The 4 Roles Framework model is an excellent and simple framework on which to base student thinking and literacy teaching with a focus on what successful readers do when they access text and an emphasis on developing appropriate questions to deepen understanding. It should be remembered that the 4 Roles are a framework not a teaching strategy.
These are the 4 Roles:
Code Breaker – the critical vocabulary and terminology, new or difficult words and how the language works (conventions).
Text User - how the text is used to create images, or transformed into another format i.e poem. Text Participant – how the text relates to the reader’s own experience.
Text Analyst – what is the position/purpose of the writer?
How has the 4 Roles Reading Framework been used in the Middle School?
The 4 Reading Roles Framework has been the common term of reference for the teaching and learning of reading and thinking, supporting reading to learn. We have also used the My Read website as a wonderful resource. This site is very practical and provides excellent strategies that can be used immediately in the classroom.
One of the critical strategies gleaned from the My Read website, using the 4 Reading Roles, is the Cooperative Reading Cooperative Learning strategy This is based on working with both fiction and non fiction in cooperative groups.
As we have used this strategy, as with most teaching ideas, we continue to adapt the processes to meet the needs of our students and the circumstances of our school. The information on the My Read website has been a great platform to launch into using a variety of strategies using the 4 Roles as a basis for thinking and developing understanding of many different text genres.
Other strategies are used right across the curriculum, across all Grade levels in the Middle School. The cooperative learning theme is continued where students use the 4 Roles to access text with the Place Mat activity, Nail That Character, Think Pair Share and other strategies listed here. One of the pleasing aspects of what has been done at ISB is how teachers have used the 4 Roles Framework across the core curriculum in Maths and Science not just Humanities classes.
The 4 Roles Framework model is an excellent and simple framework on which to base student thinking and literacy teaching with a focus on what successful readers do when they access text and an emphasis on developing appropriate questions to deepen understanding. It should be remembered that the 4 Roles are a framework not a teaching strategy.
These are the 4 Roles:
Code Breaker – the critical vocabulary and terminology, new or difficult words and how the language works (conventions).
Text User - how the text is used to create images, or transformed into another format i.e poem.
Text Participant – how the text relates to the reader’s own experience.
Text Analyst – what is the position/purpose of the writer?
How has the 4 Roles Reading Framework been used in the Middle School?
The 4 Reading Roles Framework has been the common term of reference for the teaching and learning of reading and thinking, supporting reading to learn. We have also used the My Read website as a wonderful resource. This site is very practical and provides excellent strategies that can be used immediately in the classroom.
One of the critical strategies gleaned from the My Read website, using the 4 Reading Roles, is the Cooperative Reading Cooperative Learning strategy This is based on working with both fiction and non fiction in cooperative groups.
As we have used this strategy, as with most teaching ideas, we continue to adapt the processes to meet the needs of our students and the circumstances of our school. The information on the My Read website has been a great platform to launch into using a variety of strategies using the 4 Roles as a basis for thinking and developing understanding of many different text genres.
Other strategies are used right across the curriculum, across all Grade levels in the Middle School. The cooperative learning theme is continued where students use the 4 Roles to access text with the Place Mat activity, Nail That Character, Think Pair Share and other strategies listed here. One of the pleasing aspects of what has been done at ISB is how teachers have used the 4 Roles Framework across the core curriculum in Maths and Science not just Humanities classes.