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Benjamin Morgan's avatar

This is fantastic. Realizing I’ve taught what you’re describing as “levers” as transitions phrases. Better to call them meaningfulness phrases. How does this next thing relate to previous things? Why does this thing matter to other things? Using syntax as a way to meaning. I love how you’ve framed them here.

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Jane's avatar

Incredibly helpful, thank you. I’ve been using subordinating conjunctions as cognitive levers for a while now but I was getting kids to choose them a bit haphazardly. This supplies more nuance to the purpose of their writing.

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Kate Cash's avatar

Thanks for your article - it’s great. I wanted to share a relevant aspect of my language teaching experience. Halliday’s model of language in context (considering the function of the language elements being used and the purpose for which these choices are being made) has helped me enormously in my teaching. Highlighting and teaching the function of word, sentence and whole texts is an important part of teaching language in any subject and this, as well as a developing understanding of cognitive science and processes in learning, has transformed my teaching. Halliday’s model takes into account the difference in language for speaking and writing and, provides a framework to think about these differences. Supporting students in their writing depends on helping them make effective language choices - if they understand the purpose or function of each word or part of sentence they can make informed choices; choosing the right language tool for the task they wish to carry out or text they wish to create.

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Natalie Wexler's avatar

I agree with everything in this post (and have made many of the same points myself!). I would just add that the fact that written language differs dramatically from spoken language also has implications for reading comprehension. In the US, at least, you frequently hear that "language comprehension x word recognition (or decoding) = reading comprehension." That's known as the "simple view of reading."

But people often assume that "language comprehension" in that equation means the ability to understand SPOKEN language. For reading comprehension, what is needed is the ability to understand WRITTEN language when someone else is reading it aloud. That's quite different.

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James Hilditch's avatar

This is a really helpful framework and easy to integrate into lessons!

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CriticalThinker's avatar

This is enormously helpful and I will definitely be using this to inform my teaching. One point for consideration: many autistic students (I realise this was not about students with SEND but bear with me) actually DO talk in full sentences. My son has the odd quirk of talking like an essay but writing in the manner you describe here. Any thoughts on how to swap this around?

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David Didau's avatar

That sounds bizarre! Have you tried simply asking him to write the way he speaks? It seems obvious that he should be able to.

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CriticalThinker's avatar

He's very much the "little professor" in his presentation: he will begin his monologues with things like: "There are a number of reasons why the French Revolution took place" and then carefully explain each one point by point. If you ask him to write it down he has a mental block which might be a bit about the physical struggle of writing but I think is also about an assumption that, as he thinks it, everyone else knows it too. It is maddening!

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David Didau's avatar

Can I ask how old he is?

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CriticalThinker's avatar

He's 12, will turn 13 in July. To give an example: I asked him to write a summary of what had happened in Lord of the Flies in the section he had just read. He wrote: "Ralph has been rescued but most people were in Jack's tribe".

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David Didau's avatar

Right. I'd speculate that he doesn't see the point in permanence? How good is his memory? I assume you've shown him what a literary essay *should* like? Can he emulate the structure?

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