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Literacy Professional Learning Resource - Key

Concepts - AusVELS Levels 5 and 6 - Genre Teaching
and Learning Cycle for Writing

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Literacy Professional Learning Resource - Key Concepts - AusVELS Levels 5
and 6 - Genre Teaching and Learning Cycle for Writing

This section includes information for teaching students how to

construct their own texts both with and without the aid of the
teacher.

Joint deconstruction
Joint construction
Individual construction
Genre teaching and learning cycle: in depth

This cycle can be used for any piece of writing related to any
domain of AusVELS.

The genre teaching and learning cycle has three steps:

joint deconstruction
joint construction
individual construction.
Joint deconstruction
The teacher uses a selected text to guide the students to
recognise:
the purpose of the text and the intended audience

the stages in the text (e.g. for narrative orientation,

complication, resolution)
the language features.
There are many ways teachers can support students in joint
deconstruction. This is a suggested procedure:
Procedure
Begin with a model of the target text
Teachers may use an excerpt from relevant reading
materials, a published model, write the model or use a
student text from a previous year.
Cut the model into paragraphs
Teachers need to consider stages in the text and discuss with
students which paragraphs make up each stage. Below are
stages in text for different text types:
narrative: orientation orientation, complication, resolution
drama: setting the scene, listing of characters, backdrop
and lighting, prologue, orientation, complication, series of
events, resolution, reorientation or coder
expository: statement of position, argument,
reinforcement of position
procedural: goal or aim, material or equipment, steps,
explanation
explanations: title, general statement introducing or
identifying the phenomenon, series of sequenced
statements, concluding statement, labelled diagrams and
flow charts
information report: general opening statement or
classification, description, conclusion with visual elements
of diagrams or charts
discussion texts: statement of position, supplying
necessary background information, arguments for and
supportive evidence, arguments against and supportive
evidence, recommendation or conclusion.

Ask students in groups to reconstruct the text in correct

sequence
Students who are experienced readers will work from implicit
understandings about how texts work or will have a well
developed understanding from previous learning. Students who
struggle with this task will require additional support through
clarifying discussions.
Provide common terms for the class to use when talking
about the text and write them on the board
If a student were to say we know this comes next because it
says later, the teacher can rephrase this as so its sequenced
in time and write that on the board and then ask students to
identify other words and phrases that indicate the time
sequence.
This procedure for modelling the whole text can be repeated at
the paragraph level by cutting paragraphs into sentences to
work on features such as topic sentences, connectives and
technical terms etc.
Joint construction
The teacher and students engage in the joint construction of a
new text talking explicitly about:

the purpose of text and the intended audience

their language choices
the development of the stages in the text
if the purpose is effectively achieved.

To do this the teacher and students draw on:

previous knowledge about texts gained from reading and
writing
new knowledge gained from the joint deconstruction of
the model text.

There are many ways teachers can support students in joint

construction. The following is a suggested procedure.
Building knowledge
building field or content knowledge
identify students prior knowledge
introduce new subject specific terminology, concepts, and
relationships between ideas
use a variety of approaches: reading, viewing, researching
and note making.
Observation, research, note making, discussion, rehearsing and
role play to can be used to engage a student and develop their
knowledge of the domain. This will allow them to practise
locating, gathering and organising appropriate information for
the construction of a new text.
Possible strategies to build content knowledge and skills to
locate, extract and organise information for text creation:

data chart
modelling and joint construction of texts
summarising a text
cognitive organisers
gathering grid
dictogloss
concept maps
note making
brainstorm
KWL
glossary
taxonomy
structured overview

Text creation
The teacher usually acts as a scribe. Students contribute to the
construction of the joint text with teacher guidance.
Students draw on:

their knowledge of the target genre developed during the

deconstruction phase
their field knowledge developed through activities in the
preparation stage of this phase.

Students:

group information collected into paragraphs

order their paragraphs logically
link their sentences coherently
link their paragraphs explicitly
use starting or topic sentences which contain key
words.

Polishing up
Strategically incorporating other information into the text such
as tables, diagrams or photos and ensuring it meets the
requirements of the purpose of the particular genre is done in
preparation for publishing or sharing.
This stage of joint construction requires teachers to explicitly
teach students how to select and place additional multi-model
information which is central to the purpose and function of a
particular genre.
Individual construction
Students use their knowledge of stages in the text, language
features and the purpose of the text and intended audience, to
write their own.
Reference: Rose 2005.
Individual construction of new texts in the same target genre is
the final phase. Students further develop their field knowledge
and draft their own texts.
Students then critically evaluate their writing looking at the
purpose, stages in texts and language features. This process

should involve discussion with peers and the teacher using the
metalanguage developed.

Genre teaching and learning cycle: in depth

Genre teaching and learning cycle
When approaching a topic for study teachers need to plan for
the development of student knowledge, skills and behaviours of
the domains as well as literacy development or demands.
Once the topic is chosen the writing task must be set with a
clear understanding of the most appropriate genre for students
based on purposes that are appropriate to the topic; age of the
students and prior experience with different genres.
When producing discussion texts students need to be aware
that they must write the explanations and arguments for and
against a given issue.
Students need to be exposed to a number of texts that
exemplify the genre in question. Teachers need to consider the
relationship between the genres students will read while
developing their field knowledge and the genre in which they
will need to write.
Sometimes students read information reports and are then
asked to write one, so excerpts from the reading can be used to
provide models for writing.
Sometimes students are required to read information texts to
produce an argument or read a narrative and write a text
response. In these instances teachers will need to source or
develop text response models of writing for deconstruction.
By following the steps in the cycle student writing can
successfully be scaffolded.
As students are repeatedly scaffolded through successive
cycles of increasing complexity, they become skilled at

independently producing the range of texts required for a range

of learning contexts.