LITERACY IN THE MIDDLE YEARS OF SCHOOLING INITIATIVE Quality teaching in NSW public schools - assisting students needing additional support with writing. Jo Thornton 2005

The aim of teaching writing is to equip students with the knowledge and skills to write effectively for a range of purposes and in a variety of contexts. For students needing additional support with writing, it is the quality of teaching and assessment that makes the most difference to their achievement.

What pedagogical practices best engage boys in the middle years of schooling? Establish high standards and express a willingness to help students to achieve them Implement assessments to measure progress towards goals and inform practice Apply deep understanding of subject matter Promote critical thinking and higher order thinking Learning in context Promote student engagement with a task orientation Use of good quality picture books Build the field through oral language Explicit teaching of language skills Focus on self-esteem through positive reinforcement Use scaffolding of successful steps to develop confidence and skills which provide a safe environment emotionally and mentally where students feel confident about taking risks Teachers need to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the

Provide time and space structures for students to work within Provide activities which require students to have hands on practical tasks Program activities using Bloom’s Taxonomy Encourage students to use computer technology to publish work

USING THE QUALITY TEACHING FRAMEWORK AS A PEDAGOGICAL BASE

INTELLECTUAL QUALITY

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN THE CLASSROOM?

DEEP KNOWLEDGE Familiarise the students with the story, examine illustrations to understand how they contribute to the meaning of the story, build knowledge for students to bring to the text that is crucial to the central ideas and concepts. Use concept maps as a learning tool to explain relationships and issues.

PROBLEMATIC UNDERSTANDING Through the transformations process students analyse the text to determine why and how the author made the language choices they did. Discuss conflicts in literature, positioning the reader to empathise with characters. Students understand that knowledge from texts is socially constructed with multiple or conflicting interpretations in a given context.

DEEP UNDERSTANDING Develop deeper understanding of how texts work and why. Make connections between written and illustrated texts and provide reasoned arguments for a point of view. Students can develop holistic understandings of complex concepts and issues, exploring relationships, solve conflicts, give explanations and draw conclusions in systematic, integrated and complex ways.

HIGHER ORDER THINKING Students move from interpreting meaning in texts to speculating on the purpose of different language resources and to transform their thinking. Students combine facts and ideas in order to synthesise, generalise, explain, hypothesise or arrive at a conclusion or interpretation. Teacher uses Bloom’s Taxonomy to base program activities on. Use graphic organisers eg Venn Diagram to compare and contrast parts of speech.

METALANGUAGE A systematic progression towards comprehensive literate competence including understanding of grammar. Explicitly discuss the way language works in the context of the lesson or activity. High levels of discussion about language and how texts work. Students investigate and compare words, images and symbols within a text.

SUBSTANTIVE COMMUNICATION Strategies to develop detailed oral recounts. Students engaged in substantive discussions around literature. Students are provided with opportunities for substantive communication in small group discussions and cooperative learning activities. Teacher frames questions to encourage students to extend their responses to make thinking and understanding explicit. Why do you think that? How did you get to that viewpoint?

QUALITY LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN THE CLASSROOM?

EXPLICIT QUALITY CRITERIA Quality literature is used and it provides a scaffold on which students can build their knowledge and use of strategies. Students are provided with clear criteria that explicitly describe the quality of work expected. Students then use these criteria to reflect upon and modify their own work. Teacher uses work samples that illustrate high quality student performance based on the criteria. Teacher uses the criteria to assess students’ work and to provide constructive feedback during development as well as on completion of the task.

ENGAGEMENT Carefully structured teacher/student interactions to improve student competence in engaging with literate texts. Students are demonstrating behaviours that include sustained interest and attentiveness. They are taking the initiative to contribute to class discussions and to share their individual work with others.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS Teacher identifies prior learning of students and monitors their progress in order to support the development of appropriately challenging work and communicates high expectations through the use of ruberics to inform students of the criteria to be assessed. Students are encouraged to take risks in their learning and are recognised for doing so.

SOCIAL SUPPORT A set of sequential teaching steps, in which each step fulfils a particular purpose while building on the last. Low risk but allows students to be successful. Teacher and students behaviours, comments and actions encourage and value effort, participation, and the expression of one’s views. Teacher models language and behaviour that demonstrate respect for others’ ideas, opinions and work.

STUDENTS’ SELF REGULATION Students read like writers and use these resources in their own writing. They regulate their own behaviours to allow the class to proceed without interruption resulting in very little time being needed for the teacher to discipline students’ behaviour. Activities are purposeful with clear goals for students to understand. Relevant teaching resources are sourced which offer students motivation to participate.

STUDENT DIRECTION Students are able to decide when they are ready to continue at their own pace implementing the strategies they have been taught into their own writing. Teacher provides additional activities for students depending upon their level of understanding.

SIGNIFICANCE

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE IN THE CLASSROOM?

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE Text patterning allows students to practise the writing strategies of authors on a small scale and to then transfer their understandings and strategies to other writing tasks.

CULTURAL KNOWLEDGE Writing can be used with literacy across all cultures. Students can look beyond stereotypes used to describe different social groups.

KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION Written communication across all KLAs can be addressed. Images, diagrams, charts and graphs can be used to build knowledge of the topic.

INCLUSIVITY Inclusive teacher student interaction. All students feel encouraged to participate fully in the lesson regardless of academic abilities. Use cooperative learning activities with designated role for students.

CONNECTEDNESS Students identify with issues and characters in literature beyond the classroom and school. Students identify with public problem or actual experiences that students will confront such as homelessness. Learning is linked to current issues.

NARRATIVE Writing is like mum’s soup. She starts with a base and adds other things into it to give it flavour and that is what we are doing with our writing. We are starting with a basic idea and adding to it.

Written by Jo Thornton Assistant Principal Walcha Central School 2005