Connotation, imagery and symbol enrich a text by making words and images mean more than one thing. They invite students to consider the habitual in terms of the new and so are important to creative and critical thought. Figurative language has social consequences as it influences the ways we conceptualise people, information and ideas. Critical analysis brings to light these associations and strands of meaning.

Decodable texts

Decodable texts are specifically written for beginning readers as they are developing their blending and segmenting skills and their knowledge of the alphabetic code. Decodable texts:

• support students as they practise by using a continuous meaningful text
• contain a very large percentage of words that incorporate the letter-sound relationships that students have been taught
• increase in complexity as the student learns more of the phonetic code.