Effective Approaches to Writing in the Middle Years

Every educator has dispositions, knowledge, and skills to provide high-quality literacy teaching
(Professional Learning Opportunities)

Educators: consistently apply high standards and expectations for learners, themselves and colleagues are responsive to the learner, the context and the learning opportunities take responsibility for learning outcomes, provide explicit feedback and opportunities for learners to self assess

intentionally design and evaluate literacy learning, teaching and assessment engage in focused professional learning and work collaboratively with colleagues

Quality literacy teaching works to provide:

Differentiated, explicit and effective teaching targeted to the needs of learners Planned and sequential development of literacy skills and understandings Consistent and high quality enactment of whole site literacy agreements

KEY MESSAGE

All teachers need to teach the literacy demands of their curriculum area.

Discussion Topic

What are the strategies used in to help teachers identify and understand the writing demands of their curriculum areas in the Middle Years?

Components to look at in writing literacy

Spelling Genre process

1. Curriculum Area Specific Spelling and Vocabulary

Spelling strategies Overview of spelling development Principles of spelling

Stepping Out Writing

Promotes a balanced approach to spelling- Both naturally and incidentally AND direct and explicit teaching of spelling skills and strategies

Range of Vocabulary and Spelling

What can Secondary Teachers do to work on Spelling? Spelling principles Recommended teaching emphases Overview of Spelling Development

Spelling Principles

Spelling is learned as we use it Learning to spell is part of the developmental process of learning to write Errors are identified and developmental process Exploring words and vocabulary are part of learning to spell Effective students use a number of different strategies interactively Students need to learn how to independently select, apply and self evaluate spelling strategies

List

Successful strategies currently used.

2. Written Genres in the Middle and Secondary School

Familiarity with written genres used in the middle years. Highlighting the need for explicit teaching of the stages within each genre.

Genre frameworks trainer wheels

Biography/Historical recount Discussion Explanation Exposition: Analytical Comparative essay Exposition : persuasive Letter to the editor Information report/factual description Mathematics investigation Narrative: Myth Narrative: short story Newspaper Report Procedure/Instructions Recounts: personal, factual and imaginative Science investigation

For Each Genre

Provides a framework sample / template Language features (point of view, verb tense, vocabulary)

Question

How do you think you will attend to genre development in writing?

How do you think you will attend to genre development in writing?

Selecting genre appropriate to year level and curriculum area Teaching the language features of particular genres

3. Productive Processes for Writing

Using a student centred approach for writing (using the paragraph as a focus.)

Productive Processes

Immersion- providing examples Guided reading analyse and compare Modelled writing teacher talk Joint Construction teacher and students
together

Guided Writing - group Response provide explicit feedback Independent Writing authentic

opportunities

Each process explicitly addressed in order Relates to other teaching and learning frameworks

Value of the focus on the paragraph

Topic sentence Developing sentence Supporting sentence Concluding or linking sentence

In pair, come out with an idea of a lesson to teach writing by choosing one of the THREE components listed: a) spelling b) genre C) process State the level and activities that are suitable with your lesson