The potential for better outcomes of looking at what our language tells us about what we do when we read

My recount in this chapter is of research and practice that illustrate the nature and teaching of top-level structuring, a procedure that underpins several topical twenty-first century higher-order learning skills. Top-level structuring is a procedural strategy that has its genesis in knowledge of how ideas interrelate in a communication such as a piece of text. The gist of representing top-level structuring as a source for better reading outcomes is that knowing how language works organisationally and using that knowledge will lead students to a simple, yet viable and productive consideration of how to make sense of and explain what they remember, forget, understand and are befuddled by when reading. There are core patterns that model such organisation in written and oral text, and these have logical structural form and utility in relation to strategic functioning. Children become better readers, for example, when they have a better sense of how reading works—and insights gained through knowing about text structure and about themselves as deconstructors and constructors of texts hold potential for powerful contributions to their ongoing improvement. When educators have this knowledge and observe its effect, then teaching others to be better readers and strategic communicators takes a significant turn. It focuses on improving reading by supporting students to understand more about how language is at work when they are reading and to provide action learning aimed at viewing themselves as improving readers.

© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017.