T Shaped Literacy - Aaron Wilson

Often, as teachers, we endeavour to cover too many aspects when teaching reading. Students studying a novel might cover the plot, major characters and minor characters, themes, language, structure and setting, and conflict. These elements would have more or less the same weight afforded to them. It is not helpful to try to cover everything about every text as time is spread thinly across a wide range of learning focuses. T Shaped Literacy narrows the focus but widens the range of texts. 
Reading widely around a topic will help students to build vocabulary and background knowledge. This is scaffolded by the teacher. Reading selected passages allows students to learn close reading skills and build specific knowledge. Diving deeper into the texts with the teacher gives students opportunities to clarify meaning, have their own thoughts and opinions strengthened or challenged, and synthesise and apply ideas.
The reason behind using multiple texts is that by engaging with the same underlying concept in different texts and contexts, students facilitate deeper understanding and better transfer. Simpler texts can act as scaffolds that students can add deeper meaning to. Complementary texts support students to understand a key underlying idea. Competing texts require students to resolve disagreements and make judgements which can be cognitively challenging.

Another aspect of the T-shaped approach is identifying what the narrow focus should be. This could be in the shape of a moral dilemma or something topical such as 'Black Lives Matter.' 
Using graphic organisers helps students see similarities and differences between the texts they are reading which enables them to justify thoughts and opinions by cross referencing texts.

I was shown the T-Shaped Literacy Model a few years ago by Kath Jones when our school was involved with A.L.L. (although she referred to it as 'multi-modal' with added 'provocation') so it is something I have been working on for a few years. I was shown it again last year as part of DFI. Delving deeper into texts with the teacher and creating lively discussions and conversations between students is key to unlocking deeper understanding. Kath also made the point that it is necessary to specifically teach the other reading comprehension startegies outlined in the Effective Literacy Practices Handbook so students have the skills necessary to analyse and synthesise. Providing a thought provoking question or topic ensures the students make new meaning. 
My problem always lies in finding the supporting texts online. I always end up down a rabbit hole.

Google Hangout - Reading in a Digital World

What does effective practice look like in a Digital World?
There is no easy answer - we are co-constructing a design where effective teacher practice is amplified and turbo-charged by the engagement and affordances of technology.
Dorothy mentioned that the Woolf Fisher data shows although students are making vast improvements in Writing, this is not the same in Reading. The question is, why not?
I think it is important to remember (and Dorothy also mentioned this) whatever you do, your classroom reading programme MUST reflect effective practice and for this we can't go past the Effective Literacy Practice handbook and The Literacy Learning Progressions. Our DATs (deliberate acts of teaching) need to be at the forefront:

• Modelling
• Prompting
• Questioning
• Giving feedback
• Telling
• Explaining
• Directing

We are looking at ideas to SUPPORT effective practice, as well as the amplify and turbocharge elements of our reading programme in any learning environment or context, and in a digital learning environment. 

Engaging with the text should not be limited to just the written words. Teachers should be harnessing different elements of the text and the digital to scaffold opportunities for higher-order thinking and improved critical thinking and analysis skills. 
How can we do this? We need to shift the locus of control from the teacher to the students. Here are some ways:

• Voice Typing - get the learners themselves to transfer the text from print to digital; read texts aloud- daily using voice typing; gamify using Word Count within set time; use one doc per… week?... term? ...text; edit and correct by comparing to the print text;
• Google Keep - use the photo option to ‘rip’ the text;
• Oral fluency - Read texts aloud- daily using Screencastify; listen to and reflect upon fluency; think about how you can show punctuation orally; do your facial expressions change how the text sounds?
• Create a Photo Journal in google docs;
• provide multimodal opportunities where every learner is able to access the text, students are being hooked in through the text style that engages their learning style/capability/orientation/x factor (this is also mentioned in an earlier blog DFI Day 6).

Learner selected text is a valued component of a text set. Empowering our learners is vital to the Manaiakalani kaupapa and the Literacy Learning Progressions. Here's a variety of suggestions for learners to record their self-selected text:

• Google Form- may be least engaging BUT the most functional (sorting, sifting organising);
• Padlet- variety of options for recording information;
• Flipgrid- engaging BUT more time consuming for teachers to look through and retrieve information from.

And if you're having trouble with students wondering off on a different tangent, use Hapara for set (limited) periods of time to ensure they stay on task. Watch tutorial here (26m 30 start point. New updates to layout are not reflected).

Now the teacher can use technology to ‘insist’ that the learners focus on reading a specific text for a defined length of time. This could be a group or the whole class, depending on age/level/context. This supports an important element of a successful multi-modal teaching design.

Other ideas to use:

• The Final Word Strategy
• Give one, get one
• The Negotiation Game
• Summarising in your own word (20 words max)
• Say it grids
• Deep dive into text

The ‘big six’ - catalytic digital teaching capabilities:

• Ambitious outcomes for all;
• Eyes on text;
• Language and vocabulary development;
• High level discussions;
• Transforming and transference of knowledge through creation;
• Making thinking visible.

Valued Learning Outcomes:

• Able to read and comprehend unfamiliar, age appropriate, texts independently  
• Develops reading ability at an at least expected rate of progress 
• Reads regularly in and out of school 
• Loves reading
• Has strategies for selecting texts for particular purposes 
• Knows that some texts will require resilience and persistence to make meaning from
• Has a toolbox of strategies that s/he can use deliberately
• Can synthesise across multiple texts
• Considers connections between oral, written and visual language
• Can read critically and is hyperaware of authors’ positioning of readers
• Appreciates aesthetic properties of language and literature

Any other ideas you have would be greatly appreciated. Please add them to the comments below.