Breanna Moore

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________________________________________________________________
EDLA204: Assessment task 1

Planning for literacy learning using multimodal resources

Lesson Focus: Main Idea

VELS Domain: English
VELS Dimension: Reading
Grade: 1
Lesson Duration: 1 hour
Curriculum Standards:
Victorian Education Learning Standards (VELS):
Students engage in individual, small group and teacher directed activities in which they read a
variety of texts and explore the wide range of purposes, contexts and audiences for which texts
are produced. They learn to recognise that texts are constructed by authors, and distinguish
between texts that represent real and imaginary experiences. Through class discussion they
consider the opinions and viewpoints of others and become aware that there are different
interpretations of texts. They begin to connect the themes and ideas in texts to their own
knowledge and experience.
Learning Outcomes:
- Students understand what is meant by the main idea of a text (including distinguishing it
from the text topic), through both collaborative and individual learning opportunities.

3.1 These sections demonstrate my ability to set appropriate learning goals and describe the
indicators that will show me whether or not a student has achieved them.

Indicators:
- The students can provide relevant and accurate responses during discussions and
questioning about the text and its main idea.
- During focused learning groups the student is engaged in and contributing towards
productive discussion, collaboratively concluding the main idea of the text.
- The worksheet completed by the student demonstrate no inaccuracy and confusion
related to both the texts topic and main idea.

Resources:
- Interactive white board.
- Program: Springboard into comprehension. (Multimodal resource).
(Springboard text topic chosen: Lizards that change colour.)
- Topic appropriate worksheets.

3.4
A range of
teaching
resources,
including ICT.

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3.2 The movement from the whole class activity to the consolidation and practise component
requires the teacher to determine students current understanding, gaged from whole class
discussion. Doing so demonstrates my understanding the lesson progression and sequence is
influenced and determine by where the students are at.
3.3, 3.4, 3.5 Throughout this lesson, a variety of teaching and communication strategies are used in
order to differentiate learning and meet the variety of needs found within a classroom. A number of
teacher resources are also effectively utilised during this literacy lesson to assist in developing
student knowledge and understanding. Special mention needs to be made of my ability to efficiently
implement quality digital resources that will enhance the learning experience for students.

Lesson Content/Structure:

Whole Group Session/Activity. (approximately 20min)

1. (3.2, 3.3, 3.4) Activating prior knowledge:
- Introducing the multi-modal text. Discuss features of the book (concepts of print)
- Discuss the images presented (in this case; chameleons picture chat).
2. (3.3, 3.5) Facilitate discussion:
- What is a chameleon?
- Has anyone ever seen a chameleon?
- What is so special about this lizard? (its ability to change colour/blend in)
- Etc.
- Make a list of points made by students (Current/desired knowledge)
3. (3.3, 3.4) Read the text for the first time.
- Read to/modelled reading
4. (3.5) Discussion.
- What did you learn about chameleons?
- Were your previous questions about Chameleons answered?
- Are there any words/sentences that you did not understand?
- Etc.
5. Inform the students that we are now looking for the main idea.
- Introduce the concept of main idea.
- Use probing questions to gage students current level of understanding.
6. (3.3, 3.4, 3.5) Read the text for the second time.
- Shared reading
- Pause at the end of each paragraph to discuss the big ideas.
- Have the students underline/highlight the sentences or words that they feel
constitute a main idea.
7. Discuss and conclude the main idea of the whole text, using the big ideas recognised
by the students.

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(3.2) Consolidation and practise.(approximately 20min)

8. For Students that have not fully grasped the concept of the main idea (evident
during whole class discussion and text exploration).
- Work with them as a focussed teaching group to further break down and
understanding the text (lizards that change colour).
- Use different teaching strategies and approaches differentiated instruction
- As they demonstrate understanding, move them on to the next activity.
9. Students with an expected level of understanding.
- Will complete a worksheet related to the previously explored text.
10. Highly capably/advanced students.
- Will read a new text
- Will attempt to discover the main ideas individually, practising the skills and
strategies modelled during whole class discussion.

Conclusion (approximately 20min)

11. (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.5) Whole group reflection.
- All students will bring their worksheet to the floor (sitting in a circle).
- They will share their answers and discoveries (about Chameleons and main idea
concept)
- What have we learnt about Chameleons today?
- What was the main idea of the text?
- How do we know this?
- Etc.

Assessment:
-

Take anecdotal notes throughout the lesson. Elaborate and write them formally post
lesson.
Use the worksheets as a contributing indicator of student individual understanding
physical evidence of level of achievement towards the lesson learning goal.

3.6 Using student assessment is a practical way to evaluate the effectiveness of a lesson. Whether
or not students have successfully achieved the learning goals is a useful indicator as to what worked
and what different within a lesson and therefore what adjustments need to be made to improve
student learning.

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Lesson Rational.
The reason I constructed a lesson aimed at teaching grade one students the concept of main idea is
straight forward. The main idea or big idea of a text is an important part of reading and
comprehension which is often understandably confused with a texts topic (Duffy, 2009, p.138). It is
important children understand that the main idea is what the author wants their audience to

3.2, 3.3, 3.4

This section
highlights my
use of a variety
of teaching
strategies and
resources
effective in the
literacy
classroom

know about the topic (Duffy, p.138). This is something that I feel, with enhancement from the
Victorian Essential Learning Standards (VELS) focuses for level two, students at this age need to
start understanding.
Throughout the literacy lesson I chose to adopt a range of teaching strategies, with the
enhancement of a few teaching resources that I believe, together, will provide the students
with a positive learning experience.
The first resource that I have chosen to use in my lesson is the interactive whiteboard
(digital resources). It is important that technology is woven into the fabric of daily
classroom lessons, such as teaching-interactive demonstration and diverse collaboration
among students and teachers (Morrow & Gambrell, 2011, p.364). I have chosen to use a
digital program called Springboard into comprehension, that I believe does just that. It
presents various multi modal texts including the images, titles and paragraphs, and allows
manipulation (circling, highlighting and underlining) of its content. This will assist me in
emphasising important aspects of the text in reference to the lesson focus of main idea, as

3.4
This section
demonstrates my
knowledge of
specific digital
resources and
highlights my ability
to choose and
implement those
that will effectively
enhance the
learning experience
for students.

well as being able to encourage student participation in demonstrating what they see as
important or what they do not understand.
Using this digital resource opens the door to discussion, which is a vital learning technique for
students. As the teacher we need to ask questions that facilitate children's talk (e.g. open ended
questions) and initiate dialogue that involves various thinking processes (Fellows & Oakley, 2010,
p.71). Initiating dialogue will be of great use because word recognition is necessary for good
comprehension (Winch et al., 2010, p.89).The students can begin by exploring the visual aspects of
the text. From the visual cues they will begin to make links with their prior knowledge, assisting with
prediction. From the discussion I will also gain necessary information about the students current
understanding of the topic, so that instruction can be targeted at individual points of need. This
discussion will lead into reading the text for the first time.

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Using a read to/modelling strategy, the text will be read to the students. It is important that there is
no discussion and that the text is read through uninterrupted, to ensure that all children have the
opportunity to gain maximal understanding from the text. After it has been read, there will be a
need for further discussion, as it is hoped that the students have gained new insights or a query from
the text. This discussion will need to be directed so that the lesson focus of main idea can
be appropriately introduced. There are key understandings of this topic that as a teacher
you need to explain before teaching the main idea. Some of these include; the author
having a purpose for writing, which reflects what they think is important, questioning as
you read is important, that not everything in a text is of equal importance and that
determining the main idea is like predicting (Duffy, p.139-140).
The text will then be read through for the second using the shared reading strategy,
inviting students to read aloud sections of the text. This allows for discussion during the
exploration of the text. I have specifically noted a discussion at the end of each paragraph

3.2, 3.3
The sections
highlighted on
this page
demonstrate my
knowledge of
various literacy
strategies and
demonstrates
my ability to
effectively
implement them
within a lesson.

as the students can explore here the main idea that was just presented. This will assist them in
eventually concluding the main idea of the whole text. This is a scaffolding approach, as the
students are slowly being given more information to consider, until they have the main idea of the
whole text.
The capable students, noted from the group activity, will continue with individual work according to
their ability. The students who need extra guidance and support will become my focused teaching
group. With these students, the ideas and concepts of main idea will be highlighted again, using
language and questioning suitable to their understanding. Doing more examples and further text
analysis would also be an efficient way to help them understand. As the concepts are grasped, they
will be able to join the rest of the children to attempt individual work.
To conclude the lesson, I see importance in having the children reflect on their learning from that
lesson. By having the children state their opinions and understandings gained from these activities,
the teacher is in a good position to assess the children's progress. It can also be noted from this what
aspects of the lesson did or did not work, which will assist in the production of a follow up or recap
lesson in the near future.
The anecdotal notes taken throughout the class on students contributions, questions and thought
processes, are a great resource to help construct students final assessment. The individual work
sheets attempted will also influence the teachers decision on students final results. These
assessment techniques should indicate to a teacher whether or not the students have successfully

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accomplished the aim of the lesson, being that they can state the most important thing an author is
telling you, and be able to describe the thinking they did to decide what was important (Duffy,
p.140).

Reference List

Duffy, G. (2009). Explaining reading: A resource for teaching concepts, skills and strategies. (2nd ed.).
New York: Guilford Press.

Fellows, J. & Oakley, G. (2010). Language, literacy and early childhood education. (1st ed.). South
Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

In Teachers hands Effective literacy teaching in the early years of schooling. (2005). Retrieved from:
http://inteachershands.education.ecu.edu.au/

Morrow, L. & Gambrell, L. (2011). Best practices in literacy instruction. (4th ed.). New York: Guildford
Press.

Victorian Essential Learning Standards (vcaa). Retrieved from: http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/

Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L. & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: Reading, writing and
children's literature (4th ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

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Reflecting on my learning
So far during this unit I have noticed a significant progression in my understanding of planning for
literacy learning using multimodal resources. Some of the key concepts I have learnt about
producing a literacy lesson plan include; its content must be at the level of the students and a
diverse range of continuous assessment is vital in knowing the students level of understanding, that
all children are going to have a different level of understanding and a lesson must cater for all these
levels and that digital resources are a great way to enhance the teaching of most literacy topics if
used in an appropriate and thoughtful manner.
The area in which I think I have been most enlightened is in the implementation of digital resources
within the classroom. I was unaware that there are so many resources available to teachers that can
be used in the classroom. Whilst doing the weekly tasks I have had to use a wide and diverse range
of these digital resources that, through thought and practise, I have realised would play a great part
within a literacy lesson at any level of the school. For instance, glogster, the online poster
producer would make the introduction and explanation of any topic fun and interesting.
When we had the opportunity to share our first attempt at creating a poster I participated in
a group discussion that enlightened me on a few hints that would improve my poster for next
time. Some of the things we noted to consider for next time were: the use of colour, the
busyness of the images and text and the positioning/layout of the poster.
The other digital resource that I found to be very useful was the learning games and activities
provided free on the Learning Federation website. I have seen my placement school
implement some of these activities into their literacy lesson, and therefore seen firsthand the

3.2, 3.3
These sections of
my personal
learning
reflection further
demonstrate my
knowledge of ICT
resources and
understanding of
their effective
implementation
within literacy
lessons.

positive effect of using them. Children are engaged and excited to participate as the learning
is presented by fun and imaginary characters, usually within familiar scenarios that the students can
relate to. They are also ideal as the children can access and play at home, further enhancing their
learning.
The digital resource that I have used within my lesson plan Springboard into comprehension, was
suggested to me by my associate teacher in placement. She explained to me how the program works
and how she then implements it into her own lesson plans. After looking into the program further I
concluded that it is an effective teaching resource and would suite my lesson focus perfectly.
EDLA204 has been a very helpful and enlightening unit, in that it has assisted me to see some of the
important aspects of planning a literacy lesson and that using digital resources is acceptable and a
useful tool when used in an appropriate way to support traditional literacy skills.