Level CL Reading and Viewing

The students' performance in these tasks suggest that they are working within the range of Level CL in Reading and Viewing. The assessing teacher will need to consider a range of student samples in order to determine whether the students are at the beginning of CL, consolidating CL or at the CL standard in Reading and Viewing.  

At beginning Level CL students:

• have begun to understand that printed text shares a relationship with oral discourse, and is used to convey meaning and communicate in a consistent way
• have begun to recognise very familiar words in print, such as their name and surrounding text in the immediate environment
• have also begun to recognise the basic conventions of book/print layout (for example, that illustrations can relate to text; books have titles; and they can find the front and end of the book).
• participate in shared reading activities, although they are not able to comprehend much of the text or read back.

At consolidating Level CL students:

• have begun to recognise and memorise the name and sounds of letters of the alphabet in both upper- and lower-case forms
• have begun to read with a teacher and often track text with their finger
• will rely on sub-vocalisation (i.e. sounding out the text) when trying to read by themselves
• have also become aware of punctuation, but do not usually modify their reading aloud using the appropriate pauses, emphasis, and intonation at this stage
• have started using and recognising written text in other forms, such as on the internet and computer screen.

At Level CL Achievement Standard students:

• read and complete simple, structured activities around a wide range of familiar, short, simple texts that use repetitive structures and features and are strongly supported by illustrations. These texts may be print or digital texts, including handwritten, visual, multimodal and interactive texts.
• read their own writing and other simple texts based on well-rehearsed spoken English
• read a range of familiar simple fictional, factual and everyday texts
• name some letters and know the sounds related to many letters and common letter combinations
• attempt to sound out words, recognise some common words, and read some new words based on their similarity to known words
• show some awareness of basic punctuation and use stress, intonation or pausing appropriately when reading familiar texts aloud
• use simple strategies such as pointing to words as they read or as shared texts are read aloud in class
• understand the basic practical and cultural purposes of the texts they read.

Student information

The student was born in Burma and is 14 years and nine months old. He has been in Australia for five months. His home language is Chin, which is a language spoken by one of the minority linguistic and cultural groups in Burma/Myanmar. His schooling has been disrupted as his family moved from Burma/Myanmar to Australia via India. He had a total of three years of school before he came to Australia. He has been attending an English language school for four months and he is in Year 9.

Task

The student was asked to recognise familiar vocabulary and to reconstruct simple texts about a familiar topic. This is part of a class unit of work on food. In the unit, the teacher introduced vocabulary for colours and common food items. The students have worked with cards showing names and illustrations of food items. The students also looked at identifying the sound and name of initial and final letters as a strategy to help them read familiar and unfamiliar words. The students asked questions and talked about the foods they like and don’t like, discussed which foods are good for them and which are not so healthy because of their high sugar, salt or fat content.

The teacher is assessing how well the student knows the words for the foods and colours he has studied and the extent to which he is using the initial letter to guide him in recognising words. She was also observing how aware the student is of the structure and features of simple factual, texts, including titles and illustrations. The teacher wants the student to work with familiar texts in a concrete way that enables him to talk about and manipulate the features of the text.

The teacher was particularly interested in assessing how well the student can:

• recognise familiar words in context
• gain information from illustrations and realia
• demonstrate an awareness of the features and nature of simple factual texts, such as titles and illustrations
• use illustrations to assist her in understanding the text
• locate information in the text.

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold. The words spoken by the teacher are in normal font. 

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can:

• Read short, familiar texts (VCEALC503)
• Name letters of the alphabet and relate them to sounds (VCEALL521) *with some errors
• Understand simple visual elements of texts, including basic charts, graphs and other images (VCEALC504)
• Self-correct with guidance (VCEALL523)
  
• Group familiar words according to their meaning or subject matter (VCEALL520) 
• Show awareness of how to read print texts in English (VCEALA509)

Overall, this student can also:

• Recognise some familiar words or phrases (VCEALL519)
• Show awareness of how to read print texts in English (VCEALA509)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

• Practising reading and pronouncing final sounds in words (VCEALL521)
• Developing 'word walls' of new vocabulary, supported by visuals (VCEALL499)
• Providing opportunities for students to speak informally in class to build their confidence, for example, what they did on the weekend (VCEALC485)
• Practising simple subject-verb-object sentence constructions (VCEALL496)
• Demonstrating how the mouth moves when pronouncing certain sounds (VCEALL501)
• Encouraging student to discuss new words and ideas in their home language if they have same language peers in the class (VCEALA490)
  

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 9 student who is working within the range of Level CL in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum. 

Student information

This student is 13 years and 9 months. She came to Australia from Somalia three months ago. She speaks Somali and attended school for three years while in Somalia. The student is in a Year 8 class group in an English language school which she has been attending for nine weeks.

Task

The student was asked to read familiar vocabulary and to reconstruct simple texts about a familiar topic. This is part of a class unit of work on food. In the unit, the teacher introduced vocabulary for colours and common food items. The students have worked with cards showing names and illustrations of food items. The students also looked at identifying the sound and name of initial and final letters as a strategy to help them read familiar and unfamiliar words. The students asked questions and talked about the foods they like and don’t like, discussed which foods are good for them and which are not so healthy because of their high sugar, salt or fat content.

The teacher is assessing how well the student knows the words for the foods and colours she has studied and the extent to which she is using the initial letter to guide her in recognising words. She was also observing how aware the student is of the structure and features of simple factual texts, including titles and illustrations. The teacher wants the student to work with familiar texts in a concrete way that enables her to talk about and manipulate the features of the text.

The teacher was particularly interested in assessing how well the student can:

• recognise familiar words in context
• gain information from illustrations and realia
• demonstrate an awareness of the features and nature of simple factual texts, such as titles and illustrations
• use illustrations to assist her in understanding the text
• locate information in the text.

In the transcript, the words spoken by the student being assessed are in bold. The words spoken by the teacher are in normal font.

This sample of student work demonstrates that the student can: 

• Understand simple visual elements of texts, including basic charts, graphs and other images (VCEALC504)
• Recognise some familiar words or phrases (VCEALL519)
• Group familiar words according to their meaning or subject matter (VCEALL520)
• Read short, familiar texts (VCEALC503)
• Use features of the text to make predictions (VCEALL514)
• Name letters of the alphabet and relate them to sounds (VCEALL521)
  

Overall, this student can also:

• Show awareness of how to read print texts in English (VCEALA509)
• Interpret basic punctuation and spacing (VCEALL522)
• Identify some familiar words in different contexts (VCEALC505)

Possible next steps for this student's learning

Pathways and transitions considerations

A Year 8 student who is working within the range of Level CL in any one language mode is not ready to transition to the English curriculum regardless of their proficiency in the other two language modes. This student will continue on Pathway C of the EAL curriculum. 

Related pages

Student work samples: Level CL Speaking and Listening
Student work samples: Level CL Writing
Student work samples: Level C1 Reading and Viewing