The New Zealand Curriculum and Written Language

THE NEW ZEALAND CURRICULUM STANDARDS Level 4 Year 7 – Early L4 Year 8 – At L4 At Ellerslie School we aim for 4A and 4B. Students will independently write texts for a range of purposes on topics and themes across the curriculum.

TEXT TYPES Texts include a range of Transactional, Expressive and Poetic writing. The genre of writing will be timetabled to fit with and support Inquiry units so that learning is integrated and therefore has specific purpose. Texts include – Narratives, Poems, Arguments, Information Reports, Explanations, Essays, Responses to Literature

CHARACTERISTICS OF TEXT The content is concise and relevant to the curriculum task Ideas are justified and supported with evidence and examples Language is clear and follows a logical structure Ideas are paragraphed and clearly related Logical links are made between paragraphs Grammatically correct sentences Vocabulary and phrases used are relevant to the topic or purpose of writing

THE PROCESS IMMERSION SESSION - Several models of writing are initially provided. With teacher support the students are encouraged to identify the structure and features of the text type. MODELLING - The teacher will then provide any extra relevant information or supportive material – for example, sentence beginning options, specialised vocabulary and further models of writing. SHARED WRITING - Writing then takes place as a whole class and in small groups – mixed ability or ability groups, with the teacher roaming and conferencing with groups or individuals. At this stage, the groups then share back to the class. The whole process is modelled and shared. Students and teacher offer feedback and feed forward. INDEPENDENT - The students are then required to complete a piece of writing on their own as a final summative assessment task. Initially, the students and teacher brainstorm and record the specific Success Criteria they need to meet. INTERGRATED - Often the text type is used again when presenting Inquiry ideas.

ASSESSMENT AT ELLERSLIE SCHOOL Term 1 – E-ASTTLE – Informs our teaching for Term 2, providing specific next learning steps. Term 2 – POETIC ASSESSMENT (School Wide Assessment) Term 3 – SPEECHES – Persuasive Writing Term 4 – POETIC ASSESSMENT (School Wide Assessment) It is important to note, that the level the student sits at for the Poetic Assessment is not necessarily the level they are sitting at overall. The student needs to be consistently sitting at that level for all text types covered within the year.