Advanced Literacies in the content
areas
Kristina Love
Australian Catholic University
Overview
1. The concept of ‘Advanced
Literacies’
2. Working with advanced literacies
in Australia
3. Future challenges
1. Literacy: some premises
 A major responsibility of all teachers,
regardless of the subjects they teach, is to
develop their students’ skills in handling
literacy, both in reading and in writing.
 Proficiency in reading will help develop
proficiency in writing, and vice versa
 Carefully structured oral interactions also help
build literacy
Literacies: insights from
research
 Modern literacy is very diverse and complex,
often requiring images, diagrams and graphs
to be read and interpreted, alongside words.
 The nature of literacy changes fundamentally
from Year 1 to Year 12, and the foundations
laid in the early years are not sufficient to
support the complex literacy demands of the
later years of schooling
Theoretical insights into
advanced literacies
 Christie & Stenglin, 2006
 Christie & Derewianka 2008
 Coffin, 1997, 2010
 Fang & Schleppegrell 2008
 Schellepgrel & Colombi, 2001
 Unsworth, 2006, 2010
 Veel, 1997
Year 3 Science
 The Little pygmy possum is
the smallest in the possum
family
 Its body is 5 to 6:5
centimeters long and its tail
is another 6 centimetres. It
weighs around 7 grms. It
has a cone shaped head. Its
fur is a soft brown colour
with a tight grey belly. It has
very large rounded eyes. Its
big toe, known as a hallax on
each foot helps it to climb
balanced with its tail which
curls and grips branches.
 (from Christie & Stenglin,
2006)
Advanced Literacy: Year 7
Science
 “The cells that line the nasal cavities have
cilia, tiny hairlike extensions that can move
together like whips. The whiplike motion of
these cilia sweeps mucus into the throat,
where it is swallowed”.
 Identify potential language challenges.
 Technical language
 Long noun groups
 Re-packaging of noun The cells that line the
nasal cavities have cilia,
tiny hairlike extensions
that can move together
like whips. The whiplike
motion of these cilia
sweeps mucus into the
throat, where it is
swallowed.
> adjective (whiplike)
 Nominalisation (move > motion)
 Info in first sentence is
compressed and
becomes the point of
departure for further
elaboration in second
sentence.
 This facilitates scientific
reasoning, but
challenges readers to
‘unpack’ densely
organised information
Advanced literacy: Maths
Congruent (spoken like) form
Nominalized (writtenlike) form
• how long something is
= length
= width
= height
• how far across
something is
• how far off the ground
something is
 Relationships between multiple abstractions
 Area = Length x Width
 Volume = Area x Height
Nominalisation and
abstraction
 The demands of increasingly technical and
abstract mathematical language accumulate
dramatically by high school, when many
struggling learners are left behind.
 Teachers who can explicitly discuss such
language features with their students, and
their role in making mathematical meanings,
can engage them more deeply with
mathematical content (Huang & Normandia,
2008).
 See NSW Maths for Literacy paper pg 9.
Scaffolding advanced literacies
through talk: Maths
T. What distance do you have to
measure?
S. The distance.
T. Which distance?
S. The distance from the vertex.
T. Which vertex?
S. (pointing) That one.
T. Can you be more precise?
S. The top left vertex.
T. OK. So what do we measure?
S. The distance from the top left vertex.
 T. Good. To where?
S. The outside of the other shape.
T. I’m not sure what you mean. Where on the other
shape?
S. The bottom left hand corner.
T. OK. And what do we call that shape?
S. The object.
T. OK. So the line’s going to …
S. The bottom left vertex of the object.
T. OK. Put that all together and tell me what you’re
measuring, what distance?
S. The distance from the top left vertex of the image to
the bottom left vertex of the object.
 Transcript Robert Veel, 1997
The language of mathematical
reasoning
 Precision in use of language for locating and
measuring
 Use of abstract and technical concepts
 Written-like conventions of the language
preferred over spoken-like
endophoric, not exophoric reference
lengthy noun groups.
The challenge of advanced
literacies

Primary school cannot prepare readers for
the specialised reading in high school eg
Literary works
Historical documents
Scientific explanations
Mathematical problems
 Here, S’s engage with more complex
combinations of genres, in new contexts of
learning that are further removed from their
personal and everyday lives
Increased complexity of
generic structure
From recounting history …

Year 10 History
 “By 1929, American factories were turning out nearly
half of the world’s industrial goods. The rising
productivity led to enormous profits. However, this
new wealth was not evenly distributed”.
 How has information been ‘packaged’ to build from
sentence to sentence?
 Students can be explicitly taught to identify how
information is presented in one sentence, then repackaged as the point of departure for the next
sentence.
… to critiquing history
 From a text used to teach about the causes of the
Boxer Rebellion in China.
 “Imperialist powers had been competing to
carve the country into spheres of influence for
years, while enforced opium addiction and
widespread corruption had reduced most of
the populace to abject poverty” (Denny, 2008)
 Students must unpack abstract and highly
nominalised concepts (bolded).
 … and recognise that what are presented as ‘facts’
are often interpretations to be evaluated, as
historians make more or less explicit judgements
about the people and events in history.
Recognizing ideology
 In evaluating the Boxer text as a commentary
on a period of Chinese history, students must
assess the writer’s 21st century post-colonial
stance by focusing on his choice of valueladen epithets (‘abject’), verbs (‘carved’ and
‘reduced’) and nouns (‘corruption’).
 Students need support in learning to read in
these highly specialised ways, drawing
attention to how such language operates to
construct a particular argument about history
 ie learning to be critical historians, able to
interrogate various viewpoints.
Learning to interrogate
 In evaluating the Boxer text as a commentary
on a period of Chinese history, students must
assess the writer’s 21st century post-colonial
stance by focusing on his choice of valueladen epithets (‘abject’), verbs (‘carved’ and
‘reduced’) and nouns (‘corruption’).
 Students need support in learning to read in
these highly specialised ways, drawing
attention to how such language operates to
construct a particular argument about history
 ie learning to be critical historians, able to
interrogate various viewpoints.
Interrogating multimodally
 Web site on the one child policy in
China
http://factsanddetails.com/china.php?ite
mid=128&catid=4&subcatid=15
Advanced literacies and
multimodal texts
 The multi-generic and multi-modal
nature of texts in education
 LASS Unit 5 Screens 3-6, 11-1
Advanced literacies and
image-text relations
 New research into image-text relations
Image equals (=) verbal text
Image adds to (+) verbal text
Image elaborates on (x) verbal text
Image contradicts (-) verbal text
 Unsworth http://www.pucsp.br/isfc.
Proceedings 33rd International Systemic Functional Congress 2006
Image = (clarifies) verbal text
 In the verbiage, the
information about fly
traps is simply “…
constructed fly traps
from old PET drink
containers to catch
flies.” The nature of the
trap and how it catches
flies are clarified by the
image.
Image + (extends) Text
 In the verbal text, the
absorption of
evaporated moisture in
the air, its movement
and eventual
precipitation is
described without any
mention of 'clouds'. It is
in the diagram that the
formation and transport
of clouds and
precipitation from them
are specified
Image x (elaborates) text
 When an image
enhances the text
by adding causal,
temporal or spatial
meanings
 The cropped colour
photograph relates
to the bold caption
below it by
‘manner/means’
Image - (contradicts) text
 Pictorially the levels are
allocated equal
proportions
 Verbal text states that
each level is of radically
different depth
 What is explicitly stated
in the verbiage about
the relative depths of
the different ocean
zones, is strongly
visually contradicted.
2. Working with advanced
literacies
 Zammitt: Framework for multiliteracies
 BUILT, LASS and LASS+
 Other curriculum support materials:
focus on Maths
 NSW materials on Maths
 Parkin & Hayes article (program with
Indigenous communities)
Zammitt (2006) Framework for multiliteracies
Using the Framework
 Evaluate the pedagogy underpinning
this TLF site
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au
/for_teachers/sample_curriculum_conte
nt/tm_-_civics_and_citizenship.html
BUILT
BUILT’s structure
U nit 1. Language a nd Learni ng
Top ic A : Te xt and Conte xt
Top ic B : Scaffo lding learn ing
U nit 2. Oral Language and Lear ning
Top ic A : O ral te xts in conte xt
Top ic B : Scaffo lding learn ing through
ora l lang uage
U nit 3. Wri tte n Languag e: Writi ng
Top ic A : W ritten te xts in conte xt
Top ic B : Scaffo lding stud ents' w riting.
U nit 4. Wri tte n Languag e: Rea ding
Top ic A : Read ing in con text
Top ic B : Scaffo lding stud ents' read ing.
Literacy Across the School
Subjects
 New film footage of
high school teachers
 New insights from
research on
Academic Literacies
 Updated
technologies
A taste of LASS
 Unit 1: interviews with
world experts, students
and teachers (Gatachi,
Screen 20, video 2)
 Unit 4 Screen 3 Frogs
exercise
 Unit 5: multimodal
genres
 Units 6 & 7: supporting
literacy pedagogy
 Unit 8: planning around
literacy.
LASS Plus (Recounts)
 First in a series of 6
 http://www.eshowca
se.unimelb.edu.au/p
ackages/lass
Other curriculum materials
 Focus on Maths
 NSW materials on
Maths
 Parkin & Hayes
article (program with
Indigenous
communities)
3. Challenges
Challenges in Sweden?
 Teachers’ attitudes?
 Resources
development?
 Others?
References
 Christie & Stenglin, 2006 Understanding English language and literacy
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development
http://www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au/knowledgetransfer/downloads/Liter
acyPositionPaper.pdf
Christie, F & Derewianka, B (2008) School Discourse. Continuum Press
Fang, Z. and Schellepgrell, M. (2008) Reading in the secondary content areas: a
language based pedagogy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Gibbons, P. 2002. Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching
Second Language Learners in the Mainstream Classroom. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Kress, G. (2003) Literacy in the New Media Age, Routledge, London and NY.
Love K, Pigdon K, Baker G, with Hamston J. (2005) Building Understandings in
Literacy and Teaching (BUILT) CD ROM 3rd Edition, The University of
Melbourne, Vic.
Love K, Baker G, and Quinn, M. (2008) Literacy Across the School Subjects
(LASS) DVD, The University of Melbourne, Vic.
Schellepgrell, M. & C. Colombi Eds (2002) Developing Advanced Literacy in first
and second languages: meaning with power. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum
Unsworth, L. (2006) E-literature for children: Enhancing digital literacy learning.
Routledge
Unsworth, L. (2007) Image/text relations and intersemiosis: Towards multimodal
text description for multiliteracies education. Online publication available at
http://www.pucsp.br/isfc.