Walking Talking Texts

Guidelines for Choosing a text for a

Walking Talking Texts unit of work

  1. The teacher has to like the book and feel will enjoy teaching through the themes of the book
  1. The language of the text needs to be at a slightly higher level than the children can currently access and manipulate; the aim is that by the end of the unit, the students will be able to use English (hear, speak, read, write) at a similar level to that of the text. Students are able to do this because of the high level of scaffolding provided in the WTT methodology. Students’ level of SAE is determined through teacher assessment of Oracy and Literacy skills.
  1. The concepts in the book need to be appropriate and accessible to the students’ ages and cognitive levels. Many teachers worry about texts not being ‘culturally appropriate’. While common sense needs to prevail and content should not be totally inaccessible to students the teacher will provide the cross-cultural access to English language concepts through the activities in the unit of work. Beginning with the known is good, however, never moving from it is not good!
  1. The stimulus text should not always be the same genre. The teacher will need to keep records of texts that have been used to ensure a range of text types are accessed over the year.
  1. The language of the text can guide teachers. What aspects of grammar does this student group need to be taught? Again, teachers’ programs, records and student assessment records will guide the choice of texts eg do students need more work on pronoun use, use of future tense etc?
  1. Lastly, but equally importantly, texts need also to be selected on their potential for cross-curricula links/learning. Texts can also be chosen to complement the school calendar: excursions, sporting events etc. Forward planning and record keeping is essential. Choosing texts to match curricula areas to be covered is not recommended as this can often result in choosing poor quality texts at inappropriate language levels.

Fran Murray 2002 (Acknowledgement: Cathy McGinness)