Before reading: orient and activate
Share the purpose and preview the title, headings and visuals. Invite relevant prior knowledge, including knowledge in other languages. Teach a small number of essential terms in context.
EAL co-teaching · Practice guide 05
Scaffold long texts and extended responses
Build a route from text meaning to an independent subject explanation.
During reading: chunk by meaning
Divide the text at meaningful sections. Ask for a gist statement, locate a supporting detail and connect it to the lesson question. Use a labelled diagram, timeline or cause/effect organiser rather than several unrelated worksheets.
Move from notes to talk
Model how one useful note is selected from a paragraph. Learners record keywords, evidence and a question. Use partner rehearsal with a language frame; allow purposeful multilingual discussion before the English response.
Build the target text
Analyse an example of the required genre. Co-construct one paragraph, then have learners write or present their own explanation. Give feedback on subject reasoning and one language priority.
Fade and test independence
Move from a full frame to headings, then to the task alone. Check a new paragraph or source with less support. Do not infer understanding solely from a completed cloze or copied model.
Worked classroom example
Humanities: A longer migration text becomes three sections: pressures at home, attractions elsewhere, and limits of the evidence. Learners record claim / evidence / question, rehearse “One contributing factor was …; the evidence suggests …”, then write a qualified explanation.
Science: Organise a practical report around question, variables, method, results and explanation. Preserve units, data and causal reasoning. Rehearse the link between the result and the scientific model before writing.
Share the work
Subject teacher validates the concepts, evidence and genre. EAL teacher models reading and language strategies. Both use the same text purpose and collect an independent response.
Evidence to look for: The learner can select evidence and explain it on a new section with a reduced scaffold.
Your working template
Draft here, then download an editable HTML copy. Drafts are saved locally in this browser when available. Use anonymised observations.
Developed from Duncan Rose’s supplied co-teaching training and programme materials (2022–2025), with newly written classroom examples. School-specific procedures and individual staff responses are excluded.