Read with Understanding

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Teaching Adults to Read with Understanding: Using the Learning Progressions (PDF, 1 MB)

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Reading Critically progression

To read with understanding, readers need to develop a critical awareness that enables them to consider who wrote a text and for whom, why the text was written and whether it may have purposes that are not immediately apparent. As they become aware of writers’ differing purposes and perspectives, readers are able to make their own judgments about the relevance, reliability or bias of what they read.

Most adults will be able to: Activities
1.
  • have some awareness of the different purposes of visual and written texts
  • be aware that all readers and writers have a perspective (point of view).

Readers begin to develop awareness of different purposes for texts and to realise that all readers and writers have a perspective.
Areas of study can include:

  • identifying the purposes and perspectives of such visual texts as posters and billboards.

Shared reading (as an approach for teaching reading)

Learners are taught to use specific reading strategies.

Using question dice

Learners develop ways of interrogating texts and develop confidence to do so.

2.
  • recognise the purposes, levels of meaning and possible uses of different forms and types of written and visual texts
  • use strategies to compare and evaluate information from different sources.

Readers develop an awareness of the possible uses of different forms and types of written and visual texts. They compare information from different sources in order to evaluate purpose, effectiveness and bias in texts.
Areas of study can include:

  • identifying the purposes and perspectives of newspaper advertisements, magazine covers and junk mail.

Shared reading (as an approach for teaching reading)

Learners are taught to use specific reading strategies.

Using question dice

Learners develop ways of interrogating texts and develop confidence to do so.

Using 'comment codes'

Learners engage actively with the text and respond to the ideas presented.

3.
  • identify writers’ purposes and ways in which writers use ideas and language to suit their purposes
  • identify a variety of sources for specific information and use strategies to compare and evaluate information within or across different texts.

Readers identify writers’ purposes and the ways in which writers use ideas and language to suit their purposes. Readers compare and evaluate information within or across different texts, for example, to identify missing or contradictory information.
Areas of study can include:

  • identifying the purposes and perspectives of letters to the editor, websites, advertising material, popular magazine articles, bilingual websites, letterheads and signage.

Using three-level thinking guides

Learners reading for meaning at different levels and read critically.

Using question dice

Learners develop ways of interrogating texts and develop confidence to do so.

Using 'comment codes'

Learners engage actively with the text and respond to the ideas presented.

5.
  • use strategies to analyse ideas and information and to reflect critically on surface meanings and underlying meanings
  • evaluate the validity (truth) of information in relation to the writer’s purpose and/or the reader’s purpose.

Readers analyse ideas and information in texts and reflect critically on surface and underlying meanings, using a range of strategies, such as comparing, contrasting, evaluating and asking questions. Readers evaluate a writer’s purpose and they comment on the validity or reasonableness of the information or ideas in a text.
Areas of study can include:

  • comparing the purposes and perspectives of websites, work-related documents (such as contracts, Ma - ori Land Court documents), community documents (such as school newsletters or planning permissions) and spoken texts (such as radio news bulletins).

Using three-level thinking guides

Learners reading for meaning at different levels and read critically.

Using 'comment codes'

Learners engage actively with the text and respond to the ideas presented.

6.
  • use strategies confidently to reflect critically on meaning
  • evaluate a writer’s point of view, attitude, bias or agenda
  • have an understanding of the language features used by writers for specific purposes.

Readers reflect critically on meaning, using a wide range of strategies. These strategies could include applying relevant information to different scenarios, comparing different points of view, drawing conclusions and forming “big picture” generalisations. Readers can evaluate a writer’s point of view, attitude, bias or agenda, and they understand the language features used by the writer to express or obscure these.
Areas of study can include:

  • analysing the forms and purposes of language features used in advertising or on political pamphlets, for example, the use of rhetorical questions (“Do you want our town to be vibrant and successful?”)
  • identifying ways in which texts can be used to include, exclude or imply disapproval of certain groups in society, for example the use of racist or sexist language or images.

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