ENGLISH AND LITERACIES 1

Integrated unit of work and resources on effective literacy practices

By Stephanie Vawser

Rationale
This unit of work is based on the picture book Sylvia by Christine Sharp. This picture book is about
a snail called Sylvia who travels around Simon Greens garden pining for his beautiful vegetables that
he grows. Sylvia is sad that Simon Green doesnt notice her, so she writes a message to him in the
form of a slimy trail telling him how much she enjoys his garden. Her message goes unnoticed. Then
Sylvia decided to write another message but this time it is written in the sky using aeroplane smoke.
Eventually Simon Green notices Sylvias messages. Sylvias messages helps the sales of Simon
Greens fruit and vegetables sale. Then he officially welcomes her into his garden.

This text is a narrative. Its purpose is to entertain and amuse its audience, which is predominantly
young children. The text contains basic framework features such as orientation which is the
introduction of the story. It is then followed by a problem, which is that Sylvia Snail goes unnoticed
by Simon Green. However, this problem is resolved through a series of events and resolution, which
is demonstrated through the smoke in the sky capturing Simon Greens attention encouraging him to
welcome Sylvia into his garden (Hill, 2012). This resolution gives the audience a satisfactory ending.
The author has used a major language feature in this novel, being the use of alliteration. By using a
series of sentences and phrases that all have the same starting sound, it adds an element of surprise
and further enjoyment for the children. Alliteration, which is similar to rhyming, is a skill that
students in early years are still learning. Hence, this picture book re-iterates or possibly teaches
them a new skill they can then use in further reading, writing and oral tasks in the classroom,
depending on the grade level that the teacher chooses to use this unit of work with.

Rationale continues..
This picture book contains a number of other language features including characters, dialogue
from those characters, descriptive language using verbs, adverbs and other descriptive language,
and a series of chronological events which guides the storyline from start to finish. Most
importantly, it has illustrations to support its writing. It is through these language features that
the author is able to convey the experiences of Sylvia Snail and her journey to get noticed by
Simon Green to its audience (Hill, 2012).The author has carefully constructed the design and
layout of each page. The text is not always in straight horizontal lines, for example, sometimes it
is in the shape of a snails shell, embedded in between the illustrations (Hill, 2012).
As my outcomes indicate, students will develop a range of skills and knowledge from studying the
text. It will provide opportunities for students to develop alliteration skills, develop the use of
picture clues, and gain knowledge about how people grow vegetables and care for their
environment. As students respond to the text they will be able to identify personal experiences
and opinions through class discussions and group activities. They will be able to apply personal
knowledge to develop a new set of skills, ultimately helping them produce a culminating text and
to become active learners in the process.

Rationale continues..
During this unit of work, teachers should carry out effective teaching practices by monitoring student
learning gains and adopting a behaviourist approach by developing students knowledge through a
series of tasks (Rennie, 2015). Students should be strategically placed in groups for the set activities
based on their learning needs, gender and language abilities (Louden, et al., 2005). Teachers should
develop relational identity (Louden, et.al., 2005, p. 147) so that the language involved in the unit
can be understood by all students. Teachers should tailor the curriculum and structure their practices
in clear stages following the sequence in order, allowing the learning to develop naturally and so that
group cohesion can be maintained in the classroom.
Teachers could use a Classroom Literacy Observation Schedule (Louden et al., 2005, p. 35) to track
the progress of the unit in terms of participation, knowledge, orchestration, support, differentiation
and respect. These six dimensions help effective teaching practices (Louden et al., 2005) and provide
a great formative assessment technique to help monitor and assess student learning.
For learning to occur and be engaging, the teacher should use appropriate stimulation for each topic.
For example, by ensuring that each introduction and background knowledge for each outcome is
appropriate and by ensuring the goal of the activity is clear to students so that learning can be
maximised (Louden, et al., 2005). This involves orchestrating complex social environments so that a
link between teacher behaviour and student achievement (Louden, et al., 2005, p 109) is
established.
Finally, teachers will need to characterise their classroom settings using the power of their voices to
maintain students attention through the unit of work, but also expressing their own pleasure during
the task, so it becomes believable and beneficial for the students.

Learning outcomes

#1. Oral outcome - English

Students will develop the ability to recite, imitate and invent alliteration sound
patterns, similar to examples in the book.

#2. Reading outcome English

Students will learn how to interpret images using picture clues to understand the
words or actions presented by the lady and the man in the text.

#3. Writing outcomes - English

Students will write and react to texts, specifically letters, relating to personal
experiences. In this text, students will use alliteration skills learnt through study of
the text.

#4. Learning outcome from another curriculum area Use and influence of
Science
Students will be able to acknowledge how people use science in their daily lives to
grow vegetables in their garden, and to understand the process of caring for their
environment and living things within it.

Teaching and learning sequence Part A

(Engage)

Introduce the book and access prior knowledge (Hill, 2006,p.84)

- Ask children if they know the story
- What can you see in the cover illustrations?
- The book is called Sylvia
- What do you think this book might be about?
- What do you think is going to happen?

Read the text to the students

During reading use prompts along the way to encourage students to understand terms
or phrases which would be unfamiliar to them.
E.g.) kale students may not know what this is, so explanation from the teacher may
be necessary here
E.g.2) grubs-again, students may not know what exactly they are.
Prompting questions such as Look at the picture. What do you think they may be?
could encourage them to use picture clues to understand these terms. (Hill, 2006)

Another read of the text may be necessary between activities to remind students of
the context and ideas that are being addressed in the teaching and learning sequence.

Teaching and learning sequence Part B

Outcome: Recite and perform drama sequences, imitating and inventing alliteration sound
patterns similar to examples in the book.

Explain what alliteration is and the different aspects that it entails. (Explicit
teaching)
For example:
- Its the ability to produce words that begin with same initial sound (Hill,
2012, p.150)
- Write down some examples from the book:
* Sylvia Snail slides away
* In the dazzling dawn light
*A tiny plane is writing something in smoke across the sky
- Ask the students to provide you with a couple more sentences or sets of
words showing alliteration to write on the board.

Once the students are starting to understand the notion of alliteration,

proceed to play the alliteration drama game to explore how you would use
alliteration in an oral aspect. (Explore)
(adapted from http://www.weheartdrama.com/105/the-nameaction-alliteration-game/)

Teaching and learning sequence Part B Continues.

Outcome: Recite and perform drama sequences, imitating and inventing alliteration sound
patterns similar to examples in the book.

How to play the alliteration drama game sequence

Activity 1: Standing in a circle, each person says their name, and mentions an
object/thing (i.e. an animal) that starts with the same letter as their name.
e.g. Snake Steph followed by an action that demonstrates how that animal
might move. (Explore)

Activity 2: Depending on the size of the group, get the students to split into
smaller groups and stand in smaller circles. Repeat activity 1 a few times,
trying to get faster each time they go around the circle. Then one person has
to point to another student and say their name and their animal and do their
action. Then that student to has to point to another student and say their
name, animal and perform their action. (Elaborate)

* Whilst this activity has been adapted to practise performing alliteration orally,
it is also a great game to get to know students in your class.

Teaching and learning sequence Part C

Outcome: Children will learn how to read images using picture clues to understand the

words or actions presented by the lady and the man in the text.

Brainstorm with the students fruits and vegetables that they remember from the book. This
activity may require going through each page of the book and getting students to identify the
vegetables and fruit they can see. This would be through a whole of class discussion and the
teacher would use modelled writing (Hill, 2012, p. 99) to draw a mind map on the board
during the discussion. (Engage)

Familiarise students with vegetable vocabulary using a worksheet in the style of Appendix
one. Students would be required to use the worksheet to match the definition with the
vegetable/fruit. (Explicit teaching)

After a discussion regarding activity instructions, I would use Appendix 2 and 3 to teach
students about reading texts using picture clues. As you can see in Appendix 2 and 3, part of
the sentences have been blacked out. Students will be required to use the previously learnt
vocabulary knowledge to identify what vegetables and fruit are on each page and what the
lady and man would like to eat. (Explicit teaching & Explore)

I would then reverse the order of the activity and use Appendix 4 where the students will be
required to write down three vegetables/fruit which they would like to eat from Simon
Greens garden using the sentence stem (Hill, 2012, p. 206) as a guide for their writing. Then
they would be required to draw themselves above it along with the vegetables/fruit they
have chosen. (Elaborate)

Teaching and learning sequence Part D

(in detail)
Outcome: Write and react to texts, specifically letters, relating to personal experiences. In
this text, students will use alliteration and picture clue skills learnt via the text.

Click on me to
see this
outcome in full
detail

Teaching and learning sequence Part E

Outcome: Students will be able to acknowledge how people use science in their daily lives to grow
plants in their garden, understand how a plant is grown, and have the opportunity to grow their
own plant. Students will develop knowledge on how to record observations about their plant.

Lead students in a discussion on why certain things grow in certain ways (Engage)
Get students to watch the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYMUCQiBzPA

Explain to children what tools and weather conditions are required to grow
vegetables. It is important that children understand that sun, water, and soil are
needed to grow any type of plant. (Explicit teaching)

Allow students to undertake a task where they are able to grow their own plant in a
cup. The teacher will provide seeds, soil and water for the students. Students will
place them in a spot in the classroom where the sun reaches or outside the
classroom, depending on the school environment. Explanation and explicit
instruction will be required to demonstrate to the students what is involved in this
process. (Explicit teaching)

Over a series of weeks, students will record the height, colour, number of leaves, etc
on a running sheet. See appendix 8. (Explore)

Take students around the garden of the school or a nearby park, getting students to
record and take photographs of different types and stages of growth. Then create a
classroom poster categorising each photograph into the right category or stage of
growth. (Elaborate)

Assessment schedule (Evaluate)

Outcome

Assessments used

#1. students will develop the ability to recite, imitate

and invent alliteration sound patterns, similar to
examples in the book.

Oral language assessment:

Students will play a game of memory using vocabulary
assessment cards where the students have to match
alliteration phrases together. For example one card
may have the word blue written on it and another
card may have book written on it. They would need
to match these cards together.
Observations would be made by the teacher during this
process and notes would be made accordingly. (Hill,
2012) (Formative assessment)

#2. Children will learn how to interpret images using

picture clues to understand the words or actions
presented by the lady and the man in the text.

Following this lesson, each child will be tested on a

new text of the teachers choice. Students reading
behaviour will be analysed and recorded on a reading
behaviour analysis sheet (Hill, 2012, p. 188). On this
analysis sheet, visual miscues would be recorded - see
Appendix 5. (Summative assessment)

Assessment schedule continued.

Outcome

Assessments used

#3. Write and react to texts, specifically letters,

relating to personal experiences. In this text,
students will use alliteration and picture clue skills
learnt via the text.

An emergent and early writing assessment sheet

(Hill, 2012, p323). This will help to uncover what
the child already knows about language including
the alliteration techniques taught in previous
lessons. (Summative assessment)

#4. To acknowledge how people use science in

their daily lives to grow vegetables in their garden,
and to understand the process of caring for their
environment and living things within it.

Assessment will be taken through observations of

behaviour throughout the task and ability to
produce a written record of their plants growth.
(Formative assessment)

Culminating text

Students will now be able to produce a culminating text. This text will be a
letter to a friend or family member (like in my writing outcome) that involves
alliteration.

Not only will students be expected to involve alliteration in their writing task,
but they will be expected to make sure they are using basic writing skills such
as paragraphs, full stops, capital letters, appropriate spelling techniques.

Students will also need to make sure the appropriate structure and layout of
the text is correctly produced using Dear and From properly.

4 roles of the reader

Code breaker
Students will develop the ability to recite, imitate
and invent alliteration sound patterns, similar to
examples in the book.
Students will achieve this because they will need to
decode the print of the text as its being read to them
to understand the alphabetic principle of alliteration.
(Hill, 2012)
Text user
Students will be able to acknowledge how people use
science in their daily lives to grow plants in their
garden, understand how a plant is grown, and have
the opportunity to grow their own plant. Students
will develop knowledge on how to record
observations about their plant.
This teaches students what the text can be used for
and what information it provides. Whilst this text is a
narrative, factual information activities can be
taught from the basis of this text. This allows
students to use the text in different ways to develop
more language about the events within the text.

Meaning maker
Students will learn how to interpret images using
picture clues to understand the words or actions
presented by the lady and the man in the text.
This is a skills that students can use to understand
the meaning of the text.

Text critic
Write and react to texts, specifically letters, relating
to personal experiences. In this text, students will
use alliteration and picture clue skills learnt via the
text.
By writing and reacting to the text, it allows students
to respond to what they have read and the
information that has been put forth to them.
Students will learn to become critics by exploring and
evaluating how the text works by producing their own
text of a similar nature.

References
Hill, S. (2012). Developing early literacy-Assessment and teaching (2nd edition). South
Yarra, Victoria: ecpublishing.
Louden,W., Rohl,M., Pugh.C.B., Brown,C., Cairney,T., Elderfield,J., House,H., Meiers,M.,
Rivalland,J. & Rowe, K. (2005). In Teachers Hands Effective Literacy Teaching Practices in
the Early Years of Schooling. Mount Lawley,WA: Edith Cowan University.
McGill, F. & Watson, A. (n.d). Primary Lessons for Classroom & Garden. Retrieved from
http://www.growinggardeners.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Primary-Lessons-forEdible-Garden.pdf
Rennie, J. (2015). Power of story. Unpublished manuscript, EDF2020, Monash University,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (n.d.) AusVels. Retrieved from

http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/
We love drama (2013). The Name/Alliteration Action Alliteration Game. Retrieved from
http://www.weheartdrama.com/105/the-nameaction-alliteration-game/

Appendices

Appendix 1

Vegetable/
Fruit

Description

Pumpkin

A bright red-purple round root which can be

eaten as a vegetable

Parsnip

Also known as a string bean due to its shape.

Potato

A round cream-coloured vegetable

Betroot

A large rounded orange fruit

Beans

Similar to a cabbage with green flower buds

and stalks.

Broccoli

A long cream-coloured vegetable with a sweet

flavour

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendices continued.

Appendix 4

Ill have some

_______________ ,
says_______

Appendix 6

Animal

Appendix 5 (Hill, 2012, p.188)

Appendices continued.

Appendix 7

Alliteration Activity.pdf

Appendix 8