Notes on Literacy and English
Literacy is the ability to read and write and use written information and to write
appropriately in a range of contexts. It also involves the integration of speaking,
listening, viewing and critical thinking with reading and writing, and includes the cultural
knowledge which enables a speaker, writer or reader to recognise and use language
appropriate to different social situations.
The four resources accessed by literate people
Allan Luke and Peter Freebody first developed the four resources model of literacy in
1990. It developed out of the divisive debates in Australia in the 1980s about what
constituted the right literacy practice. Luke and Freebody wanted to shift the focus from
trying to find the right method to whether the range of practices emphasised in literacy
teaching integrated the broad repertoire of textual practices demanded by contemporary
society.
In order to become effective communicators in the 21st century, all learners need to be
proficient in four interrelated dimensions of language use. Luke and Freebody have
identified the textual resources that students need to access to be literate as: code
breaker, text participant, text user and text analyst.
Code Breaker 'How do I crack this code?'
This involves being able to decode and encode language at an appropriate level of proficiency. It includes recognising
and being able to speak and write words and sentences; it incorporates phonics and the use of accurate spelling and
grammar.
Text Participant 'What does this mean to me?'
Students use their knowledge of the world, knowledge of vocabulary and knowledge of how language works, to
comprehend and compose texts. Examples of activities that involve this role include: making a list of questions after
reading a poem for the first time; comparing the worlds created in two science fiction films; predicting the style and
content of a television program from the opening titles.
Text User 'What do I do with this text?'
Students understand how language varies according to context, purpose, audience and content, and are able to apply
this knowledge. Examples of activities that involve this role include: creating an information leaflet for a sporting
club; preparing a talk about new books in the library for an assembly; choosing an appropriate style for a letter or
phone call thanking a visiting speaker.
Text Analyst 'What does this text do to me?'
Students critically analyse and challenge the way texts are constructed to convey particular ideas and to influence
people. Examples of activities that involve this role include: working out the beliefs about fathers implied in a range
of picture books; looking at newspaper photographs to consider who is not represented and why this might be; re-
writing fairy tales to present different ideas about gender or class.
All four resources should be identified, explicitly taught and systematically integrated
into the planned learning sequences delivered by all teachers at all levels of schooling.
Teachers of English can best provide for literacy learning by planning rich and
comprehensive text and language-based learning sequences that address all four
resources.
Multiliteracies provide a bridge between the real-life texts of the community and school
texts and encourage a real-world, interdisciplinary approach to learning through the use
of disciplined knowledge. Using a multiliteracies approach enables students to
understand, use and critically evaluate the multimodal texts of the 21st century. These
complex texts incorporate elements of linguistic, visual, spatial, audio and gestural
design.
Healy (2004) believes that a multiliteracies curriculum and pedagogy:
acknowledges significant changes for literacy education as a result of technology,
globalisation and the diversity this brings to people’s lives;
assists students to have the skills associated with the recognition of different
social languages and the multimodality of digitally-mediated texts;
provides a means of transforming education to reflect real-life practice
harnesses diversity and leads learner transformation through a focus on four
knowledge processes – experiencing, conceptualising, analysing and applying;
and
challenges traditional classroom organisation and learning resources in ways that
effect knowledge producing communities.
The attributes of a good literacy teacher
Braithwaite et al (1997) has reported on the attributes of literacy teachers in 'best
practice' classrooms. The findings, summarised below, are of particular relevance to
teachers of English.
Braithwaite found that effective teachers:
expressed clear and cohesive views about the meaning of the term 'literacy',
favoured classroom practices that had a whole language approach reinforced by
the use of skill-based teaching in areas such as phonics;
justified their approach to teaching literacy on the grounds that it 'works';
claimed that their strengths in literacy teaching lay in their enthusiasm to deliver
their programs;
believed that they had to consolidate their students' literacy skills;
were more proactive when it came to planning for parental involvement in their
literacy programs;
used checklists more to record students' progress, rather than relying solely on
anecdotal records;
were more likely to plan specific meetings with parents to report student
progress;
were more likely to evaluate their teaching on a continuous basis, rather than
only when things were not working; and
claimed that they planned collaboratively with other teachers.
Literacy in English learning - what works?
Teaching programs work best when the teacher has clear learning intentions that all
students know about and understand. A carefully considered choice of specific teaching
strategies that focus on the study of texts and their structures and features will:
provide explicit knowledge about language and literacy; and
establish teaching and learning contexts where 'point-of-need' teaching relates to
the teacher's intended goals and purposes.
So, what makes for an effective literacy learning strategy? Cambourne (1997) reported
on a study by Brown and Turbill that looked at the characteristics of successful literacy
activities. The analysis of data revealed that those activities, which showed both deep
engagement and transfer into other learning contexts, were:
linked to other parts of the teaching and learning program;
preceded by explicitly stated purposes for engaging in the activity;
involved high degrees of social interaction and cognitive collaboration;
coerced learners to use more than one mode of language;
coerced learners to draw on more than one subsystem of language;
encouraged learners to transfer meaning across and or different semiotic
systems;
allowed a range of acceptable responses; and
were cost efficient and developmentally appropriate.
Especially for Teachers - About English
Literacy and English
What is literacy?
The links between the field of English and literacy
The four resources accessed by literate people
The Communicating Essential and the Being literate Key Element
Towards a multiliteracies pedagogy
The attributes of a good literacy teacher
Literacy in English learning - what works?
Assessing, monitoring and reporting literacy outcomes
Assessment principles for literacy
Continuity and cumulative literacy learning
What are some of the current concerns in literacy learning?
In what ways might schools begin to estimate the task ahead of them?
In what ways might schools make initial gains?
Which literacy areas need continuous and cumulative learning opportunities?
Which content will be developed? When?
Which ways of teaching and learning will be used?
Which ways of recording and assessing will be used?
An example of a 5-7 literacy program
Summary
For more information
What is literacy?
Literacy is viewed no longer as a single, finite 'thing', but rather as a flexible group of
skills and strategies that are closely linked to context and purpose. Contemporary views
of literacy have moved beyond simple print literacy to encompass notions of active
citizenship, new communications practices and information technologies, critical thinking
and linguistic and cultural diversity. The multiplicity of literacy practices has led many
educators to use the plural terms ‘literate practices’ and ‘multiliteracies’ to emphasise
the diverse the ways that we use the non-verbal, spoken, print, visual and multimodal
communications practices of the world in which we live.
The definition of literacy that has been adopted by government schools in Tasmania is
the one agreed to by State and Federal ministers in 1997:
Literacy is the ability to read and write and use written information and to write
appropriately in a range of contexts. It also involves the integration of speaking,
listening, viewing and critical thinking with reading and writing, and includes the cultural
knowledge which enables a speaker, writer or reader to recognise and use language
appropriate to different social situations.
Other definitions of literacy have been developed in Australia since 1997. For example,
Allan Luke and Peter Freebody have defined literacy in the Queensland publication
Literate Futures (2000) as:
The flexible and sustainable mastery of a repertoire of practices with texts of traditional
and new communications technologies via spoken language, print and multimedia.
The links between the field of English and literacy
The links between the field of English and literacy have been debated for a considerable
time. Although many links exist between the two, there are also differences between
English learning and literacy. Whereas the field of English is a discipline with a particular
literacy discourse operating within it, literacy is a fundamental to learning across all
fields of learning within the Essential Learnings Framework.
All fields of learning within the Essential Learnings Framework use texts. English
learning incorporates a broad range of literature, media and everyday texts. A program
that increased students' expertise in reading, viewing, writing, representing, listening
and speaking, but did not address this particular range of texts would not be
comprehensive English learning. So, in one sense, English learning involves more than
learning literacy.
On the other hand, other fields of learning within the Essential Learnings Framework
have developed their own distinctive literacy practices that students need to learn to
achieve success. Each field of learning contributes to an essential broadening of the
range of contexts within which students learn to be literate. A program that focussed
exclusively on literacy within English learning and did not teach students to meet the
literacy challenges of other fields of learning within the Essential Learnings Framework
would not be a comprehensive literacy program. In this sense, learning literacy involves
more than English learning.
The four resources accessed by literate people
Allan Luke and Peter Freebody first developed the four resources model of literacy in
1990. It developed out of the divisive debates in Australia in the 1980s about what
constituted the right literacy practice. Luke and Freebody wanted to shift the focus from
trying to find the right method to whether the range of practices emphasised in literacy
teaching integrated the broad repertoire of textual practices demanded by contemporary
society.
In order to become effective communicators in the 21st century, all learners need to be
proficient in four interrelated dimensions of language use. Luke and Freebody have
identified the textual resources that students need to access to be literate as: code
breaker, text participant, text user and text analyst.
Code Breaker 'How do I crack this code?'
This involves being able to decode and encode language at an
appropriate level of proficiency. It includes recognising and being able
to speak and write words and sentences; it incorporates phonics and the
use of accurate spelling and grammar.
Text Participant 'What does this mean to me?'
Students use their knowledge of the world, knowledge of vocabulary and
knowledge of how language works, to comprehend and compose texts.
Examples of activities that involve this role include: making a list of
questions after reading a poem for the first time; comparing the worlds
created in two science fiction films; predicting the style and content of a
television program from the opening titles.
Text User 'What do I do with this text?'
Students understand how language varies according to context,
purpose, audience and content, and are able to apply this knowledge.
Examples of activities that involve this role include: creating an
information leaflet for a sporting club; preparing a talk about new books
in the library for an assembly; choosing an appropriate style for a letter
or phone call thanking a visiting speaker.
Text Analyst 'What does this text do to me?'
Students critically analyse and challenge the way texts are constructed
to convey particular ideas and to influence people. Examples of
activities that involve this role include: working out the beliefs about
fathers implied in a range of picture books; looking at newspaper
photographs to consider who is not represented and why this might be;
re-writing fairy tales to present different ideas about gender or class.
Students need to orchestrate and mix all of these textual resources to lead literate lives
in the 21st century. It is important to note that these resources are not hierarchical or
developmentally-based and should not be seen in linear ways. The key concept in Luke
and Freebody’s four resources model is necessity and not sufficiency i.e. each resource is
necessary to enable students to become literate but none of the resources by
themselves is sufficient.
All four resources should be identified, explicitly taught and systematically integrated
into the planned learning sequences delivered by all teachers at all levels of schooling.
Teachers of English can best provide for literacy learning by planning rich and
comprehensive text and language-based learning sequences that address all four
resources.
The Communicating Essential and the Being Literate Key Element
The Communicating Essential focuses on conveying meaning from one person to another
through the use of symbol systems, that is representations of objects, ideas and
experiences. These symbol systems include “…words and images in print, the
representation of quantitative and spatial information, arts forms, mass media and
contemporary communication technologies.” (Essential Learnings Framework 1, p. 20 )
Each of these symbol systems is a literacy with its own codes and conventions.
The Being literate Key Element focuses on understanding, using and critically evaluating
the non-verbal, spoken, visual and print communication practices of the world in which
we live. It encompasses accessing the resources involved in being a competent
communicator and using these resources in interconnected ways with the focus always
on making meaning and communicating.
These resources include being able to:
work with the codes in which texts are constructed;
participate in making meaning of texts;
use texts; and
critically analyse and transform texts.
The links between Luke and Freebody’s four resources and the Being literate Key
Element, including the literacy theory and approach underpinning each resource, are
outlined in the following table:
Four Major Being Literate Literacy
Resources Emphasis Performance Theory and
Model Guidelines Approach
Code breaking Decoding and Work with the Skills
resources encoding the codes in which
conventions of a texts are
range of texts constructed
Text Comprehending Participate in Cultural heritage
participating and composing making meaning Whole language
resources a range of texts of texts
Text using Understanding Use texts Genre
resources the purposes of
different texts
and using them
in different ways
Text analysing Understanding Critically Critical/cultural
resources that texts are analyse and literacy
not neutral but transform texts
represent
particular points
of view and
silence others
Towards a multiliteracies pedagogy
Literally meaning many literacies, the term multiliteracies was first coined in 1996 by the
New London Group to encapsulate two significant shifts in how we view literacy. The
concept of multiliteracies acknowledges that in a rapidly changing, culturally and
linguistically diverse society we need to use texts in critical, active and reflective ways.
It also acknowledges that literacy goes beyond print language and incorporates the
multiple modes of meaning found in new information and communication technologies.
Multiliteracies provide a bridge between the real-life texts of the community and school
texts and encourage a real-world, interdisciplinary approach to learning through the use
of disciplined knowledge. Using a multiliteracies approach enables students to
understand, use and critically evaluate the multimodal texts of the 21st century. These
complex texts incorporate elements of linguistic, visual, spatial, audio and gestural
design.
Healy (2004) believes that a multiliteracies curriculum and pedagogy:
acknowledges significant changes for literacy education as a result of technology,
globalisation and the diversity this brings to people’s lives;
assists students to have the skills associated with the recognition of different
social languages and the multimodality of digitally-mediated texts;
provides a means of transforming education to reflect real-life practice
harnesses diversity and leads learner transformation through a focus on four
knowledge processes – experiencing, conceptualising, analysing and applying;
and
challenges traditional classroom organisation and learning resources in ways that
effect knowledge producing communities.
The attributes of a good literacy teacher
Braithwaite et al (1997) has reported on the attributes of literacy teachers in 'best
practice' classrooms. The findings, summarised below, are of particular relevance to
teachers of English.
Braithwaite found that effective teachers:
expressed clear and cohesive views about the meaning of the term 'literacy',
favoured classroom practices that had a whole language approach reinforced by
the use of skill-based teaching in areas such as phonics;
justified their approach to teaching literacy on the grounds that it 'works';
claimed that their strengths in literacy teaching lay in their enthusiasm to deliver
their programs;
believed that they had to consolidate their students' literacy skills;
were more proactive when it came to planning for parental involvement in their
literacy programs;
used checklists more to record students' progress, rather than relying solely on
anecdotal records;
were more likely to plan specific meetings with parents to report student
progress;
were more likely to evaluate their teaching on a continuous basis, rather than
only when things were not working; and
claimed that they planned collaboratively with other teachers.
Literacy in English learning - what works?
Teaching programs work best when the teacher has clear learning intentions that all
students know about and understand. A carefully considered choice of specific teaching
strategies that focus on the study of texts and their structures and features will:
provide explicit knowledge about language and literacy; and
establish teaching and learning contexts where 'point-of-need' teaching relates to
the teacher's intended goals and purposes.
So, what makes for an effective literacy learning strategy? Cambourne (1997) reported
on a study by Brown and Turbill that looked at the characteristics of successful literacy
activities. The analysis of data revealed that those activities, which showed both deep
engagement and transfer into other learning contexts, were:
linked to other parts of the teaching and learning program;
preceded by explicitly stated purposes for engaging in the activity;
involved high degrees of social interaction and cognitive collaboration;
coerced learners to use more than one mode of language;
coerced learners to draw on more than one subsystem of language;
encouraged learners to transfer meaning across and or different semiotic
systems;
allowed a range of acceptable responses; and
were cost efficient and developmentally appropriate.
Assessing, monitoring and reporting literacy outcomes
Literacy outcomes are assessed for a range of purposes. Students monitor and reflect
on their own literacy learning. Teachers monitor their students' literacy in order to
assess progress and to plan for future teaching. Schools monitor students' literacy to
assess the quality of the programs offered, and the system as a whole monitors
students' literacy to observe progress over time.
The assessment, monitoring and reporting of Being literate outcomes in Tasmanian
government schools is mandatory. Teachers are required to monitor and assess
students' literacy outcomes regularly and to report these assessments to parents. Visit
the Office of Educational Review web site for further details about the Assessment,
Monitoring and Reporting Policy and Strategic Plan.
Schools are also required to establish student literacy learning outcome targets as part
of the Partnership Agreements with their school communities. School principals are
required to ensure that these targets are appropriate and that progress is made towards
achieving them. Annual reports to parents, and to the branch (via the annual school
report), on progress towards the achievement of the identified literacy targets is also
mandatory.
The Office of Educational Review assesses literacy in grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 through
monitoring instruments that have been developed.
Assessment principles for literacy
For literacy assessment to be both effective and informative there are principles
that must be observed. Firstly, assessment must have clear and direct
links with outcomes.
Assessment must be integral to teaching and learning so that it can better inform future
teaching. It must also be balanced, comprehensive and varied. It needs to be accessible
in regard to the variety of learning and thinking styles which students employ. The
assessment must be valid. It must accurately assess what it purports to assess, so that
it reflects the aims and intentions of the learning strategies.
The assessment must be fair. It must allow all students the opportunity to show what
they know and can do, regardless of such things as gender or socio-cultural
background.
The assessment process must engage the learner. There ought to be opportunities
for learners to negotiate, monitor and reflect upon their own learning.
Effective assessment methods value teacher judgment. The reliability of teacher
judgment is enhanced when collaborative structures are set in place to allow teachers to
work together to develop common understandings of outcomes and to agree upon what
is necessary to demonstrate achievement of them.
Assessment must be time efficient and manageable. It ought to be embedded in
the teaching and learning program so that it is possible to assess a number of
outcomes in a single assessment task. There needs to be a whole-school approach
to assessment so that teachers have a set of guiding principles which are consistent and
coordinated.
Good quality assessment evidence is best collected by using a wide range of strategies.
These could include:
observation;
portfolios;
continuums;
performance assessments;
student self assessment; and
teacher-made and other tests.
