Course Plan: Reading for Year 6
Course Title: Exploring Texts: Understanding and Analyzing Reading Material
Course Duration: 8 Lessons (1 Lesson per Week)
Target Group: Year 6 Students
Course Goals
- Develop students' abilities to compare and contrast different texts while identifying their structures and purposes.
- Enhance comprehension skills by identifying main ideas, supporting details, and summarising texts.
- Foster critical thinking through drawing inferences and verifying textural evidence.
- Cultivate an understanding of how language and visual features influence audience perception.
Course Aims
- To equip students with strategies for effective reading and comprehension.
- To encourage analytical thinking by contrasting various texts.
- To promote summarization skills and verification of information.
- To help students understand the impact of language and visuals on audience engagement.
Lesson Breakdown
Lesson 1: Introduction to Text Structures
Module 1: Understanding Text Structures
- Objective: Introduce various text structures (e.g., narrative, informative, persuasive) and their purposes.
- Activities:
- Discuss characteristics of different text structures.
- Group activity to identify text structures in selected readings.
- Assessment: Class participation and completed worksheet identifying text structures.
Lesson 2: Compare & Contrast Texts
Module 2: Comparing Text Structures
- Objective: Learn to compare and contrast texts based on their structures and intentions.
- Activities:
- Read two different texts (e.g., a story and an article).
- Create a Venn diagram to illustrate similarities and differences.
- Assessment: Venn diagram and short written explanation.
Lesson 3: Main Idea and Supporting Details
Module 3: Identifying Main Ideas
- Objective: Understand how to find the main idea and supporting details in a text.
- Activities:
- Read a passage and highlight the main idea.
- Work in pairs to outline supporting details.
- Assessment: Completed outline and a short quiz on identifying main ideas.
Lesson 4: Summarising Texts
Module 4: Summarising Skills
- Objective: Learn effective summarising techniques while using textural evidence.
- Activities:
- Review informative texts, discussing key points.
- Practice summarising paragraphs in 1-2 sentences.
- Assessment: Write a summary of a chosen text with cited evidence.
Lesson 5: Drawing Inferences
Module 5: Inferring Information
- Objective: Develop skills to draw inferences from texts based on evidence.
- Activities:
- Introduce inference with examples.
- Read a text and discuss possible inferences.
- Assessment: Inference worksheet based on the reading material.
Lesson 6: Language Features and Audience Influence
Module 6: Language and Audience
- Objective: Explore how specific language features impact audience understanding and reaction.
- Activities:
- Examine texts with distinct language styles (e.g., formal vs informal).
- Discuss how tone and vocabulary can influence perception.
- Assessment: Group presentations on chosen texts focusing on language features.
Lesson 7: Visual Features and Audience Influence
Module 7: Visual Analysis
- Objective: Understand the influence of visual features (e.g., images, layout, graphics) on audience engagement.
- Activities:
- Analyze various texts with visual elements.
- Create a poster that combines language and visual features to impact an audience.
- Assessment: Poster presentation and group feedback session.
Lesson 8: Reflection and Integration
Module 8: Course Review and Reflection
- Objective: Integrate all concepts learned throughout the course.
- Activities:
- Review of main ideas, summarisation skills, comparing and contrasting, and audience analysis.
- Group discussions on how the skills can be applied to real-life reading.
- Assessment: Final reflection journal entry summarising what they learned during the course.
Conclusion
By the end of this course, students will have enhanced their reading comprehension skills, developed critical thinking abilities, and gained a deeper appreciation for the impact of text structures, language, and visuals on understanding and engaging with various texts.