The pedagogy

The pedagogy that underpins the work of the LLEN community in education can be traced back to the 1980s.

At that time, there was a prevailing focus on the learner-centred belief that students thrived when selecting topics that interested them, setting their own goals, and being immersed in good literature. While this might have appealed to certain students, others were being left behind – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. To address this issue, a series of major research projects¹ set out to investigate the impact of the explicit teaching of language and literacy in primary and secondary schools. The results led to the development of a teaching and learning cycle² that is still influential in Australia an internationally. As research showed, the pedagogy that helped diverse students also benefited all learners.

The Teaching and Learning Cycle for literacy

The Teaching and Learning Cycle for literacy is based on the notion of having high expectations supported by strong scaffolding and explicit teaching of the genres that students will need to control across the learning areas. It is based on the Vygotskian principles of gradual release of responsibility as students are scaffolded towards increasing independence as they learn through interaction with more proficient others in the context of shared experience.

The benefit of the Teaching and Learning Cycle is that it develops deep knowledge of a specific curriculum field, along with the language and literacy skills needed to grow that knowledge. In other words, students learn content knowledge through the intentional integration of reading, writing and class discussions together with knowledge about how language works.

In this way, language and content are seen as inseparable. Teachers can support content and literacy together. Through explicit teaching and careful sequencing of activities throughout the different stages of the cycle, students’ knowledge and skills are developed so that they achieve success.

The Teaching and Learning Cycle for literacy can be used across all areas of the curriculum and all levels of schooling. It:

• is not an ‘add on’ – stages of the cycle are integrated at appropriate points into current curriculum units;

• locates the teaching of language and literacy in a context where such teaching makes sense;

• teaches students the literacy and language skills needed to achieve the task outcomes.

The stages of the cycle can include multiple ways of accessing the content, including:

• class discussions

• examining images, videos and online materials

• hands-on tasks

• computer apps

• field experience

• guest interviews

• experiments and practical work

• games and engaging activities.

Importantly, the cycle is interactive so that students have opportunities to use, hear, and see the language associated with the topic. Differentiation is provided through adjusting the level of scaffolding depending on the identified needs of students in a particular task.

Ultimately, the scaffolding provided throughout the cycle generally results in:

• more confident use of the genre in question;

• ability to transfer language and literacy skills into other contexts;

• student success and building confidence.

[1] The Writing Project (1979); Language and Social Power (1986); Write it Right (from 1991)

[2] Rothery, J 1994 Exploring Literacy in School English (Write it Right Resources for Literacy and Learning). Sydney: Metropolitan East Disadvantaged Schools Program [republished 2007 by Adult Migrant Education Service NSW]