Mediating Children's Functioning as Readers in a Year 1 Classroom

Over the past five or so years, teachers in the early school years have been faced with the challenge of shifting their reading instruction from more implicit, child-centred approaches to more explicit, text-focused instruction. This has been in response to the introduction of the NSW English K-6 Syllabus (NSW Board of Studies, 1993). This syllabus requires teachers to provide explicit instruction about texts in terms of their features, the purposes they serve, and how they are organised. The question this has raised is, how might such an emphasis be met while still taking account of children's active roles as learners and readers?