An example of the first part of the planning grid: Florence Nightingale

As promised, in this blog entry I will share with you the first part of a planning grid for a unit on biographies, that takes the biography of Florence Nightingale as a starting point. You can see that the first three boxes in the planning grid contain basic information about the unit: who it was designed for, what kind of text we are working on and where to find the model text. If we look at the second box, it specifies the type of text we are working on, and then states that this "= General aim of the unit". What this means is that if we are working on a given text type, this is also the text type we are going to ask our students to produce. This working from a model text to a similar production may look a bit mechanic and uninteresting, but it is a crucial part of the Approach: only if my students have developed the necessary understanding of how a given text works and looked at some specific strategies the author uses, can they be expected to produce a text of this kind. 

This working on the text and raising students' text awareness is what the first section of the teaching points table focuses on. As you can see in the example, the teacher has decided here to work on the structure of biographies and the use of temporal linkers to mark the different stages in the main part of the text (record of stages). This works very much with the strucural elements of the text, which apply to all biographies, but the text also shows other noticeable feaures that are interesting to look at. These are the facual information given in the text to make it both informative and trustworthy, and strategies to draw the reader into the text to create an interest. Epecially the last of these features is particular to this model text, as other biographies may not use these strategies. On the other hand, these strategies are not particular to biographies only, and once students have become aware of them they can use them to create other texts. This shows how the textual teaching points focus on two different aspects of the text: the features that are particular to the specific text type we are working on and the features that are special in the model text we have chosen. Both can become the focus of our teaching.

Why "can become"? If you look at the title of the teaching points table, you will see that it says in brackets "as relevant". The reason is that we will have to deal with all text types several times over the years of schooling, so that the second or third time I deal with recounts, which is the larger class biographies are part of, I can probably skip working on temporal linkers, as students will already know them. Or there may be specific features in a model text I have chosen which I decide not to work on, because they are too complex - or too easy - for my students. This means that in selecting the teaching points I want to work on in a given unit I will be selective, always keeping in mind what this particular group of students is already able to do, or is ready to work on. This makes the whole process of working with a Literacy Approach very much student-centred.  

The rest of the teaching points are, I think, self-explanatory and therefore don't need further attention. If you feel, however, that you'd like to know more about any of the elements, please let me know. What  I would like to point out is the fact that some of the lines are left blank, because the model text doesn't offer anything relevant in this category or the teacher in this case has decided not to focus on these elements. I'd also like to highlight how, in the level expected column, the teacher has tried to define the level students should be working at. The level described would be a minimum level expected, and therefore would act as a single point rubric. There is no limit to what students can produce, but this is the minimum expected, and guides both students and teachers.

As said above, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post a comment. I'll do my best to answer all your questions!