Digging Deeper

Securing a surface understanding, exploring the children’s initial responses and questions, leads on to uncovering the multiple layers in text. The form this takes is dependent on the type of text.  Literary texts offer themselves for interpretation, historical texts may require some thinking about historical literacy, a simple procedural text may not lend itself to much analysis or investigation.

Refining a response

There are many aspects of textual analysis that can be developed more deeply. For example, you may want to to reflect on character and to consider decisions taken at pivotal moments. Drama conventions are particularly useful for working through these ideas. Visualising helps learners to elaborate their understanding, which can support more complex interrogative inferencing.

Expanding thinking

Teacher and pupil questions initiate dialogue which promotes deeper thinking. Statements are used to develop argumentation and encourage the justification of ideas.
Children are encouraged to look beyond what they already know and to consider alternative viewpoints. More experienced readers are challenged to consider how characters are represented and to decentre and consider how different readers might respond. Different types of thinking, such as ‘compare and contrast’, ’cause and effect’ ‘identifying the writer’s intention’ can be modelled and supported with graphic organisers.