Language and Literacy: Years 3 to 6 (EDUC91083)

This subject builds on knowledge developed in the previous subject Language and Literacy: F to Year 2 to focus on teaching more complex aspects of language and literacy required in the middle and upper primary years. Teacher Candidates engage with key research and theory to identify key challenges for teaching and learning language and literacy knowledge and skills in this transitional stage of schooling. Teacher Candidates will further develop specialised subject content knowledge for teaching and assessing student language and literacy development linked to the Australian/Victorian Curriculum: English. Teacher Candidates will extend their pedagogical knowledge of effective teaching strategies and assessment tools and of the Clinical Teaching Model to meet specific and diverse leaning needs.

Topics include: reading comprehension, higher order thinking, critical analysis and inquiry around various written, visual, multimodal and digital texts; the importance of reading engagement, rich texts, and text selection; composition and production of complex texts central to English and other subject areas in both print and digital forms including multimodal; and development of academic language proficiency for reading, writing, listening and speaking across all subject areas.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of this subject, Teacher Candidates should be able to:

• Examine contemporary educational theory and research concerning teaching advanced forms of literacy and the related challenges for students in the middle and upper primary school.
• Examine pedagogical practices for effective classroom communication through a range of strategies that promote the interrelatedness of oral language, reading and writing when planning teaching.
• Plan, organise, sequence, assess and evaluate programs across the curriculum demonstrating strong pedagogical knowledge and subject content knowledge of language and literacy required in the Victorian/Australian Curriculum: English, enabling students to comprehend, compose and produce more complex texts.
• Integrate teaching contemporary literacy knowledge and skills across the curriculum in Years 3-6 including critical literacy, multimodal literacy and digital capabilities to support student participation and engagement.
• Analyse and interpret a range of assessment and diagnostic data to make sound and informed judgements about students' diverse learning needs and plan for differentiated teaching to meet needs of diverse learners.
• Synthesise knowledge of language and literacy subject content with use of effective teaching strategies and student assessment data for planning for improved outcomes for students in Years 3-6 across the full range of abilities and from diverse linguistic, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Integrate literacy knowledge and skills to support development, including using ICT/digital tools, to support the teaching of literacy and language and to engage learners.

Generic skills