"Mater Dei Matters"

English

Knowledge in English

When students read and write in English, we are often asking them to use prior knowledge to create meaning. We ask them to connect, transfer, adapt, transform and appropriate their knowledge of the world and texts to create new meaning.

 

Lawson and Askell-Williams (2012) define six features of good quality knowledge representation. They are:

  • Extent (quantity; this helps to activate prior task-relevant knowledge)
  • Well-foundedness (the correctness of propositions and the correctness of the relationship between propositions)
  • Structure (the configuration of knowledge including its connections to other knowledge in and across schemata; fragmentation; ease of retrieval etc)
  • Complexity (the ways knowledge is elaborated, abstracted or transformed, often using metacognitive and reflective thinking to assess degrees of correctness) 
  • Generativity (the extent to which the knowledge can be transferred to new situations)
  • Variety of Representational format (multiple representational formats, such as images and words, are likely to be more robust and more widely applicable)

In the English classroom, instruction is usually sequenced to develop the quality of students’ knowledge. For example:

  • Fortnightly quizzes develop the extent, well-foundedness and structure of knowledge
  • New vocabulary is introduced using Marzano’s four-square definitions, developing well-foundedness, structure and variety of representational format
  • Reading and writing in new genres and forms develops complexity and generativity
  • Writing transformation and parody develop complexity and generativity

It is the combination of students’ knowledge of vocabulary, text structures, semantic meaning and the wider world that allows them to make sense of the texts they study.

 

References:

Lawson, M.J. & Askell-Williams, H. (2012) ‘Framing the Features of Good Quality Knowledge for Teachers and Students’. In Kirby, J.R. & Lawson, M.J. (Eds) Enhancing the Quality of Learning. Cambridge University Press, pp. 137-159.

 

Mr Shaun Ellis | English KLA Leader