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Arzu, G. (2008). Effects of drama on the use of reading comprehension strategies and on attitudes toward reading. Journal for Learning through the Arts, 4(1).

Booth, D. (1985). Imaginary gardens with real toads: Reading and drama in education. Theory into Practice, 24, 193-198.

Caldwell, J.S. (2008). Assessing comprehension: What, how and for what purpose. In Comprehension Assessment: A classroom Guide. Retrieved from https://www.guilford.com/excerpts/caldwell2.pdf?t

CIERA. (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Centre for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, University of Michigan.

Edwards-Groves, C. (2003). On task: Focused literacy learning. PETAA, Sydney

Flint, A. (2017). Literacy in Australia : Pedagogies for engagement (Second ed.).

Freebody, P & Luke, A. (1990). ‘Literacies programs : Debates and demands in cultural context’. Prospect, 5(3), p7-16.

Hart, B & Risley, T. (1995). The Literacy Dictionary : The Vocabulary of Reading and Writing. International Reading Association, Barksdale NJ.

Hill, S. (2006). Developing early literacy : Assessment and teaching. Armadale, Vic.: Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Kiddey, P & Waring, F. (2001). Success for all: Selecting appropriate learning strategies. Curriculum Corporation, Carlton, Vic.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching Children to Read: An evidence-based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Piaget, J. (1954). The construction of reality in the child. New York: Basic Books.

Stonehouse, A. (2011). The ‘third teacher’ creating child friendly learning spaces. Putting Children First, 38, 12-14

Thomas, A & Grimes, J. (2008). Best practices in school psychology, V. Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Victoria Curriculum and Assessment Authority. (2009). Victorian Curriculum: Foundation-10. Retrieved from https://victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10#level=4&search=5ba1f94f-1593-431e-a925-9e4600a2a3bc

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society:  The development of higher psychological processes.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. p. 85-97. Alexandria, VA: Association for Su p ervision and Curriculum Development.

Winch, G. (2006). Literacy : Reading, writing and children's literature (3rd ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Winch, G., Johnston, R.R, March, P., Ljungdahl, L. & Holliday, M. (2014). Literacy : Reading, writing and children's literature (5th ed.).

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Focus area: Reading and viewing

Literacy goal: Increasing Coco’s vocabulary and reading comprehension

Learning objectives:

1. After teacher explains the meaning of the new words from the guided reading book, Coco can make a full sentence by using the new word to show she understands the meaning of the new words by the end of term 2.

2. In shared reading, Coco will be able to re-tell the content after a student acts the content out correctly by the end of term 2.

3. After shared reading, Coco will be able to draw a picture which represents a different ending of the shared book by the end of term 2.

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Vocabulary plays an essential role in helping children develop reading comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). In order to extend Coco’s vocabulary to help her improve reading comprehension, planning an activity focused on explaining new words following guided reading will be helpful. Every week Coco will need to read a selected leveled book twice with three or four classmates whose reading levels also are at a similar level under the guidance of the teacher. The students will read the book together by reading different pages in turns. After reading, the teacher will ask the students to review the book and find the words they do not know. Then the teacher will encourage other students to try to explain the words by linking with the picture and referring to the context. A final explanation will be given by the teacher to reinforce children’s understanding. Then students need to choose a new word and make a sentence with it. Meanwhile, as Coco enjoys reading princess books, selecting books which have female characters for Coco and her group will be more helpful for her learning as she will be likely to stay more engaged.

As mentioned before, Coco enjoys answering questions but she does not like asking questions. This activity is aiming to encourage her to ask more questions, which helps teacher to understand what she might be weak in. Instead of making Coco feel asking questions is a bad thing, it is important to improve her motivation in asking questions and solving the questions. In addition, planning a guide reading group for Coco does not only focus on her own learning needs but helps to cater for the learners who are at a similar stage of reading literacy. Through discussing and sharing, students participate in meaningful activities and learn from each other, which is supported by Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development that children are able to achieve more by learning with more capable peers or adults than when they learn alone (Vygotsky, 1978). Student’s vocabulary and reading comprehension can be promoted when students and teachers are interactively using language to communicate and express opinions (Flint, 2017).

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Considering that Coco enjoys drawing and doing handcrafts, a corner of the wall in the classroom can be designed to a ‘vocabulary tree’. Every time after guided reading, the teachers will collect the words that students are unfamiliar with and write the words on an fruit shaped card. The card will then be pasted to the vocabulary tree. After the class and the students can then review the words every time when they pass the vocabulary tree. Students are also encouraged to design different shapes of fruit and write the words they do not know on them.

The classroom environment is regarded as the third teacher for the students (Stonehouse, 2011). An engaging, interactive and meaningful environment can support and motivate children’s learning. The concept behind the ‘vocabulary tree’ is through making use of the environment print to provide students more chances to learn new words. It also increases students’ enjoyment and engagement in studying.

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Before reading the book, I asked Coco whether she has heard about this story before and how much she has known about the story. She told me this is her favorite princess story and she retold the whole story. She was very fluent at the beginning. But as she progressed there were some moments where she became a bit hesitant so she opened the book and tried to find cues from different the pictures and text.

The information people use to construct meaning can be described as semantic information, grammatical information, graphophonic information and visual information (Winch, Johnston, March, Ljungdahl & Holliday, 2014). Coco is able to use her prior knowledge of the text and correct grammar to retell the story she knew, this indicated she was playing the role as a meaning maker (Freebody and Luke, 1990). She also showed her capability of using the visual information when she tried to use pictures to recall her memories and retell. These indicate that Coco is able to combine information from all four sources and she is good at using semantic and visual information.

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In this assessment, I will focus on assessing a student’s literacy and reading. Reading plays a critical role in helping children draw meaning from print, develop thinking and use texts for various purposes. When children learn to read, they also develop their knowledge of oral language as they transfer the written words into spoken language (Winch, 2006).

The content of the assessment will mainly focus on: concept of print, fluency of reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension.

Concepts of print mainly contains concept of text, reading direction and knowledge of punctuation (Hill, 2006). Understanding how print works helps children use the right methods to start reading and make meaning of the language.

Reading fluency is integrated with students’ comprehension and attitude to reading (CIERA, 2001). Sufficient fluency helps children to concentrate on understanding the meaning of the text. Assessing student’s reading fluency can also help teachers to find the problems of student’s reading. Students who read less fluently might have problems decoding words whilst students who read words slowly might have less interest in the books they are reading.

Reading comprehension is a process where readers construct meaning from the text, evaluate the information and share opinions (Hill, 2006). This is beneficial for them to develop their own thinking and imagination and learning the rules of society. Being aware of student’s reading comprehension abilities will help teachers to use different strategies to improve student’s enjoyment and effectiveness of reading.

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1st assessment activity:                Read a Book!                 

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1st assessment activity:                Read a Book!                 

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The student I assessed was Coco (pseudonym), a year one student who is studying in my previous placement school. The first assessment activity was showing Coco a book and encouraging her to read the book independently. Based on my previous knowledge about Coco’s learning abilities and interest, I chose a leveled book, Cinderella, for her to read. During her reading, I observed the way she read, her punctuation and pronunciation.

Cinderella is a widely known novel, which could provide Coco with a greater level of challenge and encourage her to share her opinions and understanding of the book. More details about her reading comprehension might be provided for assessing. Choosing the right text helps educators to target their teaching or assessing purposes more accurately (Winch, 2006). Leveled book is a useful resource for providing information about children’s literacy development and it is important to consider children’s interest at the same time (Hill, 2006).

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3rd assessment activity:                 Comprehension Quiz!

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3rd assessment activity:                 Comprehension Quiz!

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After the ‘treasure hunt’ activity, I planned a formal assessment, a quiz sheet, for Coco to test her reading comprehension. There were five multiple choice questions and one open extended answer question on the quiz sheet. Coco would be asked to read the questions and give the answer on her own and I would discuss the questions with her when she finished.

This activity acknowledges the socio-cultural theory of Freebody and Luke (1990), whereby children are said to take on four roles when they start to read: code breaker, meaning maker, text user and text critic. The questions on the quiz sheet also refers to the Bloom’s six ever-increasing levels of thinking (Hill, 2006).

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2nd assessment activity:        Treasure Hunt!

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2nd assessment activity:        Treasure Hunt!

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After reading the book, I planned to play a play-based activity, ‘treasure hunt’, with Coco. I planned to print some questions about concept of print-language as our treasure map. I planned to ask Coco questions and she would then need to answer all the questions to get the treasure. To increase her level of engagement, I decided to use a cup and string walkie-talkie to communicate with her during part of the activity. After finishing all the questions, I planned to reward Coco with a coloring princess picture book.

Through play-based assessment, children feel more enjoyable and motivated to engage with the activity, which is beneficial for gathering realistic data to evaluate children’s current literacy level (Thomas & Grimes, 2008). Children are actively and physically involved through this play-based assessment (Arzu, 2008). I played the role of the director and observer to help and guide the student experience and apply her knowledge to solve the problems, which is based on Piaget’s theory of Construcivism (Piaget, 1954).

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Through the treasure hunt activity, Coco showed great knowledge in understanding printed language. She mastered the correct ways to start reading, turning pages and definitions of some punctuation. She understood the content of print at the level one level of the Victorian Curriculum (Victoria Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2009). However, she misunderstood the definitions of ‘word’ and ‘letter’. She also described the quotation marks as ‘two little dots’. This indicated that she did not understand the differences between the concepts of a letter and word comprehensively. Although recognizing quotation marks is the required content for students in year four within the Victoria curriculum (VCAA, 2009), Coco was trying to decode the print by applying her previous knowledge, which shows that Coco plays an active role of being a code breaker (Freebody and Luke, 1990).

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4th assessment activity:               Roll Your Dice!

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4th assessment activity:               Roll Your Dice!

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The last activity was called ‘roll your dice’. In this activity, each number on the dice would have a matched question. Coco and I would roll the dice in turns and then answer the corresponding question while the other person would judge the answers or share further thoughts. After this activity, Coco would be encouraged to color in the princess picture from the second activity and I would ask more questions about her reading hobbies at the same time.

The questions in this activity were more difficult than the questions from the third activity, which provided a good chance for students to challenge themselves and also absorb new ideas from the teacher. This activity was inspired by the classroom talk that student could use language more flexibly and purposefully with the teacher’s assistance (Edwards-Groves, 2003). This is also related to the Social Learning Theories of Lev Vygotsky (1978) that learning takes place when children interact with peers or teachers. Through rolling the dice and taking turns, the routine and construction of this activity would be mixed up, which is helpful for improving student’s engagement and thereby assessing their learning. Learners could practice their fine motor skills by rolling the dice as well as the dice questions matching sheet could help visual learners concentrate more effectively.

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There is another activity which can help Coco improve reading comprehension. Firstly the teacher will have a shared reading activity with the class. The book for the shared reading should be a book which has been read more than once. Then the teacher will prepare a spinning wheel which has the numbers 1-20. Each number represents a page of the book. The students will spin the wheel and act out the content of that page without telling the other children what number he got. Then the rest of the students will try to guess and retell the content that has been acted out. Every child can spin the wheel twice.

After retelling the story on that page, the teacher will encourage students to participate and question the context of the book. The teachers will ask some questions at first then the students will think of a different story related to the book. The questions that the teacher ask might include  these questions: what is the text is trying to say? Do you agree or disagree with the ending? Can you imagine another ending of the story? Whose voices are missing from the text? What is the text trying to get me to think or feel? Whose voices are missing form the text? After discussing these questions, students can draw a picture of the story which shows some important clues of the story. The teacher can also encourage the students to imagine another ending of the story and draw it down. In addition, the children who engages actively will be rewarded by getting a ‘dojo’ point. When children accumulate enough dojo points they can exchange them for some small objects like a pen or a notebook from the teacher.

This activity is designed to help reinforce Coco’s reading abilities of retelling, participating and analyzing. Through this activity students engage with reading comprehension actively and physically (Arzu, 2008). Acting out the content of the book enables students to contextualize what they read into their personal thinking and feeling (Booth, 1985). Considering that Coco likes drawing and learning with the peers, I see using the rewards system as a key way to increase her participation and encourage her imagination.

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​The Four Resources Model was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke.

Effective reading draws upon a repertoire of practices and resources that allow learners, as they engage in reading and writing activities, to:

break the code of texts: Text decoder

participate in the meanings of text: Text participant

use texts functionally: Text user

critically analyse and transform texts: Text analyst

Breaking the code of texts: Text decoder

'How do I crack this code?'

Breaking the code of language is about recognising and using the fundamental features and architecture of written texts including: alphabetic knowledge, sounds in words, spelling, conventions and patterns of sentence structure and text.

Text decoders:

know the relationship between the spoken and written language

interpret graphic symbols and their contexts of use.

Focus questions for teachers

What knowledge of written language do students bring to this text?

What explicit teaching will support students to decode and understand the language and structure of this text?

F- Level 2 readers use text decoder practices to understand concepts of print and build phonics and vocabulary knowledge. They read short texts with a progressive range of sentence structures. Students use letter-sound matches, recognise high frequency words and use sentence boundary punctuation to assist their decoding. They understand that texts can be organised differently and identify language features used to describe characters, settings and events or communicate factual information.

Level 3-4 readers use text decoder practices to read texts that contain varied sentence structures, respond to a range of punctuation conventions and confirm, re-read and cross-check based on what looks right. Readers build on their sound-letter knowledge to include blending and segmenting of more complex words with less common graphemes. They use morphemic knowledge such as prefixes and suffixes and use knowledge of the origins of words. They understand and explain how language features, images and vocabulary choices are used for different effects and to engage readers.

Level 5-6 readers use text decoder practices when they confidently draw on their phonic, morphemic, orthographic and etymologic knowledge to decode new vocabulary and technical words in more complex texts. They explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used to influence readers and represent ideas, characters and events.

Participate in the meanings of text: Text Participant

'What does this text mean to me?'

Participating in the meaning of text involves understanding and composing meaningful written, visual and spoken texts from within the meaning systems of particular cultures, institutions, families, communities, and nation-states.

Text participants:

know the meaning patterns operating in written texts

make literal and inferential meanings of texts.

Focus questions for teachers

What experiences and prior knowledge of the topic of the text do students bring to the text?

What is their knowledge of similar texts?

F- Level 2 readers use text participant practices to make meaning from text. They know that images support meaning, can recall literal and implied meaning, identify the main idea and some supporting detail. They draw on personal experience and/or prior knowledge to help them make connections to text. Their use of phrasing and fluency indicates their understanding when reading familiar and some unfamiliar texts.

Level 3-4 readers use text participant practices when they can connect different parts of a text to understand the literal and implied meaning. They select information, ideas and events in texts that relate to their own lives. They also monitor meaning in texts by thinking about what makes sense. Their use of phrasing and fluency indicates their understanding when reading an increasing range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts.

Level 5-6 readers use text participant practices when they compare and analyse information in texts, explaining literal and inferential meaning. They use evidence from texts to support their responses. Their use of phrasing and fluency indicates their understanding when reading increasingly complex texts.

Use texts functionally: Text user

"What do I do with this text?"

Using texts functionally is about negotiating the social relations around texts. It is about knowing about and acting on the different cultural and social functions that various texts perform both inside and outside school and knowing that these functions shape the way texts are structured, their tone, their degree of formality and their sequence of components.

Text users:

know and use social and cultural functions of reading and writing practices

understand text types are used for particular purposes in and out of school.

Focus questions for teachers

What knowledge do students bring of the social purposes and uses of this kind of text?

What explicit teaching will support students in using this text for particular purposes?

F- Level 2 readers use text user practices when they can identify some differences between imaginative and informative texts. They also recognise similar texts by their common language features and organisation. F-2 readers could be using a recipe to make popcorn or an information text to find out about animal facts.

Level 3-4 readers use text user practices when they recognise differences in text structure depend on the purpose and context of use. They also understand how language features, images and vocabulary are specific to different text types. Level 3-4 readers use this knowledge to help them to understand when language is used persuasively, to state information or used imaginatively.

Level 5-6 readers use text user practices when they select a text for a particular social purpose. They could be reading an explanation to find out how volcanoes erupt or researching a famous Australian through an historical recount. Their knowledge of how texts are constructed also enables them to respond to text and justify their responses.

Critically analyse and transform texts: Text analyst

"What does this text do to me?"

Critically analysing and transforming texts involves understanding and acting on the knowledge that texts are created for specific purposes, for example, to entertain, explain or influence. Therefore, it is important students understand that texts are not neutral, that they represent particular views and silence other points of view, and that their designs and discourses can be critiqued and redesigned, in novel and hybrid ways.

Text analysts:

understand that texts are crafted according to the values, views and interests of the writer or creator

know that texts position readers differently, and both constrain and influence them.

Focus questions for teachers

What knowledge do students bring of the ways this text is designed to represent particular views and interests?

What explicit teaching will support students in developing critical language awareness of the ways language works to create particular meanings?

F-Level 2 readers use text analyst practices to recognise that authors create texts which may reflect similar or different experiences from their own. They are able to identify the target audience for everyday texts (eg: advertisement for toys or fast food) and discuss how they know. They can discuss character stereotypes through analysing pictures and simple texts.

Level 3-4 readers use text analyst practices when they compare the ways different authors represent similar storylines, ideas or relationships. They also can express preferences for different kinds of texts and suggest alternative viewpoints from those presented. They view images and discuss how shot size, camera angle and text layout influence a reader's understanding.

Level 5-6 readers: use text analyst practices to recognise that ideas in texts are generated from authors with different viewpoints. These viewpoints can influence a reader to interpret and respond to text in specific ways. They also notice what viewpoint is missing and why. They discuss images and how different representations or techniques can effect a viewer's interpretation. They can discuss similarities and differences between texts by the same author and identify what the author thinks/feels/believes about a topic.

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The four resources model for reading and viewing

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​The Four Resources Model was originally developed in 1990 by Peter Freebody and Allan Luke. Effective reading draws upon a repertoire of practices and resources that allow learners, as they engage in reading and writing activities, to: break the code of texts: Text decoder participate in the meanings of text: Text participant use texts functionally: Text user critically analyse and transform texts: Text analyst 'How do I crack this code?'

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The book prepared for Coco is a level 13 book. There was no significant pause or extreme tone changing during Coco’s independently reading. Her words were read in meaningful chunks and her tone during reading was appropriate. She pronounced three words incorrectly during reading, which she confidently then attempted to sound out letter by letter. This did however slow down her reading and showed a lack of familiarity with words which influenced her reading fluency. Therefore, her reading level is appropriately between 13 to 14 and her reading development is at the transitional stage (Hill, 2006).

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Further connections between Coco's learning and the activity plan

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Further connections between Coco's learning and the activity plan

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I come from China and I have studied in China for twelve years. The way that my school and my parents teach me mostly focuses on accepting what we have been told, which is a very poor way to develop my critical thinking. However, thinking critically about texts is very important for children’s learning. As a reader, we can not only accept what we are reading, but also challenge the view and assumptions of the book (Winch et al, 2014). Considering the purpose of the book and applying personal knowledge to judge the book is helpful for children to improve their critical thinking and reading comprehension (Winch et al, 2014). Coco also comes from a Chinese background and she does not like asking questions. So it is essential to provide her with more opportunities to think critically about the book. Student’s questions and responses can often be much more complex than what adults think (Flint, 2017). Their reading practices will be further extended when they are given more chances to use reading as a tool to think about the world and themselves (Flint, 2017).

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There were two words that Coco pronounced incorrectly from the book. They were ‘twig’ and ‘grave’. Coco pronounced ‘twig’ as ‘/twaig/’ and pronounced ‘grave’ as ‘/griv/’. She told me she has never seen these two words before. This means she has known that the words are made of different sounds and she tried to adapt her phonemic awareness for phonics instruction (Hill, 2006). She was trying to work out how individual letters sounds and pronounce them from left to right. This indicated that she already had an increasing knowledge of phonemic awareness but she did not acknowledge all the common phonemes in the English language (Winch et al., 2014). She also showed better performance in recognizing common long vowels then short vowels.

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Children show their knowledge of constructing meanings by extracting meaning from the printed words and pictures, building new meaning through analyzing the given information (Hill, 2006). Before reading the book, Coco told me she knew what the story talked about through the title and the picture on the cover. This showed Coco had developed systems to process non-print information (Hill, 2006). She also understood the strategy of making predictions (Caldwell, 2008). While reading the book, Coco was fluent most of the time and there was no significant pausing. This indicated that she might be very familiar with the particular text and the the words.

Vocabulary plays an essential role in helping children to learn and succeed (Hart & Risley, 1995). Coco was able to pronounce most of the high frequency words and known common words accurately. One word she pronounced incorrectly was ‘twig’. After reading the whole book, I asked if she knew the meaning of the word ‘twig’. Instead of directly saying she did not know, she turned the book to the page which has the word ‘twig’. She viewed the picture and the text and told me she thought that meant ‘something small’. She was trying to understand the meaning of the new word by linking it with the context and pictures. This also shows that Coco does not like asking questions even she does not know the answer.

After reading the book, Coco answered the comprehension quiz and all her answers were right. During the ‘roll your dice’ activity, she was able to share her opinions and evaluate the answers I gave. This showed she was capable of recognizing the significance of an event and making judgements (Caldwell, 2008). Her empathy for the feelings of others was evident when she told me she thought Cinderella did not deserve to be treated unfairly by her stepsisters (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). She could link ideas from what she read and link the story to her personal experience, which presents that she has been exposed to the literal, inferential level and she is moving towards the evaluative level (Kiddey & Waring, 2001). However, she has started to build self-knowledge but did not recognize that her perspective on the book might come from a specific understanding or predisposition (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998).

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Freebody and Luke (1990) described that there are four roles that children will take when they begin to read: code breaker, meaning maker, text user and text critic.

As mentioned above, Coco has started to understand concept of the print. She did not know all the words in the book but she was trying to use letter-sound to work our unknown words. She knew how to reread when she did the comprehension quiz. However, when there are words she did not know she wouldn't stop and she wouldn't ask. This showed that while she is taking an active role as code breaker she was less active as a meaning maker.

In the last activity, Coco was able to share her feelings about how the book worked for her. Personal experience of her were mentioned when she was explaining her opinions. She was interested in discussing different questions, but generally her perspective focused on accepting what the book told her rather than challenging these points of view. This evidences she is only just starting to play the role of a text critic and she could be provided more chances to practice and develop critical thinking.

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After the assessment, I talked with Coco about her and what she likes doing outside the school. She told me she likes drawing and making postcards for other people. Her favorite books are princess books. She enjoys sharing what she has read and what she has done with her friends. This shows that Coco enjoys being involved as a team member and communicating with others. She also told me she comes from a Chinese background. She always speaks Chinese at home and she could watch both English and Chinese TV shows. Her perspectives might be influenced by her culture and she may have very different experiences at school and at home.