Click As students’ progress through school, they need to write more complex texts for a wider range of academic and community purposes. Therefore the teaching of writing needs to be explicit from Kindergarten to Year 12, with clear links between academic and community purposes.
In all subjects and at all stages of learning, students need to understand the purposes and contexts of their writing. This enables them to compose written texts effectively, which involves the ability to structure texts and to use language well. Using language effectively includes being able to move, when required, from spoken to written language. Students need to be taught how to write for different audiences and for different purposes.
In all subjects there are different topics about which they will write. The demands of writing increase in complexity and sophistication as students move through school.
The teaching of writing should aim to impart a balance of knowledge, skills and understanding so that students learn to write effectively. Composing texts also requires an understanding of the development of writing as well as presentation.
The aim of teaching writing is to ensure that students learn to write effectively in community and academic contexts. To develop the skills, knowledge and understanding required, students need to learn about writing and learn through writing.
Teaching writing involves teaching students how to take into account the purpose and context of a task. It follows that tasks set in class should have authentic purposes and contexts. Teaching students to write involves teaching them to reflect on written language, how it works and what makes it effective. It also involves evaluating the effectiveness of the writing in achieving the task.
Writing should be examined at all levels, including the whole text as well as its smaller components. Explicit teaching of writing includes teaching about:
• The composition of whole texts, i.e. purpose, text structure and cohesion,
• Sentences and words, i.e. syntax, grammar, vocabulary and spelling and
• Surface features, i.e. punctuation and layout.
Students should be taught to reflect on how writing changes in different situations and differs from one culture to another. Students should also be taught how writing changes over time and is affected by technological change. Above all, students should be taught to consider the impact of their own writing on the intended reader.
Teaching students about the processes of writing equips them to produce accurate texts. For most academic purposes, the processes of writing consist of drafting, revising, and conferencing, editing, proofreading and publishing.
Drafting involves making notes of ideas, planning the text and writing the text down initially.
Revising involves reworking a text to improve ideas or amend the content. Revising might involve editing, because it often requires reorganising the text or changing sentence structures.
Conferencing involves discussing drafts with others to engage in critical reflection and clarification of meaning. Revising and editing might occur during, or be the result of, such discussions.
Editing involves changing the drafts of developing texts in order to improve the text, for example, by improving cohesion, syntax, grammar and vocabulary. Editing leads to changes which will be incorporated into the next draft of the text.
Proofreading involves preparing the final text for presentation, including reading the text to locate and fix any inaccuracies in grammar, spelling, punctuation or layout.
Publishing involves presenting the text to its intended audience. At school, this is often the teacher, although it is good to give students the experience of writing for other audiences where appropriate.
In order to compose texts that are both accurate and effective, students need to be taught how to engage in these processes with a critical understanding of how written language is used.
Teaching strategies
Effective writing programs use modelled, guided and independent teaching strategies to support students. It is important to emphasise that these three types of strategies are applicable at all stages of schooling.
Independent writing should happen in Kindergarten, while even in Year 12 there is a need for modelling and guiding. Kindergarten teachers model how to construct simple sentences and texts, while teachers of Year 12 students provide and analyse models of writing appropriate to the Higher School Certificate.
During modelled, guided and independent writing teachers need to ensure that students have a good understanding of the topic they will be writing about. This understanding might be developed through such activities as research, teacher input, presentations, class discussion or first-hand experiences such as excursions.
Knowledge of the topic and relevant research skills need to be developed through modelled, guided and independent teaching strategies.
Teachers will need to familiarise students with any subject-specific vocabulary they need, including the etymology of those words.
It is good for teachers to model the practice of using a dictionary and it is strongly advised that students in every classroom have access to a good dictionary, which should be consulted constantly by both students and teachers.
It is also important to emphasise that the three strategies of modelled, guided and independent teaching are recursive that is, teachers constantly return to them and apply them in new ways. When students achieve some independence in writing, they are ready to experience new models and receive different guidance. This means both models and modelling.
Modelled writing refers on the one hand to the selection of models to show students how writing works. It also refers to the teacher’s practice of modelling or demonstrating writing to students. The best source of models for writing is the real world, that is, the texts that students read. In modelled writing, teachers provide students with examples of the type of text they will be composing, explanations of how these texts work and structured demonstrations of what efficient writers know and do.
Modelled writing helps students gain the knowledge about language, vocabulary and text structures required to write for a range of purposes. Modelled writing should also include explicit teaching about the processes involved in composing texts. When examining models of writing, teachers can pose such questions as:
• What is the writer’s purpose?
• From whose point of view is this text written?
• For whom might this text have been written?
• What word choices signal the writer’s purpose? What would happen if we deleted or altered these words? For example, if the writer’s purpose is to entertain, how is language being used to develop a vivid image?
• What word choices signal the writer’s attitude? Are they convincing or perhaps too emotive or emphatic?
• How do adverbs, such as finally or previously, help you to follow the sequence of events?
• If the model is a narrative, in what tense is it written? What would be the effect if we changed the tense, e.g. from past to present?
In guided writing, students are required to draw on the knowledge, skills and understanding developed during modelled writing sessions, with varying degrees of support from the teacher. Guided writing activities sometimes involve students working as a group or in pairs to support each other, with the teacher as a guide.
There are various ways to conduct guided writing sessions. Guided writing sessions can involve the whole class, small groups or individuals. Guided writing sessions are also a useful strategy for providing support for students with specific needs.
A common guided writing activity involves students and the teacher jointly composing a text. The teacher might record, in random order, ideas on the topic as suggested by students. As always, it is important that this strategy should follow purposeful, extended research.
The teacher might then ask the students to start organising these ideas, perhaps drawing their attention to one of the model texts examined previously. Having thought about the content of the text and how it might be organised, students and teacher collaborate in composing a text, with the teacher scribing the developing text on the board.
Students could write in pairs the opening section of a text. The teacher could then ask them to share these with the class and discuss which ones they felt were more effective and why.
Teachers might select one of these openings and then continue to scribe the rest of the text, eliciting ideas from the students and discussing how the class could go about shaping those ideas into a text. In this way, students have an opportunity not only to participate in a collaboratively written text, but also to observe how a mature writer makes decisions about the structure of a text and the language choices available. This is modelling, which is still appropriate during guided writing.
Teachers could discuss the developing text with students, asking such questions as:
• What is our purpose?
• Who is our audience?
• How can we best affect or influence our readers?
• How might we begin this text? What does the reader need to know first?
• How should we organise the different sections of this text?
• What should we leave in or take out?
• How are we going to end the text?
While guiding students in composing the whole text, teachers should provide guidance about particular language features and choices, posing such questions as:
• Can you think of a more effective verb?
• Do we need to define this technical term?
• What tense should we be using?
• This sentence is a bit clumsy. How can we make it more concise?
• This is how we would say it, but how would we write it?
• Should we combine these two sentences? Should we split this sentence?
• What sort of punctuation do we need here?
• How can we work out the spelling of this word?
During guided writing, the teacher not only discusses text structure, language features and choices, but also demonstrates the processes involved in writing, posing such questions as:
• Let’s look at the outline we made earlier. Is it still working okay?
• Should we revise, move or delete this section of the text?
• Have we finished or are we just blocked?
Throughout the above activities, students and teachers will be developing a common language for talking about language. This language can be drawn upon when conferencing with peers, resulting in more detailed and informed feedback.
By jointly composing texts, students will develop an understanding of how spoken language differs from written language. This would be demonstrated by teachers as they mould students’ verbal contributions into the language of the written mode.
Independent writing involves students composing their own texts without help. Independent writing provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in composing a variety of texts.
When writing independently, students should be encouraged to:
• define their purpose
• identify their audience
• engage in further research if necessary
• jot down ideas and notes
• think about how to organise ideas effectively
• write drafts
• share drafts with peers and the teacher
• rework drafts in the light of comments about text organisation, cohesion, grammatical choices, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and layout
• prepare and edit a final draft
• publish and present their work for further feedback.
During the editing phase of independent writing, a greater emphasis will be placed on aspects of writing such as spelling, punctuation, handwriting, word processing and layout.
Conclusion
At all times, students should be given the support they require to compose texts independently. If, during independent writing sessions, students indicate the need for further development of knowledge, skills and understanding, teachers should provide further modelling and guidance.
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In all subjects and at all stages of learning, students need to understand the purposes and contexts of their writing. This enables them to compose written texts effectively, which involves the ability to structure texts and to use language well. Using language effectively includes being able to move, when required, from spoken to written language. Students need to be taught how to write for different audiences and for different purposes.
In all subjects there are different topics about which they will write. The demands of writing increase in complexity and sophistication as students move through school.
The teaching of writing should aim to impart a balance of knowledge, skills and understanding so that students learn to write effectively. Composing texts also requires an understanding of the development of writing as well as presentation.
The aim of teaching writing is to ensure that students learn to write effectively in community and academic contexts. To develop the skills, knowledge and understanding required, students need to learn about writing and learn through writing.
Teaching writing involves teaching students how to take into account the purpose and context of a task. It follows that tasks set in class should have authentic purposes and contexts. Teaching students to write involves teaching them to reflect on written language, how it works and what makes it effective. It also involves evaluating the effectiveness of the writing in achieving the task.
Writing should be examined at all levels, including the whole text as well as its smaller components. Explicit teaching of writing includes teaching about:
• The composition of whole texts, i.e. purpose, text structure and cohesion,
• Sentences and words, i.e. syntax, grammar, vocabulary and spelling and
• Surface features, i.e. punctuation and layout.
Students should be taught to reflect on how writing changes in different situations and differs from one culture to another. Students should also be taught how writing changes over time and is affected by technological change. Above all, students should be taught to consider the impact of their own writing on the intended reader.
Teaching students about the processes of writing equips them to produce accurate texts. For most academic purposes, the processes of writing consist of drafting, revising, and conferencing, editing, proofreading and publishing.
Drafting involves making notes of ideas, planning the text and writing the text down initially.
Revising involves reworking a text to improve ideas or amend the content. Revising might involve editing, because it often requires reorganising the text or changing sentence structures.
Conferencing involves discussing drafts with others to engage in critical reflection and clarification of meaning. Revising and editing might occur during, or be the result of, such discussions.
Editing involves changing the drafts of developing texts in order to improve the text, for example, by improving cohesion, syntax, grammar and vocabulary. Editing leads to changes which will be incorporated into the next draft of the text.
Proofreading involves preparing the final text for presentation, including reading the text to locate and fix any inaccuracies in grammar, spelling, punctuation or layout.
Publishing involves presenting the text to its intended audience. At school, this is often the teacher, although it is good to give students the experience of writing for other audiences where appropriate.
In order to compose texts that are both accurate and effective, students need to be taught how to engage in these processes with a critical understanding of how written language is used.
Teaching strategies
Effective writing programs use modelled, guided and independent teaching strategies to support students. It is important to emphasise that these three types of strategies are applicable at all stages of schooling.
Independent writing should happen in Kindergarten, while even in Year 12 there is a need for modelling and guiding. Kindergarten teachers model how to construct simple sentences and texts, while teachers of Year 12 students provide and analyse models of writing appropriate to the Higher School Certificate.
During modelled, guided and independent writing teachers need to ensure that students have a good understanding of the topic they will be writing about. This understanding might be developed through such activities as research, teacher input, presentations, class discussion or first-hand experiences such as excursions.
Knowledge of the topic and relevant research skills need to be developed through modelled, guided and independent teaching strategies.
Teachers will need to familiarise students with any subject-specific vocabulary they need, including the etymology of those words.
It is good for teachers to model the practice of using a dictionary and it is strongly advised that students in every classroom have access to a good dictionary, which should be consulted constantly by both students and teachers.
It is also important to emphasise that the three strategies of modelled, guided and independent teaching are recursive that is, teachers constantly return to them and apply them in new ways. When students achieve some independence in writing, they are ready to experience new models and receive different guidance. This means both models and modelling.
Modelled writing refers on the one hand to the selection of models to show students how writing works. It also refers to the teacher’s practice of modelling or demonstrating writing to students. The best source of models for writing is the real world, that is, the texts that students read. In modelled writing, teachers provide students with examples of the type of text they will be composing, explanations of how these texts work and structured demonstrations of what efficient writers know and do.
Modelled writing helps students gain the knowledge about language, vocabulary and text structures required to write for a range of purposes. Modelled writing should also include explicit teaching about the processes involved in composing texts. When examining models of writing, teachers can pose such questions as:
• What is the writer’s purpose?
• From whose point of view is this text written?
• For whom might this text have been written?
• What word choices signal the writer’s purpose? What would happen if we deleted or altered these words? For example, if the writer’s purpose is to entertain, how is language being used to develop a vivid image?
• What word choices signal the writer’s attitude? Are they convincing or perhaps too emotive or emphatic?
• How do adverbs, such as finally or previously, help you to follow the sequence of events?
• If the model is a narrative, in what tense is it written? What would be the effect if we changed the tense, e.g. from past to present?
In guided writing, students are required to draw on the knowledge, skills and understanding developed during modelled writing sessions, with varying degrees of support from the teacher. Guided writing activities sometimes involve students working as a group or in pairs to support each other, with the teacher as a guide.
There are various ways to conduct guided writing sessions. Guided writing sessions can involve the whole class, small groups or individuals. Guided writing sessions are also a useful strategy for providing support for students with specific needs.
A common guided writing activity involves students and the teacher jointly composing a text. The teacher might record, in random order, ideas on the topic as suggested by students. As always, it is important that this strategy should follow purposeful, extended research.
The teacher might then ask the students to start organising these ideas, perhaps drawing their attention to one of the model texts examined previously. Having thought about the content of the text and how it might be organised, students and teacher collaborate in composing a text, with the teacher scribing the developing text on the board.
Students could write in pairs the opening section of a text. The teacher could then ask them to share these with the class and discuss which ones they felt were more effective and why.
Teachers might select one of these openings and then continue to scribe the rest of the text, eliciting ideas from the students and discussing how the class could go about shaping those ideas into a text. In this way, students have an opportunity not only to participate in a collaboratively written text, but also to observe how a mature writer makes decisions about the structure of a text and the language choices available. This is modelling, which is still appropriate during guided writing.
Teachers could discuss the developing text with students, asking such questions as:
• What is our purpose?
• Who is our audience?
• How can we best affect or influence our readers?
• How might we begin this text? What does the reader need to know first?
• How should we organise the different sections of this text?
• What should we leave in or take out?
• How are we going to end the text?
While guiding students in composing the whole text, teachers should provide guidance about particular language features and choices, posing such questions as:
• Can you think of a more effective verb?
• Do we need to define this technical term?
• What tense should we be using?
• This sentence is a bit clumsy. How can we make it more concise?
• This is how we would say it, but how would we write it?
• Should we combine these two sentences? Should we split this sentence?
• What sort of punctuation do we need here?
• How can we work out the spelling of this word?
During guided writing, the teacher not only discusses text structure, language features and choices, but also demonstrates the processes involved in writing, posing such questions as:
• Let’s look at the outline we made earlier. Is it still working okay?
• Should we revise, move or delete this section of the text?
• Have we finished or are we just blocked?
Throughout the above activities, students and teachers will be developing a common language for talking about language. This language can be drawn upon when conferencing with peers, resulting in more detailed and informed feedback.
By jointly composing texts, students will develop an understanding of how spoken language differs from written language. This would be demonstrated by teachers as they mould students’ verbal contributions into the language of the written mode.
Independent writing involves students composing their own texts without help. Independent writing provides students with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in composing a variety of texts.
When writing independently, students should be encouraged to:
• define their purpose
• identify their audience
• engage in further research if necessary
• jot down ideas and notes
• think about how to organise ideas effectively
• write drafts
• share drafts with peers and the teacher
• rework drafts in the light of comments about text organisation, cohesion, grammatical choices, sentence structure, spelling, punctuation and layout
• prepare and edit a final draft
• publish and present their work for further feedback.
During the editing phase of independent writing, a greater emphasis will be placed on aspects of writing such as spelling, punctuation, handwriting, word processing and layout.
Conclusion
At all times, students should be given the support they require to compose texts independently. If, during independent writing sessions, students indicate the need for further development of knowledge, skills and understanding, teachers should provide further modelling and guidance.
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