Teachers as Learners

Presentation

My inquiry question...

How can I encourage

students who are reluctant to
write?

How did I develop my inquiry

question?
An EAL/D student in my class would simply not
write anything other than scribing. The reason? I
believe she was afraid of her work not being
'good enough'.
It didn't matter how much encouragement I gave
her or strategies I used, she simply wouldn't
write.

Pre-inquiry

This is a sample of the student's

work prior to my research.

This is a story starter

she has copied from the
board.

What I found...
Through my search for strategies I found a YouTube
clip about the Lucy Calkin Writing Approach. This
led me to read further...
The basis of her approach states that children should
be able to define their own individual writing style to
compose 'stories that matter'. Their writing is
meaningful to them and is a form of self-expression.

What I did...

I used a similar format to what I saw on the clip

and adapted it to suit the learning needs of my
student.
To do this I broke the task down into small,
manageable tasks where she would achieve
success along the way.

continued...
I asked her to start drawing a picture of anything
that interested her.
Halfway through I stopped her and asked her to
write 5 words about her picture.
Then she finished the picture and wrote another 5
words.
She used these words to write some sentences
about her picture.

Her picture...

Her writing...

This activity was completed a number of times

over several weeks.
I have found she has developed confidence in her
writing. She will happily complete, and is even
eager to engage in writing tasks independently.
This has also extended to her speaking.

A recent writing task...

Prior to writing this persuasive letter, she had
participated in activities including word
banking, determining importance, the main
idea and gathering background knowledge
about threats to rainforest conservation.

A recent independent writing

sample...

Thankyou!