17 July 2018
Writing is a focus for our school this year. Below is an article with points taken to help our writing in Kakano.
Boys will learn like boys
Article to read as part of my appraisal from Education Gazette
Points
* creative and innovative teaching practice as a major factor in literacy and engagement success among young boys, coupled with supportive leadership.
* “The main focus [of our initial research] has been to study what motivates boys to write, for those who were just a bit reluctant in class and hard to motivate.
* “One of the big things to come out of this initial survey was that the boys found it really difficult to come up with ideas. Many of them struggled with being told what to write about, they expressed a desire to come up with ideas and starters themselves; basically they wanted to write about things they found stimulating, not necessarily what the class was doing as a group.
“Another concern was spelling. Many found it hard to spell words correctly, and for that reason among others, they didn’t see themselves as good writers. Therefore writing was boring to them.”
* They had to go through the planning process. It wasn’t just ‘jump in and write’, it was about planning what was going to happen in the story, who the characters were. We did a lot of work too around descriptive language and brainstorming.”
* The importance of sharing + using technology
* the key to unlocking engagement is ownership, confidence, and self-direction.
13 August 2018
Reading as part of our Writing Inquiry
http://www.ero.govt.nz/publications/reading-and-writing-in-years-1-and-2/writing/
Points I have taken from reading this article
* Chn need a variety of writing opportunities
* point made about using the assessment to target individual writing needs of children. I do find this tricky to incorporate into my writing programme. Catering to individual needs.
* using writing assessments to inform teaching, important for me to understand the progressions moving through the levels.
What's working well in schools
* good point about sharing successful teaching approaches from other teachers in the school.
*teachers working together to critically analyse writing samples
*grouping chn with similar learning needs
*time taken to assess each others chns unassisted working samples
*important to obtain individual children’s goals or group learning intentions to carefully match to their needs
*IDEA TO DO FROM ARTICLE
Teachers shared the moderated writing sample with each child and discussed their next goal with them. Each group or individual child had writing goals recorded in their exercise books. These goals were referred to and monitored through regular teacher-children conferences, and were formally reflected on at the end of each term before setting new goals. Classroom displays highlighted examples of children’s work that successfully showed writing features described in their goals.
*Benchmarks to use
Many effective schools were using the draft Literacy Learning Progressions and The New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars as their reference points for children’s achievement.
*Blog posts?? Samples of writing, sent home to parents, included teachers’ comments about the child’s level of achievement, the skills they had mastered and what they should focus on next. Children explained their progress with their goals during three-way conferencing held as part of parent interviews. Families sometimes provided written feedback about their child’s writing progress and success. Children were well aware of what they had done well and how they could improve their writing.
Examples of effective use of writing assmts
* lots of talk about what chn need to do and kids able to say what they are working on. This is all shared with home, ie: through 3 way conf, parent interview.
What was not working well
Interesting to note how some schools only focussed on a few features of writing such as Capital letters and full stops.
* a problem - Teachers had limited understanding about appropriate levels or writing progressions because they weren’t using the reference points to set their achievement expectations or make judgements.
* writing -system limited beginning writers’ opportunities to write expressively about something meaningful to them that matched their learning need.
* Many children were not taught the writing features they specifically needed to focus on to progress to their next writing development stage.
* Parents have no understanding of what their child's writing should have or what they need to work on.
Using instructional teaching strategies in the classroom
* Children need a wide variety of experiences to motivate and engage them so they enjoy writing.
* Effective teachers -They recognise that effective teaching requires deliberate instruction balanced with opportunities for children to experiment with writing for different purposes and audiences.
*Effective teachers also understand how important it is for children to know what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they can use their new skills. In particular teachers should structure learning experiences that help children draw on oral language and enable them to transfer words encountered in speaking and reading, into their writing.
What was working well in schools
*this is nearly what we have been doing in our class
*Effective teachers gave children a purpose for writing and encouraged them to write about things and experiences they were likely to be familiar with. They used objects, artefacts, books, and visual images to motivate children to write. They also showed photographs or computer images of events and occasions, and learning activities or discoveries children had previously been involved in and could talk and write about. As part of writing motivation, teachers used big books and texts used during shared reading to reinforce how reading and writing are linked. Children could sometimes make choices about what they wanted to write about and were given many opportunities to write independently.
*Oral language activities promoted discussion about ideas and helped children to talk about what they wanted to say before they wrote. Effective questioning by the teacher encouraged children to think more deeply and clarify their thoughts before planning their writing. Children talked about the likely content of their stories with buddies or in small groups before they began writing. Teachers immediately reinforced children’s suggestions when they offered interesting or exciting words. Introductory discussions were carefully timed to ensure children were motivated and did not sit for too long. Teachers showed interest and enthusiasm in children’s ideas and writing.
* Children were given ways to improve their writing. During shared writing sessions, teachers modelled language features by writing together with individuals or groups. They carefully broke down the skills children were expected to focus on. This helped children to understand what they were learning to do and what they should be looking for in their writing. When modelling, teachers used contexts suggested by children to show how their ideas were valued. Children were taught to use diagrams, charts and pictures to plan their own writing. They could talk about the skills they were focusing on and how they could improve.
* Good classroom management made time available for teachers to support individual writers. They managed time with small groups of children who needed additional help or extension. Teachers roved around the class reinforcing children’s success with the language features or writing skills focused on in the lesson. They had conversations with individual children to help them further refine or expand their ideas, help them edit their work, and highlight their success and progress.Teachers provided many opportunities for children to assess their own learning. Children were carefully taught how to reflect on their own work and were skilled at helping peers critique their writing. They used such things as ‘I Can’ or ‘My Goals’ sheets to help them assess progress against their individual goals. They also highlighted where they had used the effective writing features in their work. Time was given to share their writing with, and receive oral feedback, from others. This helped children recognise they were writing for an audience. They confidently regulated and monitored their own progress.
There was ample support for and celebration of children’s developing writing in the classroom. Writing was valued and presented on classroom walls. Word cards and simple dictionaries for finding words, highlighter pens for editing, and computers for word processing were provided to encourage children’s independence. Children enjoyed reading together from displayed books featuring collections of their writing or that of their peers. Writing corners provided a place for children to write in their spare time and displayed successful work completed by ‘writers of the day’. Teachers created lots of opportunities for children to celebrate and affirm their writing achievements. Children were encouraged to aspire to be writers.
* Examples of effective strategies for teaching writing
Teachers use a wide range of effective instructional strategies. These include modelling and explaining new skills, and carefully sequencing learning so children can build on their previous learning. They prompt and encourage children to extend their ideas and they ask questions that encourage them to think more deeply. Children are provided with specific feedback that explains to them how well they have achieved the aspects taught in that particular lesson. The purpose of lessons is shared orally and often recorded in class learning journals. Children spoken to were able to share their learning goals.
Children work in groups or with buddies to talk about and practise new writing skills. They capably help each other by reminding their friends of the ideas they shared and suggesting ways to attempt to write new words. Their previous learning is reinforced. Pictures are used for building images in their minds that they can then write about. They regularly brainstorm words and ideas together, and the teacher reinforces their use of new words. They have opportunities to read their stories to each other, and to other classes, and they have them displayed in the classroom. Interactive boards are used in highly motivational ways by children, as well as the teacher, to develop writing skills.
What was not working well
* a school wide genre that all chn were expected to write about.
Writing sessions began and ended abruptly, with little time for motivation, instruction or reflection
Children had no opportunities to share their writing or discuss the features of good writing.
High frequency words were not displayed, or made known to children before they began writing.
Teachers did not encourage children’s attempts to form letters to represent a word. Very young children were not supported in developing their independence as writers or encouraged to take ownership of their writing.
Children’s writing books do not have any feedback or goals for improvement. The classroom has no examples of children’s writing on display.
Tuesday 18th September 2018
The Writing book (email)
New lesson plan:
Label it – humpback whale
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We hope you are all enjoying Term 3
As part of our writing project in the Cook Islands (funded by $1 per book donation from our book sales), we prepared some writing resources about humpback whales which we thought you might enjoy using.
Label it (page 114, The Writing Book)
This is an excellent activity to generate vocabulary for writing. After the teacher has introduced the activity and maybe taught one or two new words, the students can label the image with a partner. Next, students can go for a ‘Walk and talk’ (page 41, The Oral Language Book) and check and add vocabulary to their image.
Students can then compare their notes with the labelled diagram of the humpback whale.
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