Lesson Sequence Reading to Learn in Year 8 Medieval History

Reading
sequence
BEFORE
READING

DURING
READING

Activity 1: Mind-mapping to ascertain students current understanding of the

Catholic Church and stimulate them before the core of the lesson; affirmation and
elaboration important but very brief here. (6 mins)
Activity 2: Images and Concepts that provides concrete stimuli to build on
foundation of the mind-map, and help formulate student predictions of the text.
T uses a PowerPoint presentation to display images that act as stimuli for
students learning about the Catholic Church in Medieval Europe (e.g. the
Cross, a cathedral, the Pope, cardinals and bishops etc.).
T draws attention to key terms and concepts associated with stimuli, providing
context for students and explains meanings. (5 mins)
T uses visuals to encourage questions and engage class in discussion that
familiarizes these concepts and justifies how they may appear in the text. (6
mins)
Activity 3: Predictions
T builds on these visuals by presenting class with the title, graphic and text
opener.
Ss are grouped in pairs where they predict and discuss what the text will be
about, record an answer, then form two questions they have about the topic
that they will answer at the end of the lesson to reflect on their learning. (8
mins).
I will employ the Detailed Reading strategy from the R2L pedagogy, with sentence by
sentence reading, to effectively scaffold the students reading. I will guide students to
locate the key concepts and phrases in the fifth paragraph of the text before affirming
their responses to my questions.
The following concepts from the text extract will be highlighted:
Catholic Church
canon law
Christendom
Europe
The following phrases will also be highlighted:
wealthy influential
government, law-making and law-enforcement
wealthy nobles
one-third of the land in Europe

Selected
paragraph

The Catholic Church became very wealthy and often very influential in government,
law-making and law-enforcement. To gain favour with God, many wealthy nobles left
land, property and money to the Catholic Church, which would become richer than
most kings. It controlled about one-third of the land in Europe, and had its own courts
and laws (called canon law) and used the name Christendom to describe the Christian
countries of Europe.

Detailed
reading:
paragraph level

Prepare
We are going to read a paragraph from the text Beliefs and values: the Catholic
Church. This paragraph gives us important background information on the Catholic
Church and its influence. We will also find a few examples of how powerful the
Catholic Church was. This builds on the images we discussed and informs the
predictions we have made about the text.
Summarise
This paragraph tells us that the Catholic church was extremely powerful in this time.
It explains how powerful by identifying wealth, law, and land ownership as the main
examples.
Read aloud Paragraph 1
Elaborate: You might have noticed how the first sentence contains many important

Detailed
reading:
sentence level
with examples
of possible
questions

AFTER READING

terms and introduces the main idea from the text opener. It highlights the power of
the Church by mentioning wealth, government and law. The next two sentences
expand on this point by describing how the Catholic Church became wealthy, and the
control that it maintained through laws and land ownership. Words such as wealthy,
influential and controlled support this idea. Some specific terms like canon law
and Christendom are technical and are important in understanding the Catholic
Church.
Sentence by Sentence reading:
Prepare
Now we are going to go through each sentence carefully so we can understand what
information they provide. As we read, I will ask one student a question and we will
highlight some of the important terms and phrases. We will use these for our notes
and think about what they mean.
Read aloud Sentence 1
Summarise Sentence 1
This sentence talks about areas of society that the Catholic Church influenced.
Question 1: There is a word in the middle of this sentence that is used to describe
the power that the Catholic Church has in this time. It may also refer to having
control over something or some kind of impact. James, can you find this word?
Affirm/Elaborate
Question 2: There is a long and hyphenated (define if necessary) word towards the
end of the sentence that means making sure that rules are followed, usually involving
some form of strength or force. Wendy, can you find this word?
Read aloud Sentence 2
Summarise Sentence 2
This sentence builds on the first sentence and describes how and why the Catholic
Church became wealthy and influential.
Question 3: There is a word at the beginning of this sentence that is used to mean
liking. It refers to gaining the support of someone or something. Mary, can you find
this word?
Affirm/Elaborate
Question 4: There are two words used together that identify people who helped
make the Catholic Church rich and powerful. Tyler, can you find this word?
Affirm/Elaborate
- This routine continues until the paragraph has been carefully and completely
read with the class.
Activity 1: Dictagloss, a language-learning technique enabling students to
summarise the key elements of the text and rewriting learnt information.
The short text is read aloud at a normal pace as Ss listen for key words and
meanings. A second time the text is read, but now Ss listen to record key
terms and phrases. (5 minutes)
T divides Ss into small groups (3-4). They share their findings and discuss why
they recorded them. After discussion of their shared findings, Ss create a list
that notes their main findings before reconstructing a paragraph featuring
these points. (20 minutes) *T must ensure students are focused on grammar
and language accuracy and not at copying the text.
A member of each group reads their completed paragraph to the class, where
the T guides and controls peer-assessment and evaluation with the help of the
class. (15 minutes)
Activity 2: Pair-Share Exposition Worksheet, an exercise for students to apply
the notes and language from the text to create another text. This will take the form of
an argument for an exposition in the form of a mini-essay, which will be scaffolded in
a worksheet.
T groups Ss in pairs and hands out a worksheet. T reads question aloud to
students before breaking it down on the whiteboard to emphasise cues. T
instructs students to listen for these cues before reading the text aloud. (10
minutes)
Ss construct their own individual introduction before sharing with their partner.
Ss discuss similarities and differences to construct a response together. T
guides a class discussion where each pair presents their introductory

How will you

assess the
students
development of
reading and
knowledge of the
field?

paragraph or main introductory points. (10 minutes) This enables selfevaluation and peer-assessment as well as promoting pair-share activities.
Ss complete the remainder of the response using the same method, without
class-wide peer-assessment, relying on the paired self-evaluation and
independence. (20 minutes)

Evidence of students reading development and field knowledge will be assessed in a

number of ways. Informally, I will ascertain student progress through the questioning
sequences of the During Reading tasks (e.g. the quality of student responses) and
observation. On a more formal level, the completion of the dictagloss task and the
pair-share exposition worksheet will help me assess the students knowledge of field
and reading progress.

Key

Headings: conveys the

general topic of the text for
(Text Opener): provides a
preview of the content that
immediately supports EAL/D
learners. Nature of opener
suggests information report
text type/genre. ( )

(__________________________
(
_________________________
_____________________

Dates and Amounts:

provides concrete
Anaphora: creates a
rhythm in the text,
repetition useful for EAL/D
and socio-culturally diverse
students to help learn
language.
Highlighted words: draw
attention to key concepts
that help direct focus.

Nominalisation:
Christianity,
Catholicism, devotion,
decoration, information

Text connectives: a
cohesive device used to add
detail.
Graphics: source 1 provides
a diagram of Church
hierarchy and is clearly
labelled
[Paragraph Openers]:
clearly expands the field and
signals what content is to
come. [ ]
Subheadings: expands the
field for students.

Supportive features
Text openers
parentheses
Dates and amounts
blue rectangle
Highlighted words
green rectangle
Text connectives blue
oval
Paragraph openers
brackets
Challenging features
Nominalisation
orange oval
Noun Groups yellow
rectangle
Religious (Christian)
terminology

Noun groups:
Catholic Church,
Western Europe.

[___________________________
[
___________
________

Religious (Christian)
terminology:
challenging for EAL/D and
socio-culturally diverse
students unfamiliar with
traditional Christian
concepts

Passive Voice: These

people, They
controlled, Their
spires

Pair-Share Exposition
Activity Scaffold

Was the
Catholic Church
powerful and
influential in
Medieval Europe?
Explain your
answer.
Definition: Explain = relate
cause and effect; make
the relationships between
things evident; provide why
and/or how

Structure
Introduction
- State position in
opening sentence
- Introduce the main
arguments

First Argument
- Restate the first
argument (from
introduction)
- Explain the
argument with
evidence

Second Argument

Response

The Catholic Church was extremely powerful in

Medieval Europe.
Governments, laws and property all came under
the control of the Church who had the support of
the people.
It was this support that ensured the Catholic
Church remained a wealthy, influential institution
during Medieval times.
The Catholic Churchs authority in Medieval
Europe was almost unopposed.
The term Christendom was the name used to
describe the Christian countries of Europe, whose
governments accepted the Church as a political
and legal authority.
These countries had their own laws and
governments but often held their subjects to
canon law and the beliefs of the Church, spread
by the clergy (religious leaders).
Power and influence also came from wealth.
In order to gain favour with God, many nobles

- Restate the second

argument (from
introduction)
- Explain the
argument with
evidence
Conclusion
- Restate position
- Sum up arguments

would leave property and money to the Church,

which helped the Church control almost one-third
of European land.
Even the general population would support their
church leaders with a 10 percent tax of the crops
they grew, known as a tithe.

Christianity and the Catholic Church were

extremely influential in Medieval Europe.
The Church influenced law, government, and
property while maintaining its position as the
dominant religion of its time.

Template appropriated from source: South Australia Teaching for effective learning,
www.learningtolearn.sa.edu.au

Pair-Share Exposition Activity Scaffold

Definition: Explain = relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things
evident; provide why and/or how

Was the Catholic Church powerful and influential in

Medieval Europe? Explain your answer.
Structure
Introduction
- State position in
opening sentence
- Introduce the main
arguments
First Argument
- Restate the first
argument (from
introduction)
- Explain the
argument with
evidence

Response

Second Argument
- Restate the second
argument (from
introduction)
- Explain the
argument with
evidence
Conclusion
- Restate position
- Sum up arguments

Template appropriated from source: South Australia Teaching for effective learning,
www.learningtolearn.sa.edu.au