Internationally, English curriculum increasingly emphasises the explicit teaching of knowledge ab... more Internationally, English curriculum increasingly emphasises the explicit teaching of knowledge about language. This paper reports on a small pilot study of an ongoing project, investigating the relationship between explicit knowledge and its uptake by students. Drawing on the underpinnings of Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics, this paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of development in students\u27 metalinguistic understanding. The approach recognizes the centrality of the expert\u27s mediation via classroom interaction involving data drawn from lesson observations, interviews and writing conversations with students. The findings demonstrate some of the complexity involved in learning a grammatical concept; that is, in recognizing, acquiring and applying metalinguistic knowledge to the task of becoming literate. The paper argues that the purpose of teaching metalinguistic knowledge should be to support learners to become confident and successful users of language. Our findings also make some important suggestions for pedagogic practice with respect to teaching knowledge about language to young learners
Social skills and communication for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a challengin... more Social skills and communication for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a challenging area in spite of many years of research and interventions. Whilst the vast majority of strategies and interventions reported in the literature for students with ASD are teacher/expert-generated, this study focuses on the use of technology to create possibilities for students to develop their social and literacy skills. This paper reports on part of a larger study that explored the potential of seven high school students with ASD using a new form of video making called “Blended Digital Media”, which integrates video and still images with an audio narration, to digitally communicate their personal interests as a means of developing social and multimodal literacies. The research used a multiple case study design incorporating a range of qualitative methods to ascertain to what extent and with what implications students were able to create their own personal blended digital media about the...
While it is acknowledged that mastery of constrained literacy skills is a predictor of later lite... more While it is acknowledged that mastery of constrained literacy skills is a predictor of later literacy proficiency, Paris (2005) observes that no research has found it to be a causal relationship. That is, no correlation exists between early mastery of skills such as phonic knowledge and later literacy achievement. Of course, mastery of the constrained skills is necessary, but only in that it allows us to develop increasingly unconstrained, complex and contextualised skills for living rich literate lives.
The applied disciplines of architecture and civil engineering require students to communicate mul... more The applied disciplines of architecture and civil engineering require students to communicate multimodally, and to manipulate meaning across media and modes, such as image, writing or moving image. In their disciplinary studies for example, students must be able to transform the language of lectures and textbooks into models and diagrams. In their future workplaces, they will commonly be required to transform reports and legal documents into floor plans and digital & physical 3D models. Such multimodal literacy, however, is not typically reflected in their related subject-specific English language courses, especially in Germany, where a text-centric approach is favored. To better reflect the demands placed upon them, students in two courses of English for Architecture and Civil Engineering were tasked with creating digital, multimodal artifacts to explain a concept from either of these fields to a lay audience. The resultant artifacts used a wide variety of semiotic resources to mak...
The materials presented here were developed by Samantha Lamberti in collaboration with third grad... more The materials presented here were developed by Samantha Lamberti in collaboration with third grade teachers Carrie Harrison, Jennifer Burek and Mariam Elkadri. I thank them for their participation in this project.
The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range... more The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range of semiotic resources. As an assessment task for preservice teachers, this construction process is complex but has significant potential for learning. To investigate how weaving together multiple representations in such tasks enables learners to develop conceptual understanding, the paper presents an indicative case study of a 2nd-year preservice primary (K-6) teacher who created a digital explanation on the topic of ‘transparency’ for stage 3 children (ages 11–12). We focus on data gathered during the 3-h construction process including artefacts such as images, online searches, websites accessed and paper records used for planning; the digital explanation as product; audio and video capture of the construction process and pre- and post-construction interviews. Using multimodal analysis, we examine these data to understand how meanings are negotiated as the maker moves iteratively among...
ABSTRACT A “digital explanation” is a science learning task where learners explain science conten... more ABSTRACT A “digital explanation” is a science learning task where learners explain science content to non-expert others, in this case, the learners are primary preservice teachers [PST] in a science methods class. In the task, PST are assigned a prompt based on science content from the New South Wales K-6 syllabus and generate or source multiple representations to design and produce this stand-alone digital artefact. In this study, PST were interviewed about their decision making in producing the digital explanation, which offers insight into the design process and what makes for a successful product. Data include the digital explanations, interviews with nine PST, marking rubrics and rationale statements generated as part of the task. Thematic coding shows PST make design decisions for four principal reasons: content, engagement, clarity and unconscious selection. Decisions around content and engagement prevail and their decisions reveal keys to success in creating a digital explanation. We also note a tension between emphasis on engagement over content, which may reflect that the intended audience is young children and PST have a strong desire to gain and keep children’s interest.
The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range... more The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range of semiotic resources. As an assessment task for preservice teachers, this construction process is complex but has significant potential for learning. To investigate how weaving together multiple representations in such tasks enables learners to develop conceptual understanding, the paper presents an indicative case study of a 2nd-year preservice primary (K-6) teacher who created a digital explanation on the topic of ‘transparency’ for stage 3 children (ages 11–12). We focus on data gathered during the 3-h construction process including artefacts such as images, online searches, websites accessed and paper records used for planning; the digital explanation as product; audio and video capture of the construction process and pre- and post-construction interviews. Using multimodal analysis, we examine these data to understand how meanings are negotiated as the maker moves iteratively among...
The Literature strand of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum Assessment &am... more The Literature strand of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum Assessment & Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2013) plays a key role in enriching students\u27 Iives and assisting them to understand what it means to be human. Importantly, when responding to and composing Iiterary texts, students are also developing valued intellectual skills and dispositions including predicting, analyzing, using evidence to argue, hypothesizing, speculating and imagining. This chapter demonstrates how literature can be used to support students\u27 engagement with language and other forms of meaning making and to develop their literacy skills at the same time as they acquire key understandings in the curriculum area of History (ACARA, 2015). Drawing on the teaching and learning cycle introduced in Chapter 3, we describe in detail a unit of work for lower primary classrooms, in which students encounter and create multimodal texts as they explore differences in family structures and family members\u27 roles and responsibilities over time. The unit incorporates a number of useful strategies that can be adapted for use with different groups of students and for a range of texts and curriculum areas
T here are many ways to approach the issue of literacy transitions. Transitions can be writ large... more T here are many ways to approach the issue of literacy transitions. Transitions can be writ large; for example, the transition from print-based to digital literacies (Rowsell, in press 2021; Zammit, 2010), transitions between home and educational institutions (Heath, 1983; Moji et al., 2008), and transitions between those institutions and work (FYA, 2017). Here in this special issue, contributors consider transitions in a number of different ways: transitions from one grade level to another, transitions between settings (from preschool to school etc), transitions between subjects, and transitions between activities within a single school lesson. All of these conceptions of transition focus on particular points in time, points at which individuals experience shifts in activities, routines, environments and relationships. While large scale transitions are important to acknowledge and undoubtedly impact on individuals and systems, it is the demands of these more local, immediate shifts and their impact on young people that form the focus here as contributors explore transition in terms of the changing nature of literacy demands as learners navigate schooling. • Editorial Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. https://education.nsw. gov.au/literacy-and-numeracy-strategy/ about-the-strategy Szenes, E. (2017). The linguistic construction of business reasoning: Towards a language-based model of decision-making in undergraduate business.
The new Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2012) has considerable implications for teachers\u... more The new Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2012) has considerable implications for teachers\u27 knowledge about language (KAL) and pedagogic practice. To successfully implement the functionally oriented model of grammar proposed by the Curriculum, many teachers will need to expand their expertise in grammar to understand \u27the structures and functions of word- and sentence-level grammar and text patterns and the connections between them\u27 (ACARA, 2009. p. 7). They will also need to apply that knowledge to enhance their students\u27 learning outcomes. This paper describes a small-scale research project involving a group of primary and secondary teachers in a targeted professional learning program. The initial findings have implications for theory and practice. In terms of theory, the research provides one of the first studies of the implementation of the new Curriculum. The case study reported underscores the importance of the implementation phase for the Curriculum and of th...
Internationally, English curriculum increasingly emphasises the explicit teaching of knowledge ab... more Internationally, English curriculum increasingly emphasises the explicit teaching of knowledge about language. This paper reports on a small pilot study of an ongoing project, investigating the relationship between explicit knowledge and its uptake by students. Drawing on the underpinnings of Vygotskian sociocultural theory and Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics, this paper presents an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of development in students\u27 metalinguistic understanding. The approach recognizes the centrality of the expert\u27s mediation via classroom interaction involving data drawn from lesson observations, interviews and writing conversations with students. The findings demonstrate some of the complexity involved in learning a grammatical concept; that is, in recognizing, acquiring and applying metalinguistic knowledge to the task of becoming literate. The paper argues that the purpose of teaching metalinguistic knowledge should be to support learners to become confident and successful users of language. Our findings also make some important suggestions for pedagogic practice with respect to teaching knowledge about language to young learners
Social skills and communication for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a challengin... more Social skills and communication for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a challenging area in spite of many years of research and interventions. Whilst the vast majority of strategies and interventions reported in the literature for students with ASD are teacher/expert-generated, this study focuses on the use of technology to create possibilities for students to develop their social and literacy skills. This paper reports on part of a larger study that explored the potential of seven high school students with ASD using a new form of video making called “Blended Digital Media”, which integrates video and still images with an audio narration, to digitally communicate their personal interests as a means of developing social and multimodal literacies. The research used a multiple case study design incorporating a range of qualitative methods to ascertain to what extent and with what implications students were able to create their own personal blended digital media about the...
While it is acknowledged that mastery of constrained literacy skills is a predictor of later lite... more While it is acknowledged that mastery of constrained literacy skills is a predictor of later literacy proficiency, Paris (2005) observes that no research has found it to be a causal relationship. That is, no correlation exists between early mastery of skills such as phonic knowledge and later literacy achievement. Of course, mastery of the constrained skills is necessary, but only in that it allows us to develop increasingly unconstrained, complex and contextualised skills for living rich literate lives.
The applied disciplines of architecture and civil engineering require students to communicate mul... more The applied disciplines of architecture and civil engineering require students to communicate multimodally, and to manipulate meaning across media and modes, such as image, writing or moving image. In their disciplinary studies for example, students must be able to transform the language of lectures and textbooks into models and diagrams. In their future workplaces, they will commonly be required to transform reports and legal documents into floor plans and digital & physical 3D models. Such multimodal literacy, however, is not typically reflected in their related subject-specific English language courses, especially in Germany, where a text-centric approach is favored. To better reflect the demands placed upon them, students in two courses of English for Architecture and Civil Engineering were tasked with creating digital, multimodal artifacts to explain a concept from either of these fields to a lay audience. The resultant artifacts used a wide variety of semiotic resources to mak...
The materials presented here were developed by Samantha Lamberti in collaboration with third grad... more The materials presented here were developed by Samantha Lamberti in collaboration with third grade teachers Carrie Harrison, Jennifer Burek and Mariam Elkadri. I thank them for their participation in this project.
The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range... more The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range of semiotic resources. As an assessment task for preservice teachers, this construction process is complex but has significant potential for learning. To investigate how weaving together multiple representations in such tasks enables learners to develop conceptual understanding, the paper presents an indicative case study of a 2nd-year preservice primary (K-6) teacher who created a digital explanation on the topic of ‘transparency’ for stage 3 children (ages 11–12). We focus on data gathered during the 3-h construction process including artefacts such as images, online searches, websites accessed and paper records used for planning; the digital explanation as product; audio and video capture of the construction process and pre- and post-construction interviews. Using multimodal analysis, we examine these data to understand how meanings are negotiated as the maker moves iteratively among...
ABSTRACT A “digital explanation” is a science learning task where learners explain science conten... more ABSTRACT A “digital explanation” is a science learning task where learners explain science content to non-expert others, in this case, the learners are primary preservice teachers [PST] in a science methods class. In the task, PST are assigned a prompt based on science content from the New South Wales K-6 syllabus and generate or source multiple representations to design and produce this stand-alone digital artefact. In this study, PST were interviewed about their decision making in producing the digital explanation, which offers insight into the design process and what makes for a successful product. Data include the digital explanations, interviews with nine PST, marking rubrics and rationale statements generated as part of the task. Thematic coding shows PST make design decisions for four principal reasons: content, engagement, clarity and unconscious selection. Decisions around content and engagement prevail and their decisions reveal keys to success in creating a digital explanation. We also note a tension between emphasis on engagement over content, which may reflect that the intended audience is young children and PST have a strong desire to gain and keep children’s interest.
The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range... more The construction of dynamic multimedia products requires the selection and integration of a range of semiotic resources. As an assessment task for preservice teachers, this construction process is complex but has significant potential for learning. To investigate how weaving together multiple representations in such tasks enables learners to develop conceptual understanding, the paper presents an indicative case study of a 2nd-year preservice primary (K-6) teacher who created a digital explanation on the topic of ‘transparency’ for stage 3 children (ages 11–12). We focus on data gathered during the 3-h construction process including artefacts such as images, online searches, websites accessed and paper records used for planning; the digital explanation as product; audio and video capture of the construction process and pre- and post-construction interviews. Using multimodal analysis, we examine these data to understand how meanings are negotiated as the maker moves iteratively among...
The Literature strand of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum Assessment &am... more The Literature strand of the Australian Curriculum: English (Australian Curriculum Assessment & Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2013) plays a key role in enriching students\u27 Iives and assisting them to understand what it means to be human. Importantly, when responding to and composing Iiterary texts, students are also developing valued intellectual skills and dispositions including predicting, analyzing, using evidence to argue, hypothesizing, speculating and imagining. This chapter demonstrates how literature can be used to support students\u27 engagement with language and other forms of meaning making and to develop their literacy skills at the same time as they acquire key understandings in the curriculum area of History (ACARA, 2015). Drawing on the teaching and learning cycle introduced in Chapter 3, we describe in detail a unit of work for lower primary classrooms, in which students encounter and create multimodal texts as they explore differences in family structures and family members\u27 roles and responsibilities over time. The unit incorporates a number of useful strategies that can be adapted for use with different groups of students and for a range of texts and curriculum areas
T here are many ways to approach the issue of literacy transitions. Transitions can be writ large... more T here are many ways to approach the issue of literacy transitions. Transitions can be writ large; for example, the transition from print-based to digital literacies (Rowsell, in press 2021; Zammit, 2010), transitions between home and educational institutions (Heath, 1983; Moji et al., 2008), and transitions between those institutions and work (FYA, 2017). Here in this special issue, contributors consider transitions in a number of different ways: transitions from one grade level to another, transitions between settings (from preschool to school etc), transitions between subjects, and transitions between activities within a single school lesson. All of these conceptions of transition focus on particular points in time, points at which individuals experience shifts in activities, routines, environments and relationships. While large scale transitions are important to acknowledge and undoubtedly impact on individuals and systems, it is the demands of these more local, immediate shifts and their impact on young people that form the focus here as contributors explore transition in terms of the changing nature of literacy demands as learners navigate schooling. • Editorial Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. https://education.nsw. gov.au/literacy-and-numeracy-strategy/ about-the-strategy Szenes, E. (2017). The linguistic construction of business reasoning: Towards a language-based model of decision-making in undergraduate business.
The new Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2012) has considerable implications for teachers\u... more The new Australian Curriculum: English (ACARA, 2012) has considerable implications for teachers\u27 knowledge about language (KAL) and pedagogic practice. To successfully implement the functionally oriented model of grammar proposed by the Curriculum, many teachers will need to expand their expertise in grammar to understand \u27the structures and functions of word- and sentence-level grammar and text patterns and the connections between them\u27 (ACARA, 2009. p. 7). They will also need to apply that knowledge to enhance their students\u27 learning outcomes. This paper describes a small-scale research project involving a group of primary and secondary teachers in a targeted professional learning program. The initial findings have implications for theory and practice. In terms of theory, the research provides one of the first studies of the implementation of the new Curriculum. The case study reported underscores the importance of the implementation phase for the Curriculum and of th...
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