This learning module was designed using the Learning by Design framework (Kalantzis and Cope) which is based on Multiliteracies theory.

Updates 1 and 2 focus on valuing the prior knowledge of students, build their background knowledge of the text, and expand their vocabulary as they explore the topic. An example of a fact and an opinion about wolves is provided as a model for students. As the teacher, you can also add comments in the discussion in Community to provide more modelling, and to support, challenge, and extend individual students.

Identifying facts and opinions is important so that when analyzing the focus text, "Wolves" by Emily Gravett, students will understand how factual texts can include opinions, attitudes and imaginative ideas through the images.

Main CCSS Focus

W.6.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

CCSS Focus

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

L.6.6: Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.

Drawing the images are important as they also can be compared later to the drawings in the picture book and the sorts of stereotypes there are of these animals. Creating an Update in Community enables the students to add an image to their post and share them with their peers. If it is difficult for students to scan and post their images, they could be displayed around the room instead; students could then walk around and discuss them with a partner, identifying similarities and differences.

Encourage students to use a variety of sources to align with the suggestions in the story of borrowing from a library. Suggesting different sources of information about wolves and rabbits links to the library book idea which they will discover in the next Update; certainly libraries may not be as typical in the life worlds of students as online searches for information. Point out how different it was to borrow a book before libraries had electronic borrowing (or burrowing) systems. You could also show students the library card in the front of the book.

Check the Community Settings. So that students can create their own Updates, the "Content" should be unrestricted. The "Member" should be "Closed" or preferably "Private" for minors.

Screenshot 1: Community Settings

CCSS Focus

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

W.6.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources.

In this "Experiencing the new" activity, students read and respond to the text. This input is designed to broaden their experiences and knowledge. The "Wolves" text is multimodal, with both visual and language modes, so it taps into life world interests by presenting varied information, and also by presenting it in different modes – multimodally. Exciting and engaging input at the "Experiencing the new" stage can really make a difference to the success of the whole learning module.

The prediction activity is important to engage students in reading the text. Stop at least twice in the story. Early in the story, e.g. "They can survive almost anywhere: from the Arctic Circle...." and just before the resolution - "They also enjoy smaller mammals like beavers, voles and .... rabbits."

Using open-ended questions to respond to the text such as what are your favorite parts, enables students to bring their own knowledge and experiences to the text. This values diverse responses before you move into the explicit teaching of the text that follows in "Conceptualizing by Naming" and "Theorizing". You could also ask students to find out information from their parents and grandparents; this values their cultural knowledge.

It is important to include ways of describing/ retelling/sharing aspects of the text in "Experiencing the new" so that students use their own language/versions of English. Lisa Delpit in "Other People’s Children" (1995) stresses the need for students to have access to the language of power, but still have their own ways of speaking and thinking, including identity, valued in non-deficit ways.

The "Plot Diagram can be completed electronically. It supports students to reflect as well as being an engaging way of identifying important events in the text, and making inferences about the text. The Comment also prompts students to provide reasons for their opinions. In doing so, students may also provide evidence from the text.

Resources

Gravett, E. (2006). Wolves. London: Macmillan. This is available on Amazon in both paper and digital versions.

CCSS Focus

RL.6.1 and RI.6.1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

RL.6.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

In "Conceptualising by naming", the students work in groups to identify the features of either the narrative or information text. Working in groups, promotes speaking and listening as well as shifting the balance of agency from teachers to students. It also provides a metalanguage for students so they can participate in the learning, hence addressing diversity.

To ensure students have some scaffolding as well as accountability, they record ideas on a Venn Diagram or a Compare and Contrast Diagram, and then share their work with another group. Using cooperative learning and thinking tools ensure students do the thinking, rather than depending on the teacher to do the thinking for them, so more shifting of the balance of agency.

Type up the words of the "Wolves" text so Group 2 can focus without being distracted by the images. Allow each group to choose whether they will record on a Venn Diagram or a Compare and Contrast Diagram. Choice is also good to provide student agency.

Students are more likely to record points about the ideas in the text and how it is structured so scaffolding is important here.

Link the discussion back to the initial frontloading activity when students sorted their ideas into facts and opinions. They may also include some language features, but this will be covered in depth in a later activity.

CCSS Focus

RL.6.7: Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

RI.6.7: Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

RL.6.9: Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems, historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

RL.6.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

After naming the features in Activity 4, students now evaluate the effects of when the two texts combine. This activity is scaffolded using a PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) chart and students then share their discussion through comments in Community.

A good learning design incorporates all knowledge processes, especially so that students move from having knowledge to developing understanding of the topic. For example "Conceptualising by naming" is about gaining deep knowledge while "Conceptualising by theorising" moves this knowledge to understanding. It also moves knowledge from short term memory to long term memory as students have a connection for recalling the knowledge they have gained.

This activity will enable the students to think more deeply about how the text works and why it is effective.

CCSS Focus

RL.6.7: Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.

RI.6.7: Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.

RL.6.9: Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems, historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.

RL.6.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.

"Analysing functionally" is where we focus on the visual and linguistic grammar to explore the text at the word and sentence level. We have already explored the structure of texts in the "Conceptualising by naming" activity so we don’t need to explore that again even though it could be included in this knowledge process too.

Basically this activity looks at the visual and language modes, using examples from the text, and then looks at their effects. Use a retrieval chart to model the language features of the text. You can model 2 or 3 examples and then ask students to work cooperatively to complete as much of the retrieval chart as possible. Then complete it as a whole class activity. This will enable you to explicitly teach grammatical features.

The last column requires the students to think about the effects of these techniques. This involves evaluating the text to understand how it impacts on an audience, especially how it might position an audience or make them respond with feelings such as empathy, suspense, fear, judgement and humour.

This activity makes the students look closely at the text to describe what they see and gives them a language to talk about the ‘grammar’ of the text. It also supports them when making language and visual choices in the creation of their own texts. To reinforce the elements of the mode, they could identify them in other texts or practice using them, where applicable in writing, e.g changing a text from present to past tense and vice versa or identifying technical terms for a topic and creating sentences.

For accountability, students may also be required to submit completed charts to the teacher through Submissions in Community.

CCSS Focus

RL.6.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases (and visual features) as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word (and visual) choice on meaning and tone.

RI.6.5: Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section (or visual) fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of ideas.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to other' questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed.

Providing a knowledge of the grammar of texts in "Analysing functionally" supports students so they can create their own texts in "Applying". It also enables them to understand the choices authors make to position readers in particular ways in "Analysing critically". So by presenting the wolf as fearsome through the shot type, colour and adjectives, the author is able to build tension and then present an engaging twist in the new ending of the story in which the wolf is a vegetarian. This also presents other perspectives, rather than a stereotype of a wolf. These perspectives are pursued in more detail in the "Analysing critically" activity in which students investigate a range of perspectives from hunters to animal lovers and even Indigenous people. They can then value a variety of cultural knowledges and perspectives.

Emphasise that students have a high level of accountability as they may be the only student representing a particular point of view. Students could also add other points of view to consider. They should also do some online research in order to investigate issues such as the impact of rabbits on environmental biodiversity and provide evidence for their responses.

CCSS Focus

RI.6.6: Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.6.1c: Pose questions that elicit elaboration and respond to other' questions and comments with relevant observations and ideas that bring the discussion back on topic as needed.

When we ask students to apply their knowledge through a report, essay, PPT or multimedia presentation, or in the case of this writing project, to create an information text, they have to be able to move beyond responding, to creating and becoming knowledge producers. "Analysing functionally" and "Analysing critically" provides them with the tools to do this.

Negotiate the task with students as they may have some original ideas on how they could innovate on the text. Support students to research their topics by providing access to electronic and print based resources. Story boards might also provide another scaffold.

As students begin to draft their work, encourage them to use the Structure Tool to organize and outline their texts. The images in the picture book should help them to create an outline. The Structure Tool supports students to develop an initial structure for their text, including notes based on their background knowledge. As they continue to research, they add more notes, refine the elements of their text, and draft new versions, transforming their notes into well written text.

Students should also refer to the rubric as a guide as they write in Creator. If necessary, look through the rubric with students.

For first time users of Scholar, the following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to post to Community:

• How to Write in Scholar
• Using the Rubric and Checker
• Planning Using the Structure Tool

Screenshot 2: Rubric

CCSS Focus

W.6.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

W.6.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing, as well as interact and collaborate with others.

This update covers two stages of the writing process in Scholar: Review and Revision.

The following Overt Instruction Updates from The Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community. They may be used with first time users or it may be appropriate to introduce them in a second writing project so students learn about the features of Scholar over time.

• Constructive Feedback: Annotations - this guides students in how to provide specific feedback through Annotations.
• Constructive Feedback: Reviews - this describes types of feedback such as critical, cheerleader and constructive feedback.
• Revision Phase - this focuses on how to use the feedback students receive to improve their writing, and includes writing a self review. Many students go through the peer review process and then do not revise their work. Writing a self review in which they explain how they have/have not used their feedback is important to develop students' metacognition further.

Refer to Analytics to monitor how students are progressing with their writing and reviews.

CCSS Focus

W.6.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing, as well as interact and collaborate with others.

L.6.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing.

L.6.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.

This Update focuses on the publication and reflection phases of a writing project.

Notifications of publication are provided to the creator and all reviewers.

This reflection activity promotes student metacognition about what makes quality writing by reading and reflecting on other students’ writing. Ask students to look over other people’s published works - have them read at least two or three works. Ask them to comment on something interesting they learned from reading other students’ work. 

CCSS Focus

W.6.6: Use technology, including the internet, to produce and publish writing, as well as interact and collaborate with others.

SL.6.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.