Text User:
Understanding Purpose and Form
SESSION
4
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Overview
A learning resource for educators with six sessions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Thinking as a Habit of Mind
Meaning Maker: Interacting with Text
Code User: Breaking the Code
Text User: Understanding Purpose and Form
Text Analyzer: Critically Thinking about Text
Putting It All Together: Integrating the Four Roles
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Key Messages
• Early primary students are capable of thinking about their
own thinking.
• The four roles of the literate learner model supports
higher-order thinking in K–2 classrooms.
• The Guides to Effective Literacy Instruction, Grades 4
to 6 support all teachers in planning effective literacy
instruction.
• Higher-order thinking is not about a series of events or
lessons, but rather about developing a habit of mind.
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Learning Goals for Session 4
This session is intended to:
• deepen understanding of the role of
the text user as dependent upon the
relationship between the function and
form of text
• examine literate learners as they use
a range of strategies to deconstruct and
construct text
• examine relevant authentic purposes
for constructing text
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Interacting with Text
Click on page to animate
graphic
Language Knowledge
Author’s Words
Vocabulary
Punctuation
Style
Syntax
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Vocabulary
Strategies
Using cueing systems
Activating prior knowledge
Predicting
Visualizing
Questioning
Drawing inferences
Finding important information
Summarizing
Synthesizing and evaluating
Monitoring/revising comprehension
Text Features
Use of organizational tools
Use of informational
tools (glossary, captions)
Format/Layout
Use of space and graphics
Use of illustrations
Author’s Purpose
Topic
Ideas
Message
Text Knowledge
Self-Concept as a Reader
Purpose for reading
Interests & Experiences
Factual Knowledge
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
Organizational &
informational structure
Artistic elements of text
Print concepts
Text type
5
Evolving View: Four Roles of the Literate Learner
Click on page to animate graphic
Adapted from page 9 of Literacy for Learning: The Report of the Expert Panel on Literacy in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario
(2004). Based on Freebody and Luke’s “Four Resources Model” (1990). The Expert Panel elaborated on the four
resources model to suggest four roles of a developing junior learner. The Evolving View: Four Roles of the Literate Learner
is for discussion purposes only and is based on the work of the Collaborative Inquiry in Literacy 2008–09 and 2009–10.
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The Functionality of Text
• defines the relationship among the
audience, the purpose and the form
of the text
• is influenced by cultural and social
contexts
• is influenced by the relationship of
the particular text form and the
socio-cultural expectations
associated with it
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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The text user asks …
• What features of the text help me to
understand the message?
• What is the key vocabulary that helps
me understand the message in the
text?
• What text form is this? How do I
know?
• What is the purpose of the text?
• Why is this text form effective for the
particular purpose and audience?
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Persuade Me
9
Visit the Science
Centre by clicking
here!
Visit the ‘Be a
Green Hero!’ site
here!
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
A Text User …
As a reader …
• understands that purpose and
audience determine the way text
is constructed
• uses this knowledge and a variety
of thinking processes to read,
listen, and view, as well as to
write, speak and represent ideas
• thinks critically and creatively
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
As a writer …
• writes for a variety of authentic
purposes
• chooses structures and text forms
according to audience and purpose
• recognizes and imitates authors’
craft
• thinks critically and creatively
10
Reading, Talking and Thinking
View a video on the web:
Reading, Talking and Thinking
(Grade 1/2)
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Non-Fiction Writing
Read pages 1–3 of
Non-Fiction Writing for
the Junior Student.
How are these
messages reflected in
early learning
classrooms?
“Giving students a choice to read
and write about things that
fascinate them, to conduct inquiry
based on their own questions and
their own research and to present
to an interested audience increases
motivation.”
Jobe and Dayton-Sakari, 2002
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Integrated Learning
Creating real life purposes for reading and writing
View videos on the web:
Cereal Box Read: Writing a List
(Kindergarten)
Authentic Writing Experiences
(Kindergarten)
Authentic Learning: Making
Connections (Grade 1/2)
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Inquiry Habit of Mind
• What opportunities do your students
have to be text users and learn new
ways to understand and compose a
variety of texts?
• What changes in your practice might
result from the ideas presented today?
• What do your students need next to
become better text users?
• What do you need to do next to support
your students’ needs?
Thinking about Thinking: Setting the Stage for Independent Reading
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Inquiry Habit of Mind
What is the impact of __________________ (teacher practice)
on ________________________ (change in student learning)?
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Hand-outs and Reference Documents
All resource and curriculum documents used in Thinking
about Thinking sessions are available online in PDF. Please
visit the following web page to download them:
http://resources.curriculum.org/LNS/thinking/session3.html
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