each perspective are considered.

Keywords
Freebody and Luke ( 1990) proffered an expanded conceptualization of the resources readers utilize and the roles readers adopt during the act of reading. The four resources model and its associated four roles of the reader expanded the definition of reading from a simple model of decoding printed texts (Gough, 1972) to a model of constructing meaning and analysing texts in sociocultural contexts (Gee, 1996). The goal was to shift the focus from trying to find the right method for teaching children to read to determining whether the range of resources available and the strategies emphasized in a reading programme were indeed covering and integrating the broad repertoire of practices required in today's economies and cultures (Luke & Freebody, 1999).

The four resources model has been used as a foundation for curriculum reform (Ludwig, 2003), a theoretical framework to broaden educators' understanding of literacy and reading (Freebody, 1992), and as a socio-constructivist critique of the dominance of cognitive perspectives on literacy education and instructional practices (Luke, 1995). The four resources model - which originally included the following four roles of (1) reader as code breaker, (2) reader as text participant, (3) reader as text user and (4) reader as text analyst - provided literacy educators, researchers and theorists with an expanded perspective on what it means to be a successful reader in new times (Freebody & Luke, 1990). Readers were expected to draw upon various resources available to develop and sustain the four roles necessary to be a successful reader. These four roles have taken on a life of their own throughout educational communities irrespective of the authors' original intentions.

In later reiterations of the four resources model, Luke and Freebody ( 1997, 1999) revised their original concept of the roles readers were to adopt from predetermined ways of acting and thinking that can be defined a priori for particular readers to fit into, to a set of resources or social practices that readers draw upon to make sense of their worlds. This reconceptualizing of the four roles or resources as social practices suggests these roles are constructed rather than adopted, developed in the context of reading rather than taken on as predetermined sets of cognitive skills performed in everyday classrooms, negotiated among practitioners and redeveloped, recombined and articulated in relation to one another on a continuing basis (Luke & Freebody, 1999). The shift from resources and roles to social practices foregrounded how literacy is tied up with political and cultural contexts, social power and capital (Street, 1984). Successful readers should be described in terms of the civil, sociocultural and job demands and expectations that any particular culture places on its members in terms of the degree to which and the ways in which they deal with written text, rather than on the accumulation of cognitive strategies or operations they can perform as individuals. These four resources or social practices are embedded within each other and have been conceptualized as necessary but insufficient for being fully literate in today's society (Freebody & Luke, 1990). In other words, none of the four resources or associated social practices is mutually exclusive or sufficient in and of themselves to create an informed, literate citizenry.

The concept of text throughout the original articulations of the four resources model was primarily focused on printed text and written language. The word text was originally associated with each of the four roles and resources (code breaker or text decoder, text participant, text user, text analyst) and generally referred to print-based materials, although digital and visual texts were not specifically excluded. The first role or resource, reader as code breaker, focused on readers' abilities to decode written text, focusing on sound-symbol relationships and correspondence, not on the interpretation or comprehension of visual images or multi-modal designs. Henderson ( 1992) described the role as code breaker as "proficient users of the technology of the written script" (p. 124). In addition, Walsh ( 2006) states, "while there have been different, and often controversial, definitions of reading in the field of education these have been traditionally applied to the reading of print-based and mostly monomodal texts" (p. 25).

In other discussions of the four resources model, Freebody and Luke ( 2003) acknowledge the multi-modal nature of texts and the importance of digitally based literacies when they state: "To be literate is to be an everyday participant in literate 'societies', themselves composed of a vast range of sites, locations and events that entail print, visual, digital and analogue media" (p. 53). Other educators (Anstey & Bull, 2004; Zammit & Downes, 2002), to name but a few, have expanded the concept of text to include digitally based, multi-modal elements combined with traditional print-based texts. As the concept of text expands beyond the borders and boundaries of the printed book, so too must our definitions and conceptions of what it means to be a reader or literate being.

Freebody ( 2007) suggests the original intention of the four resources model "was to provide an accessible and inclusive framework for discussions of literacy education, while at the same time affording a range of pedagogical strategies and frameworks for teaching literacy and for understanding various disciplines' orientations to literacy education" (p. 35). In the same publication, Freebody ( 2007, p. 34) continues to use the terms written language and text without specifically referring to screen-based, digital or multi-modal texts on a chart outlining the four roles of the reader. Although I believe his intention was not to ignore the multi-modal aspects of contemporary texts, the terms visual and multi-modal were not included in this description of the model. In further reading of Luke and Freebody's work and various members of the New London Group, Kress ( 2003, 2010), in particular, supports the idea that Luke and Freebody envisioned multi-modality as an important aspect of the texts readers encounter in today's world, though a definition of text as a multi-modal entity was not directly stated in the original conceptualization of the four resources model.

My intentions are not to find fault with the work of Freebody and Luke, nor lessen the impact or importance of the four resources model. I have nothing but the utmost respect for their work and believe the four resources model has been a vital step forward in expanding the understandings of literacy educators worldwide. My premise is that articulating an expanded conception of the four resources model that specifically addresses the challenges and possibilities that multi-modal texts bring to literacy education is worthy of delineation.

In this article, my intentions are to expand the concept of the four resources model of reading to four resources or social practices for reading-viewing multi-modal texts. In addition, I want to expand the notion of text to address the multi-modal aspects of communication and to include research and theories from visual culture (Barnard, 2001), semiotics (Scholes, 1982; Smith-Shank, 2004), critical media studies (Semali, 2003), grammars of visual design (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) and multi-modal analysis (Baldry & Thibault, 2006; Bateman, 2008; Jewitt, 2009).

To expand the original concept of the four resources model, one must reconceptualize the reader as a reader-viewer attending to the visual images, structures and designs of multi-modal texts along with printed text. Although the focus has shifted from printed, mono-modal texts to multi-modal texts throughout the later iterations of the four resources model by numerous educators working from Luke and Freebody's original framework, making the resources and social practices readers draw upon more explicitly focused on visual and multi-modal aspects of screen-based and printed texts alike is an important consideration. Unsworth and Wheeler ( 2002) assert that if children are to understand how images represent and construct meaning, they need knowledge of the visual meaning-making systems used in their production and interpretation.

In order to create an informed, literate citizenry, readers must be able to navigate, interpret, design and interrogate the written, visual and design elements of multi-modal texts. Cognitively based reading comprehension strategies (Pressley & Block, 2001; Snow & Sweet, 2003) alone will not provide a sufficient foundation for dealing with the various modes of representation incorporated in the multi-modal texts readers encounter in today's world. Theories and research outside the traditional discipline of reading or literacy education should be drawn upon to expand the strategies and skills reader-viewers need to be successful in reading the textual, visual and design elements of the multi-modal texts they encounter.

The goal of this article is not to suggest a failure on the part of Luke and Freebody to adequately address the visual and multi-modality in their original conceptions; rather it is to follow their line of inquiry and continue the expansion of their work to focus on the changing nature of the texts readers encounter in contemporary settings and to expand our vision of reading to include visual images and design elements, in addition to written language. The re-conceptualized four resources or social practices I propose are reader-viewer as (1) navigator, (2) interpreter, (3) designer and (4) interrogator. I will describe each resource-practice and reconsider the actions, abilities and interpretive repertoires required of reader-viewers transacting with multi-modal texts from these perspectives.

Although reading multi-modal texts requires readers to be both readers of written language and viewers of visual images and design elements, I will use the traditional term reader throughout the article rather than the more cumbersome reader-viewer to connote the bifurcated role of the reader and viewer of multi-modal texts.

A shift to multi-modal texts
Contemporary educators and literacy theorists have described a shift from the primacy of the printed word to the visual image and the multi-modal text (Anstey & Bull, 2006; Kress, 2003). Readers are confronted with multi-modal texts that include visual images and a variety of graphic design elements in their everyday lives with greater frequency than texts that are exclusively made of written language (Fleckenstein, 2002). However, multi-modal texts and print-based texts should not be viewed as mutually exclusive. Printed texts often include visual components, for example, font and design elements, and multi-modal texts generally include written language. In addition, readers continue to interact with traditional print-based texts that contain multi-modal elements, for example, picture books, informational texts, magazines and newspapers, and contemporary multi-modal texts that contain visual images, hypertext, video, music, sounds and graphic designs. In fact, most written texts in current social and textual contexts are accompanied by visual images (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001).

Simply put, a multi-modal text is a text composed of more than one mode. Photography, music, sculpture and written language are examples of different modes. A mode is a system of signs created within or across various cultures to represent and express meanings. Modes were developed by humans to express ideas and communicate with one another. In other words, when more than one mode is present in a text, we consider the text to be multi-modal.

Written language is often subordinate to visual images as the primary mode that readers draw upon to construct meaning (Kress, 2010). Street signs, posters, billboards, websites and contemporary picture books place a primacy on the visual elements readers transact with to construct meanings. A novel which contains little or no visual images or cover art draws primarily on written language to convey meaning. Even in this rare scenario, the text of a novel must be presented in visual form through the application of a particular font and typographic design. Essentially, from this perspective all texts are multi-modal, some more notably than others.
Multi-modal texts present information across a variety of modes including visual images, design elements, written language and other semiotic resources. These texts present challenges to novice readers as they work across these multiple sign systems to construct meaning (Siegel, 2006). The mode of written language and that of visual image are governed by distinct logics: written text is governed by the logic of time or temporal sequence, whereas visual image is governed by the logic of spatiality, organized arrangements and simultaneity (Kress, 2003). In written text, meaning is derived from position in the temporal sequence, and meaning is derived in visual images from spatial relations or visual grammar (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996).

Using a semiotic perspective as a lens for understanding the ways in which students construct meaning with multi-modal texts, researchers have begun to expand their vision of what it means to be literate and to endorse the significant role that visual literacy plays in contemporary classrooms (Arizpe & Styles, 2003; Callow, 1999; Sipe, 1998). The blending of visual design elements, images and written language into multi-modal texts presents readers with new challenges and requires an expansion of our view of the resources and interpretive practices readers draw upon to make sense of multi-modal texts.

Humans participate in interactions more expansive than language alone can account. "The visual and verbal ... are dimensions of the psyche and culture that are closely interconnected" (Seppanen, 2006, p. 6). In addition, readers must also learn to interrogate the assumptions that are embedded within multi-modal texts (Albers, 2008). In order to provide support for these interpretive practices, teachers need theoretical frameworks, new vocabularies or metalanguage and pedagogical strategies for teaching students to interpret and interrogate the visual images and designs encountered in multi-modal texts (Zammit, 2007).

Reader as navigator
The term reader as navigator is not new in research and discussions concerning hypertext and online resources (Lawless & Schrader, 2008). However, the term has not been used as frequently in reference to readers reading traditional print-based, multi-modal texts. When used in reference to reading printed text, the definition of the term navigator presented here subsumes several processes or abilities often associated with reading proficiency, such as decoding, concepts of print, directionality and sequencing. In a broader sense, navigation means to move through space; in terms of hypertext, navigation includes movement through both cognitive and virtual space (Whitaker, 1998). Lawless and Schrader ( 2008) use the term navigation as a metaphor to describe how readers interact with hypermedia texts. This term can be extended to include digital and print-based, multi-modal texts as well. Readers navigate print-based multi-modal texts (e.g. textbooks or picture books) and screen-based multi-modal texts based on their purposes for reading and the meanings readers construct in their transactions with these texts.

The research on the decoding of written texts refers to a series of cognitive strategies or skills, including word recognition, vocabulary knowledge, sound (phoneme) to symbol (grapheme) correspondence and the recognition of patterns in spelling and language to be successful (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 2000; Dahl, 2001; Moustafa, 1997). When reading multi-modal texts, the skill of decoding written text needs to be accompanied by an understanding of the structures and codes associated with design, images and other visual elements (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). In addition to decoding written language, readers must learn to navigate the design of written text, including the left to right orientation of English language texts, and understand the role and structures of charts, graphs, diagrams and other visual images encountered in picture books, informational texts, graphic novels, websites, advertisements and other multi-modal texts.

In contrast to the temporal nature of the written language, there is no preset or determined path that readers are required to follow sequentially through multi-modal texts (Kress, 2003). Readers actively select objects from their visual field to attend to and interpret. A particular multi-modal text or visual image may contain compositional structures that lead a viewer's eye in certain directions, and certain features of visual grammar - for example, modality, framing and salience (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) - may draw one's attention to particular aspects of an image or multi-modal text; however, the reading path is ultimately determined by the readers during their transaction with the spatial composition of the text.

Focusing on visual images, Beardsley ( 1981) suggested:
a picture is two things at once: it is a design, and it is a picture of (italics in original) something. In other words, it presents something to the eye for direct inspection, and it represents something that exists, or might exist outside the picture frame. (p. 267)
What is presented to the eye for direct inspection or close attention are the literal or natural aspects of an image (Panofsky, 1955). Naming the visual elements of a multi-modal text, and taking an inventory of its contents, is primarily a perceptual act (Serafini, 2010). Readers navigating multi-modal texts must attend to, or perceive, what has been rendered by the artist, illustrator, publisher or graphic designer. The successful navigation of multi-modal texts is an important precursor of the interpretation of these texts.

Navigating multi-modal texts requires readers to attend to the grammars of visual design, in addition to the grammar, structures and typography associated with written language. The decoding processes outlined by Luke and Freebody ( 1999), for instance, delineate a reader's ability to break the code of written texts by recognizing and using fundamental features and architecture, including alphabet, sounds in words and spelling, and structural conventions and patterns may be subsumed within the larger concept of navigating. In addition, non-linear structures, hypertext, visual images and multi-modal compositional structures need to be navigated by readers if readers are to be successful in today's educational settings. Navigating, including the decoding of written text, is an important skill and an equally important consideration for literacy educators, but it is an insufficient skill in and of itself to make readers proficient in new times.

Reader as interpreter
Simply stated, readers as interpreters are readers engaged in the act or process of interpretation. Interpretation is a process of constructing or generating viable meanings and responses to various texts and images. Terms such as comprehending, understanding, constructing meaning and making sense are often used interchangeably to define the act of interpretation. Whatever term is selected, one of the primary goals of reading a multi-modal text or viewing a visual image is to understand or comprehend what has been written by the author or depicted by the artist (Goodman, 1996; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996).

Interpretation is a contested concept. Various literary theories rely on different methods or processes of interpretation "because each has a different metaphysics, a different set of convictions that makes up its point of departure and defines its position in the hermeneutic field" (Armstrong, 1990, p. 4). Debates between monists, theorists that assert single, correct interpretations of a literary work discoverable by appealing to authorial intentions or close readings of the work itself, and pluralists, theorists that insist any text allows for an infinite array of legitimate readings, have challenged the notion of comprehension as an objective enterprise. If one aligns with Rorty's (1979) contention that there exists no single truth but always an array of interpretations, comprehension must be reconsidered as an act of interpretation, not as one of discovery of a single meaning or truth that exists a priori to the act of reading. The monist and pluralist theoretical positions may be incommensurable, but each relies on particular epistemological moves to "give momentary stability and coherence to what is dynamic, contradictory, and historical" (Solsken, 1993, p. 319).

Writing about Luke and Freebody's four resources model, Ludwig ( 2003) chooses the preposition from when describing the reader as text participant. She writes, "the emphasis is on comprehending and composing or making meaning from written, spoken, visual and multi-modal texts" (p. 1). The preposition from assumes that meaning is interred within the text and a meaning is discovered that exists a priori to the act of reading. Often times, the use of the preposition from connotes an objectivist conception of meaning, assuming meaning exists before the act of reading takes place and is to be discovered by the reader (Serafini, 2010). The preposition with could be used to connote a more constructivist stance in regard to the act or processes of reading.

In addition, the term comprehension connotes an objective perspective towards meaning making (Smagorinsky, 2001). It may be useful to reconsider the term comprehension (as noun), referring to a commodity or amount of information that is individually acquired through cognitive skill or work, or some measurable amount of knowledge or understanding that is literally taken away from every successful reading event. Instead, it may be more appropriate to consider the term comprehending (as verb), to refer to reading as a process, a recursive cycle of generating meanings that changes each time readers transact with a visual image of multi-modal text across particular contexts. This second definition, comprehending as verb, is closely associated with the concept and process of interpretation presented here. Interpretation is a construction of meaning drawing on one's prior knowledge and experiences the immediate and cultural contexts of the act of reading and the language and images presented for interpretation (Scholes, 2001).

Based on these theoretical assertions, readers should no longer be viewed as solitary explorers trying to uncover a single main idea hidden in the bowels of a classic novel or as "passive consumers of authoritative interpretations" (Faust, 1994, p. 25). Readers should be viewed as active constructors of meanings, transacting with texts in particular times, places and contexts (Rosenblatt, 1978). Readers come to the act of reading with their prior cultural, linguistic, literary and life experiences and draw upon these experiences as each reading is "situated in dialogue with and in extension of other readings" (Smagorinsky, 2001, p. 141). An expanded definition of reader as interpreter needs to address the processes of generating viable interpretations in transaction with visual images and written texts and one's ability to construct understandings from multiple perspectives, including the author's intentions, textual references, personal experiences and sociocultural contexts in which one reads (Serafini & Ladd, 2008).

This shift from comprehension to interpretation assumes an increase in authority or agency of the reader during the reading process. Readers as interpreters are constructors of meanings, drawing upon available resources to make sense of what is written or depicted. This is a shift away from what is referred to as an autonomous model of literacy (Street, 1984) or as a conduit model of reading (Mosenthal, 1987) where meanings exist a priori and are simply presented to readers through a text serving as a neutral channel or conduit.

When considering the images, text and design elements contained in multi-modal texts, it should be made clear that images are not neutral, objective representations of reality anymore than language is a neutral, objective representation of reality (Gombrich, 1961; Rorty, 1979). Viewers of design elements and visual images, like readers of written texts, are socialized into ways of seeing, in much the same way that readers are socialized into particular ways of reading (Berger, 1972).

A visual image, like a written text, does not exist nor is it created in a vacuum. An image, like any written text, "is not a unitary, seamless whole, but can be fragmented and atomized into constituent elements, and these elements represent a life of their own and that of others" (Hartman, 1992, p. 297). Readers draw upon a wide range of experiences with other images and texts during their act of interpretation. The unique personal experiences of each individual reader add to the variations inherent in one's interpretations. In similar fashion, the experiences one has in common with other members of a culture, society or community of readers add to the commonalities of interpretations across individual readers (Fish, 1980).

The process of interpreting multi-modal texts requires readers to draw from their experiential reservoirs to generate viable interpretations to add to the interpretations made by others in a community of readers regardless of one's allegiance to any single literary theory. Freebody's (1992) original conception of reader as text participant included knowledge of "the resources to engage in the technology of the text itself - its meaning and structure" (p. 53) and conceived of the reader as an "inferrer of connections between textual elements and of additional material required to fill out the unexplicated aspects of text" (p. 53). Luke and Freebody ( 1999) extended their definition of reader as text participant to include participation in understanding and composing meaningful written, visual and multi-modal texts, taking into account each text's interior meaning systems in relation to their available knowledge and their experiences of other cultural discourses, texts and meaning systems.

The interpretation of multi-modal texts requires readers to develop interpretive repertoires that address the visual images and design elements, in addition to the text itself, and the meaning potential across the various modes presented. Drawing on social semiotics (van Leeuwen, 2005), multi-modal analysis (Kress, 2010; Machin, 2007), iconography (Panofsky, 1955) and art theory (Gombrich, 1961), the interpretation of visual images and design can be conceived as a tripartite or three-tiered interpretive framework that requires attention to the perceptual, structural and ideological aspects of multi-modal texts (Serafini, 2010). The images contained in multi-modal texts encountered in complex social contexts are created with particular semiotic resources, basic design elements and visual structures. To expand one's interpretive repertoires to include approaches to visual analysis, readers will be required to synthesize perceptual abilities with structural perspectives and political, historical and cultural understandings. The act of interpreting may focus on the construction of knowledge by individual readers, but must also account for the sociocultural contexts of production, as well as reception, of multi-modal texts.

Reader as designer
Reader as designer extends the constructivist metaphor (Spivey, 1997) or role of reader as text participant to assert that readers of multi-modal texts not only construct meaning from what is depicted or represented, but also design the way the text is read, its reading path, what is attended to and, in the process, construct a unique experience during their transaction with a text. Reader as designer goes beyond the classic constructivist metaphor that asserts readers construct meaning from a text that exists a priori, to suggest readers actually construct the text to be read. From a literary theoretical perspective, this concept of constructing meaning associated with reader as designer goes beyond the reception theory of Iser ( 1978) and aligns more closely with Fish's (1980) notion of interpretive communities positing there is no immanent meaning in text and suggests readers decide not only what texts mean, but what can be considered a text.

Beginning with James' ( 1978) notion of selective attention and progressing through contemporary theories of multi-modality (Kress, 2010), a contemporary definition of the term design refers to "the process of translating the rhetor's politically oriented assessment of the environment of communication into semiotically shaped material" (Kress, 2010, p. 132). A general principle of semiosis, in particular a principle of design, is the process of transformation (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001). Readers design texts to be navigated and interpreted by drawing upon the available semiotic resources presented in a text and construct meanings during the act of reading. Design is the process of organizing what is to be navigated, interpreted and articulated, shaping available resources into potential meanings realized in the context of reading multi-modal texts. In other words, the text to be read does not come to the reader ready-made; the text comes as semiotic potential, where the text to be interpreted is designed during the act of reading.

Up to this point, design has been primarily conceived from the perspective of the writer, creator or rhetor in Kress' terms (Kress, 2010). The designer of a text imagines the task at hand, uses his/her knowledge of available semiotic resources, understands the wider social conditions of production and reception and produces a text by selecting a site of appearance for the materialization of its intended meanings (Kress, 2010). The New London Group ( 1996) suggested educators "treat any semiotic activity, including language to produce or consume texts, as a matter of Design" (p. 74). Their concept of design involved the transformation, not replication, of available designs, suggesting that meaning is constructed anew in each act of reading (interpreting) or authoring (producing) texts, while at the same time reconstructing and renegotiating the reader's identity. Hull and Nelson ( 2005) write, "it is obvious how useful the notion of design can become as a way to conceptualize the suddenly increased array of choices about semiotic features that an author confronts" (p. 229). What may not be as obvious is the way that design plays a role in the way a reader constructs the reading paths, the array of choices of semiotic features and, in essence, the texts being read.

The concept of reader as designer can be extended from the producer of texts to the process of navigating and interpreting multi-modal texts as well. Making a shift from designer as producer of multi-modal texts to navigator, interpreter of texts requires an expansion of the concept of design to include the active construction of meaning potentials during reader's transactions with multi-modal texts. Unlike traditional written text that is presented in a linear, temporal sequence, where the reading path is ordered a priori, multi-modal and hypertexts are often presented in non-linear fashion. For example, postmodern picture books (Sipe & Pantaleo, 2008) require readers to not only navigate the visual and textual elements presented during the act of reading, but to actually design the text to be read from the visual and textual elements. Like the traditional "choose your own adventure texts", the reader is required to become an even more active participant in the navigation, interpretation and design of multi-modal texts.

Numerous reading paths are possible given the compositional nature and spatial arrangements of multi-modal texts (Kress, 2010). However, the paths chosen by readers are not arbitrary, nor are they predetermined by the artist or graphic designer, though these creators draw upon various compositional, visual, design and typographical features to suggest how a text may be read. The interests, needs and experiences of the reader motivate which paths are selected. In this sense, the concept of design provides the reader with agency as he/she constructs meaning from the available semiotic resources presented in the multi-modal text.

Kress and van Leeuwen ( 2001) suggest contemporary or multi-modal texts ask readers to perform a different semiotic work, namely to design the order of the text or reading path for themselves before interpreting the text constructed. This semiotic work requires readers to make choices about how to frame the text being read. Whereas the process of navigation requires the reader to navigate the design elements of the text presented by the author-illustrator-publisher, the process of design requires the readers to construct their own reading path by framing the elements of a multi-modal text to suit their particular needs and interests during the act of reading. Navigating the elements presented by the author-illustrator-publisher and making decisions about the sequence of elements considered should be considered acts of design, utilizing the semiotic resources available to construct meaning in transaction with the elements of these texts.

As compared with the temporal or linear composition of written language, the spatial composition of visual and multi-modal texts presents readers with a less directed, more open reading path. This openness requires readers to design the path through which their reading occurs. Similar to Rosenblatt's (1978) concept of evocation, the reader of multi-modal texts must evoke or design the text to be read before it can be interpreted. The shift from the dominance of linear, print-based texts to visual and multi-modal texts requires a more active process on behalf of the reader and less authority and direction by the author-illustrator-publisher (Kress, 2010).
An additional aspect of reader as designer is the concept of framing (Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996). Readers construct frames around experience to organize encounters with the world, in particular with multi-modal texts, to make sense of these texts and consider them in the contexts in which they are realized. Without a frame, there is no meaning potential since all meaning is constructed within a discourse or other framing device. Frames mark both temporal and spatial locations. They separate the text being read from the context in which it is read. The reader decides on what is part of the text and what is part of the context to be considered when reading.

Framing devices include, as well as exclude, aspects of the world or text to be considered. The act of framing decides the aspects of the text to be considered in accordance with the interests of the framer (Kress, 2010). In other words, the reader makes decisions about which aspects of the texts are being navigated to consider and interpret and, in doing so, designs the text to be read, rather than passively uncovering a text that comes to the reader ready-made according to the ministrations of the author, illustrator/designer or publisher. For Kress ( 2010), this is the inherent difference between the world ordered for the reader and the world designed by the reader. The reader as designer selects from all the possible ways of positioning a text, the various design, visual and textual elements presented and the sociocultural contexts of the act of reading and decides on how a particular text is to be read in a particular time and place.

Reader as interrogator
Understanding the social practice of reader as interrogator requires a shift from a primarily cognitive theory of reading (Anderson & Pearson, 1984) to consider cultural theories of meaning (Smagorinsky, 2001). Cultural theories of meaning assume a reading of a text to have idiosyncratic (personal) as well as culturally mediated (public) meanings. From this perspective, reading is re-conceptualized as a social practice that involves the construction of meaning in a socially mediated context, the power relationships inherent in any given setting and the readers' identity and available means of social participation. Although the term interrogator was chosen rather than the term analyst to connote a more aggressive stance to interpreting and designing texts, the two concepts are closely aligned. The concept of interrogator, like that of text analyst, includes the critical and sociocultural aspects of analysis espoused by Luke and Freebody in their original four resources model.

Meanings constructed during the act of reading are socially embedded, temporary, partial and plural (Corcoran, Hayhoe, & Pradl, 1994). Texts are not interpreted by readers in a vacuum, but are always read by particular readers, in particular contexts, written by particular authors, containing an array of semiotic resources, including written language, visual images and design elements (Lewis, 2000). Additionally, different readings, meanings and interpretations have material, discursive and sociocultural consequences for readers. Working from a poststructuralist or critical perspective, the meanings constructed in transaction with multi-modal texts are social, historical, partial, multiple and political (Brodkey, 1992). In other words, if the reading of a multi-modal text requires the text to be framed or designed in a particular way, the text can be framed in other ways and each frame has significant consequences for the reader.

Research from a sociocultural or critical perspective focuses on the types of meanings that readers construct, how these meanings are affected by the social context and reading practices that readers are located within and the purposes of constructing particular responses (Gee, 1992; John-Steiner, Petoskey, & Smith, 1994). Readers construct readings (plural), not as originators of meaning, but as human subjects positioned through social, political and historical practices that remain the location of a constant struggle over power.
Visual grammar, iconology and media studies suggest readers analyse texts at the site of production, image and reception or audience (Rose, 2001). Where cognitive theories of reading focus primarily on the site of reception, the reader as interrogator must consider the production of images and multi-modal texts and the intended audiences for such texts when constructing meanings during the act of reading. "To explore the meaning of images is to recognize that they are produced within a system of social power and ideology. Ideologies are systems of belief that exist within all cultures" (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001, p. 21). They continue, "images are an important means through which ideologies are produced and onto which ideologies are projected" (p. 21). Rose ( 2001) argues, "one of the central aims of 'the cultural turn' in the social sciences is to argue that social categories are not natural but instead are constructed. These constructions can take visual form" (pp. 10-11). The interrogation of the visual images and elements of multi-modal texts, including borders, fonts, graphic design and colour, is just as important as the analysis of the written text.

To understand the images and design elements presented in multi-modal texts requires readers to consider aspects of production and reception, in addition to the aspects of the image and text itself. The capacity of images to affect us as viewers is dependent on the larger cultural meanings they evoke and the social, political and cultural contexts in which they are viewed (Sturken & Cartwright, 2001). Wolcott ( 1996) argues that readers must look not only at the relationships within a work of art but beyond the work itself to the historical, cultural and social contexts in order to comprehend its meaning.

Moving beyond the literal level of meaning requires readers to infer from various texts and contexts to interrogate what they read and view (Serafini & Ladd, 2008). Every classroom is a site for the production of meaning, and every interpretive community has some alignment with a particular literary tradition or perspective (Fish, 1980). Helping readers interrogate the meaning potential of the semiotic and multi-modal resources of a text is an important consideration in today's educational environment.

Concluding remarks
There are numerous theoretical and pedagogical challenges that arise in expanding the four resources or social practices model for reading multi-modal texts. The first challenge in constructing separate resources or practices is the distinctions between the four new resources or reading practices are blurred. How does one perceive and navigate the visual images and design of multi-modal texts without constructing meaning and having a set purpose for reading? How does a reader design the texts being read without analysing them simultaneously? These four expanded resources, although presented as four distinct resources for reading, are interrelated and inseparable in the act of reading-viewing. Freebody and Luke ( 1990) stated that each resource or practice was necessary but insufficient and that no single resource was sufficient in and of itself for being successful in today's societies. The same holds true for the four resources described for reading multi-modal texts.

A second challenge is the social practices for reading multi-modal texts themselves do not emerge a priori; these practices are constructed by readers in the same way as the earlier practices were constructed in sociocultural, historical, political and economic contexts. In addition, viewers of images, like readers of written texts, have agency in their creation of these practices and their use of these interpretive and analytic strategies and processes. The four multi-modal practices are adapted, not simply adopted, by readers as they transact with the texts and images in the various contexts in which they are encountered.

A third challenge arises in trying to avoid describing the four resources model hierarchically. Rather than conceptualizing the four resources as a hierarchical set of competencies, the four practices are "nested" within one another, influencing each other and blurring the distinctions between the various perspectives or practices described (Serafini, 2010). Freebody and Luke ( 2003) consider the four resources model a "systematic way of interrogating practice" (p. 57) with each resource contributing to the reading process in its own unique way.

By expanding the dimensions we bring to interpreting and understanding multi-modal texts, we widen the scope of inquiry to include perceptual and cognitive perspectives, in addition to sociocultural and critical theoretical and analytical perspectives. The power of the four resources model was its inclusion of different theoretical perspectives, not in its exclusion. The role of progressive literacy education is to open up the interpretive spaces we provide through the expectations we set, the responses we endorse and support, the texts we select to expand readers' interpretive repertoires and the strategies we demonstrate during reading instruction (Serafini, 2011).

References

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Pedagogies: An International Journal Volume 7, Issue 2, 2012

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Expanding the four resources model: reading visual and multi-modal texts Frank Serafini AbstractFreebody and Luke proffered an expanded conceptualization of the resources readers utilize when reading and the roles readers adopt during the act of reading.

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Help your students classify ideas and communicate more effectively with these free graphic organizer templates, available for download. They can be used to structure writing projects and help in problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research, and brainstorming.

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Free Downloadable Graphic Organizer Templates

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Use these free graphic organizer templates to help your students communicate more effectively by classifying ideas, structuring writing projects, and more.

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About Evidence for Learning

Evidence for Learning's mission is to help busy educators - especially educational leaders - increase learning for children, by improving the quality, availability and use of evidence in education. E4L was established in 2015 by Social Ventures Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that works with partners to alleviate disadvantage. E4L is a global partner of the Education Endowment Foundation.

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An accessible summary of the international evidence on teaching 5-16 year-olds.

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Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful, quality product/outcome to be shared with their world. Once an educator provides a motivational challenge, or student selects their initiative, it is imperative to nurture and support the necessary criteria, planning, timelines, resources and support to accommodate student success. The teacher becomes a guide on the side or an event manager, a facilitator that co-creates with their students. Processes become the predominant forces while skills, knowledge and behaviours are activated in real-world, relevant contexts.

Authentic learning is actualized learning. It is only when student initiatives are directed towards a genuine audience, beyond the classroom, that learning becomes truly activated. When learning initiatives are designed for initiatives that permeate the classroom walls, then lasting, transferrable learning begins to take hold. It can be achieved by going out to the community, by inviting a community audience into the school setting, or directing it towards an audience in the global, digital or electronic domain.

When relevant and meaningful learning initiatives are skilfully designed and implemented for a genuine audience, in a realistic context, then innate neurological receptors to learn are heightened. The closer learning is to real-life scenarios, the more optimal the learning experience will be.

Authentic learning engages all the senses allowing students to create a meaningful, useful, shared outcome. They are real life tasks, or simulated tasks, that provide the learner with opportunities to connect directly with a relevant world.

Instead of vicariously discussing topics and regurgitating information in a traditional industrial age modality, authentic learning provides a learner with support to achieve a tangible, useful, quality product worth sharing with an audience in their world. Instead of prioritizing the curriculum expectations and its contents over experience rich processes, authentic learning chooses fertile, student driven, community connected audiences to create experience rich products for and then strategically align relevant curricula connections to them. with our environment that creates experience

As Albert Einstein stated, "The only source of knowledge is the experience." Yes we are complex, intricately wired beings with a vast network of neuro-receptors that serve us on our unique journeys through life. Regardless of our analytical talents, physical prowess, perceptual abilities or health status, we all come with plethora of innate skills and deficits. It's only when we're exposed to opportunities to explore, engage, create, reflect, interact socially, emotionally and cognitively

exposure to Authentic learning emphasizes 'experience nurturing' that provides longer lasting, transferable skills to an individual. It is more relevant, motivational and personal.

Our greatest short coming in education these past years has been to ignore the brain research that is richly available to us that affirms that implementing multi-sensory activities, pursuing meaningful tasks, exploring a variety of skills with real world applications is optimal learning and that it needs to be practiced regularly.

A student sitting at a desk, taking notes and regurgitating curriculum content uses a minute amount of their potential. In general, students learn to sit quietly, respond in turn, follow instructions and complete tests for a control teacher. Without relevance, personal connection, multi-sensory engagement and purpose, content driven curricula begins to evaporate once the test has been taken. You remember studying for exams, cramming, finding memory cues and rote to consolidate information? Do you also remember how fast you started to forget those brain bytes once you left the exam room? If it's not relevant to you, it not lasting, transferrable learning. If learning is not based in the rich processes that only experiences can provide, it's static learning.

This classic, industrial age approach has been used since the mid 1870's to produce a work force to facilitate mass production lines that were to become prevalent in the next hundred years. That era ended in the 1980's if not before. If all we do is sit at a square table, with a square piece of paper, in a square room with departmentalized lessons and timetables, then what are our education systems really producing? Brain-based research shows that by using all senses it maximizes the learning experience. The key being - the experience!

Interacting, manipulating, exploring, collaborating, discussing openly and sharing for meaningful reasons while having ample time to nurture a greater depth of reasoning and creativity is optimal learning. It's learning that sticks. It's learning with roots!

In an authentic learning model the emphasis is to prioritize the processes over the content. It's about allowing students to pursue individual learning opportunities that are unique to their interests, through relevant, real life journeys. The emphasis isn't just about regurgitating content for a unit test, it's about developing a set of culminating skills sets, within a realistic timeline, using self-motivated, natural inquiry methods to create a useful product to be shared with a specific, meaningful audience. It's about engaging students into full fledged, multi-sensory contexts that nurture their learning experiences in significant, lasting ways.

More importantly, the learning journey that ensues is life altering as students are aligned to meaningful processes that nurture non-perishable skills rather than the short term memory exercises that a content driven curriculum demands. Don't get me wrong, content is important but when using an authentic learning approach content is recognized as it is properly intended to be - a portfolio of records, research, plans, lists, notes, reading, contacts, drafts and support information that will become the artifacts of the authentic journey.

With the advent of the internet, content is readily available to everyone. We can reference, cross reference, research any topic at rapid speeds and do it at any time when it's relevant for us. We can access it through mobiles, tablets or computers as we access information as it is needed and when it is needed. Is it still relevant for a teacher to predominately dispense content to students, then evaluate the regurgitation of that content given as the main assessment of a person's learning ability?

Authentic learning allows for students to demonstrate their skills through a series of unfolding learning processes with a definitive, quality product that they can actually demonstrate. At no time in history has information (content) been so readily available to the masses, but it's the synergy and processes of engagement that defines our human experience. That's where the real value in education lies. Students need purpose. They need to feel useful and be a valued part of a community. They need to feel connected and real-world contexts allow for these elements to be activated and groomed. By nurturing 'purpose' we are providing the channels for students to recognize their unique talents and see their inherent value in society. Thus, individual and community self-esteem becomes a priceless byproduct of a successful authentic learning initiative.

I believe that education systems must reevaluate the weighting of its' curricula as it must reflect a working balance between learning processes and properly aligned content? Remember, processes take time to learn but once they're consolidated they're impact lasts for a long time. Processes require skill sets that are developmentally prioritized and require skilled instructors to transfer these skills. If you want students to engage in deeper thinking opportunities, then time is one of the most valued commodities. Are education systems willing to forgo the number of content expectations in their curricula in favour of embracing processes that require more time commitment? Good teachers are quick to point out that their curricula covers so many topics and expectations that there isn't enough time to cover everything appropriately. The more topics, the more content and the more time it takes to cover everything in the curriculum, and mathematically it just doesn't work. The rules dictate how the game is played, so to cover every expectation educational systems rely on the "here's the information" and "here's the test" mode of education. It's an efficient way to deliver content quickly so that all expectations are lawfully covered. It's an over used exercise in short term memory skills and cognitive cueing tricks, but its not a fulfilling, meaningful way to learn. Unless students are immersed in relevant, multi-sensory activities with specific, audience directed outcomes and culminating skills sets, then what students are learning is not sticking.

With the recognition of STEM, STEAM, Maker education platforms in the past decade, it demonstrates a deeper appreciation and commitment to relevant processes. This is very promising!

The quality of research, subject knowledge, skill development, expert consultation, dedication and resourcefulness that goes into making a product is directly related to the quality outcome of that product.

Is It Authentic Learning or Not?

Remember, in true authentic learning an outcome designed to interact successfully with a community is the goal. When this happens a whole new layer of emotional, academic and skill set developments take place. There's a big difference between preparing a skit for some classmates verses a dramatic production for the public. There's a much larger personal investment required when a student becomes an ancient Egyptian tradesperson producing tools and wares, while working at a market stall to an interacting audience than holding up a Bristol board display and explaining ancient Egyptian information on it. Best of all, the student retains information from this type of multi-sensory, authentic learning experience longer because it's real, it's connected.

Authentic learning is not project-based learning nor is it constructivism. These models of education were designed within the classroom context. Although at times they stepped successfully into the world of authentic, and are extremely useful tools in moving closer to an authentic learning approach they are not authentic learning models. Authentic learning is intended to successfully interact with a community; by going out to interact with a community or the community coming into the student community to interact. That's why it's authentic! It's a quality outcome or product of significance that is intended for community consumption or betterment.

Kudos to those teachers who provide project-based, simulation, game-based learning opportunities, Maker, STEM and STEAM. These are significant, engaging initiatives that provide the best kind of classroom learning and education systems need more of you. They are fantastic opportunities in providing working instruction and to model inquiry method, team work and sound skill development. What I'm encouraging is to take the next step. Consider a project to be developed for real world applications beyond the school walls, for a viable audience. Not every time, but perhaps once in a school year attempt an authentic event. For those who have stepped into the realm of authentic you'll understand how this impacts everything. It will impact the initial discussions, the consultation, the refined skill sets, networking and the professional development a student and teacher requires.

Think about it. Every important, relevant thing a person requires to achieve a goal in life has a quality outcome or product attached to it with an intended audience. Pitching a business proposal requires an in depth presentation that reflects relevance, meaning and purpose. If it's backed by tangible proof, even better. A prototype of a new invention requires a quality, tested, working device or apparatus to gain support in the marketing world. An environmental assessment requires extensive research and impact studies of connected, like-situations from around the ecological world.

A grade five teacher once shared a wonderful collection of student written and recorded persuasive "Saving Energy" stories with me. They even designed CD covers in art lessons for their project. The work, learning and planning by teacher and student was tremendous. Upon being asked however, "What did you do with all that great work" she replied she'd listened to the CD in class and put the CD covers up on the bulletin board. This is a great example of integrated learning but it's not authentic learning.

By planning beyond the classroom, a whole new level of understanding and relevant learning takes place. What if the CDs were intended for sale at the nearest mall? Now, an in depth degree of consultation needs to be pursued. Mall managers, local radio stations, graphic designers, bar codes for selling, copyrights local recording studios and marketing experts will need to be considered. That's the major leap an educator needs to take to enter the realm of authentic learning. What if the recordings were uploaded onto a website and promoted to leaders of energy conservation intended to be used to educate the surrounding community on "Energy Saving"? What about an "Energy Saving in Our Homes" campaign within your community? These are only suggestions but with a little brainstorming and with the right people, it wouldn't be long until a list of exciting possibilities could be created. Why are they exciting possibilities? Because they're real, relevant and worthy!

One of the reasons I started to use the term "authentic learning" was that I recognized that the term "outcomes-based" education, William Spady's model which shared a number of characteristics, was being recognized mainly for it's outcome statements. His strategy of reforming an education system, built on students performing a hierarchy of skills was diluted down to the content-based, outcome statements. Again, it became more about the content than pursuing the meaningful journey of authentic education. It isn't hard to understand why this happened because that's how it would be perceived by policy makers who's successes were affirmed in a content driven system.

Authentic learning is not another edu-trend or buzz word. It is real life - real world education and when appropriately implemented it can provide optimal learning opportunities to all students. I have noticed that some educators are misrepresenting the term "authentic" to qualify their student's inferred learning. If learning is engaged solely in classroom settings, referencing real world examples only, it's vicarious learning, - it's not authentic learning. Authentic learning is relevant learning, activated in a real world context to a real world audience.

​If you've ever initiated a business or an organization, you'll have a far better understanding of the enormous work and planning an authentic learning event requires. As in real life - these initiatives take an enormous amount of time, dedication, consulting, flexibility, networking, research and communication to launch. Yes, to launch! Once the launch has been initiated, then the real work starts. As guide on the side, or project manager you're now having to coordinate, educate, coach, consult and communicate with your students and parents in shaping their successful roles while pursuing the larger goal of your signature event. As well, you're going to require some additional professional development directly connected to the skills required in your authentic initiative.

Creating a Signature Event

A signature event is when tangible product is shared with a genuine, relevant audience. For example; if your high school senior class planned to design, construct and test their solar cars, organizing a Solar Car Derby with a spectator audience at a nearby racetrack would be a worthwhile signature event.

To fully immerse the students in an authentic learning experience they would be expected to prepare for the event with community experts, consultants, parents, teacher colleagues and community leaders. The more the students participate in the organization of the event, the more ownership and pride the students will have towards the event.

By providing students with the opportunity to have input at all levels allows for the distribution of learning at all levels. If there are rules involved, then student representatives need to be part of the derby rules development, refinement and approval. Students will possess a better grasp of all aspects of the authentic event when they are personally connected to the complete journey.

While the signature event is being planned, the students are honing their knowledge and skills to create their own quality product to share. It all depends on the type of product being created that will dictate how much class time can be used to design and create their products.

This style of learning is labour intensive and time consuming but it is the most worthwhile education you can provide students. Once you've implemented an authentic event, or simulation, the impact on student development is remarkable. The great thing about authentic learning is, it's a context that allows for student's uniqueness to be highlighted. Whether it's a specific skill, academic or a social/behaviour issue, an authentic setting, appropriately implemented, provides a very rich personal growth setting.

This new, authentic learning approach, however, requires another breed of educator. An academic as well as a life skilled, co-creator. A real, "life" long learner with skill sets and experiences that can facilitate a creative, diverse, well structured, team-based, open-ended, criteria based and globally directed education program. Ask yourself if you're on the way down the enlightened authentic learning road? Are you working towards sharing a tangible product beyond the class or bringing the world into your schools either electronically or for real? The authentic experiences you provide your students is also the beginning of an unforgettable learning journey in your life.

The Tale of Two Lyres

Pictures of Quality Products (below)

I had just completed an authentic event, a Medieval Market Living Museum one April evening. It was the culmination of one and half months of preparation as the students demonstrated their personas (roles) as medieval trades people in medieval Coventry, UK. The students worked diligently away at their trades during this open house, all academic levels to their potential. Their goal was to create an authentic medieval trade persona, an authentic costume that reflected their trade role, an authentic working trade tool or product and a market stall to share their wares. The room was decorated with beautiful tapestries, murals, personalized heraldry banners and a large book display of the student's collective work/activity sheets carefully spiral bound.

In authentic learning paper collections are referred to as portfolios. These portfolios were carefully done and included an extensive variety of curriculum content and authentic learning preparation sheets. Spelling, creative writing, math, art, drama, technology, problem solving and reading comprehension work sheets were all included. Nearly five hundred visitors came through our themed room and only about ten people even looked through the spiraled bound unit booklets. They were clearly displayed, beautifully presented and featured eye pleasing, colorful covers.

Visitors were far more interested in interacting with the trades people, hearing their stories, watching them work, than reading the notes that helped them attain their goal. Really, it is this kind of instance that affirms the reality that content and paper curriculum isn't as important as we believe them to be. It's important, and it certainly has its place, but the applied knowledge is far more important. The doing consolidates all the learning that went into the event.

​Somewhere along the continuum of learning development the jot notes became more important than the tangible, meaningful applications of the education purpose itself. In the end, it's the applied demonstration that counts. "It's all in the doing".

Student Behaviours When Immersed in Authentic Learning

Is it realistic to think that authentic learning of this nature can be done, ongoing, throughout the school year? Of course it can and there are school's that engage in authentic approaches already. Maybe one day authentic learning may be the motis operandum of the majority of schools, but realistically not yet. With the current school classroom structures, resources, timetabling, standardized test demands, physical classroom limitations, administration directives and the plethora of curriculum expectations as they are, it's difficult to do.

If, however, an educator can attempt one or two authentic learning events in a school year then that's a fantastic start. At year's end you and your students won't regret it and it won't be long until you're looking forward to starting your next. There are different degrees of authentic learning events from simulations shared with your community to complete, real world integrations. Start small, then develop your authentic learning undertakings over the years to come. Let other educators, parents and community members observe your authentic learning events. Remember, a well implemented authentic unit/event is the best kind of promotion for this rich style of learning.

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Authentic learning is real life learning. It is a style of learning that encourages students to create a tangible, useful, quality product/outcome to be shared with their world. Once an educator...

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The web's most comprehensive guide to American punctuation.

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Practical advice and high impact teaching practices that improve outcomes in reading, writing and speaking and listening.

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Evidence for Learning has produced another Guidance Report Putting Evidence to Work: A School's Guide to Implementation which can be used as a guide as you plan to implement changes in your school relating to improving literacy.

Implementation can be described as a series of stages relating to thinking about, preparing for, delivering, and sustaining change. The section Acting on the evidence, suggests a range of strategies that you might find helpful in planning, structuring and delivering a whole‑school approach to literacy.

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this guide was developed by reviewing the best available international research and consulting experts

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and academics to arrive at key principles for effective teaching of literacy.  this guidance report offers seven practical

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evidence‑based recommendations – that are relevant to all students in secondary school – but particularly to those struggling with their literacy.  students who are falling behind in literacy

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come disproportionately from disadvantaged homes. a student in year 7 from the lowest quintile of social economic status (ses) is more than 10 times as likely to have reading skills below national minimum standard in comparison to a peer in the highest quintile of ses.  this guide is aimed primarily at subject leaders

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and other staff with responsibility for leading improvements in literacy teaching. it is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to literacy recommendations but represents seven ‘lever points’ where there is useful evidence about literacy teaching that schools can use to make a significant difference to students’ learning. the report focuses on pedagogy and approaches that are supported by good evidence

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centred around the concept of ‘disciplinary literacy’; it does not cover all the potential components of successful literacy provision.  the guide focuses on improving the quality of literacy teaching. it is intended as an accessible overview of existing research with clear

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actionable guidance and several key principles to consider.

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Seven recommendations to improve outcomes in literacy for secondary school students.

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Each of the 10 word lists contains 100 important words. Make a commitment to learn one list a week. Go through each list and test yourself (or, better still, get a friend to test you) one week later to reinforce your learning.

Remember - work on vocabulary is never a waste of time. It pays dividends in terms of your final SAT score, but more importantly, it makes you a more educated person.

We have also produced 10 vocabulary lists for you to refer to when doing the real tests from the Official SAT study guide.

Word focus

Word Focus is our systematic approach to advanced vocabulary building. Find out more about Word Focus.

Words from Official SAT Study Guide

More information

For more information and tips on how to use these word lists, visit our word lists section.

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Each of the 10 word lists contains 100 important words. Make a commitment to learn one list a week. Go through each list and test yourself (or, better still, get a friend to test you) one week later to reinforce your learning. Remember - work on vocabulary is never a waste of time.

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Don't Waste Your Breath: An Introduction to the Mysterious World of the Adolescent Brain

Adolescents are a mystery to many adults - especially their parents. This presentation provides a wry and possibly even helpful overview of the way adolescents think. Based on a synthesis of recent research on early adolescence and mind development, implications for schools and families will be discussed. (Research Paper)

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Adolescents are a mystery to many adults - especially their parents. This presentation provides a wry and possibly even helpful overview of the way adolescents think. Based on a synthesis of recent research on early adolescence and mind development, implications for schools and families will be discussed. (Research Paper)

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Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB L) is an organisational framework for behaviour support to enhance respectful relationships and engagement of students in their learning. It is an evidenced based framework for implementation within all CEDoW school communities, (K to 12).

The PB 4 L Framework includes:

· Improving and maintaining the social climate of the school by reducing problem behaviours, whilst increasing prosocial behaviours;

· Promoting the social and emotional skills students need to be successful in life;

· Supporting and enhancing the learning and teaching environment, and engagement of students to improve student learning outcomes;

· Increasing a proactive approach and reducing a reactive response to problem behaviours through a continuum of support; and,

· Building the capacity of staff to effectively teach, affirm, correct and support behaviours at all levels, and to fulfil teacher responsibilities under The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA, 2018).

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Early Career Teachers - Behaviour Management

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Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB L) is an organisational framework for behaviour support to enhance respectful relationships and engagement of students in their learning. It is an evidenced based framework for implementation within all CEDoW school communities, (K to 12).

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​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a whole-school framework that promotes positive behaviour across a school and helps schools develop safe and supportive learning environments.​

Schools which implement the PBL framework make sure all students are explicitly taught the expected behaviours and establish clear and consistent boundaries. Staff take a proactive, preventative approach to ensure all students receive the appropriate level of support to help them to be successful at school. Student outcomes are monitored so identified students can receive additional support when needed, and a minority of students can access intensive support to enable them to engage successfully at school.

PBL State Regi​ster

A verification process to recognise schools meeting PBL baseline implementation standards is conducted annually. Evidence is clear that PBL must be implemented with fidelity in order for students and staff to benefit. Verification seeks to improve the quality of the implementation process and to ensure the achievement of desired outcomes reported in research, such as improved safety, student engagement and staff satisfaction.

Schools meeting baseline PBL implementation standards receive ongoing professional development and support from a Principal Advisor PBL (PA-PBL) and are listed on the PBL State Register. Schools undertaking initial PBL training will be listed on the register in the year following training.

The PBL verification process supports schools to successfully implement PBL long term by evaluating the following key implementation components:

School prio​​rity

This relates to the extent to which school leadership and staff prioritise PBL implementation. This includes PBL being part of the school improvement plan and ensuring that the PBL framework is used to align and integrate initiatives.

Team use o​f data

Effective use of data for decision-making and action planning underpins school improvement. The PBL team ensures that accurate data is recorded, summarised and analysed in order to target support and interventions. Data is also shared with staff and the community on a regular basis.

Region​al support

PBL progress and outcomes should form part of regular discussions with principal supervisors and regional services. Support for PBL implementation is available from regional PAs-PBL.

Capacity buildi​ng

Building staff capability in implementation of positive behaviour support is an ongoing process. Coach network meetings are important professional learning opportunities for internal PBL coaches and team leaders. Regions also develop a PBL professional development calendar covering all aspects of PBL implementation. School PBL teams should schedule annual PBL induction or refresher PD and take up opportunities to network with other schools to share best practice.

More infor​​mation

The explicit and systematic teaching of social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies to students has been shown to decrease emotional distress and behavioural problems and increase academic scores. SEL helps students manage emotions, set goals, get along with others and make responsible decisions.

The PBL framework provides the ideal vehicle for teaching identified SEL competencies. Schools teaching SEL within a prevention-focused continuum of supports, such as PBL, have reported reduced rates of bullying, increased sense of school safety, improvements in students' emotional regulation and greater staff and student wellbeing.

The PBL framework supports schools to become trauma-informed by increasing awareness of the effects of trauma on students' learning, wellbeing and behaviour, including attendance, engagement, relationships with others, academic achievement and behaviour. This awareness includes being mindful of avoiding re-traumatisation and looking beyond the immediate or 'surface' behaviours.

Schools using a trauma-informed approach provide universal support to all students and are sensitive to individual needs, addressing student needs holistically and working in partnership with caregivers and agencies to provide evidence-based interventions for students who are experiencing difficulties associated with complex trauma.

PBL helps schools to develop safe, positive, consistent and predictable environments, which are foundational to a trauma-informed approach. Challenges in relation to behaviour, mental health, academic success and social issues are best addressed using an integrated approach focused on the whole child.

Research shows that many students have experienced or are still experiencing early trauma. The high prevalence of trauma underlines the importance of a whole-school approach, which assumes that all students will benefit from support, taking into consideration emotional, academic and behavioural responses. In addition, an awareness amongst all staff of the prevalence and effects of trauma, and the importance of a positive school environment, is the foundation for effective trauma-informed support.

Fact sheet: PBL and trauma-informed practices​

PBL provides a framework for schools to nurture students by providing them with meaningful opportunities for improving social and emotional skills, such as recognising and managing emotions, developing caring and concern for others, making responsible decisions, establishing positive relationships and handling challenging situations in a constructive way.

In PBL schools, principals, school leaders and staff members work together to establish and maintain a positive school climate. All adults communicate, teach, and model the positive behaviours they expect students to exhibit in the classroom and school throughout the day. By setting expectations, teaching students to meet those expectations and regularly reinforcing appropriate behaviours, schools see fewer incidents of inappropriate behaviour and more time spent on teaching and learning.

PBL uses restorative practices such as correcting behaviour calmly and in a manner that demonstrates that the student is safe and supported at school, viewing inappropriate behaviour as an instructional opportunity and using consequences that promote student self-reflection.

Fact sheet: PBL and restorative practices

PBL is based on the belief that all students should have access to the supports needed to prevent the development and continued use of problem behaviours, including bullying. PBL places emphasis on the behaviour rather than the student, therefore, labels such as "bully" or "victim" are considered unhelpful, with the focus instead directed towards describing behaviour specifically and in relation to the setting in which it occurs (for example, "name calling in the playground before school").

PBL takes a school-wide approach to bully prevention by teaching:

what bullying looks like

what to do before and when bullying behaviour is seen

how to teach others what to do

how to reduce the effectiveness of bullying through establishment of a positive school environment.

Research shows that investing in the following proactive activities leads to improvements in positive school environments:

A school-wide approach to teaching the social skills needed for success at school.

An emphasis on teaching and learning within a positive school and classroom culture.

Delivery of quality instruction to maximise academic success for all students.

Monitoring of student learning and behaviour through continuous active supervision.

High rates of positive acknowledgement for academic and social success.

Engagement of all staff, students, parents and the wider community.

Multi-year and multi-component approaches to implementation.

Modelling of positive social behaviour and values by adults.

Fact sheet: PBL and bullying prevention

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positive behaviour for learning; pbl; behaviour support; pbl framework;

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Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is a whole-school framework that promotes positive behaviour across a school and helps schools develop safe and supportive learning environments.

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Introduction
The Better Behaviour Better Learning (BBBL) initiatives were first introduced in 2006 by the Department of Education, Training and Employment to assist Queensland state schools to provide safe, supportive and well-ordered learning environments which promote high standards of achievement and responsible behaviour in all students. In 2007 these initiative were extended upon to include the Essential Skills for Classroom Management.
This framework was designed to assist in reinforcing the expectations, principles and standards endorsed in the Code of School Behaviour Policy by outlining the minimum standards required for effective classroom management.This framework provides students with clear expectations, direction (redirection) and acknowledgement

For over a ten years the '10 micro-skills' derived by Christine Richmond (Senior Guidance Officer, Behaviour Management) in text the Behaviour Management Skill Training Handbook (Queensland Department of Education, 1996) have been used in Queensland schools to help teachers develop effective behaviour management strategies. These skills have been validated by the practice of thousands of teacher across Queensland and have found to increase the amount time spent teaching and learning, opposed to dealing for difficult behaviours.

In 2006, the Behaviour Management Skill Training Handbook (Queensland Department of Education, 1996) was revised and extended by Paul Leitch (Logan-Albert Beaudesert Behaviour Advisory Team), with 10 Essential Skills defined and explained as essential for good classroom management. Hence, these skills are now referred to as the '10 Essential Skills for Classroom Management' opposed to the '10 Micro-skill for Behaviour Management'.

The Balance Model
Richmond (2002) explains that The Balance Model is made up of three sets of information:
1. The strategies teachers use to teach their expectations to students.
2. How teachers acknowledge students when they are behaving appropriately.
3. How teachers correct students when they behave inappropriately.

Richmond (2002) further states that "When a teacher is said to be 'in balance' in the classroom, they have:

clearly articulated their expectations to students

established an evenness (balance) in their use of verbal and non-verbal language to acknowledge appropriate behaviour and correct inappropriate behaviour.

This is represented by 'The Balance Model of Behaviour Management'.

1. Establishing expectations- Making rules.This skill is all about making rules. As the teacher you are required to convey and demonstrate the boundaries or rule. Strategies to assist in developing and implementing expectation include:

Have a maximum of three to four short and simple rules.

Include the students in the development of the classroom rules. The students are more likely to respect and abide by the rules if they feel they have contributed to the development of them.

Display the rules/expectations where they are highly visible and can be viewed from all areas of the classroom

Be an optimist and focus on the positives. Promote the expected behaviours NOT the unexpected behaviours.

Discuss rules and associated consequences for breaking the rules openly with all members of the class

Most importantly model the behaviour you expect from your students.

2. Giving instructions- Telling students what to do.
This skill involves being able to give clear concise instructions to tell the students what to do and when. The most important aspect of this skill is being able to tell if all your students are focused before giving them the instruction. Here is a list of strategies to assist in gaining student attention:

Use a combination of verbal and non-verbal cues to gain student attention.

Be concise and keep instructions to a bare minimum.

Follow the instruction with a short pause and scan the classroom.

Separate the instruction from the 'content' talk

Use 'thanks' not 'please' as this then gives them the option not to comply.

Use 'now' if the student/s are unlikely to comply

Give instructions in a firm and calm voice

3. Waiting and scanning- Stopping to assess what is happening.
The waiting and scanning skill involves stopping to wait and look at your students for 5-10 seconds after you have given an instruction in order to assess what is happening. It is vital that you do not view this skill as 'wasting time' as if you do not wait and scan the students will be more likely to ignore your instruction. The wait and scan process takes place after giving an instruction. You need to wait quietly for 5-10 seconds while maintaining eye contact in order to gain or keep the students attention. After you have their attention, continue with your next instruction or prompt them to follow your instructions. The wait and scan strategy promotes periods of quiet focus and can assist lead into independent focused work. It is also a great time for you to reflect, calm down or think ahead. You can also extend on this strategy to include a verbal descriptive encourager (skill 6) in order to redirect behaviour when necessary.

4. Cueing with parallel acknowledgement- Praising a particular student to prompt others.
This skill encompasses acknowledging or praising a students' on task behaviour in the hope that other students who may be off task will mirror that student's behaviour. Here are some key strategies to assist the effectiveness of the skill:

Choose a student too praise in close proximity of the student whose behaviour you want to correct.

Acknowledge the student using a descriptive statement of encouragement (Skill 6) in a loud enough voice for others to hear

Follow up with a low key acknowledgement to the student who has corrected their behaviour.

5. Body language encouraging- Smiling, nodding, gesturing and moving near.
This skill involves using your proximity, body language, gestures and facial expressions to remain on task. This is because moving around the room and interacting with students increases the teacher's level of monitoring as well as reduced inappropriate or unexpected behaviour. Here are some ideas of how you can use your body to encourage on task behaviour:

After setting a task, immediately move around the room non-verbally signally to students who are off task that they should be working. Make sure you walk near all students in the class so that students do not feel they are being singled out.

Touch the work of students' who are on task.

After completing one rotation of the room pause maintaining minimal teacher talk and walk slowly but directly towards the off task student. Then stand next to the student in a hope that your close proximity will redirect the student. Avoid standing too close to the student as this may make them feel intimidated and this could prompt hostility or an adverse reaction.

Smile and make eye contact with students to acknowledge appropriate behaviour. This will assist in making students feel noticed, valued and welcomed.

Make discreet movements such as nodding for finger signals when appropriate to acknowledge on task behaviour and redirect off task behaviour.

6. Descriptive encouraging- Praise describing behaviour.
Praising good behaviour is the essence of this skill. This skill "encourages student to become more aware of their competence by describing exactly what you see or hear". When using this skill it is important to pay particular attention to the timing of its use as well as the tone of voice used. Here are some tips to use or think about for when implementing this skill in your teaching practice:

Describe EXACTLY what you see and/or hear from the student that you want to see more frequently from other students

It is important to use a respectful measured tone of voice rather than an exaggerated voice otherwise it can come across as sarcastic.

Use descriptive praises sooner rather than later, as time passes so does its effectiveness.

This can be done privately or publicly. It's important to know your students, some student might not appreciate having the attention drawn to them and this could result in an adverse reaction or hostility.

Use this skill frequently. Students respond better to positive reinforcement than negative reinforcement.

AVOID generic or conditional praise. An example of a generic praise is "Good job!" it does not describe the student's behaviour while an example of c onditional praise is "Well done, why didn't you do this before?" this too does not describe what the student has been successful at doing.

7. Selective attending- Not obviously reacting to certain behaviours.
Selective attending involves giving minimal attention to SAFE off task or inappropriate behaviour.
1. Only use this skill when the off task student is not distracting or disrupting other students.
2. Always keep this student in your vision in a hope that they student will become on task and you will be have to use a descriptive encourager (Skill 6).
3. Attend to the off task student if:

They display on task behaviour (as above).

Seriously disrupt others.

The inappropriate behaviour as remained over an extended period of time.

8. Redirecting to the learning- Prompting on-task behaviour.
This skill involves either verbally or non-verbally redirecting a student displaying off task or inappropriate behaviour in a respectful manner. It is important to redirect student to the learning not their behaviour. Here are some ways you could redirect students to the learning:
1. A verbal redirection could be:

Asking a question about the set task.

Give specific instruction about the behaviour you would like the student to demonstrate.

Give a choice (see skill 9).

2. A non-verbal redirection could involve implement Skill 5 Body Language Encouraging such as using your proximity to the student to redirect to the learning.

9. Giving a choice- Describing the student's options and likely consequences of their behaviour.
This skill involves respectfully confronting the off task student and outlining the student's choices and likely consequences associated with their choice. It is vital that you carefully consider the choices you give the student as it need to have the aim of redirecting the student back to their learning. You also need to give the student the appropriate amount of time to consider their choices and respond. Try to seek choices that may have a positive option for example peer tutoring in class. When giving the student the choice it is important that the student does not feel threatened or that they are being punished. One strategy you can implement to avoid this is, after you have explained to the student the choices and associate consequences pause briefly before turning your attention slightly away in order to prevent a 'standoff' situation. Lastly always use and maintain a firm, calm and restrained voice.

10. Following through- Doing what you said you would.
Follow through means doing what you said. When all the other skills have failed or not been effective, it is important to behave with confidence and follow through with the consequence. "The certainty of the consequence is more important than the severity" (Education Queensland, 2006). Here are some tips to execute confidence when following through:
1. Use appropriate body language and a calm voice
2. Consult with administration
3. Don't let the embarrassment about what others might think ruin your confidence
4. Consider removing the class and not the individual student if safety is a concern.
5. In a crisis event send for help.

More Information
Click here for more information on the 10 Essential Skills l from The Essential Skills for Classroom Management Framework (DETE, 2007).

Professional Standard 4 'Create and maintain supportive and safe learning environments' of the Australian Professional Standards for Teacher states that a graduate teacher must:

Identify strategies to support inclusive student participation and engagement in classroom activities

Demonstrate the capacity to organise classroom activities and provide clear directions

Describe strategies that support students' wellbeing and safety working within school and/or system, curriculum and legislative requirements

Click here for more information of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

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Introduction The Better Behaviour Better Learning (BBBL) initiatives were first introduced in 2006 by the Department of Education, Training and Employment to assist Queensland state schools to provide safe, supportive and well-ordered learning environments which promote high standards of achievement and responsible behaviour in all students.

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The education resource material published on this website is provided for use by Australian primary and middle-years teachers and their students, and home school educators. Registration is NOT REQUIRED to download the resources.

On this website you will find

Themed curriculum support resources: 'topic' facts for students, units of work, lesson ideas, student activity sheets, IWB files plus extra resources such as short stories, interactive quizzes and games, videos and other useful educational websites.

Templates and masters: printable templates and masters for student activities.

Interactives & videos: educational and fun - designed to support various topics relating to your teaching program.

Photos & illustrations: images included in the various Themed curriculum support resources found on this site.

Free external resources portal: descriptions and links to education resources that are hosted on external websites.

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For Teachers for students provides free Australian Government and selected private sector curriculum-appropriate, education resources and programs for both primary and middle years teachers and their students across all education systems throughout Australia.

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers help you understand and develop your teaching practice and expertise across 4 career stages. By demonstrating the Standards you can have maximum impact on all learners.

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australian professional standards for teachers

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Australian Professional Standards for Teachers

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Quite often we'll ask children to "Put your thinking cap on". Empowering learners with the skills to think creatively and critically is a gift which we can facilitate as teachers. The Developing Thinking and Reading Between the Lines PowerPoints in the Literacy Toolkit provide professional learning resources for staff to engage with materials that promote thinking.

Many of our posts have referred to the work of Bloom; however, when I was at an Active Literacy CPD session in Falkirk recently, the Six Hat materials were mentioned during a round table discussion.

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is a tool which can be used by practitioners to promote thinking. Each hat colour represents a different aspect of thinking.

Some of the resources, tailored to middle/upper Primary and Secondary, suggest physically wearing coloured representations of the hats when beginning to engage with the materials. This way, learners are physically moving between the hats; therefore they are moving between the different modes of thinking.

There are banks of free resources that are available to support the teaching of thinking skills using the De Bono's Six Hats materials. The Six Hats materials can be used in conjunction with other Higher Order Thinking materials. Check out the resources below:

CLICK HERE - Using Six Hats as a reflection tool
CLICK HERE - Using the Six Hats to Respond to Literature
CLICK HERE - Six Hats Display
CLICK HERE - Thinking Display
CLICK HERE - FREE De Bono Thinking Resources

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Quite often we'll ask children to "Put your thinking cap on". Empowering learners with the skills to think creatively and critically is a gift which we can facilitate as teachers. The Developing Thinking and Reading Between the Lines PowerPoints in the Literacy Toolkit provide professional learning resources for staff to engage with materials that promote thinking.

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As a professional working with children and teens, I see tired and sleepy children and teens in schools and in the therapy room almost every single day. Research suggest that between 25 and 40% of young people have some kind of sleep problem, with some studies suggesting up to 75% of specific child/youth populations struggling with a sleep issue. I know this is a wide variation - it seems to depend on how you ask the question and who you ask - but even if we take the middle figure, the suggestion that half of the next generation don't get enough sleep is concerning. Longitudinal research on this issue is scarce (although emerging) but for what it's worth, it definitely seems to me as a clinician that sleep deprivation in children and teens has become more prevalent over the past 20 years.

Given the (known) significant effects of sleep deprivation on educational and psychological outcomes, it is important we as professionals continue to be vigilant for, and work on helping children and teens get more sleep at home. Of course partly this needs to happen via parent education. But I also think there is a role for us as professionals to be directly talking and educating children and teenagers themselves about this issue.

But other than "you need to get more sleep" - what exactly should we be telling them? What do young people themselves need to know?

Below are what I believe to be the 12 most important sleep concepts young people should know and ways of phrasing them so that young people understand.
1. "Some people need more sleep, and some need less. The best guide to know if you haven't got enough sleep is whether you are sleepy the next day."
Young people (and sometimes adults too) can get fixated on how many "numbers" of hours of sleep they need. Unfortunately it's not this simple. There have been more than 30 different sets of guidelines published by many different health bodies (internationally) over the last hundred years. Also, some young people do need more sleep than average, and some need less. The best guide for all of us (at any age) is daytime sleepiness. If we are sleepy and tired during the day, then we probably need more sleep and are not getting enough. Helping children and teens notice their daytime sleepiness is important, as often chronically sleep deprived young people are so accustomed to the feeling of being sleepy that they don't realise this feeling is not normal.

2. "It's normal to wake up during the night - we all wake up (very briefly) every 90 minutes."

Some children and teens I work with are very worried about waking up at night, and think it's abnormal to do so. It can be useful for us to let them know that we all have "sleep cycles" of about 90 minutes, and we all wake (often very briefly - and so briefly that we don't remember) every 90 minutes and this in itself is not a problem

3. "When we don't get enough sleep, we will have more problems remembering information, learning new ideas, feeling relaxed and happy, staying fit, recovering from illnesses, playing sport, moving and reacting quickly"

Some young people need more motivation to be able to change their sleep habits. For these children and teens, it's important for us to explain the sufficient range of problems associated with sleep deprivation. Sometimes parents will have done some of this - but they've often just focused on one area. For example, they might say "sleep is important" or "you'll be grumpy tomorrow".

This often isn't sufficient reason for young people to do anything about it. Given that changing sleep habits can be hard and involve a lot of sacrifice on behalf of the young person, it's important for them to know exactly why doing this will be beneficial for them. I find that finding out what each young person cares most about - and then explaining the effect of sleep deprivation in that particular area of value for the young person - can be useful. For example, some young people are highly motivated to do well in sport - and explaining research on strength and speech will help this young person increase motivation for changing sleep habits. Some young people are highly motivated to feel less anxious and sad - helping these young people understand the effects of sleep deprivation on mood is useful. Some young people are highly motivated to maintain good health and body weight - helping these young people understand the effects of sleep deprivation on these issues can be useful (it goes without saying that this one in particular needs to be done very carefully and with great sensitivity).

Of course providing information about sleep deprivation is only an important topic of conversation if in fact the young person is NOT already motivated to change their sleep habits. Some children and teens are already motivated to get more sleep, in which case detailed explanations about the effects of sleep deprivation only make them feel more anxious.

4. "One good way to get to sleep more easily at night is to regularly get up earlier in the morning - and then move around, get into light and eat first thing the next day."

If children and teens don't have any problems getting to sleep at night when they need to, then it can be fine to for them to "sleep in" at times. If they do have problems getting to sleep however, then sleeping late in the morning - even if it's just on weekends - will often mean they have trouble getting to sleep again the next night.

I explain to kids and teens that once they get up, they should "reset" their body clock - which means turning on some bright lights (or opening blinds to let sunlight in), having breakfast and even doing some light exercise if this is possible. Resetting their body clock early in the morning like this, helps them get to sleep earlier at night.

With children I'll sometimes draw a picture of "Good Mornings for Good Sleep". For teens, we will often make a list of the three things to do before X am and save it on their phone.

5 "Another good way of getting to sleep more easily at night is to do more exercise during the day".

The more minutes of exercise children and teens do during the day the quicker they fall asleep at night. The only exception to this is team sports played very late at night - unfortunately these seem to delay sleep in most young people. Otherwise, encouraging children to do more exercise, sport and incidental movement during the day is important as it has a direct positive effect on sleep.

6. "Be really careful about taking naps during the day. Short naps can be great if you don't have problems sleeping. If you do have problems sleeping then even a short one can make it harder to get to sleep at night."

Teens in particular who sleep during frees or after school, or during the afternoon on the weekend will often have more trouble getting to sleep at night than those who don't do this. They then don't have enough "sleep debt" built up by night time to get to sleep - stay awake until very late - and then have trouble getting up in the morning. And the cycle repeats itself. I will often discuss naps with teens (this is less frequently an issue with younger children in my experience, although it does sometimes occur).
7. "You need to turn off your devices at least 30 - 60 minutes before bed. Looking at blue light from phones or laptops "turns down" a "sleep hormone" called melatonin and makes us feel more alert."
There are now several years of studies which show an association between late night electronic device use and sleep quality. Some preliminary studies have shown that even a "quick" look at our devices in the middle of the night can interfere with not only getting back to sleep, but getting enough "slow wave" (deep) sleep.

Unfortunately we all see children and teens who are using devices at night - and the pull to do this is so strong that they often don't have the motivation themselves to switch them off. In my experience it usually requires parents to put in boundaries in this area because children/teens find it difficult to make these changes independently. However, I still like to education young people on this topic in order to "back up" any parent rules, and I also find there are some young people who find this information is motivating enough to put their own boundaries in place.

With regards to how to teach young people about this - personally I find if I actually provide the science to them - for example explaining experiments which have been done, and showing them pictures of the brain and telling them about sleep hormones - is most successful.

8. "When you go to bed, make sure your room is really dark, cool and quiet. "

Even small amounts of light and heat can reduce sleep hormones. I tell children and teens about this, and encourage them to cover up clock lights, close the door, take off a blanket and even use ear plugs if needed.

9. "When you go to bed. Close your eyes, relax your muscles and stay as still as you can. Test yourself to stay super still for a minute or two and then wriggle around if you need to and then try to stay super still again."

It's amazing how many children don't know this basic fact: you can't get to sleep when you are moving around. Of course, staying really still in bed is a struggle for some young people for a range of reasons. Helping them learn to do this is a slow process - but it's important to be working on it.

I use my "Still-Wriggle" game for younger children where I get them to challenge themselves to be "super still" for increasing numbers of seconds (sometimes I get them to practice this in my office lying on the floor with a tissue box on their stomach which they are not allowed to "tip off" before having a "wriggle break" and then repeating, but for an extra few seconds each time. I'm quietly very chuffed at the number of parents who tell me about the "Still-Wriggle" game being a successful fixture of their night time routine with their children 😊

10. One way of helping yourself get to sleep is to say calm thoughts to yourself about getting to sleep or make calm pictures or images to put in your head.

Kids and teens need coaching about specific "getting to sleep strategies" like using calm thoughts and imagery. It sounds simple, but some young people don't know what to put in their head when they are trying to get to sleep. Teaching them to say calm thoughts to themselves, use their imagination to visualise calm scenery or "mini movies", or go over a book/TV show can be really helpful.

In sessions with children and teens, I create a "Sleep time Movies" list with children. We prepare in advice some topics for them to think about. For some children this movie been about them having an unlimited credit card to buy presents for their family and friends ("Jane the Gift Girl"), for some teens it is a movie which recreates their favourite movie but with them in the main character role. The possibilities are endless and I've had such fun with young people coming up with these! (Hint - little trap to watch for which I fell into with one young creative lad- don't make the movies so interesting it keeps them awake for hours in excitement!)

Some young people of course also feel really anxious about NOT being able to get to sleep and become anxious about insomnia, thereby keeping them awake. This is where our cognitive strategies are important. Sometimes we need to help young people create calm thoughts about sleep itself like "I'm ok"; "I'm getting better at getting to sleep all the time", "My muscles are getting more and more relaxed".

Finally, some young people immediately start going over all their worries at bedtime. This is where I use "worry box" or "worry time" rules and strategies so that children and teens know that bedtime is not time for thinking about or trying to solve problems. This is easier said than done of course, but an important goal to work on.
11. "If you can't get to sleep within about 15 mins of having your eyes closed and being really still, get up and do something boring for a few minutes, and then try again."
Staying in bed for hours trying to get to sleep is agonising, miserable and counter-productive. It can be convenient and comforting for parents to know their children and teens are in bed, however if they are lying awake for long periods of time this means they are setting up an unconscious association between being awake and in bed, which will cause more problems. If children and teens have genuinely been lying still, with eyes closed (not on their phone/devices), and with a relaxed body, late enough at night - and are not asleep, it's better for them in the long run if they get up, do something boring (do some stretches, walk to the bathroom and back, look at a magazine or book (not electronic device) and then try again 15 minutes later.

Explaining this to parents is important. Of course it's also important to be empathic towards parents of younger children who are desperate to have some adult time at the end of the night. I often work on teaching children to do their "getting up and doing boring tasks" independently. For example, I help children create a written "can't get to sleep plan" in their bedroom which they need to follow before asking for parent help. How successfully they can do this will of course depend on their age.

12. "Have trouble with sleep? You're not alone. It's not easy - and it takes practice"

Given the high frequency of sleep problems in childhood and adolescence, it can be useful to let young people know that there is nothing (necessarily) seriously or unusually wrong with them, that difficult with sleep is very common.

I like to tell children and teens (and their parents of course) that learning to get enough sleep is like learning to manage our physical fitness, or learning to read - or any other tricky area of life. It takes some time, effort and sacrifice. I tell young people to be patient with themselves as they learn getting these sleep skills.

Good luck with your work with young people and their families in this important area.

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Working with Tired Young People: 12 "sleep facts" to Tell Kids and Teens about Sleep in the Therapy/Classroom - Developing Minds

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As a professional working with children and teens, I see tired and sleepy children and teens in schools and in the therapy room almost every single day. Research suggest that between 25 and 75% of young people are sleep deprived. This is a wide variation - it seems to d

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Welcome to the Student Wellbeing Hub homepage.

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Scootle provides Australian teachers with access to quality-assured digital learning resources aligned to the Australian Curriculum.