Teaching Writing

What is Essential?

2015

1.Clear vision of what you expect students to achieve as writers.

This means knowing what:

• The curriculum requirements of teachers/students

• Deeper/surface features of writing skills are needed to meet the curriculum requirements

• Writing achievement looks like.

http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Student-needs/National-Standards-Reading-and-Writing/National-Standards-illustrations

2. Knowing your students well.This means:

• Gathering & analysing current and past achievement information

• Using this information to learn about students strengths and weaknesses and set and share learning goals with students

• Getting to know the students as unique individualsReference: Effective Literacy Practice –Chapter 3

3. Understand the processes that writers move between to generate success.Reference: Effective Literacy Practice –Chapter 5 –

Starting page 136

This means:

4. Providing an effective programme mix regardless of year level or ability level.This means:

• Shared writing – explicit teaching/modelling/explanation

•Guided writing – students practice supported by the teacher/other students

• Independent writing – students practice independently

Reference: Effective Literacy Practice –Chapter 4 – starting page 102

5. Writing programme is placed within an authentic, meaningful, interesting and challenging context.

This means writing tasks:

•Have an identified & understood purpose and audience

•Are personally significant

•Occur across the curriculum

6. Recognising that sound instructional practice (pedagogy) makes the most significant difference.This means:

• Sharing the learning/journey

•Explore prior knowledge/scaffold

•Explicit teaching

•Time to practice

• Self or peer assessment

• Feedback

•Active reflection

7. Knowing about text

This means teachers hold the knowledge of:

• Text forms and features in general

• Features of particular text being taught

What are your reference documents as a school?

8. Recognising that today’s students are learning within a wide range of new literacies. They may respond better to visual rather than written text

and are more adept at text messaging than traditional pen-and-paper. Using the internet effectively is a huge challenge students face.

9. Ensuring students can explain what they are learning and how. – metacognition

This means:

• Students can explain what they are learning

•Why they are learning

•What they learning needs to look like

•How they are solving their writing problem/strategies they are using

10. Promote the links between writing and reading.

This means:

• Students write like readers and read like writershttp://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Teacher-needs/Writing-hub#tkibar-Links%20between%20writing%20and%20reading-0

http://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/Teacher-needs/Instructional-Series/Ready-to-Read/Ready-to-Read-in-literacy-programmes/Connections-between-reading-and-writing

11.Hold a passion /enthusiasm for writing

This means you need to:

• Communicate this to students through your interactions with them at a class, group and individual level

How are you going to start the year so your students develop a passion/enthusiasm?