2 be explicit about skills
Using Word
Consultancy
Having
developed tasks to ensure students go through particular processes it
is important to be explicit. What is required of the task?
Teach students research skills such as how to analyse questions and break
down tasks into any sub questions that will help answer the main question.
Discuss the linguistic requirements such as subject appropriate vocabulary
and scaffold the relevant text types needed.
Show students what success looks like by including examples on your teacher
or faculty website. It is helpful to share staff understandings through
developing a whole school literacy focus.
Many students need help with note taking and reference keeping, particularly
as they move to higher levels of education and the demands become more
rigorous. It cannot simply be assumed that they know as the range of help
brochures available at any tertiary student centre testifies. Similarly,
paraphrasing comes easily to some but for others, ‘put it into your
own words’, is confusing. One way of showing students how to do
this is teaching them how language functions, for example how linguistic
features such as agency or nominalisation actually work. Though beyond
the scope of this paper to explore, students developing these understandings
find it easier to manipulate language for a much greater range of purposes
including paraphrasing.
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