ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what has become known more widely as the teaching-learning cycle (TLC), which is based on the principle of 'guidance through interaction in the context of shared experience'. The four stages of the TLC include: building the context for work on narrative; modelling the structure and features of narrative; guided practice – joint construction of a new text; and an independent composition of narratives and reflection on outcomes of learning. Three scenarios in teaching a grammatics for narrative are presented. Various opportunities for grammatically informed teaching about writing are also examined. Teaching about language and image in explicit, meaningful ways is a supportive approach for both primary and secondary learners and allows teachers to provide clear guidance and feedback to their students. Discussions that examine semiotic choices in verbal and visual texts, and which invite the use of a shared metalanguage understood, open up access to repertoires of possibility in both interpretation and composition.
