Working with Reading to Learn in a bilingual primary school: Genres, literacy, inclusion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1344/did.2023.14.10-29Keywords:
literacy pedagogy, genre, bilingual education, inclusion, planned scaffoldingAbstract
This article presents the implementation of Reading to Learn pedagogy (Rose, 2018a) in a 5th grade class of pupils learning subjects in English, a foreign language for the children, at a school with a very varied intake. It describes the design of lessons in two subjects (science and history), focusing on key genres for success in these areas: descriptive report and biographical recount. Data were collected at three times: T1 pre-intervention, T2 and T3 after lesson sequences on reading and writing the chosen genres. Ten pupils were selected among those who had completed all the final independent writing tasks, representing four types of learners in the class: three fast, three average, three slow with learning difficulties, and one with special educational needs. Their texts were assessed for the 14 features of the genres as in Rose's protocol, producing a total of 82 observations. The assessment showed considerable progression from T1 to T3 in both genres. The Wilcoxon test for related samples in this quasi-experimental design indicated significant improvement in many features of the genres from T1 to T3. To conclude, all the pupils benefited greatly from the R2L scaffolding cycles for writing in this school from a disadvantaged district.
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