The Teaching and Learning Cycle (TLC), discussed in last month’s blog, is specifically designed to enable students to develop their ability to comprehend and compose disciplinary genres, using dialogue as a key vehicle. It, therefore, incorporates and integrates reading, writing and oracy skills. The TLC, in Figure 1, (see April’s Blog) is used by teachers to design and support students to write an explanation in GCSE Physical Education. This TLC provides an ‘at a glance’ overview of how teaching and learning activities could be organised and then used to arrange into lesson cycles.
Figure 1. The TCL as a Curriculum Plan for Y10 GCSE PE
The TLC in Fig.1 has an extensive field-building stage, which is likely to take several lessons, as well as many opportunities to use ‘I do, we do, you do’ type scaffolding cycles within the overall framework. For example, in Stage 1 where pupils are ‘shown how to define and explain the impact of each weight related condition’, the teacher could model the first condition, ask students to co-construct others in groups and then as a class, before independently constructing a final one. In other words, the TLC enables mini-cycles to be built into the main cycle. Students develop a strong grasp of text and paragraph structure as well as how knowledge is communicated at the sentence level using technical language, nominalisations and cohesive devices to achieve the appropriate language register for the task. In this way, knowledge-building and language development are actually one and the same.
Figure 2. The TLC Curriculum Plan for GCSE Drama
Figure 2 presents a TLC developed to support students to write a critical evaluation in Drama. This curriculum plan has an even more extended first stage which includes the reading of the play, which itself would take considerable time and may also need scaffolding cycles. In the Joint/guided construction stage students see the play performed. The teacher has carefully sequenced these activities into the overall framework to maximise disciplinary learning at key points, ensuring that students are accruing the technical and evaluative register of language they need as they work towards independent construction. Both the PE and Drama TLCs include, as needed, extensive field-building, close reading activities, explicit links between reading and writing tasks, and attention to drafting, proof-reading and editing the final text, all mediated through purposeful and sustained classroom dialogue.
Why use the TLC?
Developing disciplinary literacy is not only key to improving students’ outcomes in the crucial exam years, but also to enhancing their opportunities beyond education. The TLC is a powerful pedagogy that provides teachers with a hugely flexible, yet highly focussed planning tool that gradually builds students’ control of and analytical or critical orientation towards disciplinary knowledge. It allows for embedding review, retrieval, and application as part of the process, allowing teachers to revisit, deepen and continually assess students’ understanding as knowledge develops. If ‘I do, we do, you do’ is already a core part of the teaching and learning strategy, as it is for the school cited at the start, and/or disciplinary literacy is a key priority, then a highly effective next step would be to start to think, plan and do TLCs.
Next time: How to apply the TLC to an existing unit of work
For more detailed information on the TLC, see the following on the Language and Literacy in Education Network’s website:
https://disciplinaryliteracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ab010-thepedagogy-llen.pdf
References
Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2011). Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching. Guilford Press.
Department for Education (2014) The national curriculum in England: Framework document. London: Department for Education. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-framework-document.
Education Endowment Foundation: Quigley, A. and Coleman, R. (2019) Improving literacy in secondary schools: Guidance report. London: Education Endowment Foundation.
Ofsted (2019) Education inspection framework. London: Ofsted. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-inspection-framework.
Martin, J.R. and Rothery, J. (1986) Writing Project Report No. 1: What a functional approach to the writing task can show teachers about “good writing”. Sydney: University of Sydney.
Pearson, P. D., & Gallagher, M. C. (1983). The Instruction of Reading Comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology.
Rose, D. and Martin, J.R. (2012) Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield: Equinox.
Rosenshine, B. (2012) Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator, 36(1), pp. 12–19, 39.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978) Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
