Program Overview

Conversations About Texts

Conversations About Texts is a program focused on teaching grammar in the context of imaginative, informative, and persuasive texts in primary school and the middle years. The program aims to support the implementation of grammar teaching, recognizing the need for practical ways to help students understand and apply grammatical knowledge.

Program Overview

• The program consists of two modules: Module 1 - Literary Texts and Module 2 - Factual Texts.
• Each module is 20 hours long, including 6 x 2-hour workshops and 8 hours of additional assignment/reading time.

Module 1 - Literary Texts

• Session outline:
  1. Talking and listening – What's the difference? (grammatical intricacy and lexical density)
  2. Reading – What's going on? (the verbal group)
  3. Reading – Who and what? (the noun group)
  4. Writing – Where? When? How? (adverbials and theme)
  5. Writing – Creating joint and independent texts (sentence structure)
  6. The third voice in your classroom – Using quality literature (nominalisation and theme)

Module 2 – Factual Texts

• Prerequisite: Module 1
• Assignments:
  1. Lesson-plan reading (1000 words) – Due Session 4 in class: Choose a text and develop a modelled reading lesson with a clear grammatical focus and present to the group.
  2. Lesson-plan writing (1000 words) – Due Session 6 in class: Scaffold a written response with a clear grammatical focus based on the modelled text.
  3. Present a sequence of lessons (1500 words) – Due Session 6: Must include a rationale justifying and describing the modelled reading and guided writing lessons and how oral-language activities will be used to provide a scaffold for literacy development.

Cost

• Each module costs $770 per person, including GST.
• Individual schools or communities of schools with a minimum of 20 participants and a venue for the workshops can discuss a reduced rate.
• Note: The cost is subject to change.