Semantic waves
If you are starting with complex then you need to ask yourself how you are going to get the learners to access and unravel the text. If you are starting more simple you need to be thinking about how to push them to access more complex texts.
The suggestion in the workshop is to start with simple text and then quickly surf them up different levels of complexity to the level that is pushing their vocabulary and understanding. Never leave a student sitting in the trough/vacuum of simplicity always push them to read more complex texts on the subject.
If we start with a text that is too complex for the learners to access we will have made the learners disengaged and given them a feeling of whakama.
Teachers need to be thinking about where the starting point is for the content that links to the learning outcome and then where their students literacy skill is in terms of what level they can understand. "Where do I need to focus my energy on so that the learners know what I need them to know."
In some cases the teacher may need to create a text that provides the scaffolding so that they can access the more complex texts. Often the resources and content online is out of reach of the learners in the class space - even when you type "for kids" or "simple".
Interesting thoughts/resources:
- Newaela is an american site that provides complexity levels of text. Thinking about sentence length and the complexity of each sentence.
- Subtitles are great however they require a high level of cognitive functioning and load on the brain.
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