We were having one of those before school discussions in our Teacher Workroom the other morning, about how we fit the literacy programme to Learning Pathways.
Great to hear the discussion! This is a really important issue for us.
Previously, schools would have a plan showing which genre (don’t you hate that word?) should be covered in which weeks of each term, and off we’d go. Literacy in it’s block, and Social Studies, or Science and Technology in ITs block, and never the twain should meet.
My view is that the teaching of literacy should be a really close fit with what is happening in the Inquiry Process. This means, that the literacy teaching will change throughout the term, matching what is happening with the class, with groups and with individuals.
During the Immersion phase, I would focus on teaching a genre which is a close fit with a topic the question might relate to. For example – if the topic lends itself to a lot of debate, then these might be the skills you focus on, both orally, and in written form. Thus the children may learn the skills of debating, and of writing arguments. This of course will vary across the school according to the age of the students.
Later, as the students are investigating and finding answers to their questions, you may note that they need to improve the quality of their note-taking, and focus on this.
At the same time, you may be working with small groups in reading, working on skills of reading informational texts, and how to get information from text. The texts may well support the student in finding answers to their questions. This is a way of supporting students who are less able to do this task independently as well. In this way, the LP programme finds its way into the Literacy programme.
LP doesn’t just have to happen in one or two blocks a week, but can happen across the Literacy programme. If students are needing to write a report, or plan a story-board for a movie, this can happen in the writing part of the programme, and the teacher can work with groups according to their needs for this. How this happens in the classroom may vary according to the age level.
To me, the important aspect about Literacy and Learning Pathways, is that it needs to be a close fit, with the Literacy programme reflecting and supporting the students in their Inquiry process.
