Effective writing instruction

Becoming a competent and confident writer is an exciting process for learners.

It can also be a demanding process.

Effective writing instruction provides teachers and students with the knowledge and skills to become active and engaged in the process of learning to write – and learning from writing. This resource offers explicit support for effective classroom instruction. It explores key ideas about writing and presents numerous examples of how teachers can plan for and develop instruction.

It also provides activities that actively engage learners in understanding and monitoring their own progress and achievement in writing.

Effective writing instruction is an essential resource for all teachers of writing.

Dr Alison Davis is a leading literacy researcher, writer, speaker and professional development provider. Alison is particularly well known for her research on reading comprehension. She is the author of the highly successful Building comprehension strategies and Explorations Strategies for Comprehension for informative texts.

Effective writing instruction Evidence-based classroom practices

Evidence-based classroom practices

The downloadable graphic organisers that can be used for independent, paired and small-group work during instruction, and as part of planned practice and maintenance of previous learning throughout the year. The graphic organisers also provide explicit models of formative assessment of writing practices and strategies.

Effective writing instruction

Skilled writers learn to write with enjoyment, engagement and self-efficacy for a range of purposes and audiences.

Alison Davis

Alison Davis

Effective writing instruction Evidence-based classroom practices

Alison Davis

First published in 2013 Reprinted 2015 Eleanor Curtain Publishing Level 2 / 102 Toorak Road South Yarra, VIC 3141 Australia www.ecpublishing.com.au Text © Alison Davis 2013-2024 This publication is protected by copyright law, and under international copyright conventions, applicable in the jurisdictions in which it is published.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Eleanor Curtain Publishing, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organisation.

This publication is sold subject to the condition that it must not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the prior written consent of Eleanor Curtain Publishing in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

All rights reserved National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Davis, Alison Jean, 1961Title: Effective writing instruction : evidence-based classroom practices / Alison Davis.

Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN: 978 1 0385 3763 8 (dig.)

Subjects: Language arts (Primary)

Creative writing (Primary education)

Children–Writing Dewey Number: 372.6 Edited by Anne McKenna Designed by Tom Kurema Illustrations by Bettina Guthridge Photographs by Michael Curtain Printed and bound in China through Colorcraft Ltd, Hong Kong.

Thanks to Ashritha, Zoe, Ethan, Amber, Callum, Conor, Charlie, Angus, Zara, Lara, Violet, Rory and Ryan.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Introduction

1

Developing effective writing instruction

3

Key ideas

3

Deliberate planned and regular instruction

3

Engagement and motivation

4

Creating a writing-rich environment

6

Metacognition and self-regulation

7

Students as active participants in their own learning

9

Teaching writing processes, strategies and skills is long term

9

Embedding formative assessment practices

10

The importance of talk

12

Chapter summary

16

Assessment information to inform teaching

17

Key ideas

17

Effective assessment enables effective instruction

17

Gathering and analysing assessment information

18

Using student assessment information to inform ‘next steps’ instruction

25

Finding out about students’ ideas and perceptions about writing

30

Graphic organisers

31

Chapter summary

32

Preparing for writing

33

Key ideas

33

Linking to prior knowledge

33

Knowledge and understanding of the purpose for writing

40

Planning for writing

42

Graphic organisers

50

Using prompts to support student planning

51

Chapter summary

52

Effective writing instruction

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Teaching approaches

53

Key ideas

53

A range of approaches

53

Modelled writing

54

Shared writing

60

Guided writing

64

Paired writing

67

Peer writing

70

Collaborative writing

72

Independent writing

75

Skill-focused mini-lessons

77

Online writing opportunities

77

Chapter summary

78

Purposes for writing

79

Key ideas

79

Writing has many purposes

79

Preparing to write

81

Writing to entertain

82

Writing to persuade

86

Writing narrative

91

Writing as a tool for learning

95

Graphic organisers

97

Chapter summary

99

Composing text

101

Key ideas

101

Developing quality writing

101

Vocabulary

102

Sentence construction

110

Punctuation

115

Spelling

119

Chapter summary

124

Contents

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Revising text

125

Key ideas

125

The reflective writer

125

Revising

126

Revising: Editing writing

129

Revising: Proofreading writing

132

Evaluating

136

Graphic organisers

137

Chapter summary

140

Celebrating and responding to writing

141

Key ideas

141

Opportunities for instruction

141

Innovating on writing

141

Developing writing projects

144

Investigating the writing of others

145

Providing choice

146

Celebrating and enjoying the finished product

147

Maintenance programs for writing

150

Chapter summary

152

References and recommended reading

153

Index

156

Introduction Skilled writers know about, use, control and select from a wide range of writing skills, strategies and processes as they write. They learn to explain, demonstrate and reflect on: • the skills, strategies and processes they use • how they use these skills, strategies and processes • when they use specific skills, strategies and processes • h ow using, selecting from and combining a range of writing skills, strategies and processes will help them develop as confident, competent and self-regulated writers.

In addition, skilled writers are engaged in the process of writing, and learn to write with enjoyment and confidence for a range of purposes and audiences.

They learn to use writing to assist their learning in many ways—to respond, to critique, to evaluate, to consider, to examine, to report, to analyse and to reflect.

Becoming a competent and confident writer is an exciting process for learners.

It can also be a demanding process and it is far more successful for teachers and students when both are active, engaged and excited about the possibilities of learning to write and learning from writing.

Effective writing instruction provides explicit support for effective classroom instruction in writing. It provides many examples of how teachers can plan for and develop instructional approaches and activities that actively engage their learners in understanding and monitoring their own progress and achievement in writing. This includes specific approaches for: • developing effective writing instruction • understanding and using assessment to inform teaching • preparing students for writing • teaching approaches • purposes for writing • composing text • revising text • celebrating and responding to writing.

Effective writing instruction is an essential and comprehensive reference for all teachers of writing.

1

Chapter 1 Developing effective writing instruction

Key ideas ° ° ° ° °

° °

° °

Learning to write is a thinking process, so being aware of what you are doing is an essential part of the process.

Metacognitive writing refers to the capacity of writers to be self-reflective—not just to think and know, but to think about their thinking and knowing.

Deliberate, planned and regular instruction of writing, with multiple and varied opportunities to write, is central to creating skilled and confident writers.

Engagement and motivation are fundamental to effective writing and to developing effective writers.

Skilled writers monitor and regulate their own writing. They are highly metacognitive in developing their writing knowledge, understandings and behaviours. They demonstrate and develop metalinguistic awareness.

Quality talk—before, during and after writing—enhances learning and is essential for success.

During instruction, teachers and students make deliberate links between reading, writing and oral language which improve learning outcomes for all students.

Skilled and proficient writers use writing as a tool to access the curriculum, to access and record real-life experiences and to write for authentic purposes.

Writing development does not happen in isolation. Students require opportunities to develop and practise the processes of planning to write, composing text in various ways for different purposes and audiences, proofreading and editing. These opportunities need to occur over time and in a wide range of contexts.

Deliberate planned and regular instruction Skilled and proficient writers write a lot. They engage with text and they explore text structures and language choices. Teachers plan for multiple opportunities for writing instruction throughout the day. Such teaching engages students in opportunities to talk about writing, to explore the varied purposes for writing, to practise writing using new skills and strategies and to create a belief that writing is worthwhile, valuable and enjoyable.

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Effective writing instruction Teachers and students know that effective writers are not created in a day, a week, a month or a year. Effective instruction builds on what was previously learned and what will be learned in the following weeks. It provides planned opportunities for learning about and through writing, for writing practice, for maintenance of skills and strategies and for transfer of skills and understandings to varied contexts.

Engagement and motivation Engagement and motivation are fundamental to effective writing and to developing effective writers. For this to be possible, teachers and students need to have high expectations of success. Teachers demonstrate to their students, through both their actions and their comments, that they believe a student’s success in writing is not just important, but also attainable. Oral and written comments to students that include feedback and praise encourage student ­engagement and motivation. For example:

Well done! I can see that you have really tried to improve this piece of writing and you have created a very interesting idea for me as a reader.

When I read this, I really saw the image you were describing! I loved the language you used to do this. Great work!

I can see that you are really trying with this explanation. By the end of our next lesson, you will be able to describe clearly how this machine works.

For students to be engaged and motivated about writing, they also need to develop a sense of competence about their writing and their ability to write well, along with a sense that writing is meaningful (Boscolo & Gelati 2007). Effective writing instruction is planned to scaffold learning to ensure that all students experience success and enjoyment in writing. Intrinsic to motivation to write is a student’s set of beliefs about writing – the attitudes they have about writing and their own sense of writing competence. Therefore, it is important that there are opportunities and learning environments through which students are able to approach writing lessons and writing tasks with an expectation that they will be able to complete the task successfully and become stronger and more proficient writers as a result. Consequently, it is important that teachers and students believe that students can and will become effective writers. ‘Writing is fun’, ‘I can write well’ and ‘I enjoy writing’ are examples of students’ self-perception of writing,

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Developing effective writing instruction which in turn links to the degree to which a student becomes involved and interested in writing.

In addition, creating opportunities for writing instruction to link to students’ interests will provide both cognitive and motivational opportunities. Student interest creates a springboard for further learning, draws on students’ own personal and cultural backgrounds and experiences, and helps students to make sense of new or challenging concepts, situations and phenomena.

What are my students interested in?

What do they already know and understand?

How can I use their knowledge to create opportunities for writing? How can I create writing opportunities that will challenge and extend student understanding? How can I help students learn to enjoy the use of language and create written texts, such as those that inform, persuade, argue or entertain?

Engagement and motivation are further enhanced when instruction is planned to provide authentic purposes for student writing. Authentic purposes help students understand the relevance of their writing, make connections between what they know and are interested in, and provide opportunities for real-life writing. They provide a heightened reason for writing, a goal for writing and an opportunity for writing to be enjoyed, understood and used by others once it is completed.

Authentic writing tasks may relate to personal experiences, topical issues and events and curriculum themes, topics and contexts.

Examples of authentic purposes for student writing include: •

to inform community members of an upcoming event at the school

•

to persuade another student to their point of view on a current issue

•

to explain why they found a short story particularly enjoyable to read

•

to respond to a problem, drawing on their own personal experiences

•

to help their readers understand the dangers or importance of a particular issue

•

to explain their thinking about what they are learning in another subject, e.g. maths, science, social studies, health

•

to respond to something they have read, e.g. a short story, a poem, an advertisement.

5

Effective writing instruction There are many and varied opportunities for authentic writing purposes and these will often draw on students’ own interests and experiences, as well as on studies from other curriculum learning areas. For further information on providing opportunities for students to share their writing with others, see Chapter 8: Celebrating and responding to writing.

Furthermore, engagement and motivation are strongly related to a student’s confidence and understanding of metacognition and self-regulatory skills (see pages 7 to 8).

Creating a writing-rich environment In effective writing classrooms there is a commitment to learning to write— teachers are committed to teaching students to plan, compose and revise, and students are committed to improving their own writing. It takes time for students to acquire the competencies of skilled writing. Classrooms with lots of writing materials show that teachers are mindful not just of effective instruction, but the way the environment contributes to student achievement over time. Teachers and students can create effective and engaging classroom writing environments that are filled with a variety of writing materials, content, tools and opportunities.

A further characteristic of writing-rich environments is the amount of quality teaching that occurs. Quality teaching includes preparation for writing, skill teaching and scaffolded support, and multiple opportunities to develop selfregulation skills. Through rich instruction, teachers provide guidelines for starting, developing, consolidating and completing writing. This is generally referred to as the process of writing. This process is not linear, but is cyclic in nature.

Plan · check prior knowledge · understand purpose

The process of writing

Publish

Compose

· present · celebrate · enjoy!

· craft · re-craft

Revise · edit · proofread

6

Developing effective writing instruction students need to overcome the complexity of the writing process—no matter how practised they are at writing, they will still often use the writing process to compose their message. Effective teaching demystifies the stages in the process.

In rich classroom teaching environments, teachers share examples of their own writing at these stages, they provide a range of activities through which the process of writing is explained, modelled, scaffolded and reviewed, and they provide daily instruction and practice.

In addition, writing-rich classroom environments create a clear sense in students that they can become writers. They develop a strong culture within students that writing is worthwhile, valuable and definitely worth the effort to learn how to do well. In these classrooms, writing instruction is not only a focal point for instruction, but is integrated with other instruction in response to reading and across the curriculum.

Metacognition and self-regulation Metacognition is knowing about thinking and thinking about thinking.

Metacognition enables students to become aware of and understand how they think, and the strategies they use to help them think1. Cognitive skills are often described as mental or learning skills; they are the skills necessary for students to use in order to learn (Davis 2007, 2011). In the context of writing, metacognition refers to developing knowledge and control of the strategies used in the process of creating meaning through writing. These strategies help a writer to form intentions for writing, to plan and select ideas to create meaning for their reader, to compose text for a range of purposes with skill and accuracy, and to revise work in light of purpose, audience and task expectations. Part of becoming metacognitive is the development of a student’s metalinguistic awareness—their ability to think about the uses of language—as they learn about and through writing. Students learn to develop a conscious awareness of how language can be used, including vocabulary selection, phrases, language devices and academic language.

In the context of writing instruction, metacognitively active writers are able to think about and articulate: · · · · ·

what learning in writing is—the academic skills, strategies and processes that enable students to become proficient and skilled writers their own achievement in writing—when they are achieving and when they are not, their writing strengths and needs strategies they can employ to develop and improve and the learning benefits of doing so the specific actions they will take to improve—and actually taking these actions their own progress, reflecting critically on their learning and themselves as a writer—What processes and strategies do I know, use and control? What do I need to do next? How will I do this? How will I know if I have been successful?

The term metacognition initially developed from the early work of Flavell (1979) along with the work of Vygotsky (1962) from whose work the term self-regulation was coined.

1

7

Effective writing instruction When students reflect on their progress as learners, they become increasingly aware of their own progress and achievement and where they need to move to next. Intrinsic to this is the concept of self-regulation. Self-regulation refers to learners’ thoughts, actions and feelings towards attaining specific outcomes or goals. Self-regulatory strategies include setting goals, knowing and choosing the best way(s) to achieve a task, monitoring one’s own achievements and seeking help as needed in order to reach the goal (Davis 2011; Graham & Harris 2005; Zimmerman 2000).

Effective writing instruction will develop students’ self-confidence and independence in selecting and using appropriate strategies to address the challenges and the demands of writing within the specific writing task they are undertaking. Thus, deliberately teaching self-regulatory strategies is an important part of teaching students to master the cognitive processes of composing text, to write for a variety of purposes and to become independent problem-solvers of writing. Furthermore, self-regulation and the teaching of self-regulatory skills enable students to develop positive attitudes about writing.

Learning to write is a thinking process, so being aware of what you are doing is an essential part of the process of becoming a skilled and proficient writer. This requires not only knowing what to write, but also how to write.

Teachers deliberately support a metacognitive approach to teaching writing by helping their students to think about: · · · · · · ·

What type of writing task am I learning?

What is the purpose of the task?

Who is the intended audience?

What text type will I use?

What knowledge will I need to be able to plan, draft, revise, edit and share my work?

What helps me to write well?

How can I improve my writing?

Teachers also teach students to ask metacognitive questions as they develop a shared language for talk about writing: · · · ·

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Why am I writing this? Who am I writing this for? What kind of writing is this?

What information do I need to be able to write? How will I plan to use this information effectively (e.g. graphic organisers, writing frames)?

Why have I made this decision? Why have I chosen this word/phrase/form of sentence? What are the alternatives?

What have I learned about my writing? What have I learned from my writing?

How did I learn this? What was difficult? Why was this difficult? What did I do well? What are my future targets? What will help me reach these?

Developing effective writing instruction

Effective writing instruction

Developing effective writing instruction: Graphic organiser 1 Name:

What is learning?

What is learning in writing?

On Graphic organiser 1 (see Developing effective writing instruction: Graphic organiser 1), students are asked to record their ideas about what learning is—and about what learning in writing is. This can be completed as a group or individual activity and can be added to over the course of several weeks. Teachers may wish to have students date and use a different coloured pen for each entry, thus providing a cumulative record of shifts in knowing and understanding about writing.

What do I have to do to be a good learner in writing?

Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Students as active participants in their own learning Skilled and proficient writers think about, record and communicate experiences, ideas and information to meet specific learning purposes. They: · · · ·

·

develop their ability to encode words accurately possess a wide vocabulary and word knowledge that they can draw on as they write use appropriate punctuation and grammar to create fluent and accurate writing develop knowledge and control of the process of writing—planning, crafting to compose text, reflecting and re-crafting in the process of reviewing and presenting writing know and control a range of strategies and skills to create text for a range of purposes and audiences.

Knowledge of learning in relation to the task: What type of writing task am I learning? What is the purpose? Who is the intended audience? What text type will I use?

Knowledge of my own developing ability as a writer: knowing what helps me to write well and how I can improve my writing.

Knowledge of the writing process: knowledge that I need to be able to plan, draft, revise, edit and share my work.

Knowledge of the English language and how to use this to create written text.

Teaching writing processes, strategies and skills is long term Students become skilled and proficient when writing instruction is explicitly planned, based on student learning needs and curriculum outcomes to ensure that skill and proficiency increases over time. Therefore, it is best to introduce a 9

Effective writing instruction few writing processes, strategies and skills at a time, with significant opportunities for students to learn from observation and demonstration, scaffolded and guided practice, explanation and discussion. Additionally, writing processes, strategies and skills need to be modelled and practised throughout the day and across a range of curriculum areas.

As students develop confidence and competence, they are able to move from guided practise to independent use of newly acquired processes, skills and strategies. Direct explanation and modelling by the teacher in small group, larger group and one-to-one learning situations is effective in providing students with information on how and when to use writing strategies and how learning to use these will help them to become skilled and proficient writers. Instruction of this type provides multiple and varied opportunities to practise self-regulatory skills.

Students benefit most when there are extensive and recursive opportunities to apply learning from guided practice to independent use, with additional support provided for those who need it. Most importantly, students learn to model and explain their use of writing processes, strategies and skills to each other and know how to continue to use these independently when they are writing on their own.

Multiple opportunities to write make explicit, and allow for internalisation of, the features of an ‘expert’ student writer.

Writing strategies include:

Writing skills include:

•

•

encoding words

•

spelling strategies

•

spelling rules

•

personal and high-frequency words

•

vocabulary selection

•

handwriting

•

references

•

punctuation.

to create a visual image for readers

•

to help readers link to their prior knowledge

•

to lead readers to predict

•

to infer

•

to summarise ideas

•

to evaluate

•

to retell

•

to clarify.

Embedding formative assessment practices Formative assessment is the process of assessing and considering students’ writing achievements, capability and expertise and using this information to inform subsequent teaching and learning. Formative assessment is generally defined as taking place during teaching with the express purpose of improving student learning. As such, it is integrated with instruction on a daily basis (e.g. Black & Wiliam 1998; Clarke 2008; Davis 2007, 2011; Wiliam 2011).

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Developing effective writing instruction In the context of writing instruction, formative assessment: · · · ·

takes place during all stages of the writing lesson is interactive in that it involves teachers and students in the process of determining what is known and what needs to be taught next is reflective in that it encourages teachers and students to look back to see what has been achieved, and how effectively this has been achieved influences what is taught next and the learning goals for student writing achievement.

Essentially, formative assessment in writing involves teachers and students in the process of: Setting the scene for writing instruction by: · · ·

·

developing a clearly articulated set of learning goals (based on the explicit needs of the students) sharing learning goals with students in such a way that they are clearly understood by each student providing success criteria to support the process of becoming a writer, e.g. what might be involved in the process of planning, personalising and selfregulating their writing providing exemplars that illustrate achievement—teachers and students discussing, analysing, co-constructing and sharing these as part of explicit needs-based instruction.

Gathering assessment information in writing through such processes as: · ·

teacher observation, anecdotal records, student–teacher conversations about writing, writing conferences involving students in self and peer assessment against the achievement criteria, writing exemplars, think-aloud and student demonstration and reflective discussion/questionnaires.

Analysing assessment information about writing through such processes as: · · · ·

writing assessment criteria development and use of writing exemplars self and peer review of writing teaching and learning comparing student progress and achievement over time.

Using assessment information to: · · · ·

provide high-quality feedback on student writing determine and set learning goals for future writing instruction promote and enhance teacher and student self-reflection review effectiveness of instruction in relation to student learning needs.

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Effective writing instruction These processes do not occur in isolation and they are not linear, but recursive and responsive to the needs and expectations of students and teachers.

Formative assessment has a number of components (Davis 2011). These include: · · · ·

establishing and sharing with students the learning goal(s) for the lesson establishing with students the success criteria for the lesson(s) providing students with direct and explicit feedback on their progress towards the lesson learning goal(s) deliberately including students in the process of reflecting on and reviewing their learning through – self and peer assessment – conferences with peers and teacher – giving and receiving feedback – setting and monitoring learning goals and the next steps for instruction.

For further information on formative assessment in this text, see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching, and examples in each subsequent chapter.

The importance of talk Oral language is well known to be the foundation of literacy acquisition and critical to a student’s success in both writing and reading. Talk encourages students to share, control and organise their ideas, to listen to and consider the views and ideas of others and to ‘test’ ideas for writing in preparation for a writing task. Talk enables students to develop their understanding of an idea, situation or event they will be writing about and ensures that all participants leave the group with a clearer idea of the task ahead. For students preparing to write and subsequently review and monitor their writing in preparation for others to read, talk helps to develop their inner speech and is a way of self-regulating writing (Haas Dyson 2010; Vygotsky 1962).

Furthermore, talk that is conversational in tone, rather than a series of teacher questions and student responses, is more effective in creating authentic and explicit talk about writing. During conversation, the teacher participates as a member of the group, scaffolding the conversation content, and the development of conversation skills as and when required. Productive talk that serves to enhance writing is structured and focused to maintain a high degree of student involvement but is not dominated by the teacher. This talk is collaborative and provides shared opportunities to co-construct learning.

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Developing effective writing instruction Shared and collaborative opportunities to co-construct learning

Talk to develop understanding of the writing task Provide ample opportunities for students to talk about the writing task they will be undertaking. This includes opportunities to talk about the type of writing they will be doing, the structural and organisational features related to this type of text and the language often associated with this type of writing.

Example: Students are writing a narrative with three characters. They talk about what they know about a narrative, the structure most commonly used to write a narrative, the importance of setting and characters and how these develop alongside a problem that needs to be solved. The students talk about the narrative structure of a beginning, middle and end as a story is being developed.

Furthermore, opportunities are planned and executed to enable students to talk to clarify and use instructional and academic language associated with the writing task.

Talk to express ideas and learn from the experiences of others Allow students to be involved in talk through which they share and explore their own knowledge and experiences in relation to writing and to the topic or context they will be writing about. This talk should reflect and respect cultural and social diversity, and link writing and writing tasks to cultural and personal experiences.

Example: Students share examples of how writing is used in cultural celebrations.

They use conversation and the sharing of ideas as a basis for writing about a special cultural celebration they have been involved in. Alternatively, students write a recount or report about an experience shared by another person in their class or group.

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Effective writing instruction

Talk in preparation for writing In preparation for writing, allow students a range of opportunities to talk with others—in pairs, small groups and as part of a larger group—in order to develop and synthesise ideas for writing. This is particularly important for developing rich content knowledge, for exploring problems or topics that students may be writing about and to assist students to ‘think ahead’ about the text they will be composing. It is also important for students to talk in order to develop language for writing. This may include the discussion and development of subject-specific vocabulary, academic vocabulary, strong verbs, and adjectival and adverbial phrases that may be used in the process of composing their text.

Example: Students begin by discussing with a partner the key ideas they have for writing. They then join up with two other pairs to form groups of six students who share their ideas, ask and answer questions of each other and give each other feedback on the clarity of ideas shared.

Talk to reflect on thinking and learning Reflective oral language opportunities help students to talk about their own learning, creating a climate of trust and a commitment to learning in a classroom.

They also help students develop confidence to take risks with their own learning.

When students create and participate in opportunities for reflective talk, they learn to describe and monitor their own learning and understanding of the processes, strategies and skills of writing and create opportunities for elaboration, explanation, justification and demonstration of learning. The talkaloud and think-aloud approaches described below are examples of reflective, goal-focused talk.

The talk-aloud approach This approach is used by early and developing writers as the first stage of describing the thinking that occurs as they engage in the writing process. It requires the students to talk aloud about what they are thinking as they plan, write and revise.

Prompts teachers can use to help develop the talk-aloud approach include: · · · · ·

‘Talk about what you are thinking as you prepare to write.’

‘Talk about what you are thinking as you decide what to write and select the words and sentences that best tell your story.’

‘Talk about what you know about your character.’

‘Tell me more about your setting and the problem you are developing.’

‘Talk about the main idea you want your reader to understand.’

The think-aloud approach In this approach, students are asked to think aloud as they write, i.e. to explain what they are thinking as they prepare for, compose and revise their text. In order to do this, students need to be able to talk about and describe the cognitive and metacognitive processes they go through as they create text.

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Developing effective writing instruction As students develop their confidence in learning to think aloud as a way of composing text and self-regulating their own writing, they learn to stop periodically, reflect on the decisions they are making and talk about the writing processes, skills and strategies they are using and why. Students also learn to explain their thinking and provide a rationale for the choices they make—the language, structures and organisational features they choose to create meaning.

Example 1: The teacher demonstrates the use of think-aloud for descriptive paragraph writing: ·

‘When I think about what I will write, I try to get a visual image of the item I am describing. I examine the image I see and ask myself: What does it look like? What size is it? What shape is it? What colour is it? Then I answer my questions and record the ideas as notes to use in my description.’

Example 2: The teacher demonstrates the use of think-aloud for composing a sentence when writing an opinion: ·

‘When I am planning to write a sentence that will inform others of my opinion, I start by thinking about what I want to say and the words I want to use. Then I say the sentence to myself in my head. Next, I ask myself: Did my sentence make sense? Did I say what I wanted to say? Was this the best sentence I could use?’

Prompts teachers can use to develop the think-aloud approach include: · · · · · · · ·

‘Tell me more about what you are thinking as you write this.’

‘Keep talking about what you are thinking as you plan for your writing.’

‘Say out loud the thoughts that come in to your mind as you review what you have written.’

‘Explain the changes you are choosing to make to your writing and the reasons for this.’

‘Tell me why you chose this word/phrase/subheading/diagram.’

‘Tell me why you chose this writing strategy.’

‘Explain why you thought it was important to include this information in your text.’

‘Tell me how you approached this writing task—why did you make the choices you did?’

Specific examples of student talk related to writing development, processes, strategies and skills, and the ability to self-regulate learning, can be found in each of the subsequent chapters.

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Effective writing instruction

Chapter summary

What does thought-provoking, engaging and challenging writing instruction ‘look like’ for students?

This chapter has provided an introduction and an overview of the critical factors in developing effective and metacognitively rich and varied instructional writing programs. The next chapter discusses and describes the collection, analysis and use of writing assessment information and explains how this can be used effectively in developing responsive and needs-based writing instruction.

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Chapter 2 Assessment information to inform teaching Key ideas ° °

° ° ° °

°

Student learning needs are the key drivers for planning and implementing writing instruction.

Learning needs are best identified through a range of formal and informal assessments that gather information from both teacher and student perspectives and points of view.

For assessment to be valid, it needs to assess both the process and the product of writing.

Regular collection and analysis of information provides data to inform teaching.

Formative assessment is an integral component of teaching and learning to write.

Effective instruction is purposefully planned to ensure there is a match between student learning needs, lesson learning goals and the subsequent mix of the most appropriate teaching approach and the most appropriate pace of instruction.

Effective instruction is informed by ongoing monitoring and reflection by teachers and students.

Effective assessment enables effective instruction Inquiry into the effectiveness of writing instruction in improving student writing achievement includes inquiry into the needs of students and the resultant pedagogical practices of teachers (see table on page 18). Assessment provides rich information to inform instruction when it is able to identify clearly the writing skills, knowledge and understanding a student or group of students have, their current levels of writing achievement, an evaluation of their previous achievements and rate of progress and the immediate ‘next steps’. Thus, effective writing instruction places the needs of the learners at its heart. Decisions on what to teach, how to teach it, over how many days or weeks it is to be taught and how to monitor progress are all dependent on strong understanding of both writing pedagogy and student learning needs.

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Effective writing instruction Inquiry into learning and teaching needs Inquiry into the learning needs of students

Inquiry into the pedagogical practices of teachers

What are my students’ writing strengths?

How am I supporting these strengths and drawing on these as levers for improvement?

What do they know and understand about their writing strengths?

What are my students’ writing needs?

What do they know and understand about their writing needs?

What do I know about my students’ writing needs? What do I know about effective research and practices to meet these needs? What do I know about the most effective teaching approaches to meet the learning needs of my students?

How well are my students able to articulate their writing needs? Do they know and understand what to do in order to become better and more effective writers?

What opportunities do I provide to ensure that all students know and understand their writing needs and goals? How integrated and supported are my teaching practices? How effectively do I help students to acquire the writing knowledge and skills they need to achieve at grade level?

Do my students like writing? Are they motivated and engaged towards writing? What do they see as the components of being ‘successful’ in writing? How important do they view success in writing to be?

What do I know about the attitudes, interests and values of my students with regards to writing? How am I using this knowledge to provide effective opportunities for learning?

Writing instruction includes a wide range of assessment techniques designed to help the teacher to make decisions about teaching—the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of instruction. The word ‘assess’ comes from a French term meaning ‘to sit aside’.

This chapter is largely concerned with this notion of assessment—teachers ‘sitting aside’ students to guide and inform instruction.

Gathering and analysing assessment information In any one year, teaching may draw on a range of formal assessments to assist teachers in planning needs-based writing instruction. These assessments may include norm-referenced tests provided through educational and/or government agencies, rubrics and national benchmarks/standards of achievement. Analysis of the results of these assessments is dependent on teacher knowledge of the theory behind the assessment, what the assessment actually sets out to assess and implementation and analysis of assessments in a reliable and valid way. Teachers also use a range of formative assessment sources, including observation, anecdotal notes, conversations and conferences, class- or group-constructed rubrics, student self assessment and peer assessment. These assessments are linked to student learning goals and success criteria.

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Assessment information to inform teaching When analysing writing information, teachers will likely ask questions of the assessment tasks that include: · · · · · · · ·

What did this task set out to assess?

How did my students do in this respect?

How do these results contribute to my overall understanding of my students’ needs?

Do these results match what I already know about my students, their progress and achievement in writing?

What other information might I need to gather and inquire into?

How might I do this?

What are the implications of the data for future teaching?

What are the implications of the data for feedback to students?

As teachers assess student writing, they look for particular features and qualities.

These include: · · · · · · · · · ·

recognisable structure well planned clear message and meaning ideas organised in a logical way grammatically correct sentences accurately punctuated sentences clear purpose precise vocabulary included to provide interest and detail vocabulary relevant to the topic/audience/purpose use of language features for effect.

They also include the more affective features, such as: · · · ·

creating visual images for the reader invoking reader emotion/feelings/response absorbing the reader—the reader is engrossed and involved leaving the reader wanting more!

The table on page 20 is a summary of the important criteria and questions often used to assess student writing. Teachers will select some (not all) of these to consider, depending on the purpose of writing.

The information or data teachers gain from assessment is frequently used for a variety of purposes. Achievement data is used at particular times in the school year to report individual and cohort progress and achievement on writing, and consequently to inform the process of school self-review into the effectiveness of instructional writing programs. Assessment information is used on an ongoing basis to feed directly into the teaching and learning instructional program in the classroom. These are embedded classroom writing assessments—they are designed to inform writing instruction and provide evidence about learning.

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Effective writing instruction Important criteria and questions often used to assess student writing Content and ideas

Punctuation

• Is there detail?

• Are the main ideas supported with comment, evaluation, illustration, evidence?

• Are ideas clearly stated?

• Does the writing demonstrate that the writer knows about and uses a range of punctuation, i.e. what punctuation, when to use it and why it should be used?

• Does the writing include correct use of capitals, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, colons, semi-colons, hyphens, dashes, brackets, ellipses?

Structure • Is the structure appropriate to the purpose?

• Are ideas organised and linked logically?

• Are ideas shaped for effect?

• Are there paragraphs? How have they been organised, e.g. topic sentences, supporting sentences, concluding sentences?

• Is there appropriate use of conjunctions, link words, sequence words?

• Is the spelling accurate? Has the work been proofread for spelling?

• Is there evidence of a focus on strategies to assist spelling?

Sentence development

Grammar

• Is there a variety of sentences, i.e. simple, compound, complex?

• What use has been made of statements, exclamations, commands, questions?

• Are sentences written in active or passive voice?

• Have attempts been made to manipulate sentences according to task and purpose, e.g. combining, expanding, reducing, transforming?

• Does the writing show that the writer knows about the rules and relationships used to organise language?

• Is the text written appropriately in the first, second or third person?

• Has grammar been used for specific purposes or reader response?

Vocabulary selection • Does the writing include appropriate content words?

• Is there evidence of the selection of precise adjectives, verbs?

• Does the range of vocabulary suit the audience and purpose?

• How has vocabulary been used for effect?

Inclusion of appropriate language features • Is there appropriate use of strong verbs?

• Is tense appropriate and consistent?

• Has imagery been used to enhance the writing?

• How does direct speech support the overall message?

• Have features been added for interest, e.g. similes, metaphors, repetition, alliteration, personification, assonance?

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Spelling

Evidence of personal voice • Does the writing speak to me?

• Can I see and hear the writer?

• Does the writing show self, passion, feelings?

• Can I identify and empathise with the writer?

Presentation • Is the writing written with legible handwriting/ use of publishing tool?

• How effective is the writer’s use of layout, illustration and other presentation techniques?

Assessment information to inform teaching

Gathering and analysing formative information There are a range of methods for gathering and analysing assessment information through which teachers closely observe their students and gain useful insights into their writing ability. The single most important thing is that the formative assessment gathered guides and determines instruction, and involves the student.

The following section explores some of these methods.

Teacher observation Teachers who observe and listen to their students as they write, noting and recording information about what students are able to do and what they find difficult, are able to use this observation to assist and inform their teaching.

This information may include notes on the writing strategies students use, how students monitor and correct their own writing and what they write during the day. Often these observations are recorded by means of anecdotal records.

Anecdotal records, built up over time, allow teachers to build writing instruction around the interests, strengths and needs of the students in relation to teaching and assessment expectations.

What am I observing for? Have I planned time for this? How will I record my observations?

How will I share and discuss the results of my observations with students?

An example of comments noted during teacher observation of writing

Date 24/3

29/3 2/4

10 mins teacher modelling. Difficulty generating ideas to write about. One–one conference needed.

Mini lesson on planning to write. Additional support needed to sequence ideas.

Independently planned for 2 main ideas. Follow up with small-group conference asking and answering questions to generate further ideas.

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Effective writing instruction

Conferences and conversations about writing Conversations about writing, also known as writing conferences, provide an opportunity for students to share and receive assistance and support for a particular writing problem. These can take place with an individual or with a group of students. Conversations are usually based on the content the student is writing about and/or the writing processes they are using (e.g. Calkins, Hardman & White 2005). Content-based conversations focus on the topic, subject, context or problem the student is writing about. They enable teachers and students to discuss details necessary for constructing and communicating important information and ideas. Conversations that focus on the writing process encourage students to share with the teacher how and why they have composed their writing in a particular way. These conversations develop shared understanding between teacher and students of how writing develops and help students to gain more control over their writing. In each case, students are able to ask questions and receive assistance based on their needs.

Such conversations enable teachers and students to respond at various stages of the writing process: · · · ·

as students gather ideas—to help them develop ideas and make connections between the ideas as students construct their ideas—to help them structure their writing and to determine what the student needs to learn next as students complete their writing—to help them at the editing and proofreading stages of writing and to discuss patterns of error when the writing is complete—to celebrate writing and discuss what was learned and achieved.

At each of these stages, teachers are able to gather assessment information and use it to individualise instruction that better meets student needs. The student should leave the conference with a clear idea of where to go next with their writing. Students may bring their self assessments and individual goals to the writing conference so that these are included in feedback and future instruction.

Partner conferences Partner conferences take place between two students. They are a useful way to encourage writers to share their writing with other audiences, to assist self assessment and to involve students in peer assessment. The students are able to ask questions of each writer’s content or intent and to clarify the meaning. The writer responds by clarifying their meaning, thinking critically about what they have written and justifying or modifying their writing. Partner conferences can be used to set the scene before writing starts, to assist the writing process and then to review completed work. They can also be in preparation for a student–teacher conference.

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Assessment information to inform teaching

Student assessment of their own and others’ work Three ways of involving students as assessors of writing are through self assessment (assessing their own writing, and the processes they went through), peer assessment (assessing the writing of peers) and pair assessment (assessing the writing of others in pairs/groups).

Student self assessment Self assessment of writing is effective when: · · ·

students are clear about the criteria against which they are assessing students can explain the criteria against which they are self assessing students have viewed, discussed and analysed written exemplars of what the criteria ‘looks’ like.

Many educationalists and researchers believe that involving students in their own learning and assessment of this is the key to, and enhances, improved student learning (e.g. Clarke 2008; Wiliam 2011). When students assess their own writing they learn to think about what makes writing work and to what extent their own writing goals have been met. Student self assessment of writing directs their attention to what is important and what to concentrate on next.

There are a variety of formats for self assessment and both oral and written forms are useful in supporting students to learn about writing. When self assessment is informed by explicit and shared expectations or outcomes, students are more likely to understand and monitor their own learning.

Examples of oral forms of self assessment include: ·

Group discussion—based on the lesson goals and success criteria, each student in the group tells of:

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Effective writing instruction – – – Effective writing instruction

one thing they have learned and one thing they want to work on in the next session one thing they have learned and a question they still have one thing they are proud of and one thing they need to improve on.

Examples of written forms of self assessment include:

Revising text: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Progress notes Date

What I did

How successful I was

What support I need (teacher, group, partner, other)

· · · ·

a checklist where students tick and date what has been achieved a student-made quiz that can be used with other group members a letter to another student about what was learned through completing a task a student reflective learning log.

Further examples of self assessments can be found in each subsequent chapter and among the graphic organisers, e.g Revising Text: Graphic organiser 2 (Chapter 7).

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Pair/peer/group assessment As with self assessment, peer assessment against criteria enhances student knowledge of the process, conventions and features of writing and those areas in which writing can be improved. The criteria must be known to the students, ideally having been generated by both the teacher and students, so that students understand the criteria that they are assessing against.

Peer assessment of writing leads to improved writing achievement because: ·

·

·

An example of teacher instructions for peer assessment

students often find it easier to see the problem in someone else’s work than their own, but at the same time are learning about how to improve a piece of writing it encourages students to examine features of others’ writing, including text organisation, fluency, word choice and voice, hence the peer is learning more about effective writing and may use this knowledge in their own writing it heightens students’ awareness of what makes ‘good-quality’ writing.

1. Read the learning goal and the success criteria for this writing task.

2. Check your understanding of these. Clarify if necessary.

3. Take turns to read writing aloud to each other.

4. Take turns to ask questions about the writing.

5. Revisit the learning goal and success criteria to: • agree what has been achieved • identify what needs to be done next.

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Assessment information to inform teaching

Using student assessment information to inform ‘next steps’ instruction Teachers engage in formative assessment to monitor and assess student achievement and progress during the process of writing. In doing so, they use formative assessment to guide their instruction as their students practise the various stages in producing writing—planning, composing, revising and publishing. This serves to focus on each student’s developing understanding and competence in the process of writing, to emphasise the importance of supporting students in learning how to learn.

Developing and sharing specific learning goals for writing instruction When teachers plan for writing instruction, they use a variety of sources to determine their teaching objectives, including the curriculum documents, national and state school achievement statements and classroom-based assessment data gathered through the process of teaching and learning. This information enables teachers to establish appropriate and needs-based learning goals for writing that meet the needs and expectations of students in their class.

Learning goals typically begin with the phrase ‘We are learning to …’ Depending on the purpose of the lesson and the needs and abilities of the students, learning goals may be developed by the teacher, or co-constructed by teacher and students.

For students to be really clear about the purpose of the writing lesson, what l earning is required and what learning in writing actually means for them, lesson goals must be shared with, and accessible to, students throughout the writing l esson. This means: · · ·

sharing the learning goal with students at the beginning of the lesson revisiting the learning goal as the lesson progresses revisiting the learning goal at the conclusion of the lesson.

When teachers deliberately share, discuss and develop learning goals, they not only enable their students to understand more about what they are learning, but they are developing partnerships with students in the process of learning. An essential factor here is that teachers share the goals with students in ‘kid speak’, i.e. language that students understand. Teachers enhance their students’ understanding of learning goals by: · · · · ·

asking the students to rephrase the goals in their own words developing ‘success criteria’ relating to the learning goal deliberately modelling for students what success would look like using exemplars to demonstrate the learning goal involving students in the process of self and peer assessment.

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Effective writing instruction

Providing criteria about what a ‘successful’ piece of writing would look like Success criteria explicitly demonstrate and provide a shared understanding for students about what constitutes a ‘successful’ piece of writing. Criteria can be added to, modified and extended as lessons progress, becoming a useful reference for teaching and discussion between teachers and students, and between groups of students. As teachers and students develop criteria together, charts may be formed, for example: · · ·

Pre-writing techniques we can use to gather our ideas include …

Ways we can explore new ideas during our writing …

Re-crafting our ideas as we write means that we …

Below are two examples of writing learning goals and success criteria.

Example 1: Writing an entertaining recount The learning goal was developed by the teacher in response to the group assessment information gathered below.

Student needs: Use of precise verbs Sequence words between paragraphs Check for spelling accuracy!!

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Assessment information to inform teaching

Learning goal: We are learning to write a recount that will entertain our reader.

We will be successful when we can: •

Use precise verbs to add interest and description to our writing

•

Use a variety of sequence words to link ideas from one paragraph to the next

•

Critically proofread our writing to check for spelling accuracy. Where there are words we are not sure how to spell, we will: — Say the word out loud to ourselves — Attempt to spell the word — Circle the sounds in the word that we are not sure how to write In this example, the teacher has made explicit the academic language students need to understand in order to achieve this goal. In the chart below, the teacher has provided an explicit definition of what a precise verb is and several examples of how meaning is clarified through the use of a more precise verb. Students can also chart examples of precise verbs as they develop their understanding of this term.

What is a precise verb?

A precise verb is a verb that tells you more about the action – it says exactly what the writer means so the reader can visualise more clearly what is happening.

Example – got (verb) He got a bag – he snatched a bag; he took a bag; he collected a bag The use of a precise verb in place of ‘got’ provides the reader with more detail about the action.

Example 2: Writing instructions This learning goal was co-constructed by the teacher and students.

Learning goal: We are learning how to write a set of instructions. To be successful, what will we need to be able to do?

Sarah: Use numbers to sequence events Timi: Start each instruction with a verb Charlie: Include a diagram or picture to give more information on what to do Debbie: Start with a list of equipment needed to carry out the instructions 27

Effective writing instruction

Use of exemplars As teachers and students develop criteria, and as part of showing good-quality models of writing to students, teachers will regularly share exemplars of writing. Exemplars can be gathered from written texts (including classroom reading resources), examples of modelled or shared writing, students’ own writing and through a range of external exemplars. Exemplars are unpacked during instruction, involving teachers and students together: · · · ·

identifying features within the writing discussing the way in which the author has structured the text discussing how the author has developed messages and meaning reflecting on a student’s own writing to determine the next steps for learning.

The following examples illustrate three ways exemplars can be used.

Example 1: Using published text as a writing exemplar A text being used in group instructional reading also provides an exemplar of the structure and organisational features of writing a report. In this example, the Year 4 students have been learning about dangerous animals as part of a cross-curricula study. The students have read the text Deadly Venom as part of their instructional reading program, with a focus on the summarisation comprehension strategy. Following reading instruction, their teacher decides to revisit this text as an exemplar of report writing. Together, the teacher and

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Assessment information to inform teaching students re-read the text and discuss the structural and language features associated with this report, highlighting and making notes around the text. At the completion of this activity, the students record on chart paper the features they have identified as important when reading and writing a report.

From Deadly Venom, Level 27, Flying Start to Literacy, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

Chapter heading to identify main idea of chapter

Additional information signalled by ‘also’

Caption to provide additional information to link written text and photograph

Subject-specific vocabulary: ‘spiders’, ‘venom’, ‘victims’, ‘prey’ Photograph to clarify what a spider is, what it looks like and how it injects venom Photograph to clarify the meaning of ‘prey’

Example 2: Teacher-modelled exemplar In the course of instruction, the teacher models the writing of a descriptive paragraph describing an old, worn chair.

The old chair sat all alone, the creased fabric and faded wood dark no longer new. Its legs were wobbly and there was a stain on the right-hand corner of the seat.

The teacher and students discuss the examples of personification in this description and how the use of this technique has created an image of sadness and age. They further discuss how the use of adjectives—‘creased’, ‘faded’, ‘dark’— has helped create a visual image of the chair for the reader.

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Effective writing instruction Example 3: Student-written exemplar In this example, the student has been learning how to select and use vocabulary and phrases to create a visual image of events for the reader. After creating the text, the student identifies the specific vocabulary features they have used in creating a visual image. They record these in preparation for sharing with other group members and the teacher.

The wet, windy day made me feel anxious as I prepared for my first bike race. Above all, I was not confident that the slippery hill would be a safe place to ride.

In my writing I have: Created a visual image of the scene by using the words ‘wet’, ‘windy’ and ‘slippery’ Created a visual image of my feelings by using the words ‘anxious’, ‘above all’, ‘not confident’ Finding out about students’ ideas and perceptions about writing In addition to formative assessment procedures, teachers are able to gather much information from discussion with students about their own personal views of writing. For example: ·

Discussion on personal views and attitudes towards writing: – – – – – –

·

‘Do you like writing? Why or why not?’

‘What type of writing do you like best? Why?’ ‘What type of writing do you like least? Why?’ ‘What makes writing enjoyable for you?’

‘How can we change our writing instruction to help you enjoy writing more?’

‘What topics would you like to write about?’

Discussion on interests: – – – – –

‘What do you enjoy doing in your spare time that you would like to write about as part of our writing program?’

‘What places have you visited recently that you might like to write about?’

‘What personal experiences would you like to write about?’

‘What topics interest you most for writing?’

‘If you could choose your own writing program for a week, what type of writing would you do and what would you write about?’

Student questionnaires can also be conducted to gather information to inform learning.

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Assessment information to inform teaching

Graphic organisers The graphic organisers for this chapter provide independent and group support for integrating formative assessment procedures in a writing program. Additional examples of formative assessment formats, related to specific aspects of writing instruction, are included in each subsequent chapter of this text.

Effective writing instruction

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 1 Name(s):

Graphic organiser 1

Date:

This graphic organiser enables teachers to compile a summary of group learning needs. Teachers use one or more assessment procedures to gather information on the students’ strengths and needs. They record their findings on this sheet, along with specific instruction required to meet these needs and an instructional plan of action.

Assessment method(s):

Summary of group learning needs What are my students’ writing strengths?

What are my students’ writing needs?

Specific instruction required to meet these needs

Instruction plan of action

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 2

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 2 Name(s):

Date:

This graphic organiser runs to three pages and provides a summary of the important criteria and questions often used to assess student writing, as shown on page 20. Teachers use this graphic organiser for individual students and/or small groups of students. These may be students who require additional support to make progress, or a group requiring extension support. Teachers observe student writing and record their comments alongside each category.

Criteria for assessing writing (individual or group) Observed writing traits

Comments

Content and ideas • Is there detail?

• Are the main ideas supported with comment, evaluation, illustration, evidence?

• Are ideas clearly stated?

Structure • Is the structure appropriate to the purpose?

• Are ideas organised and linked logically?

• Are ideas shaped for effect?

• Are there paragraphs? How have they been organised, e.g. topic sentences, supporting sentences, concluding sentences?

• Is there appropriate use of conjunctions, link words, sequence words?

Sentence development • Is there a variety of sentences, i.e. simple, compound, complex?

• What use has been made of statements, exclamations, commands, questions?

• Are sentences written in active or passive voice?

• Have attempts been made to manipulate sentences according to task and purpose, e.g. combining, expanding, reducing, transforming?

Continued Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 3

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 3 Name(s):

Start date:

End date:

Anecdotal observation sheet for individuals Date

Observation/anecdotal notes

Next steps

Achieved

This graphic organiser is for recording anecdotal observations on individual students. Teachers enter date, observation notes, next steps and record when these have been achieved. This record serves as an individual record of achievement, and a reference for student conversations and conferences, for discussing progress and achievement of individual students with other teachers and as a basis for parent– teacher discussions.

Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 4

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 4 Students’ names:

Anecdotal observation sheet for writing group Date

Observation/anecdotal notes

Next steps

Achieved

This graphic organiser is for recording anecdotal observations on group writing.

Teachers complete this for each group of students and use it to make decisions about appropriate grouping, teaching approaches and methods to monitor progress and achievement.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

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Effective writing instruction

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 5

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 5

Class chart for peer assessment

Peer assessment is talking, questioning and thinking critically about the writing produced by someone else—a friend, a partner, a group member, another writer.

When we peer assess, we: 1. Read the learning goal and success criteria.

2. Check that we both understand what these mean, and what is required of us in our writing.

3. Take turns to read our writing out loud to each other.

4. Read each other’s writing again to ourselves.

5. Ask each other questions about our writing.

• Why did you…?

• Tell me more about …

• Have you thought about …?

6. Re-visit the success criteria to:

This graphic organiser is a chart used to support peer assessent of writing. It can be used by the whole class, a group or individual students. It explains what peer assessment is and the steps students take as they engage in peer assessment.

• agree what has been achieved • identify what needs to be done next.

7. Revise our work in response to peer assessment.

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 6

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 6

Learning goal: Through our writing, we are learning to:

Tick and date each time achieved

✔

Success criteria

• • •

This graphic organiser is a template for recording learning goals and success criteria in relation to a specific writing task. There is also space for students to record each time they have achieved the success criteria. Teachers and/or students record the learning goal and success criteria. This format also allows for differentiated success criteria for groups of students and for individual students.

• •

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 7

Assessment information to inform teaching: Graphic organiser 7 Name: Class:

Date:

Student writing questionnaire Yes, always

Most of the time

I like writing at school.

Engagement

I am good at writing.

During writing, I learn about things that help me to improve my writing.

During writing, I write about things that are important and interesting to me.

I know what I do well in my writing.

I know what to do to make my writing even better.

I know how to do this.

Understanding

I know how to plan to get ready for writing.

I know how to write so that someone else can read and enjoy my writing.

Some of the time

No, this is not me

This graphic organiser is a student questionnaire designed to provide teachers with information on student engagement in and understanding about writing.

Ten statements are given for students to consider. For each statement, students tick ‘Yes, always’, ‘Most of the time’, ‘Some of the time’ or ‘No, this is not me’. The questionnaire can be administered several times through the year and analysed to determine changing attitudes and understandings towards writing.

I am confident to seek help if I get stuck when I write.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Chapter summary This chapter has discussed and described a range of approaches for informing writing instruction. It has exemplified how formative assessment is an integral component of teaching writing and enabling students to participate actively in learning to how to write. Examples of formative assessment at various stages of the writing process have been explained and illustrated to show how effective instruction is informed by ongoing monitoring and reflection by both teachers and students. The next chapter describes teaching approaches to prepare students for writing. This includes linking to student prior knowledge before writing, developing knowledge of text structure and providing a range of opportunities for students to learn how to plan to write.

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Chapter 3 Preparing for writing

Key ideas °

° °

° °

Writers write best when they have knowledge of the content they will be writing about, the structural features and text types they are required to use and the language related to the task.

Deliberately planned opportunities to link to prior knowledge are a critical component of all writing programs.

A critical component of preparing to write is student knowledge of the purpose for writing—and as a consequence, the various language and structural features they will be required to use.

Students benefit from multiple and varied opportunities to engage in learning about and through the process of planning for writing.

There are many different ways a writer can plan, drawing on oral, written and visual language.

The following sections in this chapter examine three key components of preparing to write: · · ·

linking to prior knowledge knowledge and understanding of the purpose for writing planning for writing.

Linking to prior knowledge Prior knowledge is informed by the range of personal experiences students have.

These include: ·

Cultural experiences relevant to their own and others’ cultural backgrounds, including experiences with their own and others’ languages. All students bring a wide range of cultural experiences to their classroom learning. This may include knowledge gained from time spent living in a different country, from holidaying overseas, from experiences shared with other family members and from participating in specific cultural celebrations and customs related to their family background. Additionally, many students will be fluent in more than one language.

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Effective writing instruction · ·

·

Social experiences informed by people they have met, places they have visited and things they have seen or heard.

Academic experiences, including their knowledge of the various structural features of text, vocabulary knowledge, grammatical knowledge and knowledge and understanding of the task they are engaged in—the learning goals, task requirements and expected outcomes.

Personal self-efficacy, including their understanding and expectations of themselves as successful writers who enjoy and are motivated by the challenges of writing.

Our students have extremely diverse backgrounds. Their wide and varied experiences provide a rich tapestry from which writing instruction can be drawn.

However, diverse experiences can also mean that some students may be better prepared for writing tasks than others. Students who have greater background knowledge of a topic, context, text type or task will be better prepared for writing than those who do not. Similarly, when students have incorrect prior knowledge this will also cause problems in achieving the outcomes of a task.

It is therefore important that teachers do not presume that students have the depth of knowledge and understanding to complete all written language tasks.

Rather, it is of critical importance that instructional opportunities include deliberately planned activities for students to link to and share their prior knowledge before writing. This enables the teacher to: · · · ·

·

identify what students know before they begin writing determine the degree of scaffolding or support needed to best prepare them for success identify aspects of instruction required, e.g. pre-teaching of content or vocabulary identify the best mix of teaching approaches and opportunities for learning along with the pace of instruction—the ‘how much’ and ‘how often’ of writing instruction inform learning goals and success criteria.

In linking to the prior knowledge of students as they prepare for writing instruction, teachers ask: · · ·

What prior knowledge do my students need to be able to successfully complete the writing task(s)?

Do my students know enough about the topic/content for writing to be able to write proficiently?

How do I know?

In other words: What do my students need to understand, know and draw on to be able to successfully meet the outcomes of this writing task?

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Preparing for writing Linking to prior knowledge helps teachers and students to identify the strengths and needs a student brings to a particular writing task.

Content prior knowledge Text types

Strategy prior knowledge

Text-to-text: other texts students have read, written or seen

Process prior knowledge

Language features

Vocabulary prior knowledge

Grammatical prior knowledge

Writing conventions

Spelling: encoding prior knowledge

Planned and deliberate opportunities to link to prior knowledge in preparation for writing Group discussion There are a variety of ways to initiate group discussion to establish the prior knowledge of students. Discussion enables students to share and question their ideas and those of their peers. It serves to identify depth of understanding, knowledge gaps and content for writing. Before discussion, the teacher introduces students to the writing task and the context for writing.

Example 1: In preparation for writing a narrative, the teacher introduces the problem that characters will be dealing with. This may be through storytelling, through sharing a picture or drawing a sketch or through teacher explanation of the problem.

Example 2: In preparation for writing a persuasive piece to convince others to a point of view, the teacher introduces the issue that students will be writing about.

This may be through the reading of an article or a headline, through role-play of a commentary or discussion (as seen on television or heard on the radio) or through sharing a related object.

35

Effective writing instruction Example 3: In preparation for writing a personal recount, the teacher shows the students a series of digital photographs that were taken at an event the class recently attended.

Question prompts Questioning students and enabling them to talk about experiences they have had is an ideal way to initiate a discussion that will identify the knowledge students bring to the writing task and the amount of pre-writing scaffolding and instruction they may require to develop adequate content knowledge. In pairs or small groups, students can record the ideas shared by each other and then present these ideas back to the larger group, analysing and identifying the key ideas and understandings they already have and providing a forum for further inquiry into aspects of the topic that students are not clear about.

In addition to linking to prior knowledge before writing, the following examples of question prompts also serve as effective planning models, providing students have adequate prior knowledge to begin to plan. These prompts are also provided on graphic organisers. · Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 1

Prompts to prepare for narrative writing (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 1):

Narrative writing A narrative is a text that tells a sequence of events. It can be true or imaginative and it is often called a story.

– – – – – – – – –

Prompts to prepare for narrative writing • What do you already know about this event or other similar events?

• What problem will you write about?

• What do you already know about solving this type of problem?

• What did you do/would you do in a similar situation?

• What events will you write about to solve the problem?

• Who will be your main character?

• Where will the setting be?

• What vocabulary do you know or associate with this type of problem?

• Will you use dialogue? If so, how will you use it and why?

Other questions you have

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· Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 2

What do you already know about this event or other similar events?

What problem will you write about?

What do you already know about solving this type of problem?

What did you do/would you do in a similar situation?

What events will you write about to solve the problem?

Who will be your main character?

Where will the setting be?

What vocabulary do you know or associate with this type of problem?

Will you use dialogue? If so, how will you use it and why?

Prompts to prepare for persuasive writing (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 2):

Persuasive writing Persuasive writing is text that is written to express an opinion, an argument or a position held by someone.

Prompts to prepare for persuasive writing • What do you know about this topic?

• Do you have any personal experiences with this topic?

• How do you feel about this topic?

• Have you ever read or heard about this topic? If so, what information did you learn?

• What are the ‘good’ aspects to this topic?

• What are the ‘bad’ aspects to this topic?

• What information or ideas would you like to know more about?

• What information or ideas would you like clarified?

Other questions you have

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– – – – – – – –

What do you know about this topic?

Do you have any personal experiences with this topic?

How do you feel about this topic?

Have you ever read or heard about this topic? If so, what information did you learn?

What are the ‘good’ aspects to this topic?

What are the ‘bad’ aspects to this topic?

What information or ideas would you like to know more about?

What information or ideas would you like clarified?

Preparing for writing

Effective writing instruction

·

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 3

Recount writing

Prompts to prepare for recount writing (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 3):

A recount is a text that is written about past experiences or events that the writer was involved in or has researched.

– –

Prompts to prepare for recount writing • Start by briefly telling each other what happened.

• Explain in more detail what happened first. What did you see? What did you do? What did you feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

• Explain in more detail what happened next. What did you see? What did you do? What did you feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

• Explain in more detail what happened after that. What did you see? What did you do? What did you feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

• Explain what happened at the end.

Other questions you have

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– – · Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 4

Start by briefly telling each other what happened.

Explain in more detail what happened first. What did you see/do/feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

Explain in more detail what happened next. What did you see/do/feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

Explain in more detail what happened after that. What did you see/do/ feel? What are some words you could use to describe what happened?

Explain what happened at the end.

Prompts to prepare for report writing (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 4):

Report writing A report is a text that is written to provide information.

– – – – – –

Prompts to prepare for report writing • What is the purpose of this report?

• What title will you give your report?

• What are the main ideas you want to include?

• What are the supporting facts for each idea?

• Will you include headings and subheadings? If so, what will they be?

• How might you use graphics to provide: — supporting information — additional information?

• How will you organise your report?

— the beginning/introduction — the body of ideas — the conclusion/summary.

Other questions you have

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–

Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 5

Instruction writing

·

What is the purpose of this report?

What title will you give your report?

What are the main ideas you want to include?

What are the supporting facts for each idea?

Will you include headings and subheadings? If so, what will they be?

How might you use graphics to provide supporting and additional information?

How will you organise your report: the beginning/introduction; the body of ideas; the conclusion/summary?

Prompts to prepare for instruction writing (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 5):

Written instructions provide the reader with information on how something can be done, made or organised.

Prompts to prepare for instruction writing • What is the goal for your writing?

• What materials will be needed?

• In what order will actions need to be done?

• How will you sequence them?

• What signal words will you use when you write?

• What verbs will you use when you write?

• What adverbs will give more detailed information?

• Will you use illustrations, pictures, diagrams or other visuals to help your reader follow your instructions?

Other questions you have

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Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 6

– – – – – – – –

What is the goal for your writing?

What materials will be needed?

In what order will actions need to be done?

How will you sequence them?

What signal words will you use when you write?

What verbs will you use when you write?

What adverbs will give more detailed information?

Will you use illustrations, pictures, diagrams or other visuals to help your reader follow your instructions?

Question board 1 1

2

What

Where

Effective writing instruction

Student-led questioning

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 7

3

Question board 2

4

1

2

How

5

When did

When

What if

6 3

4

Who Who might Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

5

Why would

Why How could

6

Where will

Working in pairs or small groups, students have a question board (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organisers 6 and 7 for examples of these) and a die. They are given the topic for writing. They take turns to roll the die and use the number rolled to select the question starter on the question board as a basis for discussion on the topic. One student records any ideas the students would like clarified in preparation for sharing these with the teacher and/or a larger group of students.

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Effective writing instruction Picture prompts Teachers and/or students provide pictures or artefacts related to the topic for writing. Students use the question boards (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organisers 6 and 7) to guide them in discussing key ideas they know already and those they would like to know more about.

Effective writing instruction

KV charts (What I already know; Vocabulary I know)

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

KV chart Topic/content for writing:

K

What I already know about this topic

V

Vocabulary I know in relation to this topic

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These charts (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 8) are an adaption of the KVWL charts described by Davis (2007, 2011). Students work in pairs, small groups or with the teacher, listing what they know about a topic/idea/context/ phenomena for writing. They record what they know under the heading ‘K’. Next, they discuss and list under the heading ‘V’ key vocabulary they know that is associated with this topic. An activity such as this enables the teacher to quickly identify what students know about the topic for writing and the degree of associated vocabulary they know and control. It also allows students to share what they know with others, thus drawing on the concept of peer teaching in preparation for writing. Teachers are able to draw on the information recorded to determine the degree of pre-teaching and scaffolding required in preparation for the writing task.

Example: Students were preparing to write instructions on how to keep safe when visiting and using the public swimming pool. To find out what her students already knew about swimming pool safety, the teacher prepared a prior knowledge chart for each of her students to complete. She then collected and analysed their responses in order to plan how to develop sufficient and strong content knowledge for students to complete this task successfully.

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

KV chart Topic/content for writing:

K

What I already know about this topic

- Don’t run around pools you could slip - Read signs - Don’t push

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V

Vocabulary I know in relation to this topic

depth deep life buoy life guard safe, safety, unsafe pool, lanes, diving board, dive, swim

Preparing for writing

Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 9 Name:

KVW chart Topic/content for writing: Text type or format:

K

What I already know about this topic

W

What I know about writing this text type or format

V

Vocabulary I know in relation to this topic

V

Vocabulary I know related to this text type or format

A similar chart (see Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 9) can be used to determine not just what students know about the topic, but also about the text type or format they will be writing. Using this model, students record what they already know about the topic in the first section, and what they know about the text type or format in the second section. They also record vocabulary they know in relation to the topic, and then vocabulary they know in relation to the text type or format (e.g. sequence words, emotive language, linking words).

Student as experts

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Ask students who have particular knowledge of a topic to share what they know in preparation for a writing task. Discuss what they know with them and allow them to peer teach a group, drawing on their prior knowledge in preparing others to write. Students may wish to bring in artefacts to support their ‘teaching’, including objects, photographs, books and magazines.

Example 1: A student who is a very good soccer player brings in a rule book to share important rules for playing soccer. This prepares students for a writing task in which the importance of team work in competitive sport is explained.

Example 2: A student from the Cook Islands shares information about special customs and celebrations in his culture. To do this, he shares his own experiences and shows photographs. This prepares students to write a third-person description of an important Cook Islands celebration.

Effective writing instruction

Student questionnaires and ratings

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 10 Name:

Date:

Student questionnaire: Types of writing What types of writing do you enjoy most?

Why?

What types of writing do you think you are best at?

What types of writing do you think you are okay with, but would like some more help with?

If you could choose to write three different kinds of texts this term, what would they be?

Why?

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Develop questionnaires for your students to complete that will let you know about their prior knowledge and experiences with writing using particular types of texts. See Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 10 for an example. Used alongside actual student examples of these texts, the questionnaires provide a comprehensive picture of which texts students are most familiar with and which you need to provide more support for in writing. A bonus is that students’ feedback and suggestions can be incorporated into the writing program.

Possible questions for questionnaires include: · · · ·

What types of texts do you most enjoy writing? Why? What types of texts do you think you are best at writing?

What types of texts do you think you are okay with, but would like some more help with?

If you could choose to write three different types of texts this term, what would they be? Why?

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Effective writing instruction

Effective writing instruction

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 11 Name:

How good am I at writing?

Instructions

Poems

Plays

Descriptive paragraphs

Arguments

1

2

3

4

I’m not good at this yet

I’m getting better but still need help

I can do this quite well

I’m really good at this

1

2

3

4

I’m not good at this yet

I’m getting better but still need help

I can do this quite well

I’m really good at this

1

2

3

4

I’m not good at this yet

I’m getting better but still need help

I can do this quite well

I’m really good at this

1

2

3

4

I’m not good at this yet

I’m getting better but still need help

I can do this quite well

I’m really good at this

1

2

3

4

I’m not good at this yet

I’m getting better but still need help

I can do this quite well

I’m really good at this

·

Alternatively, students could place ticks along a continuum (see below and Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 11) to rate their knowledge and expertise with particular kinds of text.

1 2

3

I’m not good at this yet

I can do this quite well

I’m getting better but still need help

4

I’m really good at this

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Another example is a task where students are asked to describe what they know about the features of particular text types, and where they would expect to see these text types being used. For example: Describe the features of:

These are often found …

Instructions: Recounts:

Knowledge and understanding of the purpose for writing Students learn to write for a range of different purposes. This often occurs during writing instructional time and in the course of cross-curricula writing.

Many teachers also provide ‘maintenance’ opportunities and self-selected opportunities for students to continue to practise their skill at writing for different purposes throughout the year (see also Chapter 8: Celebrating and responding to writing).

For students to develop skill and proficiency in writing, they need to understand the characteristics of common writing purposes, how to write to meet each purpose and when each purpose is most appropriate. They learn to make choices about the language and structures they select depending on purpose and audience. They also learn to think about their writing from their reader’s point of view, asking themselves, ‘What will my reader gain from reading my writing?’

The table on page 41 shows some common purposes for writing and decisions to be made when writing for these purposes.

Writers also make decisions about how to use punctuation effectively for accuracy, readability and effect, how to compose grammatically correct structures and how to encode words correctly. They consider the topic they are writing about and the audience they are writing for, and plan and compose their text accordingly.

Other purposes for writing include to question, remind, invite, thank, review, commiserate, retell, analyse and clarify.

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Preparing for writing For each purpose, students learn to write a range of different kinds of texts. These can include (but are not limited to) imaginative writing, poetry, plays, short stories, narratives, arguments, debates, speeches, reviews and retells. Text types can relate to more than one purpose. For example, students can: · · · · · ·

describe through imaginative writing entertain through imaginative writing inform through a speech persuade through a speech persuade through a report inform through an article.

Teachers consider the demands of each purpose as they plan for and make decisions on instructional approaches and key teaching points.

For more information on purposes and text types, see Chapter 5: Purposes for writing.

Common purposes for writing Purposes for writing

Decisions writers make

Writing to entertain

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that will amuse, humour and interest the reader

Writing to persuade

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas and combining these to ensure the reader agrees with their point of view or stance

Writing to inform

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that advise and tell of specific information

Writing to report

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that describe, inform and relate ideas and information

Writing to respond to literature

thinking about the ideas that have been read and selecting language to express their responses, thoughts and understandings

Writing to recount

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that provide an account of events

Writing to instruct

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that direct or teach

Writing to describe

selecting language, text and sentence structures, content and ideas that explain and illustrate an idea, event, time, person or place

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Effective writing instruction

Planning for writing Effective writing instruction provides a positive and motivating atmosphere for teaching students the skills and strategies of planning to write. Instruction demonstrates to students why planning to write is important and how and when to use planning in the process of composing text.

When teaching about the writing process, teachers make clear exactly what planning is and why it is important. They may develop learning goals and success criteria for planning with their students and demonstrate and discuss the benefits of learning to plan. The following sections provide examples that will help students to understand more about planning.

What is planning?

Planning is a writing process in which writers organise the ideas for their writing. They record their initial thoughts and ideas in order to refine them and make decisions about what they will write about, the sequence they will write in and prepare to complete a writing task. Planning provides a way to visually organise our ideas for writing. As we plan, we think about the purpose and audience for our writing.

When students plan, they make a lot of important decisions! As students plan, they think about their reader. They ask: Who will read my writing? What will I write? What reading strategies will my audience use to make sense of my work?

What structure and language choices will I use to create interest and personal voice through my writing? How will I sequence and organise my ideas? How will my text start? How will my text end? Why? Depending on the purpose of the writing, students may also use strategies to plan for writing that:

42

•

creates a visual image for their reader

•

causes the reader to infer

•

evokes emotions, e.g. developing suspense and intrigue

•

generates questions from the reader

•

provides main ideas and supporting facts

•

deliberately links to their reader’s prior knowledge

•

helps their reader to predict as they read

•

provides a series of clear and concise ideas

•

helps their reader to evaluate ideas

•

helps their reader to analyse ideas

•

encourages their reader to seek further information.

Preparing for writing

Learning goals and success criteria for planning to write By sharing learning goals and success criteria with their students, teachers provide explicit instruction on how to plan and the skills and strategies involved in the process of planning. Teachers provide multiple opportunities for students to develop skill, competence and confidence in the planning process. Teachers choose success criteria most appropriate to students’ learning needs, writing proficiency and skill. Learning goals and success criteria should always be: · · · ·

based on the knowledge of the students explicit and made clear so that all students understand them relevant, challenging and meaningful to students planned to provide a focus for the teacher and students to refer to before, during and after lessons.

To make success criteria manageable for students, teachers may introduce criteria gradually, rather than all at the same time. This allows students success with some criteria as they develop, and provides a clear picture of success over several lessons.

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Effective writing instruction Example 1: In this example, students are learning about the process of planning and the benefits of planning in preparation for writing.

Planning for writing We are learning to: •

think about and brainstorm ideas to be used in our writing

•

think about, brainstorm, discuss and order ideas in preparation for writing

•

think about, brainstorm, discuss, order and add detail (e.g. adjectives, phrases) to ideas we will use in our writing

•

think about vocabulary we could use to develop a specific idea or description

•

use a range of planning formats to decide what we will write about—use pictures and key words to plan, use diagrams to plan, use our knowledge of structural features to plan (e.g. beginning, middle, end; opening sentence and developing ideas), use main ideas and supporting ideas to plan

•

orally explain our ideas to others before we write

•

ask and answer questions about the ideas in our plan (what, why, when, and also ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘after that’ prompts).

Planning for writing will help us to: •

be clear about the key ideas we will write about before we start to write

•

think about the order in which these ideas will be developed

•

think about what we know about the topic and how we can write this in a clear way

•

think about what we are not sure about and what we will need to find out.

Example 2: A group of early writers are learning to plan the ideas they will write about before they start writing. Their teacher is encouraging them to use at least two different strategies for planning, practising and selecting from oral, written and visual strategies.

Learning goal: We are learning to plan. We will be successful when we can:

44

•

talk about our ideas for writing

•

write our ideas as a list or a brainstorm

•

show our ideas using pictures

•

sequence our ideas in the order we will write them

•

answer questions about our ideas before we write.

Preparing for writing Example 3: Students are preparing to write to persuade their reader to a point of view. Their audience does not initially agree with their perspective and they are writing to convince them that they are correct.

Learning goal: We are learning to plan. We will be successful when we can: •

record the point of view we want our reader to have

•

list key ideas we will write about to convince them to this viewpoint

•

explore a range of different vocabulary options to develop an idea

•

explore a range of sentence structures

•

plan to use a particular structure.

Example 4: Students are recounting an exciting running race at athletics day. The goal for writing is to create an exciting recount of events that paints a clear picture for the reader and strengthens the reader’s understanding of the events in the order that they occurred.

Learning goal: We are learning to plan. We will be successful when we can: •

make notes of what happened

•

sequence these events in the order they occurred

•

add descriptive language (e.g adverbs, adjectives, phrases) to paint a clear picture

•

make decisions about including language features for effect, e.g. direct speech, alliteration, repetition.

Example 5: Students are learning to self-regulate their selection and use of planning formats. They are learning to share their plans, ask for feedback on the content of their individual plan from peers and the teacher, and respond to this feedback.

Learning goal: We are learning to think critically about what we include in our writing plans. We will be successful when we can: •

share and talk about our plan with others

•

ask for feedback on our plan

•

respond to feedback on our plan

•

think critically about the decisions we have made in our planning

•

revisit our plan and add to it as needed.

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Effective writing instruction Regular opportunities to teach students how to plan can be incorporated in the cycle of planning, composing, revising and publishing writing.

Plan • check prior knowledge • understand purpose

Publish

Compose

• present • celebrate • enjoy!

• craft • re-craft

Revise • edit • proofread Planning can also be incorporated into self and peer assessment activities, conversations and conferences with teachers and peers and as part of modelled, shared and guided writing instruction (see also Chapter 4: Teaching approaches).

Where additional support for planning is required, teachers can provide specifically focused mini-lessons (see page 77) relevant to the needs of their students.

There are a range of different planning opportunities that depend largely on the purpose of the writing task. In deciding which approaches to take, teachers think about the purpose of the writing, the writing needs of their students, the demands of the writing task and the type of text students will create.

Making decisions about the planning opportunities my students require: • What is the purpose of the writing?

• What are the needs of my students—language, structure, vocabulary?

• What are the demands of the writing task— how can planning scaffold their success?

• What type of text will they be creating?

What structural and organisation considerations can planning support?

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Preparing for writing

Providing explicit instruction on the process of planning This section gives examples, supported by think-alouds and graphic organisers, of different approaches to teaching the skills, strategies and learning benefits of effective planning. These activities are specifically designed to support students in learning how to plan as well as what to plan.

Students may initially be encouraged to use a planning format provided by the teacher. As they learn more about the process of planning and gain confidence, they will be encouraged to select an appropriate plan from a range of class planning resources. They can also be encouraged to think about the demands of their writing task and develop their own planning format. Similarly, teachers and students can co-construct plans—building on the demands of the writing task, the structure(s) of writing and the purpose for writing.

Example 1: Introducing a new purpose for writing Students are being introduced to a new purpose for writing. The teacher provides a planner he has prepared to help students to understand both the purpose and the content they will be writing about. Through teacher modelling and partner activities, he supports students to use the planner in preparation for writing. He provides three different instructional opportunities for his students to develop confidence in their ability to understand and plan for this purpose. This prepares students for a subsequent independent writing task.

When I am preparing to write, I think about the purpose I am writing for. Sometimes I jot this down to remind me.

I list the main ideas I want to tell my reader.

Then I think about the information my reader will need to know about each of these ideas in order for them to understand my message.

I make notes for each idea so that I am ready to write.

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Effective writing instruction Example 2: Writing to entertain Students are learning to write to entertain. They are learning about the use of vocabulary in creating descriptions that entertain their readers. The teacher provides three different planning formats for students to select from in preparation for writing. Students think about what they would like to write and their own learning goals and select a planning format that will best support them to prepare for writing.

I think about what I want to say to my reader. I look at each of the planners and ask myself which planner will best help me to tell my readers about this event.

As I do this, I think about how I will gain my readers’ interest as they start to read and how I will sequence and organise my ideas to keep their interest.

Example 3: Writing to persuade The students in this class are learning to write to persuade others to take action on an environmental issue as part of their social studies program. The teacher and students discuss and list the features of persuasive writing. They think about the demands of this writing task and co-construct a planning format to prepare and organise content, ideas and language features that they will use as they write.

When I think about the best way to plan, I try to get a visual image in my mind of what I want the reader to see as they read my writing. This helps me to brainstorm and organise the ideas I want to tell about and the vocabulary I will use to ‘paint’ my picture.

I think critically about whether the words will actually give the image I want or if I need to use stronger verbs or adverbial phrases to add more detail.

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Preparing for writing

Celebrating and discussing the learning that occurs through explicit instruction on how to plan As students learn more about the process of planning, they can record the various ways that planning helps them to write. Records of this type reinforce the importance of planning, provide a visual record of learning, provide a record for future class or group discussion and learning, and review the effectiveness of planning instruction to date.

How does planning help us?

It helps me know where my writing is going – how it will start, what will happen, how it ends a bit like a road map

a path we can follow

Planning helps me THINK about ideas l want to explain to my reader so they will GET IT!

Makes my ideas clearer – as if l were there I enjoy writing more because now l know what l’’m going to write about and l don’t get stuck.

I am learning to be more precise so my reader will be able to understand me.

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organisers This section describes seven graphic organisers for planning to write. These can be used as prepared or in combination with several different forms. They can be used for both fiction and informational writing. They can also be used as models for teachers and students to develop their own planning organisers.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 12

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 12 Name:

This graphic organiser is used to record notes students make as they gather information in preparation for writing. Notes may come from a variety of purposes, e.g. texts, television, film, internet and interviews with others. The graphic organiser allows notes to be recorded and sequenced in preparation for writing.

Planning: Making notes Topic: Notes to support my writing

Task: Source

Key idea 1:

Key idea 2:

Key idea 3:

Key idea 4:

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 13

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 13 Name:

This graphic organiser prepares students to write their point of view on a particular topic/event/issue. It supports opinion and persuasive writing activities.

Students use this planner to clarify their point of view, identify three main reasons for this point of view and provide several supporting facts for each reason.

Planning: Persuasive writing Topic/event/issue: Author’s point of view or position

First reason Supporting facts • • •

Second reason Supporting facts • • •

Third reason Supporting facts • • • Concluding key ideas

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 14

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 14 Name:

Planning: Description Topic: Sketch of what I will write about

Vocabulary I will use

Possible opening sentences •

•

•

This graphic organiser is used to support students to plan and describe an event, object, character or idea. The students sketch what they plan to write about, identify key vocabulary in relation to their sketch and write a few possible opening sentences. This can be used for paragraph writing, for planning one main idea/event in a sequence of many (e.g. writing a narrative) and to develop descriptive writing.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 15

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 15 Name:

Planning: Main ideas Topic: Sketch of what I will write about

Vocabulary I will use

Main ideas I will include: •

•

•

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This graphic organiser enables students to sketch what they will write about and link it with main ideas and vocabulary for writing.

Preparing for writing

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 16

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 16 Name:

Planning: Brainstorming 1 Topic: What I know

Sequence of ideas 1.

Subject-specific vocabulary

2.

Vocabulary to start my sentences

3.

This graphic organiser has spaces for students to: record a brainstorm of ideas; select and sequence ideas in the order they will be written; list subject-specific vocabulary they will need to use; and list vocabulary they will select from to start their sentences.

4.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 17

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 17 Name:

Planning: Sequencing Topic: What will happen at the beginning

What will happen in the middle

What will happen at the end

This graphic organiser helps students to plan to sequence ideas. Using a combination of words, sketches and phrases, students record what they will write about at the beginning, middle and end of the text. Across the bottom they identify possible connectives to link one idea to the next.

Connectives

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 18

Preparing for writing: Graphic organiser 18 Name:

Planning: Brainstorming 2 Topic: Brainstorm of ideas I might include

Making up my mind Sequence

Words to connect ideas

• • • • •

Possible introductory sentences

Diagram to show

1.

This graphic organiser has spaces for students to: record a brainstorm of main ideas; select and sequence ideas; record possible connectives to link ideas; write two possible introductory sentences; and develop a diagram to support their writing.

2.

I have

Tick

• finished my plan • shared my plan with my partner • finalised my ideas to write Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Using prompts to support student planning Teachers and/or writing partners may use the following discussion prompts to guide and support students to: · · · ·

think about and make decisions about what to include in their plans clarify their ideas in preparation for writing seek and receive feedback in preparation for writing support peer writing and peer conferences.

Prompts · · · · ·

‘In this sentence I will tell you about …’

‘I will start with … because …’

‘My sentence will begin with … because …’

‘My next sentence/paragraph will tell you about … because …’

‘I have chosen to use this vocabulary because …’

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Effective writing instruction · · ·

‘As I write my next sentence/paragraph, I want you to “see” … I will do this by …’

‘As I write my next sentence/paragraph, I want you to “hear”… I will do this by …’

‘As I write my next sentence/paragraph, I want you to “feel” … I will do this by …’

For additional planning examples, see also Chapter 4: Teaching approaches, Chapter 5: Purposes for writing and Chapter 6: Composing text.

Chapter summary This chapter has provided a wide range of examples of how teachers help students to prepare for success in writing. These ideas have been developed from the belief that writers write best and are more likely to be successful and motivated when they have knowledge of the content they will be writing about, the structure(s) they are required to use and the language related to the task. Deliberately planned opportunities to link to prior knowledge are a critical component of studentfocused writing programs.

The following chapter examines the main teaching approaches for writing instruction.

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Chapter 4 Teaching approaches

Key ideas ° ° ° °

°

There is a range of different and significant approaches for teaching writing.

Each approach can be used flexibly to provide needs-based instruction that supports, motivates and scaffolds student progress in writing.

The range of instructional approaches can be used effectively for teaching all processes of writing.

Effective instruction draws on a combination of these approaches over time and in response to student needs, the demands of specific writing tasks and the internal organisation of the classroom.

One size does not fit all, so instruction should be varied in approach, intensity, duration and opportunity!

A range of approaches It is generally accepted that there is a range of different approaches for teaching writing across all year levels. Teachers, and sometimes students, select the approach that best matches the outcome required, the skill level of the student(s) and the degree of independence a student has in working on a particular writing task, skill and/or strategy.

The most significant approaches, which are described and exemplified in this text, are: · · · · · · ·

modelled writing (also known as demonstration writing) shared writing guided writing paired and peer writing collaborative writing independent writing skill-focused mini-lessons.

Some of these approaches are directed by the teacher, while others require students to take more control. Thus, the approaches with high teacher input are most frequently used to introduce a new task or aspect of writing and those with high student input allow for the shift of responsibility to move, gradually and with support, to the student. This is also known as the gradual release of responsibility.

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Effective writing instruction Where each teaching approach fits along the release of responsibility is illustrated in the diagram below.

High teacher input Modelled writing

Shared writing

Mini-lesson

High student input Guided writing

Paired writing

Independent writing

Collaborative writing Language experience Peer writing

The following sections describe and exemplify each of these critical significant approaches.

Modelled writing

In modelled writing—also known as demonstration writing—the teacher is in charge of composing the writing. Using large sheets of paper or scrapbooks, the teacher writes in front of the students so that the writing can be easily seen by all. The students observe what is being written, listening to what the teacher is explaining and the thought processes the teacher is sharing (thinking aloud) while making decisions about the writing.

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Teaching approaches Modelled writing can be used as a teaching approach for all writing purposes and text types. Each lesson has clearly explained learning goals so that all students in the group understand the purpose of the lesson. This enables each student to observe what the teacher is writing and the skills, strategies, procedures and understandings involved in composing the text. Modelled writing further supports students to attend to the thinking that the teacher undertakes in the process of writing and to the thinking specific to the focus of the demonstration.

As a result of the modelled lesson, students can be expected to attempt what the teacher has demonstrated. This may be as a group with the teacher, as a partner activity or as a short independent activity as exemplified in the case studies on pages 56 to 60.

Modelled writing is a demonstration by the teacher of specific writing skills, strategies, procedures and understandings.

The modelled writing approach is aligned to research suggesting that one of the ways students learn is through observation and imitation (e.g. Cambourne 1993, 2000, 2002). It is a highly scaffolded approach to teaching—students are involved in a more passive role than in other approaches—and as such, is useful for short lessons rather than longer ones.

Modelled writing involves specific steps before, during and after the demonstration takes place.

Steps in planning for a modelled writing lesson Preparing for the modelled writing lesson · · ·

Use student assessment information to determine the focus of the demonstration.

Plan the key teaching points you wish to demonstrate through writing for your students.

Prepare pens and paper and any other relevant materials.

Steps in conducting the modelled writing lesson · ·

·

Share the lesson learning goal and reason for the demonstration with your students.

Explicitly model the skill or strategy you are demonstrating, ensuring that students are actively listening to what you are doing and saying and observing the process of writing as it occurs.

Monitor students’ understanding through questioning and discussion.

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Effective writing instruction After the modelled writing lesson · ·

Revisit the goal of the lesson with students.

Check student understanding of what the goal was and how the goal was demonstrated in this lesson.

The following examples illustrate how two different teachers have used modelled writing to support their students to write.

Example 1: Modelled writing as the teacher prepares students to write for a new purpose The students are preparing to write an imaginative story to entertain their reader.

This is the first time they have written for this purpose this year. Their class teacher, Mrs Simons, models what she is thinking as she considers the purpose— to entertain. The transcript of what the teacher says during this modelled lesson is shown below in italics.

Today, I am preparing to write to entertain. I think about what I know about what it means to entertain someone and I record my ideas (teacher records on large paper as students observe). I think of enjoyment (teacher records ‘enjoyment’), I think of funny (teacher writes ‘funny’), I think of wanting to read more (teacher records this). I also think of smiling as I read (teacher records ‘smiling’).

We are learning to write an imaginative story to entertain our reader. enjoyment

funny

entertain wanting to read MORE

smiling

Now I think about my topic—A car ride to remember (teacher records this). I will add an exclamation mark to this title because I want to signal to my reader that this will be exciting and a bit of a surprise! (teacher adds exclamation mark)

A car ride to remember!

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Teaching approaches Now I am going back to my word list and I am going to add some vocabulary and ideas about the car ride that will help me write to entertain my reader (teacher points to record of words). ‘Enjoyment’—next to this I will write the words ‘funny’ and ‘lots of laughs’.

Actually, I’ll write a simile too—‘laugh as loud as a siren’—and I’ll put down ‘lots and lots of jokes’. I think the jokes will help make the car ride one to remember! (teacher is recording these as she models the process for her students)

We are learning to write an imaginative story to entertain our reader. funny lots and lots of jokes

funny

entertain wanting to read MORE

enjoyment... lots of laughs laugh as loud as a siren smiling

Now I’ll write my introductory sentence to tell my reader who is in the car and why they are there. I will write (teacher records as she speaks):

Here we are—Mum, Camila, Georgia and Olivia—all buckled into our seatbelts and ready to go on our long, long journey to visit Grandma.

They are going a long way—that’s why I have used repetition to help my reader to understand this—and of course, if they are going a long way it could get boring—but not this trip! I’m signalling that they don’t expect this to be fun, and that fits with my title and the exclamation mark I have used to show surprise (teacher points to title).

Now I’m going to develop my story further. I will introduce the idea of enjoyment (teacher points to the word ‘enjoyment’ on the paper).

We hadn’t gone long before I realised it wasn’t going to be boring at all. It started at the first corner. Olivia started to giggle, then she got louder and louder until what was a giggle turned out to be a laugh as loud as a siren!

Boy oh boy, was something funny—but I didn’t know what it was …

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Effective writing instruction I will finish this piece with the use of the ellipsis (teacher points to …), keeping the suspense going.

In this example, the teacher models for the students both her thinking as she prepares to write, and the sentences she writes. As she does this, she keeps in focus the main purpose of the writing—to entertain. The ideas and the way she structures her sentences, along with the vocabulary she uses, all serve to support this purpose. Students observe as Mrs Simons writes. The ideas for writing are the teacher’s ideas and she makes the decisions about what to write and how to write it.

In the following lesson, Mrs Simons uses this example of her modelled writing to begin discussing what a ‘successful’ piece of writing would contain if it was an imaginative story written to entertain. This is the beginning of what will be the success criteria for their own writing. Mrs Simons then models the writing of the next four sentences of this text, thinking aloud and linking back to the purpose of writing—to entertain—as she does this.

Next steps Mrs Simons may continue to model for several more sessions to support those students who are struggling with their writing. However, she may choose to have the students write their own text, using either the same title or a title of their own choice. As students begin to work on their independent writing, Mrs Simons will provide guided writing to one group of students at a time.

Example 2: Modelled writing to demonstrate strategies where students can ‘show’ the reader what is happening Mr Daly has analysed his class’s writing samples and is preparing to identify key teaching points for the next six weeks. He has noticed that many of the students state their ideas but do not elaborate on them. This prevents their writing from having ‘personal voice’.

The students are learning to write their opinions. This will lead to speech writing later in the term. Mr Daly has chosen to use modelled writing to introduce students to strategies to ‘show’ their opinion clearly to their reader, rather than simply stating facts. He starts by writing a simple sentence for his students to read. He asks his students to tell each other what they see as they read this sentence and records their ideas.

I hate cold vegetables.

I see cold vegetables someone who doesn’t like them

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Teaching approaches He shares the goal for teacher modelling.

Today I am going to demonstrate how I might write to ‘show’ my opinion—to make it come alive for the reader.

I start by thinking about cold vegetables—what they look like and how they taste. I am thinking that they look lifeless so that is how I will start my writing (teacher starts to scribe).

Lifeless on the plate, these vegetables don’t look good to me.

I am trying to write to show my opinion to my reader so I am now going to add a second sentence. I will add my opinion in this sentence.

Mr Daly continues to write while his students observe and listen to his discussion.

This sentence is going to have a strong opinion—I really want to paint a picture of dislike. I’m going to start with repetition. (teacher writes as he thinks out loud) I will repeat ‘really’ so that I show my reader what I think about this—‘I really, really, really cannot think’. I will use ‘cannot’ instead of ‘can’t’ because I think it sounds more serious—‘of anything worse’—I will write ‘worse’ in capitals—‘than having to eat these disgusting things’. I think ‘disgusting’ sums up how I feel about them, too!

Mr Daly has now scribed:

I hate cold vegetables.

I see cold vegetables someone who doesn’t like them

Lifeless on the plate, these vegetables don’t look good to me. I really, really, really cannot think of anything WORSE than having to eat these disgusting things.

In my next sentence, I am going to show my reader that cold vegetables are bad for you, too. I will start by thinking of a better word than ‘bad’—I think I will choose ‘harmful’ to try to show the reader that this could be really unhealthy.

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Effective writing instruction Mr Daly adds to his model of writing:

Cold vegetables are very harmful and I think really unhealthy …

I have added ‘very’ and ‘really’, to add more ‘voice’ to my opinion. Now I’ll finish this sentence.

but even crueller is the terrible taste—all slimy and sticky and hard to swallow.

‘Slimy’—I like that word!

Mr Daly now discusses his writing with the class. He points out the techniques he has used so far and explains to them how he has chosen particular vocabulary and sentence organisation to ‘show’ his opinion, rather than just telling the reader that he doesn’t like cold vegetables.

Next steps After this lesson, Mr Daly may show his students an example from a piece of text they have been reading and work with them to identify how this author has ‘shown’ rather than ‘told’ the message. He might also ask the students to work in pairs (using the paired writing approach, see page 67) to try to write in a way that ‘shows’ their own opinion. Alternatively, he may continue to model several other examples before assigning a similar task.

Shared writing As the name implies, this approach involves sharing the writing of text between teacher and student. The ideas are suggested by the students—through questioning, discussion and multiple opportunities to talk—and the teacher composes them as written text. The teacher writes in front of the students, using large sheets of paper or scrapbooks so that the writing can be easily seen by all students. Students watch and contribute to the recording of their ideas. While recording, the teacher provides instruction on specific skills, strategies, procedures and understandings related to the students’ needs. The teacher uses the ‘think aloud’ approach (see page 14) to explain the decisions they make as they write. This enables students a further opportunity to internalise the actions and thoughts of their teacher, so that at a later time they can ‘try for themselves’ what they have contributed to and jointly constructed through shared writing.

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Teaching approaches Shared writing may focus on planning, composing or revising writing. It may focus on the development of a specific type of paragraph, a writing purpose or a skill. Shared writing can be applied as a teaching approach for all writing purposes and text types.

Each shared writing lesson has clearly explained learning goals so that all students in the group understand the purpose of the lesson. This enables each student to contribute ideas appropriate to the purpose of the writing and the teaching focus of the lesson.

In shared writing, teacher and students share the task of writing.

The shared writing approach is aligned to research suggesting that one of the ways students learn is through co-construction and immersion (e.g. Cambourne 1993; 2000). Generally, shared writing can take place over extended periods of time. The teacher will make decisions on how long an individual session will last based on the degree of challenge in the task and the degree of sustained student participation and engagement.

Shared writing involves specific steps before, during and after the lesson takes place.

Steps in planning for a shared writing lesson Preparing for the shared writing lesson · ·

Use student assessment information to determine the focus of the lesson and which students you will be working with.

Plan the key teaching points to focus on through development of studentgenerated ideas.

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Effective writing instruction · ·

Identify some prompts and organisational considerations to allow all students to contribute freely.

Prepare pens and paper and any other relevant materials.

Steps in conducting the shared writing lesson · · ·

·

Share the lesson learning goal and the reason for the goal with your students.

Ask questions and generate discussion and problem-solving to enable students to contribute and develop ideas for you to compose as text.

Explicitly model the skill or strategy related to identified teaching points and the lesson learning goal, ensuring that students are actively listening to and contributing to what you are doing and saying as writing is composed.

Monitor student understanding through questioning and discussion.

After the shared writing lesson · · ·

Revisit the goal of the lesson with students.

Check student understanding of what the goal was and how the goal was demonstrated in this lesson.

Use formative assessment procedures to monitor and record progress for future lessons.

The following example illustrates how a group of students and their teacher have used shared writing.

Example: Shared writing to support students’ writing Miss Mill’s class is writing an invitation to inform of an upcoming event at school.

She starts by introducing the students to the task, then asks for ideas on how to start the invitation. Several students give suggestions and she talks about these and begins to write their ideas. The following transcript shows how the shared writing develops. The scribed text is on the right.

Miss Mill: How could we start this?

Brooke: Tell them they’ve got an invitation.

Timmy: Let them know it’s happening soon.

Miss Mill: How about this? (she scribes)

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Coming up soon—an event not to be missed!

Teaching approaches

Paul: Tell them it’s a great event.

Coming up soon—a great event not to be missed!

Miss Mill: Now, what should we write next?

Coming up soon—a great event not to be missed!

Tony: We need to put the name of the event.

Shani: Yes, we should put it in capitals so that it stands out.

SCHOOL SPEECH CONTEST

Timmy: Big letters—red pen!

Timmy: We need to put the date and time.

Miss Mill: Good idea—where shall we put it?

Coming up soon—a great event not to be missed!

(Timmy points to where this should go and Miss Mill records it.)

SCHOOL SPEECH CONTEST

Miss Mill asks the group to think about what important information they need to include so people will want to come. She records their ideas and the text develops.

Coming up soon—a great event not to be missed!

22 March at 2.00 pm

SCHOOL SPEECH CONTEST 22 March at 2.00 pm Come and find out about how good Room 2 is at presenting speeches.

You will hear all sorts of things, for example: a speech on famous pets, a speech on the world’s tallest person.

You will hear lots of things you don’t already know.

The group reads the invitation together, making final changes before agreeing that it is complete.

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Effective writing instruction Next steps After this lesson, Miss Mill may have the students write their own invitation and present it, ready to take home to their parents. She will likely have each student edit their own work and peer-check it for accuracy before final presentation. The authentic purpose for this writing task may be developed further, e.g. students may write and present a program for the speeches, write a review of a selected speech or write a report on the speech contest. The instructional approach for each of these activities will build on the shared writing approach while encouraging students to attempt their own independent writing.

Guided writing Guided writing is an instructional approach where teachers plan to guide their students as they write. Students are often organised in groups for writing and the guided support occurs as students write their individual texts. The teacher sits with a group of writers as each student is involved in the process of writing.

Guided writing can support students as they prepare to write, when composing text and when revising text. Guidance may focus on the development of a specific type of sentence, a paragraph or a skill. Guided writing can be applied as a teaching approach for all writing purposes and text types.

Effective writing instruction

Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 1

Prompts for guided writing discussions

• Tell me more about …

• Another way of writing this could be …

• This means …

• Is there anything else …

• Think about …

• Show me how …

Students will be writing to achieve a particular purpose through their writing and to achieve specified shared learning goals and success criteria. The guidance provided by the teacher will likely be related to either or both of these, or may be in relation to a student’s specific individual learning goal. A list of prompts for guided writing instruction is provided on Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 1.

• How else could you …

• Can you think of another word for …

• Can you think of a phrase that shows this idea …

• Did you think about …

Guided writing may involve:

• Tell me what the main idea is …

• What are your supporting facts?

• How can you explain this for your reader?

·

Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

·

· · · ·

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observing and recording observations of writing behaviours, problems or engagement in the task providing feedback to a student as they seek help or support with a particular aspect of their writing, including feedback on what has been achieved and on what to do next (sometimes also referred to as feed-forward) providing one-to-one support to apply a skill, strategy or procedure that was introduced through modelled and/or shared writing prompting students as they solve a problem with their writing providing an explicit example for the students, either through co-constructing a piece of writing or through the use of an exemplar showing and providing further examples in response to a task or in relation to achieving the lesson learning goal.

Teaching approaches Guided writing may also be used with students writing in pairs or in small groups. Organisation of groups may be flexible, depending on the demands of the writing task and the learning needs of the students. It often occurs after wholeclass teaching when groups and individuals are writing independently or as part of a writing group rotation. As an approach, guided writing provides expert advice based on the explicit needs of students. Students are able to ask questions of their teacher, encouraging rich individualised discussion on writing and providing an opportunity for student and teacher to monitor student progress together. The content of guided writing can be revisited over several days and can also be used as a basis for mini-lessons (see page 77) and larger group modelled or shared writing.

Guided writing involves the teacher directing and steering the writer in the right direction!

Steps in planning for a guided writing lesson Preparing for the guided writing lesson · · ·

Use student assessment information to determine what students most need guidance with as they write.

Plan the key teaching points you will focus on—it may be over one or a series of guided writing sessions.

Source any examples you plan to share with students to help them understand.

Steps in conducting the guided writing lesson · ·

· ·

Join with the group of students in the role of a ‘guide’ for writing.

Provide explicit support—through a combination of discussion, exemplification, co-construction and success criteria—as required or as previously identified.

Monitor and check student achievement towards independence in the skill, strategy, procedure or understanding you have been supporting.

If appropriate, engage in teacher and/or peer conferences between students.

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Effective writing instruction After the guided writing lesson · · ·

Revisit the goal of the lesson with students.

Check student understanding of what the goal was and how the goal was demonstrated in this lesson.

Make notes for future instruction as required.

The following example illustrates how guided writing has been used to support students to write.

Example: Guided writing to summarise information Students were writing to summarise important information about climate change. This was part of a cross-curricula study involving reading, writing and science. They had read several different texts and taken notes of the main ideas.

They had been involved in several shared and paired writing lessons and were preparing ideas for independent writing. Five students were sitting together at one group of tables. Their teacher, Ms Bishop, sat with them, guiding their preparation through conversation as follows.

Ms Bishop: Tell me what you have written in your notes.

Lucy: Climates are always changing. Scientists keep records of changing climates.

Ms Bishop: I am not quite clear what you mean by this second idea—can you explain it to me further?

Lucy: It’s the increase in the Earth’s temperature.

Ms Bishop: Let’s think of a way to write that so that it will be really clear to your reader.

Ms Bishop and Lucy work together to record Lucy’s idea in a more precise way.

Global warming is a term used to describe the increase in the Earth’s temperature.

Ms Bishop turns to Jackson and reads his introductory paragraph.

Do you know that climates change every year? Well, it’s true.

Scientists study the climate and record changes in climate.

They tell us that the climate is getting warmer.

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Teaching approaches Ms Bishop: That’s interesting—tell me what the main idea for the reader is in this paragraph.

Jackson: The Earth’s climate is changing.

Ms Bishop: Is there anything else your reader will need to know to be able to understand this idea?

Jackson pauses.

Ms Bishop: Let’s go back and have a look through your original notes and see if there is anything further to add to this paragraph.

Ms Bishop and Jackson use a highlighter pen to go back through his notes. In the course of this, they also discuss the main idea for the next paragraph, along with other important information that could be included.

Getting hotter Global warming Temperatures increasing, on land and ocean Effective writing instruction

Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 4 Group name(s):

Date:

Peer writing review sheet Task: Steps we will carry out to achieve this task

Ms Bishop continues to monitor the writing content of all members of the group and makes notes on their ability to use notes to write for informational purposes.

These observations will help her to plan subsequent shared and paired lessons.

See Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 4 for prompts for guided writing.

Resources

Presentation method

Paired writing Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

In paired writing, students work in pairs to complete a writing task. Paired writing takes away the pressure of each student having to compose a piece of writing of their own. However, it is a high-challenge activity when undertaken correctly. Students are required to work together to make decisions about the content and organisation of their writing, language choices and how they structure their ideas in sentences and paragraphs. As such, it is a highly metacognitive approach to writing.

The challenge of paired writing is also to engage students in active discussion and critique of their writing as they write. Paired writing starts with a clearly developed plan that both partners have contributed to and ‘own’. Students will usually compose the whole text together, taking turns with the recording but talking and thinking together as they write. They will stop periodically to revise their work and make changes as appropriate.

A paired writing lesson may include any aspect of the writing process and is applicable to any text type. It may be a paired discussion and planning session

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Effective writing instruction followed by paired construction of a paragraph or it may be paired writing of a complete text, e.g. poem, narrative, argument, report. Similarly, it may be a crosscurricula piece of writing where students have worked in pairs to identify important information, sequence the information by main ideas and supporting facts and co-construct the final text.

As with other approaches, organisation may be flexible but it is most common for students to be paired with a student of similar writing ability (see also peer writing, page 70). This enables both students to contribute equally and the teacher to provide needs-based guidance as required. Paired writing is often used within a group-based writing program in combination with modelled, shared and guided writing.

In paired writing, students of like ability work together to construct text.

Steps in planning for a paired writing lesson Preparing for the paired writing lesson · · ·

Use student assessment information to pair students of similar ability.

Plan the task and steps in achieving the learning task.

Plan the learning goal for the writing.

Steps in conducting the paired writing lesson · ·

Discuss the learning goal and writing task to make it explicit and check the understanding of pairs.

Monitor student understanding through questioning and discussion, by providing guided support to pairs as required and by stopping periodically to draw attention back to the task and the learning goals.

After the paired writing lesson · · ·

Revisit the goal of the lesson and the writing task with pairs.

Check students’ understanding of what the goal was and how the goal was demonstrated in their paired writing.

Involve pairs in formative assessment of their own progress and achievement in this lesson.

The following examples illustrate how two different teachers have used paired writing to support their students to write.

Example 1: Paired writing to organise ideas Two students, Olivia and Sophie, are engaged in paired planning to organise their ideas for writing instructions for keeping safe near water. This is part of a health 68

Teaching approaches and social studies unit the class is undertaking. Olivia and Sophie have chosen to write their instructions about river safety.

Effective writing instruction

Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Date:

Planning in pairs: Key ideas Topic: Key ideas

Sequence you will write them in

Possible diagrams to include

Information these diagrams show

Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

When their plan is complete, they will discuss it with two other pairs in their group to share their ideas and seek feedback in preparation for composing their text. Olivia and Sophie are using Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 2 to help with their planning. Together they discuss and list the key ideas they will include.

In doing this, they draw on information from previous health and social studies lessons. They decide the sequence they will write these ideas in and place a number from 1 to 5 next to each idea. Olivia sources an article they had read in class the previous week to check on one of the ideas. She draws while Sophie provides instructions on what to put in their diagram to ensure that the information in the diagram supports the information in their instructions.

Example 2: Paired writing to plan and write poetry Jeremy and Toni are working as a pair to plan and write an imaginative poem to describe a character in a novel the teacher has been reading to the class. They have decided on their character and are working together to plan for their poem. To do this, they are using Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 3. They are discussing what to put in the first section.

Effective writing instruction

Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 3 Name(s):

Date:

What I am going to describe What I want my reader to see as they read this

Words and language to use

What I want my reader to hear as they read this

Words and language to use

How I will start

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Toni: I want my reader to ‘see’ that he is actually a very kind man even though the other people in the text don’t think so.

Jeremy: I think they don’t like him because of how he looks.

Toni: Probably. What image can we give our readers?

Jeremy: I want them to see that he is really, really kind.

Toni: Kindness in his face.

Jeremy: Yes, but also in his actions.

Toni: Okay. Let’s write this down.

Together they record:

What I want my reader to see as they read this

Words and language to use

a really kind man

so very kind, kindly, kindness

a man people have judged wrongly

more thoughtful than the rest

Toni and Jeremy will add to this plan and refine it in preparation for writing a two-stanza poem for others in the group to read.

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Effective writing instruction

Peer writing Peer writing is an approach where students compose text with their peers. They work together in groups of two to four to plan, compose and revise their work in preparation for celebrating it with others. While steps in planning for peer writing are similar to paired writing, this approach differs in two main ways: · ·

students can be in mixed-ability groups grouping can be flexible—sometimes, students can select their own group and at other times, the teacher will select groups.

Peer writing can be highly motivational for students and offers variety and choice within the writing program. While peers will have the same learning goal and task requirements, individual students are also able to monitor independent learning goals within the session.

Peer writing involves students writing with two or three other students.

The following examples illustrate how two different teachers have used peer writing to support their students to write.

Example 1: Peer writing an email The writing goal for the peer writing task is to write an email to persuade someone to attend a fundraising event. The task, the learning goal and the success criteria are shared with the students as follows.

We are learning to write an email to persuade someone to attend a fundraising event. We will be successful when we have written an email that: •

makes explicit the purpose of the email to the reader on at least two occasions

•

includes persuasive language choices that specifically target the reader

•

includes one visual support.

In addition, each student has their own learning goal from a previous writing task that they need to report on to their teacher and to the other students in their group.

The lesson begins with a discussion of the success criteria. Students work together to identify examples of each of the three criteria.

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Teaching approaches

Making explicit this means making the purpose very clear to the reader so that we change their mind and convince them to attend.

Persuasive language choices examples—there is no doubt, everyone knows, of course you know that, experts all agree, you must believe me when I tell you, so exciting, extremely exciting, unquestionably exciting.

Visual supports use of fonts and headings, illustration, diagram, sign etc.

Once this has been completed, students work in mixed-ability groups with two or three peers to compose their email. Partway through the lesson, they take five minutes to peer-share their writing with another group. As they share what they have written, they refer back to the success criteria and explain to each other how they are reaching these goals by providing specific examples from their writing.

Their teacher provides guided support to those groups requiring it.

Example 2: Inquiry-based peer writing The class is engaged in an inquiry into competitive sports. This is an integrated reading, writing, social studies and physical education study. Peer writing groups have been formed based on interest in particular competitive sports. They have been assigned the task of composing two different texts on their chosen sport, selecting from the following list: · · · ·

a commentary on part of the sport in action a biography of one famous player a timeline outlining the most significant events in the history of the sport a list of the main rules, with a rationale as to why each rule is important.

Their task is to:

Effective writing instruction

· · ·

Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 4 Group name(s):

Date:

Peer writing review sheet Task: Steps we will carry out to achieve this task

Resources

· · ·

Presentation method

·

meet to review the information they have on their chosen sport agree on key tasks to be achieved meet with the teacher and/or another peer group to present, plan and seek feedback (see Teaching approaches: Graphic organiser 4) assign writing tasks complete writing tasks peer-assess and edit during and/or after writing (see also Chapter 1: Developing effective writing instruction and Chapter 7: Revising text) celebrate by presenting to the class (see also Chapter 8: Celebrating and responding to writing).

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Effective writing instruction

Collaborative writing Collaborative writing is a teaching approach through which students and teachers co-construct text. This approach is most commonly used for writing imaginative fiction.

Initially, the text is begun by the teacher—either through modelled or shared writing or through providing an exemplar. This sets the scene for the writing challenge. The teacher provides a beginning and an end point for student writing.

The challenge is for the student to add the missing pieces of the text. Each student can write something different, using their own imaginative skills to develop the text in a particular way. An analogy to this type of writing is the sandwich—the teacher provides the bread on the top and the bottom and the students add the filling!

In collaborative writing, students fill in the missing pieces of the text.

Collaborative writing scaffolds students to write imaginatively by taking away part of the challenge and enabling students to write sections at a time. The text may be developed in just one iteration of this or several iterations can be added together to form a narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end.

Variations to this approach include: · ·

as students learn to write using this approach, they may provide the beginning and end points to which others can add instead of providing the beginning and end points for writing, the teacher may provide the middle and have students compose the ‘missing’ beginning and end.

Steps in planning for a collaborative writing lesson Preparing for the collaborative writing lesson · ·

Use student assessment information to determine the writing focus and learning goals for writing.

Plan the key teaching points you wish to incorporate within this writing.

Steps in conducting the collaborative writing lesson · · · ·

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Share the lesson learning goal and writing purpose with your students.

Develop the introductory section of the text.

Assign the task/challenge for writing.

Students compose their own text.

Teaching approaches · ·

Monitor students’ understanding through questioning, discussion and feedback, providing individual support as necessary.

Add students’ written text to the introductory text.

After the collaborative writing lesson · ·

Revisit the goal of the lesson with students and involve them in formative assessment of their achievement.

Identify key learning goals for subsequent writing lessons.

The following example illustrates how collaborative writing has been used to support students to write.

Example: Writing an imaginative narrative text Mr Ware, a Year 4 teacher, has noted that his students struggle to write for extended periods of time. His recent assessments show that students need assistance in developing content and ideas, particularly when writing imaginative narrative texts. Mr Ware has chosen to use the collaborative approach to help his students and to build their motivation towards imaginative writing.

Mr Ware introduces the task and text by writing:

It was a cold wet day. The sky looked gloomy and dull as the two bike riders prepared to leave their hut for another day of cycling.

Through questioning and discussion, the students are led to talk about what they ‘saw’ as they read this text, answering such questions as: ‘Where are the bike riders? Who are they? What age are they? Where are they riding to?’ All responses are accepted as a way of allowing students to plan orally for the writing task ahead. After discussion, Mr Ware asks his students to sketch the riders preparing to leave. The purpose of this task is to enable each student to: · · ·

develop a sense of the characters—who they are and how many there are develop a sense of the scene—the hut and the countryside where the story is taking place develop a sense of the problem—what could go wrong or what will need to be solved.

When complete, the students share their sketch with others in the group, describing the characters, the setting and the problem that might occur.

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Effective writing instruction Leaving space under the first two sentences, Mr Ware writes a second section of text:

The bike slid out of control and, quick as a flash, the rider fell off.

He discusses the phrases ‘slid out of control’ and ‘quick as a flash’ before instructing his students to think about what might have happened and to write three or four sentences that link the beginning of the text to this point.

As each student works on this task, recording their sentences on pieces of paper, Mr Ware provides support and prompts writing as required, for example: · · ·

‘How did the bike slide out of control?’

‘What caused this to happen?’

‘Where were the riders when this happened?’

When complete, each student places their text between that written by the teacher and reads their composition to the group. Students enjoy the opportunity to share the way each of them had developed a different story, based on the collaborative scaffold provided by their teacher.

Mr Ware then adds a further section of text for his students to consider:

They were definitely in trouble now. And probably no one would believe what had really happened to them.

He discusses each sentence with his students, talking about why he has chosen to underline the word ‘really’. He gives each student two to three minutes to talk with a partner about what might have happened, before each student continues to develop their own text to this point. Students edit and proofread their writing in preparation for presenting it as a published group book.

As he observes his students at work, Mr Ware may extend this activity one step further in the following ways: ·

· ·

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adding another section of text, e.g. ‘Well, thank goodness that is over,’ she replied., to which students are challenged to continue to link the characters, setting and problem they are developing adding a different text structure, e.g. a sign saying DANGER! Turn back now! adding a map showing the route between the hut and home.

Teaching approaches

Independent writing This is an approach where students write on their own, i.e. independently. It occurs when the teacher and student are confident that the student is able to compose a particular piece of text independently. It also provides an opportunity for students to write on topics that interest them, rather than other teacherdirected writing tasks.

While students are active in composing their own text, teachers use independent writing as an opportunity to observe the student at work, determining the degree of independence and skill a student is developing and planning future support.

Additionally, independent writing provides follow-up opportunities for students to practise skills, strategies, procedures and/or understandings that may have been introduced through another instructional approach (e.g. modelled, shared or guided writing).

Independent writing is writing on your own.

Steps in planning for independent writing · ·

· · ·

Ensure students are clear about their task.

Revisit appropriate learning goal(s) and success criteria for the writing (these may be self-selected or teacher-selected depending on student need and writing purpose).

Provide support or guidance when necessary.

Observe students as they write, making appropriate notes for future support.

Provide opportunities for students to share their writing with others.

The following examples illustrate two different types of independent writing.

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Effective writing instruction

Example 1: Self-selected writing based on own experience Students have been learning to write descriptive paragraphs. They have read and discussed some exemplars of description collected from texts in their reading program. The teacher has provided instruction through shared and guided writing. They are now writing to compose two descriptive paragraphs to describe an experience they have had. In preparation for planning and monitoring their own writing, they refer to the learning goals and success criteria before and during writing.

Learning goal: We are learning to write a descriptive paragraph. We will be successful when we can: •

write an introductory sentence that tells our reader what the experience we are writing about is and where it takes place

•

link one idea to the next so that our writing is easily understood by our reader

•

create precise description by selecting and using adjectives to describe nouns, and adverbs to describe verbs

•

read our writing aloud to ourselves to check that it makes sense.

Example 2: Cross-curricula science writing Students have been engaged in a science study on electricity. They are writing a summary of what they have learned about electricity.

In my study about electricity I have learned about electric lights. I know that electric lights are a form of energy. Some electric lights have energy-saving light bulbs. These give the same amount of light but use less power and last longer.

They help us save energy.

In my study about electricity I have learned that we use electricity in many ways. For example, when we turn lights on and off, when we use an oven and even a toasted sandwich maker. When my sister makes her hair straight, she uses electricity too.

In my study about electricity I have learned how power plants make electricity. I have learned about a generator and a turbine. Electricity can be generated from coal, water and wind.

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Teaching approaches

Skill-focused mini-lessons A skill-focused mini-lesson is a teaching approach through which specific writing skills and/or strategies can be taught. It is usually between five and ten minutes in duration, sometimes shorter, and is very precise and specific. A particular skill or strategy is introduced, explained and demonstrated. Students may then practise several examples, either independently or with a partner. The teacher provides feedback directly related to the achievement of the skill and practice example. In this way, mini-lessons provide important opportunities for students to develop self-regulation of learning.

Mini-lessons may be planned within a series or there might be just one. The focus of the mini-lesson will usually be: · · ·

a skill or strategy required for an upcoming writing task that is being introduced to the students ahead of time a skill or strategy that the teacher and/or students have identified as needing additional instruction, following assessment of writing linked to a personal goal a student has set for themselves.

A mini-lesson is a short, precise ‘to-the-point’ lesson.

Mini-lessons can be taught for a range of skills and strategies, depending on the needs of students. They are a way of gathering and responding to student assessment data. Mini-lessons can be developed from any identified area of need in writing. These may include lessons on content and ideas, text type, and selection and use of vocabulary.

Mini-lessons can be used to: · · · · · ·

link to a reader’s prior knowledge teach how to generate a visual image for the reader instruct how to use punctuation accurately demonstrate how to use punctuation for effect explain how to select and use subject-specific vocabulary explain how to structure texts according to text type, e.g. report, persuasive, narrative.

Online writing opportunities Online writing opportunities can be integrated into class writing instruction, particularly when students are undertaking writing groups, peer writing, pair writing and independent writing. This serves to establish and maintain an online learning community where students connect, collaborate and engage in enhanced teaching and learning opportunities for writing, and engage in collaborative learning in authentic writing situations.

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Effective writing instruction Online writing instruction and learning opportunities also extend students’ understanding of the use of ICT. It is important that online writing and use of ICT is purposeful. For example: ·

·

·

·

·

· ·

·

· · · ·

Students learn to use a variety of online tools to locate, access and share content. This may be part of the preparation process where students locate and access planning sources, concept maps and diagrams to prepare, sequence and share ideas for writing.

Students undertake goal-directed searches to research and develop content for writing and learn how to use online resources for synthesising across multiple sources. This may be part of a cross-curricula writing topic.

Students work together to prepare and then produce ‘webinars’ on specific writing skills. This involves learning about and developing expertise in the skills of planning, selection and organisation of content and presentation for an audience.

Students plan and create a quick comic using an online writing tool. The comic may retell a favourite story, may be part of a narrative fiction writing program or may include factual information.

Students write to inform their audience. They take, download, sequence and use a series of digital photographs to provide information for their reader.

These are accompanied by captions.

Students write and contribute to blogs about class, school and learning activities.

Students use video to record school and classroom activities and then use it as a stimulus for writing, e.g. writing reports, recounts, explanations or instructions about a sporting event; writing instructions, reports or recounts about a science experiment.

Students make slideshows with static and/or moving images for different purposes, e.g. writing to entertain, creating narrative text, writing to argue, writing to persuade.

Students create a virtual tour as part of a writing project with photographs and written information presented in a range of forms.

Students plan and create online books for others in the class to access.

Teachers and students use an interactive whiteboard for collaborative writing activities at each stage of the writing process.

Teachers and students use free and purchased downloadable software for classroom instruction.

Chapter summary This chapter has described and provided examples of a variety of teaching approaches that can be used during writing instruction. It has exemplified how a combination of approaches can be used both explicitly and flexibly to design motivating, differentiated instruction for all students. The following chapter describes a number of different purposes students need to write for and provides examples of explicit instruction of teaching and learning of these purposes.

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Chapter 5 Purposes for writing

Key ideas °

°

°

° °

Students compose text for a variety of purposes. These include to entertain, to inform, to persuade, to influence others, to create bias, to summarise, to narrate, to instruct and to report. Students select from a range of text types as they write for these purposes.

Writing is a tool for learning. Students learn to write to communicate knowledge and understanding across the curriculum, in response to personal learning goals and as a tool for thinking and learning.

Students write in response to reading, viewing, speaking and listening. In doing so, they learn about themselves and others and broaden their world and academic knowledge and understanding.

Learning to write is a cumulative process.

Good-quality writing demonstrates that the writer is aware of the purpose they are writing for and of the reading needs of their potential audience.

Writing has many purposes Writing serves many purposes. Instructional programs include deliberately planned instruction to help students to understand the various purposes for writing and to be able to compose high-quality text for others to read. Students are active as they write; they: · · · · · ·

think about what they will write plan and make decisions about structure and language add to, modify and remove ideas in the process of composing text seek feedback from others critically review their own writing through the processes of editing and proofreading reflect on their own writing progress and achievements.

Depending on the topic and the purpose for writing, students often structure their writing to include continuous and non-continuous text. Continuous text is that written in sentences and paragraphs. Non-continuous text includes captions, labels, diagrams, charts and tables—to name a few.

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Effective writing instruction Students also write so that their writing can be read! Those who read their writing are known as the audience for writing. The audience may be the child themselves— they are writing for their own enjoyment or their own records. However, students also write for a wide range of other people, including their peers, family members, school members, community members and people who live in a different place.

It is useful for teachers to articulate and clarify the purpose and audience for each writing task. One way of making this explicit is for teachers and/or students to record the purpose and audience on a chart under the headings ‘My purpose for writing’ and ‘My audience for writing’, and to use this as the basis for planning and selecting structure, vocabulary and register for writing.

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 1 Name:

Purposes for writing • To persuade to my point of view

• To entertain

• To argue

• To report

• To retell an event

• To record thoughts and ideas

• To provide a recount

• To respond to academic tasks

• To instruct

• To request

• To provide information

Audiences for writing • My best friend

• An elderly person

• My classmates

• A person younger than me

• My cousin/relatives

• A guest to our school

• Mum or Dad

• Someone I have never met

• My teacher

• Someone I know well

• Students in another class

• A group of people in my community

• A neighbour

• A school or community leader

• A group of friends

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Purposes for writing

Audiences for writing

Teachers plan instructional writing programs that provide learning opportunities to explore and learn about writing for a wide range of purposes and audiences.

They select the most appropriate teaching approaches (see also Chapter 4: Teaching approaches), tasks that are suitable and relevant to their students’ needs and interests, and topics that are relevant to their students’ lives, experiences and interests and to their cross-curricula studies. Teachers also provide opportunities for students to self-select their own purpose and audience for writing. Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 1 provides a range of purposes and audiences for instruction. Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 2 provides a blank template for students to use.

As students write for different purposes, they work through the processes of writing: planning for a particular purpose, composing text to meet the purpose, revising text in light of the purpose and enjoying the completion of their writing.

These are the processes of writing as described in Chapter 1: Developing effective writing instruction and illustrated below.

Plan • check prior knowledge • understand purpose

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Publish

Compose

• present • celebrate • enjoy!

• craft • re-craft

Revise • edit • proofread

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Purposes for writing

Preparing to write Before we write, we: · · ·

·

think about the purpose we are writing for and how we can meet this purpose think about the audience who will read our work and what we want them to know, understand and feel think about and plan: – the ideas we will develop – the techniques we will use – the language choices we will make – the punctuation choices we will make – the different sentence structures we will use – the way we will combine our ideas for effect check our understanding of the learning goal(s) and success criteria for our writing.

As we write, we: · · · · · · · · ·

make decisions about the way we organise and sequence our writing think about how we will link to the prior knowledge of our reader self-monitor our writing for fluency and accuracy review our purpose and consider how well we are meeting this think about how effectively we are writing for our audience self-monitor our writing for readability, message, content and accuracy review our progress towards our writing goal(s) seek feedback from others revise our work in response to feedback.

After writing, we: · · · ·

reflect on what we have learned prepare our writing for presentation as applicable celebrate our writing with others set goals for future writing tasks.

Regardless of the purpose students are writing for, it is always important for instruction to create opportunities to focus on the characteristics of each purpose, the learning goals and success criteria, which ones they are confident with, what they need to work towards next and to set goals for individual and group/class instruction. The following sections describe and exemplify a number of purposes for which students learn to write.

This chapter explores the purposes of writing to entertain, writing to persuade, writing narrative, and writing as a tool for learning.

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Effective writing instruction

Writing to entertain Writing to entertain is writing to engage and amuse the reader. The writing will likely make the reader smile, laugh and may even enthral and mesmerise the reader!

As students learn to write to entertain, they consider the language, literary devices and punctuation that will most enable their reader to be entertained. Writers ask themselves: · · ·

How will I introduce my reader to this writing? What will I do to ‘hook’ my reader in and make them want to read more?

What techniques will I use to entertain my reader? How will I use these?

What is the visual image I want to generate? How will I create this?

In preparation for writing, students need to know what writing to entertain means. Teachers can build students’ prior knowledge by sourcing and discussing exemplars of entertaining text, by developing charts with and by students and through sharing and co-constructing explicit learning goals and success criteria.

For example: ·

reading extracts of entertaining writing with students and identifying features that make the writing entertaining

·

developing a chart with students to illustrate what writers do when they write to entertain.

An extract of text written to entertain the reader. From I’m Hungry, Level 13, Flying Start to Literacy, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

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Purposes for writing

When we write to entertain, we write to: •

amuse

• hold attention

•

captivate

• delight

•

gladden

• create and maintain interest

•

enthral

• inspire our readers!!

Students also learn to use a range of writing strategies as they write to entertain, including: · · · ·

creating a visual image for their reader causing their reader to infer enabling the reader to link to their prior knowledge making the reader predict and re-predict as they read.

Students can select from a range of formats as they write to entertain, including narratives, plays, skits, poems, letters, emails, memos, recounts, retellings, articles, descriptions, conversations and jokes.

Learning goals and success criteria By sharing learning goals with students, teachers provide explicit instruction on how to write for a specific purpose. These can either be developed by the teacher or co-constructed between teacher and students. During instruction, as students become more proficient with this writing purpose, they can add their own success criteria based on their learning needs.

Learning how to write to entertain: Possible learning goals Learning goal: We are learning how to write to entertain our reader.

When we write to entertain, we write to amuse our reader. We want to gain and keep their attention and interest. We want to make our reader laugh and smile.

We want them to enjoy what they are reading.

We will be successful when we can: •

decide on a topic/event/character that will create an opportunity to entertain our reader

•

start our writing in a way that ‘hooks’ our reader in and encourages them to read on

•

demonstrate that we have thought about and used language that will entertain our reader

•

develop our writing in a sequence that is clear for our reader to follow

•

demonstrate that we know how to use language choices, language features and punctuation as techniques to entertain our reader.

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Effective writing instruction Example: Retelling a funny event Students are writing to entertain. The writing task is to retell a funny event. Their teacher, Miss Burns, introduces the task. She begins by retelling a funny event of her own: I remember a time when I was totally covered in water and mud from a huge puddle on the side of the road. I was standing too close to the puddle and not looking around me when a car went racing past and WHOOOSH!! The puddle ended up all over me! I was dressed in a pair of white trousers and a light blue top and my friends just laughed and laughed at me because now I looked so befuddled and bemused!

Miss Burns asks her students to question her about what happened. She demonstrates how answering questions from others helps her to clarify the ideas she will write about.

Miss Burns then uses the modelled writing approach to demonstrate how she could begin her writing by grabbing her readers’ attention and providing an entertaining introduction. Through explicit modelling, questioning and discussion, she demonstrates the following techniques: · · ·

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 3 Name:

Writing to entertain: Brainstorming Topics I might write about

My choice

Sequence of main events

Vocabulary I will use

Introductory sentence to hook my reader

Punctuation l will use

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beginning with a rhetorical question (Have you ever felt totally stupid? Would you believe what happened to ME?) starting with a statement that encourages the reader to predict (You are NEVER going to believe what I am going to tell you …) using punctuation to ‘hook’ readers, e.g. capitals, bold font, ellipses and question marks.

Students prepare for their own writing by brainstorming events they could write about and identifying possible choices of language and punctuation. Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 3 can be used here.

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 3

Purposes for writing

Name:

Writing to entertain: brainstorming Topics I might write about

My choice

Running too fast and falling over

Shoes!

Wearing two DIFFERENT shoes to school

Sequence of main events

• Didn’t know

Really embarrassed

• Finding out • Facing up to it!

Vocabulary I will use

Introductory sentence to hook my reader

Dear oh dear

Boy, oh boy, was I embarrassed!

really?? giggled, laughed hilarious funny Punctuation l will use

question marks, exclamation marks, ellipses, capitals

Effective writing instruction Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 4 Name:

Writing to entertain: Planning support Title: Vocabulary

My sketch

Vocabulary

As students prepare to write, those students who require additional support work Purposesgroup for writing: organiser 4 in a smaller withGraphic the teacher.

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 4 can be used here.

Name:

What is happening

When it is happening

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Title:

Face painting

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

My sketch

giggled laughed screeched

Vocabulary

aghast colourful, colours multi-coloured surprised!

What is happening: face painting goes wrong

everyone laughs and laughs and laughs everyone looks really funny When it is happening: at a party

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Effective writing instruction Mini-lessons to develop vocabulary that will entertain the reader are also provided to students who require additional support. Lessons include learning how to make vocabulary choices for adjectives, adjectival phrases, nouns and pronouns, adverbs and adverbial phrases and action verbs (see also Chapter 6: Composing text).

Instead of ‘said’ we can use:

Effective writing instruction

•

exclaimed

•

giggled

•

shouted with glee!

•

laughed out of control.

Self-reflection

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 5 Name:

Date:

As students complete their writing, they reflect on their own learning.

Self-reflection may include some or all of the following:

Writing to entertain: Self-reflection 1 Two things I know about writing to entertain: •

•

An example of one language feature I used: •

This was effective in developing my purpose because

Two pieces of advice for someone else learning to write to entertain would be: •

•

Next time, I will try to:

I will know I have achieved this when:

· · · ·

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· ·

Two things I know about writing to entertain …

An example of one language feature I used is …

This was effective in developing my purpose because …

Two pieces of advice for someone else learning how to write to entertain would be …

Next time I will try to …

I will know I have achieved this when …

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 6 Name:

My writing was about

Date:

For further examples of self-reflection on writing, see Purposes for writing: Graphic organisers 5 and 6.

I learned

Writing to persuade Techniques I used to entertain my reader

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When someone is persuaded, they are encouraged, influenced and swayed towards a point of view. The purpose of writing to persuade is to get the reader to agree with the writer’s opinion or argument—showing the reader that the opinion and position taken by the writer is absolutely correct, changing the reader’s mind if necessary and urging the reader to take action that concurs with the writer’s position.

Purposes for writing Purposes for writing to persuade

Encourage the reader to agree with you Coax the reader to your point of view

‘Talk’ the reader into something

Writing to persuade Alter what the reader had previously thought and/or understood to be the case

Change the reader’s point of view and actions Influence what the reader thinks and how they feel

When writers write to persuade, they ask themselves questions before, during and after writing. These questions include: · ·

· · ·

What is my position on this topic? How clearly have I articulated this position to my reader?

What do I want my reader to think when they read my writing? What do I want them to feel? What would I like them to say and to do as a result of reading what I have written?

What reasons am I giving them to make them agree with me? Have I provided enough evidence to support my position?

Have I included personal voice in my writing—does my reader ‘see’ and ‘hear’ me?

Have I linked and sequenced my ideas and points of view so that the logic of what I have written is clear to my audience?

Teachers often share exemplars of persuasive writing with their students. Through shared and modelled writing, teachers and students together identify features in the text that make the writing persuasive. These features will likely be developed further through teacher demonstration, shared writing, guided writing and pair writing until students are confident to select and use them in their own independent writing.

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Effective writing instruction heading

subheading

illustrations to provide information on main idea

An extract of text written to persuade the reader. From Saving the Oceans, Level 21, AlphaWorld, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

Teaching may focus on the use of headings, subheadings, diagrams and captions to support the ideas and beliefs of the writer, emotive language, deferring to experts and expertise and language devices such as repetition, exaggeration, simile and rhetorical questions. In addition, writers often refer to the reader directly using the words ‘you’, ‘I’ and ‘we’ to personalise the voice and message.

Emotive language to persuade readers:

Repetition:

•

Everyone knows

•

We can now be very, very sure

•

There is no doubt

•

•

absolutely correct

There is so, so, so much support for this

•

utterly certain

Exaggeration:

•

entirely positive

•

•

certainly agree

There is absolutely and totally no doubt at all

•

I am sure you already agree

•

completely, utterly, positively sure that

Deferring to experts:

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•

Research will tell you

•

There is much evidence

•

Over time we have come to know

•

Experts in the field tell us

•

Many articles have been written to support

Simile: •

To think otherwise is as unbelievable as flying to the Moon

Rhetorical questions: •

You do agree, don’t you?

•

Can you believe what some people think?

Purposes for writing As students develop their understanding of and experience with persuasive texts, they also learn that writers select from a range of formats to meet this purpose, including letters, memos, reports, essays, dialogue, debates and speeches.

Most important is the development of authentic contexts for writing. When students are engaged in and motivated by what they are writing about, they are more likely to achieve and be proud of their writing efforts. Topics for persuasive writing can arise from a range of situations, including: · · · ·

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 7 Name:

Writing to persuade: Different formats I can use Text formats

My record/comments

• Letter • Memo • Email

local and regional news events cross-curricula studies, e.g. health, social studies, history studies students’ own interests and experiences in response to reading—writing persuasively about events, characters and actions.

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 7 provides a list of formats students can use when writing to persuade. Students can add to the list. In the column headed ‘My record/comments’ they can record when they have used each format and comment as appropriate.

• Newspaper article • Script for radio • Script for TV presenter

Learning goals and success criteria

• Report • Essay • Dialogue • Debate • Speech • • • Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

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When students require explicit instruction on how to write to persuade, the sharing and/or co-construction of learning goals and success criteria is a useful way of providing clear and precise support through instruction. Depending on student experiences and writing needs, teachers will select appropriate teaching approaches to incorporate in persuasive writing contexts (see Chapter 4: Teaching approaches).

Learning how to write to persuade: Possible learning goals Example 1: Writing a memo Learning goal: We are learning how to write a memo to persuade our reader of our point of view. We will be successful when we can:

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

Topic: My position:

Writing to persuade: Planning an introduction What I want my reader to feel

Possible opening statements: •

Techniques I will use

•

decide the point of view we will take

•

list all the reasons to support this point of view

•

order the reasons to sequence our writing

•

think about and plan to use persuasive vocabulary.

* Consider techniques and punctuation you might use. * Share your possible opening statements with a partner and discuss which is best.

•

•

Final opening statement:

In this example, students may use a planning graphic organiser to prepare for writing (see Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 8).

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Effective writing instruction Example 2: Writing a speech Learning goal: We are learning how to write a speech to persuade our audience to our point of view. We will be successful when we can: •

think about our reader and what they will need to think and know in order to agree with us

•

plan an introduction to interest our reader and hook them in to our message—make it good!

•

include personal voice so that our reader thinks we are speaking to them personally

•

write reasons that support our opinion

•

detail the benefits for our reader of agreeing with us

•

consider the use of language devices and punctuation in our persuasion.

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

Topic: My position:

Writing to persuade: Planning an introduction What I want my reader to feel

Possible opening statements: •

Techniques I will use

* Consider techniques and punctuation you might use. * Share your possible opening statements with a partner and discuss which is best.

•

After writing, revising and editing their speech, students prepare this for presentation. Teachers support students in knowing about and using prosodic features of oral language that include clarity of voice, pitch, tone, speed, loudness and use of expression.

In this example, students may use a planning graphic organiser to prepare for writing (see Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 8).

•

Final opening statement: • Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

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Example 3: Writing a persuasive essay Students may write persuasive essays on a range of different topics, events, issues and problems. They may develop their essays in to articles, reports or explanations.

Learning goal: We are learning how to write a persuasive essay. We will be successful when we can:

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•

include an introductory paragraph that introduces the topic/problem/event and the position we are taking in our persuasion

•

include supporting paragraphs that each focus on a specific point we wish to make

•

reiterate what we think in a clear conclusion in the last paragraph

•

relate our opening to our conclusion statement.

Purposes for writing

Choosing a format Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 9

Persuasive writing can take many forms. Sometimes teachers will select the writing task and format; other times, students will select these. Providing individual choice is important because students benefit from a range of opportunities to write persuasively on topics that interest and/or affect them personally. Furthermore, students are likely to be more engaged and motivated when they have ownership over the task and context for writing.

Name:

Writing to persuade: Letter

Dear

Yours sincerely,

Students can use Purposes for writing: Graphic organisers 9, 10, 11 and 12 to help organise their writing for different persuasive formats.

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Effective writing instruction

Recording learning

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 13 Name:

Date

Topic

Audience

Reflection: What I have learned about writing to persuade

Text format

Writing goal

Writing to persuade: Record of writing

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 14

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 13 presents a record of persuasive writing.

Students record the date, the topic, the audience, the text format and the writing goal they are learning to achieve.

Self-reflection Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 14 provides a self-reflection for students to record the techniques they used to persuade their reader, rate their writing and set a goal for their next writing task.

Writing to persuade: Self-reflection Name:

Date:

Topic: My position:

Writing narrative

Techniques I have used to persuade my reader • • • • • Self-rating of this piece of writing 1 Low

2

3

4 High

Reason for rating

Goal for next time

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The purpose of narrative writing is to tell a story. When writers write narrative, they: · · ·

structure their story so it has a beginning, middle and end provide a clear description of a person/place/thing/event make decisions so that their writing will entertain and engage.

Narrative texts can either be fiction or non-fiction and students learn to write both sorts of narrative. Students also learn to write narratives that are fictional accounts of history.

Fiction narrative—often referred to as a story—has characters, setting, plot, complication and resolution. It is imaginative and creative in nature, e.g. short stories, novels, poems and plays.

Accounts of history may be written as fictional narrative, e.g. myths and legends.

Non-fiction narrative provides a story through information that is factually accurate—it is not imaginative, it is actually true, e.g. biographies, autobiographies and memoirs. Writers can share their personal stories through non-fiction narrative.

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Effective writing instruction

Writing narrative: Fiction content Fiction narrative writing has a specific structure for students to learn. The features of this structure include: · · · · ·

the setting—where and when the story takes place the character(s)—the main character and the other people in the story the problems—the challenges that the main character and possibly some of the other characters will face the events—all the things that happen as the problem is solved the solution—how the problem is solved in the end.

Teachers introduce narrative writing to their students using a combination of modelled and shared writing. They demonstrate ways to plan for narrative writing and provide opportunities for students to brainstorm and sequence ideas, plan orally, share planning with others, and seek feedback as they craft and re-craft their narrative.

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 15

Questions students may ask themselves before, during and after writing narrative texts include:

Name:

Writing narrative: Character description

· · · · ·

Problem:

Main character Name: What do they look like?

What do they do?

Other characters in my story Name

Information about them

What is the problem that this narrative will be about?

Who will be the main character? What other characters will I have?

What will my characters be like? What will they do?

What will happen to solve the problem? What will I need to tell my reader?

How will the problem be solved?

Purposes for writing: Graphic organisers 15, 16 and 17 provide support as students think about what they might include in their narrative text.

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An extract of text written to narrate.

From Title of book here, series here, Eleanor Curtain Publishing Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 16

Name:

Writing narrative: Planning

The problem I will be writing about

The main character will be

The other characters will be

The events that will happen in this narrative will be

The problem will be solved by

It is useful for teachers and students to explore narratives that they have read and enjoyed as they identify and discuss the structure of a narrative and the writing techniques various authors have used. Narrative often includes techniques such as humour, suspense, direct speech, descriptive vocabulary and various punctuation forms. Narrative often includes a range of different language devices (see also Chapter 6: Composing text.).

Learning goals and success criteria

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 17 Name:

Writing narrative: Planning the story

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Vocabulary I might use:

What will happen at the beginning

What will happen in the middle

What will happen at the end

The problem is:

Depending on the type of narrative and the focus of lessons, teachers provide learning goals and success criteria that make explicit particular features of narrative. Learning goals and success criteria may focus on the construction of a complete narrative or on one particular aspect, e.g. the development of characters, the description of setting or the development and resolution of problems.

Teachers make choices about learning goals based on the needs of their students.

Purposes for writing An extract of text written to narrate. From The Stubborn Princess, Level 27, Flying Start to Literacy, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

Example 1: Writing the problem and solution Learning goal: We are learning how to write the problem and solution to a narrative. We will be successful when we have: •

decided on the problem our narrative will address

•

decided on how the problem will be solved

•

listed the sequence of actions and events through which the problem will be solved

•

written these events in paragraphs detailing how the solution will be reached.

Example 2: Developing characters Learning goal: We are learning how to develop characters in our narrative. We will be successful when we have: •

decided on the main character and supporting characters in our text

•

decided on the role the main and other characters will have in the narrative

•

created a visual image of the main character using descriptive language and imagery

•

used descriptive vocabulary to ‘paint a picture’ of what this character thinks and does as the narrative develops, e.g. adjectives that describe nouns, precise verbs, adverbs that describe verbs, a range of language features.

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Effective writing instruction Example 3: Writing a narrative Learning goal: We are learning how to write a narrative. We will be successful when we have: •

planned our narrative to include the problem to be solved, characters, actions, events to solve the problem and final solution

•

shared our plan with others and sought feedback

•

added to or modified our plan in light of feedback

•

organised our narrative into a logical sequence of events

•

completed writing of our narrative in preparation for editing and proofreading.

Poetry Poetry is often a popular form of narrative writing. There are a range of poetry structures students learn to write to express their ideas. Some of these are listed below. · · ·

· ·

Acrostic poems: the first letter in each line forms the word or message.

Free-verse poems: can be written in either rhymed or unrhymed lines.

Cinquain: a poem with five lines. Line 1 has one word; this is the title. Line 2 has two words that describe the title. Line 3 has three words that tell the action. Line 4 has four words that express the feeling, and line 5 has one word that recalls the title.

Rhyme: the poem repeats the sounds of words, either at the end of each line or at the end of each alternate line.

Tanka: a poem of five lines. Lines 1 and 3 have five syllables and the other lines have seven syllables.

We are learning to write an acrostic poem.

Time to get on the road

Holidays

Red lights at intersections

Going away

All cars waiting to move

Beach, sun, surf

Forty kilometres an hour

Lots of happy memories

Fast lane going slow I can’t wait to get there Cars waiting in queues

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We are learning to write a cinquain.

Holidays

Purposes for writing

Writing narrative: Non-fiction content Non-fiction narrative tells a true story—it can include travel writing, sports writing, autobiographies and biographies.

Effective writing instruction

Travel writing

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 18 Name:

Non-fiction narrative: Travel writing Sequence the events of your trip in order to tell your story.

Where we went

What we saw

What we did

Travel writing tells the story of an actual trip, organising facts and experiences in a sequence that is logical to read. Often this type of writing is organised to detail the beginning, the middle and the end of either one or several experiences. See Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 18 as a way of organising ideas for this form of non-fiction narrative.

Sports writing

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Sports writing tells the story of a sport—it might be about the history of the sport or it might be about what happened at a particular game.

Effective writing instruction

Autobiographies

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 19

Non-fiction narrative: Autobiography My autobiography Name:

Age:

Year born:

Members of my family:

Important events in my life

What I will tell my reader

An autobiography is a detailed description of the author’s life, i.e. the main events and experiences. See Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 19 as a way of organising ideas for this form of non-fiction narrative.

• Sequence your ideas. Share them with a partner. Now you are ready to write.

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Effective writing instruction

Biographies

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 20 Name:

Non-fiction narrative: Biography Name of the person I will write about

What the person is most known for

Personal details I will include

A biography is a detailed description of someone’s life, i.e. the main events and experiences. See Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 20 as a way of organising ideas for this form of non-fiction narrative.

Professional details I will include

Other important facts

Sequence your ideas in the order you will write them.

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Writing as a tool for learning As students use writing as a tool for learning and as a way of communicating knowledge, they learn to: · · · ·

record ideas as they meet them record their responses to what they are seeing, learning, experiencing or discussing respond to the information they are learning prepare themselves for other tasks, e.g. assessments and presentations.

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Effective writing instruction When students write for this purpose, they record what they have learned through different formats, including: · · · · · · · · · ·

note-taking diagrams tables paragraphs timelines and sequences charts questions and answers reports articles explanations.

There are many different circumstances in which students write to record their learning. They may write in response to information they observe and see, listen to, read, discuss and study. For example: ·

·

·

Students may watch a video clip online or a DVD as part of instruction in health. They may write to record the sequence of events, the problem and solution, the main ideas, the key actions or the cause and effect of the phenomenon. They may review the notes they made, make additions, delete some of the less important information and write to combine the most important aspects from their notes.

Students may listen to a recording as part of a history study. They may write what they have learned about the key message or the speaker’s position, opinion or area of expertise. They may write this as a concept map and use this to write a summary.

Students may read exemplars of work on a particular problem and may write to record the main ideas or main suggestions they have learned from reading the exemplar. They may use this to share and compare their thoughts with others in their group.

There are many ways students use writing as a tool to assist and develop their own learning in different content areas. Writing can be used to support learning across a variety of curriculum areas, including ICT, social studies, science, history, geography, mathematics, health and drama. Students may write: · · · · · · · · · ·

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about what they have learned, e.g. a paragraph, a chart, a list about how they learned this, e.g. a log entry, a group of notes, a plan to work out ideas to clarify understanding of what is being learned to capture and describe feelings and ideas to think critically about what they are learning to ask questions to explain or define something being learned to gather and analyse data or arguments on a particular issue or problem to create a diagram or visual representation of what was learned

Purposes for writing · · · · · · · · ·

to explain what they learned to someone else, e.g. notes, lists, bullet points for a discussion a report about what was learned to describe what was learned to combine what was learned to analyse what happened captions about what they are learning as they are learning it to draw diagrams about what they are learning as they are learning it to record notes about what they have learned and apply this to other tasks and contexts to record a plan for study.

In short, writing helps to make learning concrete for students.

In the example below, the teacher has worked with her students to develop a chart to illustrate what students do when they write as a tool for learning.

Writing helps us learn when we: •

jot down notes while we read

•

jot down notes when we listen to others

•

record observations of things we see or do

•

write to help us think about what we say and talk about

•

want to clarify something

•

need to organise our ideas.

Sometimes writing helps us understand things we didn’t know we knew!!

While explicit instruction is often required, other teaching approaches that promote writing as a tool for learning include guided writing, peer writing and pair writing. These approaches are largely collaborative in nature and encourage critical thinking among students. Writing as a tool for learning can become a focus for collaborative planning. It may also become a focus for shared authorship of a piece of text. For additional examples of writing as a tool for learning, see the cross-curricula and reflective learning examples in Chapter 4: Teaching approaches.

Graphic organisers The following graphic organisers are provided to assist instruction through which students learn to use writing as a tool for learning.

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Effective writing instruction

Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 21

Graphic organiser 21

Name:

Writing to record learning: Making notes Topic: Notes

Key vocabulary

This graphic organiser can be used when students record notes when reading, listening, watching or during online learning. It can be used across all content areas.

Summary of what I have learned

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 22

Graphic organiser 22

Name:

Writing to record learning: Main ideas and visuals Topic: Main ideas

Diagram/chart/table

This graphic organiser is used to record main ideas and visuals that support students in learning across the curriculum. Students can write lists, sentences, paragraphs, headings, labels and other forms depending on the task, the context and the purpose for which writing will be used.

Summary of what I have learned

Questions I still have/actions I need to take

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 23

Graphic organiser 23

Writing to record learning: How to record Name:

Date:

What I am studying:

How I will record what I am learning: paragraph diagram

This graphic organiser enables students to select how they will use writing to record what they are learning. They also record steps they will take as they learn.

chart table report

heading

subheadings

other

Steps I will take:

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 24

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 24

Writing to record learning: Learning log Name: Topic: Date

What l’ve learned

Follow-up questions l have

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This graphic organiser provides a learning log for students to record what they have learned along with any follow-up questions they might have. Students can use a range of forms to record appropriate to the task and the goals for instruction, e.g. concept maps, bullet points, key words, diagrams, charts and/or a combination of these.

Purposes for writing

Effective writing instruction

Self-reflection

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 25

Using writing as a tool for learning includes learning to be self-reflective. Purposes for writing: Graphic organisers 25, 26 and 27 each provide different examples of selfreflective checklists that students may refer to during and after writing.

Name:

Self-check 1

I have thought about the main ideas I have read.

I have recorded the main ideas.

I have written my own personal response to these ideas.

I have concluded with a summary.

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Chapter summary Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 26 Name:

Self-check 2

I have reviewed what I have learned.

I have synthesised these main points.

I have recorded this in: a paragraph a diagram a chart.

I have checked that I have included everything I wanted to say in my writing.

This chapter has explored a range of different purposes for writing. It has provided supports for classroom instruction through examples of learning goals and success criteria, classroom teaching activities, prompts and a wide range of graphic organisers that can be used and adapted by teachers and students. The following chapter discusses the skills and strategies needed for developing knowledge and use of effective vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling.

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Effective writing instruction

Purposes for writing: Graphic organiser 27 Name:

Self-check 3

I have recorded what I did.

I have recorded how I did it.

I have evaluated how well this went.

The text form I have chosen to write is: ___________________________________

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Chapter 6 Composing text

Key ideas ° °

° ° ° °

° °

Sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation are the tools that support writers to write with accuracy, precision and agility.

Through exploring and learning about grammar, writers learn how their choices create meaning and gain an understanding how language is structured. They also learn that different kinds of meaning can be created through the use of different grammatical forms.

Vocabulary is a critical component of classroom writing instruction at each stage of writing—preparing to write, composing, revising and publishing.

The selection and use of vocabulary creates interest, purpose and message for the reader.

Effective writing instruction creates a ‘risk-free’ environment where exploring words and word usage is celebrated.

Different types of sentences—simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences—can be selected and manipulated by writers depending on the purpose of the sentence.

Accurate spelling creates text that is readable and therefore able to be enjoyed by the reader.

Spelling is a skill that requires attention as part of writing instruction.

Developing quality writing This chapter describes practices for teaching four critical aspects of writing—the skills and strategies for developing knowledge and use of effective vocabulary, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling. The chapter provides examples of a range of teaching approaches that enable students to use their knowledge to improve the overall quality of their writing. This includes: · ·

providing multiple opportunities to teach students how to select, use and combine vocabulary for message, voice, effect and precision of writing teaching the skills, understandings and competencies of sentence structure to ensure that writing is structurally correct and easily accessible to the reader

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Effective writing instruction ·

·

providing explicit needs-based instruction on the uses of punctuation so that it can be used for accuracy and fluency of text, but also for personal voice, effect and depth of meaning linking class spelling instruction to writing through a range of teaching approaches and instructional routines.

Vocabulary As students become more skilled and confident writers, they learn how to make decisions about the vocabulary they select and use in their writing. Vocabulary has many different roles in creating readable, meaningful and enjoyable text and students learn to recognise and apply these to their own writing. For example: · ·

· · · ·

· · · ·

vocabulary used in titles vocabulary used in headings and subheadings—learning to select the most appropriate and meaningful words to direct the reader’s attention to the information in the sections below subject-specific vocabulary vocabulary to describe—adjectives describe nouns, adverbs describe verbs vocabulary to indicate and maintain tense different forms of vocabulary, e.g. nouns (proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns, pronouns, abstract nouns); verbs (present-tense verbs, pasttense verbs, action verbs, saying verbs, sensing verbs, relating verbs) language features—using vocabulary to create meaning through alliteration, simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, repetition, personification knowing the most appropriate words to select when there are words with multiple meanings and multiple words with the same or similar meaning selecting vocabulary for tone and register selecting vocabulary to create a visual image for the reader.

Providing timetabled vocabulary instruction is part of teaching students to write.

So, too, is creating incidental and spontaneous opportunities to focus on vocabulary in the context of writing. Students also draw on their reading and oral vocabulary as they write. Their knowledge and use of vocabulary is very important, as the words in text bring the text to life! The following section provides examples of instructional activities for building vocabulary and for independent student practice.

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Composing text

Instructional activities for vocabulary Vocabulary used in titles Activity 1

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 1 Name:

Review the titles of some texts students have read during reading lessons.

Record the title, key words in the title, the significance of the title for the text and an alternative title with similar meaning. Discuss the meaning of the words and the syntax of the title: ‘Why might the author have made these choices? How does the order of the words add or change meaning? Does the title provide a clear indication of the content of the text? How? If not, what is the role of this title?’

Prompt students to provide another similar title for the text. Composing text: Graphic organiser 1 can be used for this activity.

Title

Key words

Significance of title

Alternative title

What’s in a title?

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Activity 2

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Provide students with a range of scenarios for writing. The scenarios may relate to a cross-curricula study topic, an event, a text, a person, a place or a setting. Have students discuss and select a title to best match the information in the scenario.

Discuss with students: ‘What words will you have in your title? Why? What do you expect your reader to understand when reading your title? What might your reader predict the text to be about when they read your title?’ Composing text: Graphic organiser 2 can be used for this activity.

Scenario

Possible title

Reason

Selecting a title

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Composing text: Graphic organiser 2

Reason

Name:

Two children f shing ‘Come on, let’s have breakfast.’

The wind was really strong and blustery

Possible title

Selecting a title

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Scenario

Effective writing instruction

Vocabulary used in headings and subheadings Headings and subheadings are important navigational tools for readers. They also prepare the reader for the main ideas in the text, linking to the reader’s prior knowledge and encouraging the reader to predict what the text might be about. Additionally, they are a means of organising text into a logical sequence or progression.

Effective writing instruction

Activity 3

Composing text: Graphic organiser 3 Name:

Heading: Heading:

Heading:

Students brainstorm ideas for writing. When they have completed their brainstorm, they group the ideas they have written together to form three or four main ideas.

They decide on a heading for each group of ideas and an overall title for the text they will write. Composing text: Graphic organiser 3 can be used for this activity.

Brainstorming my ideas

Topic

Organising my ideas

Heading:

Brainstorming ideas

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Effective writing instruction

Activity 4

Composing text: Graphic organiser 4 Name:

Cross-curriculum writing Main ideas for writing

Headings for each idea

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Students record a list of main ideas from a curriculum study they have been involved in. They present these back to the group as headings for writing. Each student is assigned one or two of the headings to write about. When they have completed their writing, the students share and compare their writing and explain to the group the significance of the heading and the content they have written.

Composing text: Graphic organiser 4 can be used for this activity.

Composing text Subject-specific vocabulary Effective writing instruction

Activity 5

Composing text: Graphic organiser 5 Name:

Subject-specific vocabulary Topic/title: Main ideas I will write about

Subject-specific vocabulary I will use

Possible opening sentences: 1.

2.

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Effective writing instruction

Students list the title and main ideas they will write about on their planning sheet. They think about and record the subject-specific vocabulary they will use to develop each part of their writing. They also record two possible opening sentences. Before they begin to compose their text, they share their plan with the teacher and with other students in their group. Students explain the main ideas they will write about, the subject-specific vocabulary they will use and what these words actually mean. When the teacher is confident that the students have a clear understanding of content and vocabulary, students begin their writing. Composing text: Graphic organiser 5 can be used for this activity.

Activity 6

Composing text: Graphic organiser 6 Name:

Students develop a glossary to accompany their writing. The glossary consists of subject-specific vocabulary that the reader would need to understand in order to comprehend the main ideas in the text. When developing their glossary, students think about the best way to explain each word. Reflective questions to assist the development of a glossary include: Have I made the meaning of this word explicit to my readers? Have I connected this word to other words my readers may know?

Have I connected this word to an experience my readers may have had, or something they may have seen? Composing text: Graphic organiser 6 can be used for this activity.

Glossary Topic/title: Words

Meanings

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Vocabulary to describe Effective writing instruction

Activity 7

Composing text: Graphic organiser 7 Name:

Vocabulary to describe Topic: Nouns related to the topic

Adjectives to describe

Verbs related to the topic

Adverbs to describe

Phrases to include

Students list nouns and verbs associated with the topic or ideas they are writing about. They talk with their partner and/or teacher about appropriate adjectives and adverbs, and phrases that would add meaning and/or description to each noun or verb. These are recorded and can be used when students compose their text. Composing text: Graphic organiser 7 can be used for this activity.

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Effective writing instruction oups

rent types of verb gr

Learning about diffe

t, walked, sprinted

Action verbs: put, cu

gued manded, requested, ar think, that tell what people Sensing verbs (words like, heard, saw feel, sense): like, dis

Saying verbs: said, de

Relating verbs: have,

had, is, are

Adverbs add ex tra detail to wha t is going on—th us MORE about ey tell the verb Nouns answer the questions ‘who’ or ‘what’. There are different types of nouns: Proper nouns (names of places and people): Canada, England, Huntly, Mrs Jones, Alison Common nouns (names of objects and things): table, pen, door, car Collective nouns (names of groups): school, class, herd Abstract nouns (names of feelings and emotions): anger, excitement Pronouns (words that replace nouns): Personal pronouns—I, we, me, she, her, they; Possessive pronouns—his, hers, mine, ours

Vocabulary to indicate and maintain tense Activity 8 Teachers and students work together to identify present-, past- and future-tense words. Word lists and word charts can be compiled to record tense vocabulary.

These charts can be referred to during written and oral language activities. Students may use these charts as prompts for writing and will also learn to check tense when they are proofreading their work.

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Present tense

Past tense

Future tense

is

was

will

is walking

was walking

will walk

is speaking

was speaking; has spoken

will speak

Composing text Use of different types of nouns Teachers and students work together to identify different types of nouns associated with a topic, an idea or a problem that students will be writing about. They classify nouns according to type and students chart these to share with their peers.

We are learning about different nouns.

These are some nouns we know from our study of spiders.

Proper nouns

Common nouns

Collective nouns

Abstract nouns

Redback spider

abdomen

clutter of spiders

fear

cluster of spiders

safety

Black Widow spider venom Grass spider

habitat Use of language features As students select vocabulary for purpose, audience, effect and imagery, they learn to use a range of language features to add meaning to their writing. The following table defines commonly used language features.

Language feature

Definition

Example

Repetition

Repeating a word or phrase

The phone rang, and rang, and rang.

Alliteration

The repetition of consonant sounds at the start of a word

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

Simile

Comparing two unlike things, using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’

She was as quiet as a mouse.

Metaphor

Comparing two unlike things as if one is the same as the other

the sky is a blanket; he has eyes of ice

Onomatopoeia

A word that suggests the sound it makes

hiss, fizz, hum, splash

Personification

Giving a human characteristic to something not human

The plants were crying out for a drink.

Assonance

The repetition of a vowel sound

free sweet treats

Rhetorical question

A question the reader is not expected to answer

Why is it so?

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Effective writing instruction

Through modelled, shared and guided writing, teachers demonstrate when and how to select and use language features. They talk about how a language feature might enhance meaning. Students are encouraged to explore language features and use these in their writing. For example: ·

to help the reader create a visual image of the character – Have you ever met a really clever person? (rhetorical question) – Her hair was as golden as the Sun. (simile)

·

to deepen understanding of a concept through comparision or repetition – The skyscraper was as tall as a mountain. (simile) – The skyscraper was very, very high. (repetition)

·

to use alliteration in a title for effect – Slippery Sliding Slaters – Mandy’s Magnificent Menu

·

to improve the writer’s argument through metaphor or simile – Education is important because knowledge is a key that opens many doors.

·

to strengthen and promote the writer’s point of view through repetition – That is a really, really silly idea.

·

to use rhetorical questions as a thought-provoking technique – Have you ever wondered why this is so?

– Can you imagine that?

Teachers and students can work together to create a risk-free writing environment through which students develop strong word consciousness and learn to think about language and its uses. Vocabulary instruction can be incorporated into all teaching approaches and all processes of writing.

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Composing text Selecting vocabulary for the register of writing Register refers to the particular types of language used when composing a written text. The register of writing can be either formal or informal. Informal writing uses more informal language. It is more likely to use colloquial language, slang and jargon and the tone is often conversational. Formal register uses more formal language. This type of writing uses academic vocabulary to communicate ideas and content. It is always grammatically correct.

Selecting the register of writing is directly related to the purpose of the task, e.g. when writing an essay, students will use formal register; when writing a note to a friend, they will use informal register.

Involve students in exploring vocabulary for both informal and formal registers.

Have students explore words and phrases that convey the same thing but are either written in a formal or informal register. For example:

Formal

Informal

Good morning

Hi

Farewell

Cheers

Thank you

Thanks

Please park your vehicle at the entrance

Park your car out the front

Your attendance is appreciated for a 5 pm start

Be there for 5 o’clock

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

Formal and informal register Intended purpose

Formal register

Informal register

Composing text: Graphic organiser 8 provides a task that students can work through on their own or with a partner or small group to convey a message using either formal or informal register.

Selecting vocabulary to create a visual image for the reader

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The visual image of writing is the image the reader gains—the pictures in their mind—as they read a text. Images are formed in response to vocabulary and sentence selections and the subsequent images the reader sees, hears, smells, tastes and touches (Davis 2011) as they read the author’s message. The vocabulary writers use is paramount to the image they create. Providing opportunities for students to explore how they can use vocabulary to form visual images for their readers is an important aspect of learning how to write.

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Effective writing instruction

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 9 Name:

Selecting vocabulary Image I wish to create for my reader

Vocabulary I will use

Composing text: Graphic organiser 9 provides opportunities for students to practise vocabulary selections and can be used as an independent, partner or small-group activity.

Sentence construction Permission has been granted for this page to be reproduced for teaching purposes.

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The role of a sentence is to provide the reader with precise information and a clear image. There are three main types of sentences: · · ·

simple sentences compound sentences complex sentences.

Simple sentences Simple sentences are statements, commands, questions and exclamations.

They consist of one clause. For example: · · · ·

The boat was blue. (statement) Do not run on the road. (command) What would you like for dinner? (question) Oh dear, that’s dirty! (exclamation)

Compound sentences Compound sentences are two clauses joined by a conjunction, e.g. ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘because’. For example: · · ·

We went to the beach and it was very hot.

We went to the beach but it was very hot.

We went to the beach because it was very hot.

Complex sentences Complex sentences are made up of dominant and subordinate clauses. A dominant clause is able to act as a sentence in its own right, a subordinate clause cannot. Subordinate clauses add information to that contained in the dominant clause. · ·

Interestingly enough [subordinate], it was very hot at the beach [dominant].

Even though it cost quite a lot of money [subordinate], Mandy really wanted to go to the movies with her friends [dominant].

Learning goals As required, teachers may develop learning goals and success criteria to provide explicit instruction on how to compose, select and combine various types of sentences. They will make decisions on the precise nature and content of these

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Composing text lessons based on observations, discussion and information gained as formative assessment data (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching). Below are two examples of learning goals and success criteria that teachers may use during instruction.

Learning goal: We are learning to write a sentence.

What is a sentence?

•

A sentence is a group of words about an idea that, when formed together, provide information to the reader.

•

A sentence is a group of words that make sense to the reader.

•

A sentence tells us about a place, person or event.

We will be successful when we can: •

start our sentence with a capital letter

•

end our sentence with a full stop

•

check that what we have written makes sense and is grammatically correct

•

identify what the sentence tells our reader.

Learning goal: We are learning to write a paragraph.

What is a paragraph?

•

A paragraph is a group of sentences written about one main idea.

•

A paragraph is a group of sentences that provide information about the same thing, event or person.

We will be successful when we can: •

organise our ideas into paragraphs

•

use paragraphs in our writing

•

develop each paragraph to include a main idea and several supporting facts

•

include a range of different sentence forms in our paragraphs

•

think about what we want our reader to know in each paragraph and check that we have written our text in a way that makes this possible!

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Effective writing instruction

Instructional activities Activity 1 Students use sentence templates to explore writing a range of different sentences on the same topic. As students complete this task, they: · ·

·

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 10 Name:

Learning to write different types of sentences A simple sentence

A simple sentence—statement

A simple sentence—command

A simple sentence—question

A simple sentence—exclamation

A compound sentence

A complex sentence

A complex sentence

follow the sentence type identified on the template share their writing with a partner or larger group, discussing the different types of sentences they used and how these sentences, in combination, give meaning to the text use a different sentence type to write the same idea share and discuss this sentence with their partner or group, comparing changes to meaning when a different sentence type is used.

This activity can be completed with teacher support in a group situation, as part of modelled or guided writing or as a paired writing task. The value in the activity is twofold: it teaches students to recognise and use the various grammatical structures of sentences, and it facilitates discussion on how selection and use of sentences may change or alter meaning for the reader. Composing text: Graphic organiser 10 can be used for this activity.

Example: Using sentence templates

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Students are given the topic ‘A windy storm’. They are asked to write a compound sentence about this idea. In the example below they have joined two ideas using the conjunction ‘and’: The wind was very strong and the trees were swaying noisily.

Next, students are asked to write a simple sentence about this idea: The wind made the trees sway.

Finally, students are required to write a complex sentence with a subordinate and a dominant clause: Interestingly enough, the strong wind made the trees sway noisily.

Students share their writing with their partners, others in their group and/or their teacher using the ‘think aloud’ and ‘think about’ examples below.

Think aloud: What ideas did I write in my sentence? What decisions did I make when I wrote these sentences? What did I learn about writing sentences today?

Think about: What did each sentence tell us? How is each sentence different?

Which sentence do you think is most effective in telling us about the storm? Why?

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Composing text

Effective writing instruction

Activity 2

Composing text: Graphic organiser 11 Name:

Using different sentence structures within a paragraph Example 1

Example 2

Simple sentence–exclamation

Compound sentence

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Compound sentence

Complex sentence Simple sentence

Example 3

Example 4

Complex sentence

Simple sentence–question

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Simple sentence–exclamation

Example 5

Example 6

Compound sentence

Complex sentence

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Compound sentence

Compound sentence

Simple sentence Example 7

Example 8

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Simple sentence

Compound sentence

Compound sentence

Compound sentence

Simple sentence

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This activity is similar to Activity 1, but extends the sentence writing to paragraphs. Students use a paragraph template to write a paragraph about an idea. They think about what they know about each type of sentence, along with the information they want their readers to gain from reading their writing. This activity can be completed with teacher support in a group situation, as part of modelled or guided writing, as a paired writing task or as an independent writing task. Composing text: Graphic organiser 11 can be used for this activity. Students may also write their own paragraph structures for partners and other students in the class to use. A template for this is provided on Composing text: Graphic organiser 12.

Activity 3

Effective writing instruction

Composing text: Graphic organiser 12 Name:

Using different sentence structures: Template Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

Example 6

Example 7

Example 8

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Students combine a range of paragraph formats to form a text of three or four paragraphs. They may be given paragraph formats prepared by the teacher and asked to follow these. For example: · · ·

paragraph 1—simple sentence, compound sentence, simple sentence paragraph 2—complex sentence, simple sentence, simple sentence, compound sentence paragraph 3—compound sentence, complex sentence, simple sentence.

Alternatively, teachers may provide a range of templates and students select from these.

An additional benefit of this activity, beyond drawing attention to the use of different types of sentence structures within paragraphs, comes from discussion about the effect different combinations of sentences within paragraphs have on the reader. Ask: ‘What was the purpose of your writing? How effective was the sentence structure within paragraphs in meeting this purpose? How else could you have written this? Would other structures be more or less effective in meeting your purpose?’

Activity 4 Students use a paragraph or section of text from their group reading. They are required to rewrite the content using different sentence forms to those in the text, thus innovating on the existing text. The new paragraph or piece of writing may use different vocabulary and sentence structures, but must link to the main idea and content of the next paragraph of the original text. Thus, students explore a range of sentence structures to compose text about the same idea, event, activity or action.

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Effective writing instruction An example of text from group reading to be rewritten by students (see below). From Wipe-out!, Level 27, Flying Start to Literacy, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

A really good wave was starting to form while Tom, who saw this, was paddling towards the shore. It was getting bigger behind him. Tom thought it was getting as big as a big mountain and he paddled as quickly as he could!

Activity 5 Students are given a paragraph to describe by sentence type. They read through the paragraph. Then, as they read the text a second time, they annotate each sentence as either simple, compound or complex. Students may find examples of compound complex sentences. They may also identify the type of simple sentence they are reading, e.g. command, statement. This activity provides opportunities for students to analyse and learn about the way authors use and combine different sentence types for audience, voice, message and effect.

From Body Works, Level 23, Flying Start to Literacy, Eleanor Curtain Publishing

simple simple

complex

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Composing text

Punctuation As students gain control of their writing and the processes and strategies involved in composing text, they must be able to use accurate punctuation so that their readers can read the text in the way it is intended. For example: · ·

if the author intends the reader to be surprised, they will use an exclamation mark to indicate this if the author changes from one idea to the next, they will finish their sentence with a full stop and begin another with a capital letter.

It is important that all students learn to use, with automaticity, the conventions of punctuation so that their writing is accurate, fluent and easily understood.

As needed, and identified through analysis of student writing samples, deliberate and explicit instruction will support students in learning to use punctuation effectively and with ease. Students and teachers can seek examples of punctuation in written work, can discuss and describe how punctuation is used by writers and can discuss and exemplify what they know about punctuation and how to use it.

Developing charts and exemplars about punctuation and its various uses are valuable learning tasks for students.

What do we use punctuation for?

Comma

,

We use this to separate words or clauses in our sentences.

We use this between items in lists.

Apostrophe

‘

We use this in contracted words to show that a letter has been removed, e.g. doesn’t, hasn’t.

We use this to show possession—to show that something belongs to someone, e.g. Clare’s hat, Safet’s bag.

Punctuation we know capital letters

commas

apostrophes

full stops

colons

exclamation marks

question marks

semi-colons

Direct explanations supported by examples will help students to become confident and accurate in their use of punctuation. When teachers provide explicit information on the use of punctuation, supported through modelled, shared and guided writing approaches, students learn how and when to select and use various forms of punctuation. For example, the following chart about capital letters could be constructed.

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Effective writing instruction

What are capital letters and when do we use them?

Capital letters are a form of punctuation used: •

at the start of a sentence to signal to the reader that this is a new sentence

•

when writing a proper noun (a proper noun is the name of a person, town, city or country)

•

when writing abbreviations to address people, e.g. Mr, Ms, Mrs, Dr

•

when we want to make what we have written stand out for effect, e.g. The machine was VERY noisy.

Why does knowing about how to use capital letters help us?

•

It helps us to read other authors’ work in the way that they intended.

•

It helps our readers to understand what we have written.

•

It helps our readers know when to pause.

•

It helps our readers understand when we are writing a new idea or developing an idea further.

Mini-lessons to explain and illustrate the use of punctuation Five-minute mini-lessons focus on a specific skill or area of understanding for which students need additional support. These can take place with the whole class, with small groups or with one or two students. Mini-lessons provide an opportunity for direct and explicit teaching and demonstration, questioning and discussion on the identified skill.

Example 1 Mr Daly is teaching a group of his students about using exclamation marks to add personal voice and rich imagery to imaginative texts.

Mr Daly: We are learning to use the exclamation mark in our writing to show a strong feeling. We are using this to help our reader ‘see’ and ‘hear’ what is happening in our text.

We want them to feel that they really know what we are saying—almost as if they were there with us!

Learning goal: We are learning to use an exclamation mark to create and enhance meaning in our writing.

We will be successful when we can use an exclamation mark to help our reader feel:

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•

surprised

•

angry

•

excited.

Composing text Using the shared writing approach, Mr Daly and his students construct a range of sentences that use an exclamation mark for each of these purposes. They read each sentence aloud and discuss how they use their voice—intonation and volume—to show personal voice through the use of the exclamation mark.

Students then practise three or four examples in pairs. The lesson concludes with a review of what an exclamation mark is, the effect it can have on the reader and when it can be used to enhance writing.

Example 2 Miss Mill is teaching her students how to use round brackets to add information to a sentence. They need to use this punctuation as part of the cross-curricula report writing that they will be undertaking as they learn about how people live in different countries.

She models the following writing to her students, supporting what she is writing with teacher think-aloud as follows:

Miss Mill: I want to write about how the heart works and I want my readers to understand that I am telling them information so I am going to use brackets to include extra text that will help my readers to learn. (she scribes)

The heart (a very important organ that we all have) is responsible for pumping blood around our bodies.

Miss Mill and the students talk about how the use of brackets has provided additional information for the reader. Students then work in pairs to plan several sentences that they will write, and discuss which information they will put in brackets and why. They share their ideas with the rest of the group and review what they have learned about using brackets.

Example 3 Mrs Simons is preparing to show her students how direct speech can be used in imaginative writing to bring characters to life and provide additional information about the problem and solution in the text. She prepares several examples from a text the students are familiar with and presents these as exemplars of speech punctuation. With teacher support, the students explore and discuss how speech marks have been used in the text, the purpose of the speech marks and how this punctuation technique has added interest and personal voice to the writing.

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Effective writing instruction

Extra activities Activity 1 Students make a chart and/or collage of various examples of punctuation they find in text.

Effective writing instruction

Activity 2

Composing text: Graphic organiser 13

Examples of punctuation

Type of punctuation

How it is used

Why l think the author chose this form of punctuation

Students collect examples of punctuation and record what they are, how they have been used and why the author chose to use them. Composing text: Graphic organiser 13 can be used for this activity.

Punctuation example from text

Activity 3 Students search for and record examples of punctuation used for the same purpose. Categories for the search can be suggested by the teacher and/or the students. For example: Apostrophes for possession/omission; Capital letters for someone’s name/abbreviations/place names.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Activity 4 Students proofread and check examples of writing that require punctuation corrections. These can be prepared by the teacher and/or the students. When prepared by students, the student should also prepare the ‘answer’ copy, i.e. the correctly punctuated piece of writing. For example: ms mill was wearing a short spotted red dress she was in melbourne visiting her friend claire

Ms Mill was wearing a short, spotted, red dress. She was in Melbourne visiting her friend Claire.

A variation on this activity is for the teacher and/or students to write three sentences and deliberately leave out the capitals. Students then swap their sentences with a partner to correct.

Effective writing instruction

Activity 5

Composing text: Graphic organiser 14 Name:

Punctuation I am learning to use Date

Punctuation

What I have learned about using this form of punctuation

Learning to use a range of punctuation is helping me because …

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Students keep learning logs of new punctuation they are learning to use.

They record the punctuation and what they have learned about using each punctuation form. These learning logs can be shared with teachers during individual and group conferences (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching), during guided reading (see Chapter 4: Teaching approaches) and with others in their writing group. Students can also use these logs as a guide when peer teaching or demonstrating use of punctuation to other students. Composing text: Graphic organiser 14 can be used for this activity.

Composing text

Spelling For students to become accurate and proficient spellers, they need opportunities to learn about, investigate and understand how sounds and words work. As students learn to spell, they learn to write the sounds they hear in words.

They learn that words are made up of sounds and that sounds can be written down using letters of the alphabet. They also learn that the same sound can be written in different ways. Through experience with writing and spelling, students learn how to spell high-frequency words and commonly misspelt words, and they develop knowledge and understanding of word structures, e.g. adding ‘s’ to make plurals, making past-tense verbs by adding ‘ed’ and when to add ‘ing’ to the end of words.

Students also learn to spell by breaking words into syllables and by breaking syllables into individual sounds. They are taught and learn a range of spelling conventions and can identify spelling patterns in words. As students develop knowledge and confidence, they begin to draw on and use this knowledge appropriately when using unfamiliar words in their writing. Through instruction that involves modelling, guided practice, peer and pair writing, students also learn to verbalise reasons for spelling words in particular ways. They use think-aloud (see page 14) and demonstrations to explain to others how they make decisions about spelling and how they know particular words have been spelt correctly.

When I wanted to spell the word ‘unsurprisingly’, I thought about the prefixes and suffixes in this word. I said the word out loud to myself and I recorded the prefix ‘un’ and the suffixes ‘ing’ and ‘ly’.

un ing ly

Then I wrote the word ‘surprise’.

I knew this word already and I knew it had two syllables. I noticed that the ‘er’ sound was written with the letters ‘ur’ in this word.

Putting the sounds together, I knew that when ‘ing’ is added to a word ending in ‘e’, the ‘e’ is removed, so that’s how I got this spelling.

un surprise ing ly – unsurprisingly

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Effective writing instruction Teachers use information from students’ writing samples to determine the precise nature and level of support required in teaching and monitoring spelling skills and strategies. This information will likely include such things as: · ·

evidence of students’ ability to record sounds, in sequence, in familiar words evidence of students’ ability to record sounds, in sequence, in unfamiliar words evidence that students understand sounds can be written in different ways, e.g. the long ‘a’ sound can be written as a_e; ai; ei; ay; ey; eigh; aigh; a; ea; eig

·

Some different ways to make the long ‘a’ sound a_e

ai

ei

ay

ey

eigh

aigh

a

ea

eig

ate

rain

rein

play

prey

eight

straight

baby

great

reign

mate

plain

day

plane

·

sway

evidence that students are beginning to recognise and understand when to use particular spelling patterns in some words, e.g. digraphs, blends, double consonants.

Some spelling patterns •

eighty

•

Blends include:

Blend digraphs include:

sl

tr

sh

gr

br

str

ch

wh

th

• Digraphs are 2 letters making 1 sound

•

In blends, you hear all the letter sounds 2 letter blends = 2 sounds 3 letter blends = 3 sounds

It is critically important that instruction is planned to contain strong and transparent links between spelling (the encoding of words), writing (the development of words and sentences) and reading (the decoding of words in order to read and comprehend text).

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Composing text

Teaching students strategies for spelling unknown words Just as students need strategies to decode words as they read, they also need strategies to encode words as they write. Providing deliberate instruction of these strategies, along with independent practice and demonstration of the strategies ‘in action’, is an effective way of supporting students to become more proficient in their spelling and more knowledgeable about how words work.

These strategies can be taught one at a time or in groups. As students gain understanding and control over these strategies, they can be made into prompt cards, charts and/or individual bookmarks that remind and prompt students during spelling instruction, as they write and also during proofreading (see Chapter 7: Revising text).

Students should also have access to word sources including class charts, texts the students have read, dictionaries and thesauruses, words displayed around the room, students’ own word lists, teachers’ modelling books, word cards and spell checks.

Spelling strategies are listed below and on the following page.

Strategies for encoding words When you want to write a word but you don’t know how to spell it, you can: •

say it out loud and listen to the sounds

•

say it again, identifying as many sounds as you can

•

ask yourself, ‘Is this a high-frequency word that I know or have seen used?’

A strategy for spelling single-syllable words Say the word out loud. Ask yourself: •

How many sounds can I hear? Can I hear any blends? What vowel sounds can I hear?

•

What is the first sound? What do I know about writing this sound? How could I write this sound? Write the first sound.

•

What is the next sound I can hear? What do I know about writing this sound?

How could I write this sound? Write the next sound.

•

What other sounds can I hear? What do I know about writing this sound? How could I write this sound? Write this sound.

•

Is this word a plural?

•

Look at the word you have written. Does it look right?

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Effective writing instruction

A strategy for spelling multisyllabic words Say the word out loud. Ask yourself: •

How many syllables can I hear?

•

What is the first syllable? What sounds can I hear? How can I write these?

•

What is the next syllable? What sounds can I hear? How can I write these?

Another strategy for spelling multisyllabic words Say the word out loud. Ask yourself: •

Do I hear a prefix ? If so, how do I write this?

•

Do I hear a suffix? If so, how do I write this?

•

What is the root word? How do I write this? Is this a word I know? Is it like a word I know? Is it multisyllabic? Can I hear a small word inside the root word?

Other strategies to try Say the word out loud. Ask yourself: •

Can I hear a blend? If so, what is it and how do I write this blend?

•

Can I hear a long vowel? If so, what are the various ways this sound can be written? Try writing some and ask yourself, ‘Does this look right?’

•

Can I hear a short vowel? If so, how do I write the sound for this short vowel?

•

Do I know a spelling rule that might apply in this word? If so, what is the rule?

•

Write the sounds you can hear. Look at the word. Does it look right? What seems to be missing? Do I know a word that looks a bit like this?

•

Can I use a word source to help me?

Underline any sound in the word you are not sure of and check the spelling using a word source or dictionary.

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Composing text

Learning goals and success criteria As required, teachers may develop examples of learning goals and success criteria to make spelling instruction explicit for their students. Examples of these are included below.

Example 1 Learning goal: We are learning to spell words we are not sure how to spell.

We will be successful when we can: •

attempt to spell words by sounding out the sounds we hear and writing a letter to represent each sound

•

think about the sounds at the beginning, middle and end of a word and write a letter(s) to represent each sound

•

practise what we know about the different ways of writing a sound as we try to write new words

•

listen to the sounds of word endings and spell these sounds, e.g. ‘ing’, ‘ed’, ‘s’.

Example 2 Learning goal: We are learning to spell words we are not sure how to spell.

We will be successful when we can: •

use our knowledge of sounds and letters to attempt to spell unknown words

•

practise the spelling rules we know when we spell, and check words we are not sure of

•

think about the spelling of long and short vowels when we sound out words and attempt to spell them

•

check our spelling using word sources.

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Effective writing instruction

Additional activities Effective writing instruction

Activity 1

Composing text: Graphic organiser 15 Name:

I am learning to spell these words Date

My attempt (underline difficult sounds in this word)

The correct spelling

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Students have ‘try’ cards or sheets. On these they record the word they are trying to spell and underline the sound or sounds they are finding difficult. They review these when working with the teacher during guided writing or with a partner during paired writing. Analysis of the kinds of errors in the words the students attempt to spell will help teachers to determine which sounds and/or spelling rules the students have not yet mastered and they can use this information for specific sound–letter instruction. Composing text: Graphic organiser 15 can be used for this activity.

Activity 2 Students record their own prompts for sounds they struggle to remember. They include examples of how the sound can be written and words that contain this particular sound pattern or spelling rule. They use these as a resource to support their writing. They also share this with other students and may use it to explain to their peers what they know about how a sound is written.

Chapter summary This chapter has provided theory and practice to support deliberate and needsbased instruction of vocabulary, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation as an integral and important component of teaching students how to compose text.

The next chapter describes and exemplifies teaching and learning approaches for revising, editing, proofreading and evaluating writing.

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Chapter 7 Revising text

Key ideas °

° °

°

Revision is generally considered part of the composing process and involves students in making changes, corrections or improvements to their writing.

They do this through editing and proofreading.

Revision is most effective when it is supported by meaningful goals in authentic writing tasks.

Revision is not a task that is completed alone. In addition to independent work, peer interaction and teacher–student dialogue are essential components of this process.

Evaluating writing involves students in making judgements about their writing, weighing up how well a task has been completed and considering what this means for future writing.

The reflective writer Reflective writers engage in the process of revising (editing and proofreading) and evaluating their work. They do this for their own fulfilment and to prepare their writing for their audience. Reflective writers think critically about their writing—the purpose, the message they are telling and the skills and strategies they are learning to use as they compose text.

Revising: the process of making decisions about aspects of writing that the writer may wish to change, modify, correct or improve based on the expected outcomes of the task.

Editing: reading through the text and reworking if necessary, focusing on the ‘deep’ features of text—personal voice, organisation of ideas, particular structures and language.

Proofreading: correcting errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation, focusing on the ‘surface’ features of text that are important to fluency and accuracy.

Evaluating: judging and assessing the writing in relation to learning goals, success criteria, specific writing task and purpose.

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Effective writing instruction

Revising Revising generally involves students reading what they have written and making decisions about: · · · · ·

the content of their writing the clarity of their ideas and/or descriptions the structural and language features they have used the selections they have made in relation to sentence and paragraph structures, vocabulary and text organisation how effectively they have communicated knowledge and understanding.

Revising occurs through editing (see page 129) and proofreading (see page 132).

It requires students to think critically—to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.

Thinking critically is purposeful thinking, an integral component of metacognition (see page 7). It requires students to problem-solve, make decisions, gather information, analyse, synthesise, evaluate and reach solutions and conclusions.

In the context of revising writing, these skills apply to the development of text for specific purposes along with the overall effectiveness and accuracy of the writing.

Teaching students how to revise The process of revising writing can be completed with a group of students working together with teacher support, a group of students working on their own, partners working together or individual writers working independently.

Revising will often take place during and at the end of writing. The following section exemplifies these approaches.

Reading the writing of others highlights for students the importance of reading in writing. When students read what others have written, they identify aspects that might make the writing difficult to understand. This is often useful in helping students to revise and attend to their own writing.

Example 1 Students have begun a piece of explanation writing. Their teacher brings them together as a group to lead a short mini-lesson to help them to revise the way they have introduced and developed their explanations so far. The teacher demonstrates and provides prompts for students to make decisions about how well they have introduced the phenomenon to be explained and how clear they have made this for their readers. She also uses this opportunity to develop the students’ critical reading ability, teaching them how to reread what they have written with a view to identifying possible problems other readers may have in understanding what they have written.

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Revising text Example 2 Students are participating in a guided writing session. The focus of this lesson is to review the writing task, to clarify the success criteria and to share and discuss what each student has written so far.

The students have been writing a descriptive paragraph of a setting. Their goal is to paint a visual image for their readers.

Learning goal: We are learning to write a descriptive paragraph of a setting.

We will be successful when we can: •

select and use vocabulary and phrases that enable to reader to ‘see’ the setting

•

select and use vocabulary and phrases that enable the reader to ‘hear’ what is happening at the setting

•

select and use punctuation that adds to the visual image the reader will gain.

During guided writing, the teacher focuses questions, discussion and the sharing of excerpts of student writing on the following: · · · · · · ·

What was the task?

What were the learning goal and success criteria?

What do they mean?

How have you met these?

What have you written?

What are you most proud of?

What might you consider changing or improving and why?

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Effective writing instruction Example 3 Students have just completed a paired writing task and are revising their writing together in a group. They take turns to read their writing to each other, talking about what they have learned from this writing, what they have enjoyed about this task and what they have found difficult. They seek advice and feedback from others in their group to help them make decisions about what they might add, modify or remove when they edit and proofread their work. Group revision opportunities enable students to reflect on their own writing, to seek and receive feedback and to share successes with their peers.

Effective writing instruction

Possible prompts to support the group include:

Revising text: Graphic organiser 1

Revision prompts • What have you written?

• Why have you written this?

• What techniques have you used to ‘hook’ your reader?

• How have you linked your ideas together?

• What decisions did you make when selecting the content for your writing?

• What did you learn about your topic as you completed this task?

• What did you learn about writing as you completed this task?

• What did you learn about your own writing goal as you completed this task?

• What did you enjoy most when you wrote this? Why?

• What part of your writing are you most proud of? Why?

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

· · · · · · · · · ·

What have you written?

Why have you written this?

What techniques have you used to ‘hook’ your reader?

How have you linked your ideas together?

What decisions did you make when selecting the content for your writing?

What did you learn about your topic as you completed this task?

What did you learn about writing as you completed this task?

What did you learn about your own writing goal as you completed this task?

What did you enjoy most when you wrote this? Why? What part of your writing are you most proud of? Why?

Revising text: Graphic organiser 1 can be used for this activity.

Example 4 Students are working with a partner from their writing group. Each pair of students must work together in problem-solving about their own individual writing. Through sharing and discussion, pairs develop knowledge of successes and common writing problems they may each be encountering. Pair revision also provides an opportunity for partners to give advice and support to each other and provides the first audience—a friendly voice—for writing that is yet to be shared with others.

A problem I had when writing this was

I could solve this by

The following chart supports pair revision of writing.

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Revising text

Revising with a partner Begin by reading your writing to your partner.

Ask your partner to share what they liked about your writing.

Read the writing a second time together.

Ask your partner to tell you anything they did not understand.

Ask your partner to suggest any ways you might improve your writing.

Thank your partner for their feedback.

Swap roles.

Example 5 Students are revising their writing independently. As they revise, they may record questions or notes that they would like to seek feedback on as they edit and proofread their work. These may be notes to themselves, recorded as they think critically about how effective their writing has been, or notes for others to provide feedback.

One thing I would like help on is …

Effective writing instruction

Revising text: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Progress notes Date

What I did

How successful I was

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What support I need (teacher, group, partner, other)

Students can read their work independently and use a graphic organiser to take notes on what they did, how successful they think they were and what support they might still need. They think about their own learning goals and how successfully they have met them in this task. The notes students keep can be used in guided writing, in paired revision and in conferences with peers and teachers. Revising text: Graphic organiser 2 can be used for this activity.

Revising: Editing writing Editing is the process of reading what has been written and thinking critically about the ideas, details, content, structure and organisation, vocabulary, audience and purpose. These aspects of writing are commonly referred to as the ‘deep’ features of writing. As students edit, they ask themselves questions that include: · · · ·

Can I make this better?

Can I make this clearer?

Do I need to re-structure or re-arrange some of my ideas?

Does what I have written meet my purpose for writing?

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Effective writing instruction Editing is, therefore, a most effective way of helping students to learn how to self-regulate their own writing.

Teaching students how to edit As students learn about the process of editing and how to edit, writing instruction will often focus on specific criteria for editing. These criteria are explained and demonstrated to students through modelled and guided instructional practices.

Teachers deliberately support students in becoming familiar with the process of editing through a range of approaches that may include: · · · · · · ·

learning goals and success criteria for editing explicit editing instruction exemplars of their own and others’ writing charts and instructions for editing student editing cards self-reporting, self-assessing, peer assessment and peer editing group editing practices that promote collaborative practice and opportunities to learn about editing.

Sharing and developing editing goals Specific learning goals and success criteria for editing are established in relation to particular writing tasks, purposes for writing and the skills and strategies being taught. In this way, editing is effective in reinforcing instructional goals. Writing strategies reinforced through editing may include: ·

·

·

· · ·

How have you deliberately linked to the prior knowledge of the readers at the beginning of the writing? How effectively have you developed this throughout the whole text? How do you know?

What visual image did you plan to portray for your readers—what did you want them to see, feel, hear and taste? How effectively have you done this?

How do you know?

What did you want your readers to infer as they read? What did you do to help them read your text and make this inference? How do you think your readers will respond to your writing?

Review the purpose of your writing and ask, ‘Do I need to re-craft sections of text?’

What use has been made of language features? Why did you make these choices? Is your selection and use of these effective?

Have you included techniques and language to add ‘personal voice’ to your writing? How effective have you been? Do you need to make any changes—add anything or remove anything not needed?

Questions and prompts for editing may also be linked to a specific text type, to particular content, to detail in vocabulary choice or to the degree and quality of personal voice as it affects the reader. Editing also effectively reinforces the links between reading and writing.

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Revising text

Learning goals and success criteria for editing The following are examples of possible learning goals.

We are learning to: · · ·

· ·

· ·

·

add extra detail to our writing to help the readers understand what we think, feel, know revise our writing to check that we have used interesting vocabulary, e.g. adjectives to describe nouns, adverbs to describe verbs revise our writing to check that we have varied the length and structure of our sentences. Have we used compound sentences? Have we used simple sentences? Are our sentences different lengths? ask and revise. Have we selected the best type of sentence to make our meaning clear? re-read to check that our meaning is clear. What will our readers think, what key messages will our readers get? How will they get these? Are they the messages we wanted them to get? check that what we have written meets the purpose of our task ask questions of our writing. Does our writing have impact? How do we know?

Is this effective? How do we know? How else could we do this? Do we need to add anything? What would this do and how would it improve our writing? respond to the feedback of others about our writing.

The following examples show how teachers have identified specific learning goals for editing as part of the revision process and have worked with students to clarify what the goals mean and what students will be able to do if they are successfully meeting these goals.

Example 1: Asking questions about writing Students are learning how they can edit their work by asking questions about what they have written and how effective it is, and how to be reflective and responsive about their own and others’ writing.

Learning goal: We are learning to ask questions to help us independently revise our work and make changes as needed. To do this, we will read our work, think critically and ask ourselves questions about what we have written and why we have written it this way. Then, when needed, we will make changes and improvements to our writing.

We will be successful when we can ask and answer the following questions about our writing: •

Does our writing make sense?

•

Has our writing said what we intended?

•

Are our ideas clearly stated?

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•

Have we created the image or inference we intended?

•

Is our purpose for writing clear?

•

How appropriate are the vocabulary choices we have made?

•

How appropriate are our sentence choices (structural and content)?

•

Have we maintained the same register, tense and style through our writing?

Example 2: Responding to feedback on writing Students are learning to seek, give, accept and act on feedback. This includes feedback from the teacher, from others in their writing group, from partners and from wider audiences who may read their writing.

Learning goal: We are learning to respond to the feedback of others. This is important because the feedback we get from others helps us to know what readers understand when they read our writing and what they think about how we have written this. Feedback helps us to think about how we can improve our writing so that others will enjoy reading it. It also helps us to think about how we can use the suggestions of others to make our writing even better!

We will be successful when we can: •

ask others for feedback

•

listen to what they say

•

think about what they said and why they said this

•

think about what we can learn from the feedback

•

make changes that we think will make our writing even better!

Revising: Proofreading writing Proofreading is the process of finding and correcting errors in writing. As students develop as reflective writers, they learn to know about and use a range of proofreading strategies to find and correct errors in their spelling, punctuation and grammar. They do this during and after writing. The proofreading that occurs after writing usually occurs as the final process—after the revising and editing is complete—in final preparation for the reader. Students learn to verbalise the actions and strategies they use to find and correct their errors and to make their writing more ‘readable’ and enjoyable for their readers.

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Revising text

Teaching students how to proofread Work with students to develop definitions for proofreading. For example: · · · · ·

Proofreading is looking for and fixing up errors.

Proofreading is a bit like searching for errors and then fixing them up when you find them.

Proofreading is making your writing accurate so your reader can read it fluently and understand what you mean.

Proofreading is reading slowly to see if what you thought you had written is actually what you did write!

Proofreading is having a second chance to get your writing right!

When students learn to proofread, they learn to read their writing back to themselves—slowly and often out loud. As students read, they pay attention to accuracy and ask themselves: Does what I have written make sense? Is what I have written and how I have written it accurate? It is important to read slowly—fast proofreaders can miss a lot of mistakes!

Proofreading can be completed with teacher support during guided writing, with a partner, in a small group setting and independently. A mix of these approaches is often best when supporting and developing student proofreading knowledge and behaviours.

The think-aloud approach When students use the think-aloud approach (see page 14), they say everything they think and everything that occurs to them while performing a task (Davis 2011). The think-aloud approach is very useful in helping students to explain their actions and thoughts while they are proofreading their writing and making decisions about how to identify and correct errors in their work. Below are three examples of student think-alouds that demonstrate the actions they take and the strategies they use to find and correct their spelling errors.

Think-aloud example 1 Ramanika demonstrates that she has strategies for identifying and then solving spelling errors in her writing.

I look for words that I underlined when I was writing. I underlined these words because I wasn’t sure how to spell them and I didn’t think they looked right when I attempted to spell them.

I say the word out loud to myself and think about the sounds the word contains and the structure of the word. I try to see what part of the word I might need to change and I make these changes to the word. If I’m still not sure if the word looks right or is spelt correctly, I use a dictionary to check the spelling.

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Effective writing instruction Think-aloud example 2 Georgia demonstrates that she has strategies for using a dictionary or other word source.

When I am not sure how to spell a word, I check that I have spelt the beginning of the word correctly. Then I use a dictionary or other word source to help me work out the correct spelling. When I am checking for the word, I say the word to myself and think about the syllables and sounds I hear.

Think-aloud example 3 Zack demonstrates that he can verbalise the reasons for making changes to punctuation.

When I read this out loud, I did not think that what I had written was very clear. I decided to make my one long sentence into two shorter sentences. I added an exclamation mark to the end of the second sentence to show my reader that the lady in my story was VERY surprised about what had happened.

Explicit questioning Teachers can also question students to encourage them to explain the proofreading choices they make. For example: · · ·

· ·

If you want your reader to be easily able to comprehend this writing, what grammar will you need to change? What might you need to add?

How do you want your reader to feel as they read this? How have you used punctuation to help them feel this way?

Is your writing in the past, present or future tense? How do you know? What words have you used to indicate tense? Is the tense consistent throughout your writing?

How can you help your reader to be able to read your text with fluency and expression?

Does what you have written make sense? Does what you have written sound right? Does what you have written look right? How do you know?

Establishing individual proofreading targets Effective writing instruction

Revising text: Graphic organiser 5 Name:

Comment Date

My proofreading goals

How I will achieve these

How I am going

Proofreading goals

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Students can find and fix their own personal proofreading targets. Targets will be in relation to specific learning goals and corrective instruction students have received. Revising text: Graphic organiser 5 can be used for this activity.

Learning goals for proofreading Students can have either individual or group learning goals to support the process of proofreading for spelling, grammar and punctuation. Examples of these goals are included below. Teachers and students select those that are most appropriate to student needs.

Revising text Example 1: Proofreading for spelling I am learning to proofread for accuracy of spelling. If I do not know how to spell a word, what will I do? If I am not sure if my attempted spelling is correct, what will I do?

•

Say the word out loud to myself.

•

Ask myself, ‘How many syllables can I hear?’

-

Say syllable 1 out loud to myself. Ask myself, ‘What sounds do I hear— first sound, next sound, latter sound(s)?’

-

Ask myself, ‘What letters or letter combinations can be used to represent these sounds?”

•

Ask myself, ‘Are there any prefixes?’

•

Ask myself, ‘Are there any suffixes?’

•

Use my visual memory of the word (or parts of the word).

Example 2: Proofreading for punctuation I am learning to: •

use correct punctuation—capital letters for proper nouns and to start sentences, full stops, question marks, exclamation marks, commas for lists and pauses, apostrophes for possession

•

use correct punctuation when writing direct speech—speech marks, capitals, commas, question marks, exclamation marks, full stops

•

use punctuation to add meaning and interest to my writing

•

proofread for accuracy of punctuation

•

proofread for effectiveness of punctuation (this links to editing—purpose and audience).

Example 3: Proofreading for grammatical accuracy

I am learning to: •

check if my writing makes grammatical sense -

the structure of my sentences

-

the consistency of tense

-

the order of the words I have used

-

the clarity of my handwriting.

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Effective writing instruction Example 4: Proofreading for legibility of writing I am learning to: •

form my letters and words correctly and legibly

•

write so my reader can read what I write!

Evaluating Evaluating is the process of determining the merit of what you have done.

Evaluation usually takes place alongside shared and explicit expectations or outcomes. In the context of writing and writing instruction, this means students making decisions about how well they have written in relation to the expectations and demands of instruction and of the writing task.

How well have I completed this task?

How good is my writing?

Is my writing up to standard?

Did my writing meet the expectation?

What mark should my writing get and why?

Students’ evaluation of their own writing is used as a source of formative assessment (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching). Peer evaluation is also an important process of writing.

Who is the intended audience? How do we know? Is it clear to the reader?

What is the purpose for the writing? How do we know? Is it clear to the reader?

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How clearly is the writing organised? Are the paragraphs well organised?

Is there enough detail? Can I follow the main ideas?

Does the writing ‘talk’ to me? Do I get anything from reading this? Do I enjoy reading this?

Revising text

Graphic organisers The following section describes graphic organisers that support the processes of revising, editing, proofreading and evaluating. All of these tasks provide useful reflection and sources of formative assessment (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching). As well, they can be used to set future learning focuses and learning goals, commonly known as ‘next steps learning’.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 1

Revising text: Graphic organiser 1

Revision prompts • What have you written?

• Why have you written this?

• What techniques have you used to ‘hook’ your reader?

• How have you linked your ideas together?

• What decisions did you make when selecting the content for your writing?

• What did you learn about your topic as you completed this task?

• What did you learn about writing as you completed this task?

• What did you learn about your own writing goal as you completed this task?

• What did you enjoy most when you wrote this? Why?

• What part of your writing are you most proud of? Why?

This graphic organiser provides revision prompts as referred to on page 128.

Teachers and students can select from these for oral and/or written revision tasks.

The prompts can be cut out and pasted on cards and used for group and pair revision. The teacher may also be in this group, either participating or taking notes on students’ ability to think critically about their own writing and their writing achievements.

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Text © 2013 Alison Davis. Published by Eleanor Curtain Publishing.

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 2

Revising text: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Progress notes Date

What I did

How successful I was

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What support I need (teacher, group, partner, other)

Students use this graphic organiser to record notes on their progress. They record the date, what the task was and how successful they think they were. Then they record any help they might need and who they would like this help from—their teacher, a group, a partner or other. This note-taking graphic organiser is a useful reflection and revision tool and can be used by students when they are working with the teacher and with other students. It is especially useful as formative assessment (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching) and for use in guided writing.

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 3

Revising text: Graphic organiser 3

Proofreading prompts: Punctuation

When I think about the punctuation I will use, I think about what I want my reader to understand, think, learn and enjoy as they read my writing.

Punctuation I can use to correct and/or improve my writing might include:

C

Capital letters to start sentences and for proper nouns

.

A full stop to end a sentence

,

Commas when I write a list

,

Commas to pause between ideas and clauses

?

A question mark to indicate that a question is being asked

!

An exclamation mark to show a strong feeling

:

A colon to introduce a list or an explanation in a sentence

;

A semi-colon to separate two major parts of a sentence

…

An ellipsis—three dots in a row to show that part of a sentence is missing

This graphic organiser contains proofreading prompts that students can use as they proofread their work for punctuation. It can be kept in individual students’ writing books or can be housed in a class writing centre. It can also be used to create a group chart for teacher modelling and shared and guided writing instruction on punctuation and proofreading.

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 4

Revising text: Graphic organiser 4 Name:

This graphic organiser is to assist peer editing of writing. Students are asked to grade and comment on specific aspects of writing. Two questions require students to grade from 1 to 4 (low to high). This can be adapted to include other peer editing criteria.

Peer editing Purpose Is the purpose clear?

1

2

3

Low

4 High

What is it?

Who is the intended audience?

How do we know?

Organisation How clearly is the writing organised?

1

2

3

Low

4 High

Is there an introduction?

Is the topic developed?

What are the main ideas?

Is there a conclusion?

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 5

Revising text: Graphic organiser 5 Name:

This graphic organiser enables students to plan how they will meet their proofreading goals. They list what the goals are and record a plan for how they will achieve these. They comment on how they are going at different dates as one way of self-monitoring and self-assessing their progress

Comment Date

My proofreading goals

How I will achieve these

How I am going

Proofreading goals

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Graphic organiser 6

Revising text: Graphic organiser 6 Name:

Comment Date

My editing goals

How I will achieve these

How I am going

Editing goals

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This graphic organiser is similar to graphic organiser 5, except it is used to support editing goals.

Revising text

Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 7

Revising text: Graphic organiser 7 Name:

This graphic organiser enables students to evaluate their own progress and achievements against specific writing criteria. They record the criteria they are working towards, and grade themselves on how well they are achieving the goal.

Then they record a reason for the grade they gave themselves. This record works best when, each time the student records their grade, they write in the date. This way, both progress and achievement can be tracked.

Criteria

Not there yet

Going OK

Getting Got it! much better

Reason

Evaluation

These records are also a useful reflection and revision tool and can be used by students when they are working with teachers and other students. It is especially useful as formative assessment (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching) and for use in guided writing.

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Graphic organisers 8 and 9

Effective writing instruction

Revising text: Graphic organiser 8 Name:

Date:

Editing and proofreading: Self-report 1 Skills I have been working on

Effective writing instruction

Revising text: Graphic organiser 9 Name:

Date:

What I have achieved

Editing and proofreading: Self-report 2 What I have been learning

How well I have achieved this ✸

✸✸

✸✸✸

✸✸✸✸

Both of these graphic organisers provide self-reports for students on editing and proofreading. Graphic organiser 8 requires student comments. Graphic organiser 9 requires student grading of outcomes and has space for student and teacher comments.

What I need to do next

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Teacher comments:

My comments:

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Effective writing instruction

Graphic organiser 10

Revising text: Graphic organiser 10 Name:

Date:

Writing reflection and feedback This writing shows

I want you to notice

This graphic organiser is a peer or group feedback form for writing. The student who wrote the piece completes this form stating what the writing shows, what they are learning to do and what feedback they would like from their peer.

My favourite part is

Please give me feedback on

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Effective writing instruction

Revising text: Graphic organiser 11

Graphic organiser 11

Peer feedback form Peer reviewer name:

Peer reviewer name:

Peer reviewer name:

Three things I liked:

Three things I liked:

Three things I liked:

One thing to consider:

One thing to consider:

One thing to consider:

This graphic organiser is a peer feedback form. Up to three peers may use each graphic organiser. The peers each read the piece of writing and then record what they like about the writing and one thing they would like the writer to think further about or improve.

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Chapter summary This chapter has provided a wide range of examples for teaching and learning revision strategies for writing. Revision is an important part of the composing process and involves students in making changes, corrections or improvements to their writing. This chapter has outlined a range of approaches through which students revise as they edit and proofread their work. It has described authentic writing tasks in which revision occurs and has described collaborative approaches involving teachers, students, peers and groups of students in a range of activities.

The following chapter explains and illustrates the importance of creating opportunities for students to celebrate and respond to the writing they engage in through instructional writing programs.

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Chapter 8 Celebrating and responding to writing Key ideas °

° ° ° °

Having a clear purpose and audience for writing is highly motivating for students, and involving them in determining this is an effective way to build motivation.

Students can learn a lot about writing through investigating their own and other’s writing.

Maintenance of skills and strategies for writing is an important aspect of everyday class practice.

Allowing students a choice in writing activities provides an incentive for involvement and interest in writing.

There are a wide and exciting range of possibilities in the creation and celebration of writing.

Opportunities for instruction This chapter describes and explores a range of activities students can undertake in response to writing. Not all writing needs to have something ‘happen’ as a result— it can be written and enjoyed for what it is and for what the writer has achieved.

However, in some cases, celebrating and responding to writing can be critical in sharing writing with others, building motivation and self-efficacy towards writing, providing challenges to extend and interest writers and adding variety and fun to the writing program. This chapter details some of these activities as outlined below: · · · · ·

activities to innovate on writing developing writing projects investigating the writing of others providing choice celebrating and enjoying finished products.

Innovating on writing Writing can be extended at various stages of the writing process—at the planning stage, the composing stage, the revising stage and at the final product. An innovation is when something is changed, modified, adjusted or reworked. It does

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Effective writing instruction not mean the original piece of writing was not good—instead, innovation on writing enables a student to take a piece of well- written text and to ‘play’ with the structure and ideas within it to create a text of their own. Students may innovate on the writing of an author they are reading in class, the writing modelled by their teacher and/or the writing of peers either from their own or a different class.

The activities below illustrate some of the ways innovation of writing can be incorporated into classroom writing programs.

Activity 1: Changing structure A group of students is writing to change the structure of a completed text.

Students work together to read, discuss and record the main ideas in the text as illustrated below. In this case, the text they have been reading was written by one of their classmates and is a recount about going fishing.

waiting for fish

waders equipment needed bait

rod

catching lots of fish

keeping warm Going fishing

excitement and challenge

the big catch

The task for these students is to rewrite the main ideas as a letter to a friend.

Students need to consider the purpose for writing, who will read the letter, what content they will include and how they will structure the ideas in their letter. After initial discussion, students complete this task in pairs. When complete, they share their letters with the original author and others in their class.

This may be modified to be a group or an independent writing task or a task completed with teacher support through shared or guided writing.

Activity 2: From recipe to recount Students are reading instructions on how to bake a cake. The instructions are from a recipe book. After reading (and maybe baking the cake), their task is to rewrite the main instructions and actions in the recipe as a recount between two people of their choice. In preparation for recount writing, the teacher reminds students about the structural and language features of a recount and students

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Celebrating and responding to writing source examples of recounts from their own and classroom writing resources.

They work as a group to make a list to summarise characteristics of effective recount writing before embarking on this task. Then they begin the task of recount writing.

The characteristics of recount writing that students identify may be used for self and peer assessment and group reflection after the recounts have been completed.

What’s important when writing recounts?

•

Retell events and actions in the order they happened.

•

Include who, when, where and why.

•

Tell what happened.

•

Use sequence words.

•

Use subject-specific language as needed.

•

‘Hook’ the audience.

Activity 3: Rewriting content Using the content of a text, students are required to think critically to rewrite the text (or part of it) for a different purpose. As they make changes to the text to fit the revised purpose, they will make decisions about introductory statements, vocabulary selection, verbs (in particular ‘said’ if direct speech is used), punctuation and the type of sentences they will use. They may also add or alter visual supports to match the text. Students will also consider: · · · ·

If you were writing to entertain your audience, what would you change?

If you were writing to call your audience to action, what would you change?

If you were writing to appeal to your audience’s sense of justice, what would you change?

If you were writing to inform your audience about this event, what would you change?

Activity 4: Changing a recount Students innovate on a text to change a recount to a: · · · · ·

letter email comic strip conversation between two or three people diary entry.

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Activity 5: Changing a written report Students innovate on a text to change a written report to a: · · ·

radio script, focusing on direct speech and techniques for fluency (e.g. pitch, tone, speed, expression) present-tense recount, focusing on tense vocabulary memo.

Developing writing projects Provide students with opportunities to develop a range of different texts, written for either the same or different purposes, and using a variety of text types.

Sometimes the tasks and content of these writing projects will be determined by the teacher, often in response to cross-curricula studies or current events. However, most often the writing projects will be co-constructed by the students and the teacher. Using this approach, the teacher and students determine the content of the writing, the scope of the writing task and the degree of support needed.

Activity 1: Developing a magazine Groups of students work together to develop a magazine in response to a crosscurricula study. In co-constructing the writing project, the teacher and students consider a range of factors including: · · · · ·

What will be the title of the magazine?

What will the contents page contain?

What visuals will be included in the magazine?

Will the magazine include illustrations with captions, photographs with captions, diagrams, charts, bullet points, speech bubbles and advertisements?

What other sections will be included? For example, letters to the editor, ‘Did You Know’ section, questions and answers section.

Activity 2: Interest-based writing Students are divided into interest-based writing groups, choosing from one of the following topics: competitive sport, beach safety, care of animals. Students in each group contribute to a group writing project and present their writing using a range of visual and written media.

Activity 3: Graphic novel response Having read a graphic novel with the class, the teacher assigns a writing project that requires students to explore further the main ideas and the actions of the characters. Students choose two writing tasks from the following:

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Celebrating and responding to writing · · ·

·

an advertisement promoting an event in the novel that is to be recorded as oral text for a radio audience and include a jingle a sequel—writing another section to the text telling about an event the characters attended after the story ended a character study detailing the actions, thoughts and personality of one of the characters, including information that answers ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’ and ‘will’ rewriting a favourite action section of the text as a script to be performed by a group of three or four students.

Investigating the writing of others In these examples, students write to review the work of others. The fiction or nonfiction materials the class have used as part of instruction, or the writing of their peers, can be used for this task.

Activity 1: Writing a critique Students write a critique of what they have read. They are asked to: · ·

Effective writing instruction

describe what they think the purpose of the text was evaluate the writing that has been read. Prompts for evaluating writing include: – Discuss the strong and weak aspects of what was read – This was good because …

– This could have been more interesting if …

– One thing I would have liked to have seen included in this writing was …

Activity 2: Reviewing an information text

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 1 Name:

Students are asked to record what they learned as a result of reading an information text, what the main idea and supporting facts were and to give the writing an overall assessment. Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 1 can be used with this activity.

Review of writing: Information text Title:

Author:

When I read your writing, I learned about …

The main idea in this writing was …

The supporting facts were …

My overall assessment of this writing is … because …

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Effective writing instruction

Activity 3: Reviewing a fiction text

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 2 Name:

Review of writing: Fiction text Title:

Author:

This writing was about

The characters were

What the characters did in the story

Students are asked to summarise what a fiction text is about, identify the main characters and what they did and construct a timeline of the main events. They also are required to identify the part of the text they liked best and why. Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 2 can be used with this activity.

A timeline of the main events

The part I liked best was

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Activity 4: Considering purpose Students are asked to consider the purpose of the writing they are investigating, the clues provided for readers to help them identify the purpose and how effective the writer was in meeting this purpose. In completing this writing task, the students:

Effective writing instruction

· · ·

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 3 Name:

Non-fiction text: What will you write today?

1

1

2

2

Instructions

·

consider the author’s purpose for writing this text consider other possible purposes for writing this text list the purpose(s), and the features and content of the text that related to the purpose state how effectively they thought the purpose was met and why.

Report 3

3

4

4

Argument Explanation 5

5

6

6

Persuasion Recount

Consider the use of headings, subheadings, diagrams, maps etc.

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Effective writing instruction

Providing choice The following are examples of writing opportunities where students have choice in what they write about and how they write.

Activity 1: Choosing topic and format

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 4 Name:

Fiction text: What will you write today?

1

1

Conversation 2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

Three descriptive paragraphs Short story Play Poem

6

6

Myth

Think of descriptive words and phrases and how to use punctuation to develop strong images for your reader.

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A list of six numbered topics and six numbered text formats is provided to students. Topics are decided by the teacher and/or students to relate to content and cross-curricula studies students are engaged in at the time. Students roll a die to choose a topic and a text format and complete the writing based on the numbers they roll. Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organisers 3, 4 and 5 can be used with this activity. Graphic organiser 3 is a template for non-fiction writing, Graphic organiser 4 is a template for fiction writing and Graphic organiser 5 is a blank template that students and/or teachers can complete.

Effective writing instruction

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 5 Name:

What will you write today?

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5

5

6

6

When you have finished, share your writing with a partner.

EDIT

PROOFREAD

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Effective writing instruction

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 6

Activity 2: Writing menus

Name:

Menu for writing Starter

Main course

Dessert

Text formats to choose from: poem

play

report

recount

comic

instructions speech

invitation

song

description

dialogue

postcard

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letter

advertisement

fairytale

other _______________

review

Teachers and students develop writing ‘menus’, thinking about the two or three courses they will have—a small piece, a larger piece and a ‘sweetener’. Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 6 provides a blank menu that can be used with this activity. ·

The first course is a ‘starter’. Students talk about what text format might provide a starter and list this as a starter task for writing.

Celebrating and responding to writing · ·

The main course is the big course. Students talk about what text format would be the main course and list this under ‘main meal’.

The dessert is the sweetener—the ‘icing on the cake’. Students talk about what text format would make the dessert list.

Students then choose from their writing menu to write on a variety of topics.

A range of text formats can be used within the menu. For example, on the topic of conservation, the starter could be an email, the main course a speech and the dessert an advertising jingle.

Celebrating and enjoying the finished product The following activities focus on celebrating writing; they are ‘crowning’ activities at the culmination of writing. While not all writing will end with a culminating activity, over the period of a term and a year, students benefit from opportunities to celebrate their writing and the achievements they have made.

Effective writing instruction

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 7

Preparing writing for a readers theatre presentation Select part or all of the writing to present as a readers theatre performance to other students in your class.

Talk to other members of your group and decide how you will do this—which parts you will read together, which parts you will assign to different people and the different ways you will use your voices.

Tasks • Make decisions • Assign text sections and roles • Practise • Perform

Tone Speed Pitch Volume

231769

231769

★★★★★★★★ Remember the prosodic features:

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Activity 1: Preparing writing for a readers theatre presentation Readers theatre is when a group of students prepare a piece of writing for presentation. In this instance, the text they are using is one written by themselves or their peers. The writing is prepared as a script to be presented orally. It is divided up into different parts to be performed. There are no scenes, actions or props. Instead, ‘voices’ are assigned to different readers who practise reading their parts aloud before presenting the script together.

The text can be divided into several parts. Students may be assigned alternating lines, different parts of speech, groups of lines, character parts or narrator parts.

The goal is to present the text, paying attention to fluency, tone, pace, pausing, expression and pitch.

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 7 provides information for students on this activity.

Effective writing instruction

Activity 2: Designing a poster to accompany a text

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 8

Make a poster Task • Design a poster to accompany the text you have been reading.

Preparation • Read the text several times.

• Make note of the main ideas you will illustrate on your poster.

• Think about how you will do this: — illustrations

— key words

— diagrams

— labels

— headings

— subheadings

— other • Think about visual presentation techniques: — use of colour

— font

— borders

— size

— space

— pictures

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Students design a poster for a fiction or non-fiction text they have written or for one written by a peer. After reading the text, they think about the main ideas and note those they wish to include in their poster. They make decisions about how they will include these ideas, including possible use of illustrations, diagrams, heading, subheadings, labels and key words. They think about the best way to present the information visually and prepare their poster for their audience.

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 8 provides information for students on this activity.

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Activity 3: Hot seat

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 9 Name:

Hot seat role-play Questions I would like to ask the character Who

This activity is a form of role-play based on fiction writing completed by students.

Students take turns at sitting in the ‘hot seat’—a chair in the classroom.

When

Why

How

Where

Other

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Students read and discuss each other’s writing. They discuss the characters, their personalities and their actions. One student assumes the role of a character from either their own or a peer’s text. The student sits in the hot seat while other students ask questions of their character. Questions can be pre-written to guide role-play. Students take turns at sitting in the hot seat.

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 9 provides questions for this activity.

Activity 4: Role-play or mime Students work in groups of three to five to prepare each other’s writing as a role-play or mime. They assign a narrator (for role-play), characters and actions.

Role-play and mime can be performed with or without props, depending on class organisation.

Activity 5: Storyboard Students develop storyboards for their own or another student’s writing. A storyboard contains a series of illustrations presented in sequence that visually tell the story. Students decide which aspects of the text are to be featured on the storyboard and then prepare it for viewing. This may be presented using traditional forms or electronic media, e.g. PowerPoint.

Activity 6: Design a trailer for the text Students preview a range of online book trailers for texts with which they are familiar. They identify and discuss characteristics of the trailers, considering such features as: · · · ·

how the trailer appeals to the audience visual supports and layout throughout the trailer use of key vocabulary decisions about size, font, colour, layout, sound and background.

They work in small groups to prepare a book trailer for their own or another student’s writing. When completed, book trailers may be viewed online by other students, friends and family members.

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Celebrating and responding to writing

Activity 7: Making an oral recording to accompany the text Students prepare, record and present their own writing as an oral text for others to listen to. Alternatively, they work in groups of three to five to do this.

Background sound effects may be added. The text and recording could be placed in the library corner.

Adaptations of this activity include: · · ·

presenting the text as a radio play use of online speaking and presentation resources presenting a puppet show where students perform their writing, using finger puppets for characters (fiction text) or experts telling others about a topic (non-fiction text).

Activity 8: Writing for a blog Students prepare their work for presentation on a school or class blog. They include a note about the writing and/or the writing task and a blurb about themselves. They may also include a feedback schedule in which students ask for particular feedback of their writing. Feedback can be from peers, teachers, students in other classes and family members.

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Activity 9: Developing PowerPoint presentations Students prepare all or part of their writing as a PowerPoint presentation to share with others. This can be for the purpose of peer teaching information in nonfiction text or for enjoyment of character, theme or plot in fiction text. PowerPoint presentations may also be animated. Students can come up with their own ideas about how to present information for their audience in this way.

Activity 10: Video ‘book sells’ Students prepare a video ‘book sell’ for their writing. A book sell is designed to convince others that this is a ‘must read’ that they must not miss out on! Props and background music may be used. Book sells can include interviews with the author, characters and an ‘expert’; readings of specific sections of text; and a roleplay of characters or of a specific event in the text.

Maintenance programs for writing The final section of this book looks at a very important aspect of teaching and learning: the maintenance of taught skills, strategies and understandings.

What does a maintenance program in writing look like?

A maintenance program includes: · · · · ·

key learning goals revisited throughout the year so that students have ongoing opportunities to practise and develop expertise in them students setting goals based on their current writing ability, feedback from others and self-assessment students self-evaluating their progress and achievement in response to maintenance opportunities opportunities to share writing with others resources to support maintenance tasks.

Example of a maintenance program in writing Ms Kyriakos plans her writing program in five-week blocks. She sets the learning goals based on the needs of her students (see Chapter 2: Assessment information to inform teaching) and selects and plans to cover a range of teaching approaches in this time (see Chapter 4: Teaching approaches). Content and text types for instruction are organised to include a range of writing experiences.

In addition, in each five-week block she also asks herself: What aspects of previous writing instruction do I need to provide ongoing practice with so that my students continue to develop and improve?

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Celebrating and responding to writing

Effective writing instruction

Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 10 Name:

Individual learning goals During writing maintenance, I am going to work towards getting better with these writing processes, skills and strategies.

My goals

How I am going

•

•

•

•

How has my writing improved?

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She uses this information to plan a rich maintenance program that will support her students to retain and strengthen the writing learning goals and practices that they have previously been taught. Her students will also be involved in setting and monitoring individual learning goals for maintenance over this time. Celebrating and responding to writing: Graphic organiser 10 provides a template for students to record their learning goals.

The example below is a section of Ms Kyriakos’s planning for writing maintenance over a five-week block. The focus is to provide practice in creating exciting, interesting introductory paragraphs that will ‘hook’ the reader in to want to read more. Ms Kyriakos prepares three tasks for this maintenance goal as follows.

Task 1 Work with the class to make a list of topics and/or sentence starters for students to choose from. Topics to be specially selected so that they link to students’ reallife experiences. Students write introductory paragraphs for each topic they select.

Refer students to exemplars of ‘great’ introductions collected from previous instruction (either written by students or found in favourite texts) and now posted online or in the class library.

Task 2 This is a collaborative writing task. Students write exciting introductions to hook their reader. They annotate their writing to show and detail the techniques they have used. They share their writing and the techniques they have used and seek feedback from peers who critique each other’s introductions.

Task 3 The teacher writes five examples of introductory paragraphs that do not hook their reader. Students select from these with a view to improving them. They re-craft the paragraphs, then present them to the class. Students develop a class chart or digital display of ‘improved’ introductions.

It was a cold day and we were not having much fun outside and we wanted to go home. We heard thunder and decided to leave.

What can we do to improve this writing to ‘hook’ our reader and MAKE them WANT to read more?

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Effective writing instruction Below is a sample from Ms Kyriakos’s class planning documentation.

Weeks 1 –5: Maintenance program Process/skills/strategies to be maintained

What this will look like

Writing introductory paragraphs to ‘hook’ our reader

Writing topic list—self choice Annotated exemplars from reading Annotated exemplars of student’s own writing from previous lessons Peer self-assessment

Adding personal voice to introductions

Cooperative writing and peer review Re-crafting paragraphs to improve

Chapter summary This chapter has discussed and exemplified a range of approaches to celebrating writing. Not all writing needs to be presented or developed in these ways, but providing opportunities to celebrate writing throughout the year has proven to be an important factor in motivating and engaging writers of all ages.

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13–39, Academic, San Diego, California.

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Index activities 112, 118, 124, 147, 148 assessment analysing 11, 16, 18, 19, 21 formative 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 21, 25, 30, 31, 32, 62, 68, 73, 111, 136, 137, 139 peer 11, 12, 18, 22, 23, 25, 32, 46, 130, 143 self 11, 12, 18, 22, 23, 25, 46, 130, 143, 150, 152 using to inform teaching 1, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 22, 31, 55, 61, 65, 68, 72, 77 authentic purpose for writing 3, 5, 6, 64, 77, 89, 125, 140 celebrate writing 6, 22, 46, 71, 80, 81, 140, 141, 147, 152 collaborative approaches 12, 53, 54, 72, 73, 74, 77, 78, 97, 130, 140, 151 conversation 11, 12, 13, 18, 22, 31, 46, 66, 83, 109, 143 developing projects 141, 144, 150 editing 3, 6, 8, 9, 22, 46, 64, 71, 74, 79, 80, 90, 94, 125, 126, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 137, 138, 139 group discussion 23, 35, 49 ICT 78, 96 learning goals 11, 12, 17, 18, 25, 26, 32, 34, 42, 43, 48, 55, 61, 64, 68, 70, 72, 73, 76, 79, 81, 82, 83, 89, 92, 99, 110, 111, 123, 125, 129, 130, 131, 134, 137, 150, 151 lesson goals 23, 25

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metacognition 3, 6, 7, 8, 14, 16, 67, 126 mini-lessons 46, 53, 54, 65, 77, 86, 116, 126 modelled writing 7, 10, 28, 46, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 64, 65, 68, 72, 75, 84, 87, 92, 108, 112, 113, 115, 142 narrative writing 13, 35, 36, 41, 50, 68, 72, 73, 77, 78, 81, 83, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 online writing 77, 78 persuasive writing 35, 36, 48, 50, 70, 71, 77, 87, 89, 90, 91 process of writing 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 49, 53, 55, 57, 64, 78, 79, 80, 108, 115, 125, 126, 132, 136, 141 proofreading 3, 20, 22, 27, 46, 74, 79, 80, 94, 106, 118, 121, 125, 126, 128, 129, 132, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139 providing choice 141, 146 punctuation 40, 77, 81, 82, 83, 84, 92, 101, 102, 115, 116, 117, 118, 125, 127, 132, 134, 135, 138, 143 question prompts 36 reflection 11, 17, 32, 86, 99, 137, 139, 143 reviewing 9, 12, 145 self-regulation 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 15, 77 skills 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 42, 43, 47, 55, 60, 72, 75, 77, 78, 101, 120, 125, 126, 130, 141, 150, 152 speech writing 41, 63, 64, 89

Index spelling instruction 101, 102, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 132 strategies 1, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 20, 21, 42, 43, 44, 47, 55, 58, 60, 75, 77, 83, 101, 115, 120, 121, 125, 130, 132, 133, 134, 141, 150, 152 talk-aloud 14 think-aloud 11, 14, 15, 47, 60, 112, 117, 119, 133, 134 vocabulary 7, 9, 10, 14, 19, 20, 29, 30, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 44, 45, 46, 48, 50, 51, 57, 58, 60, 77, 80, 85, 86, 89, 92, 93, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 113, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 132, 143, 144, 148 writing composing 1, 3, 8, 14, 15, 25, 42, 46, 54, 55, 61, 64, 69, 71, 75, 79, 80, 101–124, 125, 141 planning 3, 9, 11, 15, 17, 18, 21, 25, 43–52, 55, 61, 65, 67, 68, 70, 72, 75, 76, 78, 80, 85, 89, 90, 92, 97, 105, 141, 151, 152 presenting 6, 9, 20, 33, 36, 44, 63, 64, 71, 74, 78, 80, 81, 90, 95, 144, 147, 149, 150 purposes 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20, 37, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 50, 55, 56, 58–61, 64, 67, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 78, 79–99, 101, 107, 109, 113, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 136, 141–146 revising 25, 46, 61, 64, 80, 90, 101, 125–140, 141

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Becoming a competent and confident writer is an exciting process for learners.

It can also be a demanding process.

Effective writing instruction provides teachers and students with the knowledge and skills to become active and engaged in the process of learning to write – and learning from writing. This resource offers explicit support for effective classroom instruction. It explores key ideas about writing and presents numerous examples of how teachers can plan for and develop instruction.

It also provides activities that actively engage learners in understanding and monitoring their own progress and achievement in writing.

Effective writing instruction is an essential resource for all teachers of writing.

Dr Alison Davis is a leading literacy researcher, writer, speaker and professional development provider. Alison is particularly well known for her research on reading comprehension. She is the author of the highly successful Building comprehension strategies and Explorations Strategies for Comprehension for informative texts.

Effective writing instruction Evidence-based classroom practices

Evidence-based classroom practices

The downloadable graphic organisers that can be used for independent, paired and small-group work during instruction, and as part of planned practice and maintenance of previous learning throughout the year. The graphic organisers also provide explicit models of formative assessment of writing practices and strategies.

Effective writing instruction

Skilled writers learn to write with enjoyment, engagement and self-efficacy for a range of purposes and audiences.

Alison Davis

Alison Davis