Writing Workshop 1

 EHS - PD

• Three workshops this term covering;

• oral language foundations, 

• explicit writing instructions, 

• modelled, shared and guided writing and 

• building independent writers.

Teachers will;

• Understand the effective writing instructions

• Recognise the role of oral language

• Identify successful wiring classroom practices

• Selecting one practice to implement immediately (after each workshop)

Creating School-Wide Conditions for Great Writers

What have we noticed about Student writing?

• Less lived experienced - Motivation
• Creating ideas to prompt discussion and then writing
• Not always writing for writing sake 
• Clarity around what they should be learning
• Focus on phonics has taken from the larger aspect we taught in reading. (Focus using BSLA has watered down the writing program. - Time for structured literacy)
• Poor spelling 
• Punctuation
• Providing feedback and time allowance
• Sound to letter knowledge
• Lack of Published writing
• Recording ideas
• Knowing where they are and where to next
• Teaching structure and purpose 
• Written work in a book

What challenges are we experiencing?

• Motivating students sometimes needs theatrics but you don’t want them to just ‘copy’ the teacher’s writing.
• Getting around students and timely feedback
• Finding the right “Writing Process”
• Consistency with a topic and maintaining motivation - students having the right knowledge to pull from
• Timing and finding the balance between reading, writing for low writers, as they need vocabulary to be able to write

Which learners are you most concerned about?

• Those with high reading levels but don’t see themselves as writers

• Moving  them with acceleration

• Those students who always require 1:1 support and produce minimal writing.

Effective Writing Teaching Includes:

Oral Language development

Explicit vocab instruction

Modelled writing

Shared writing

Guided writing

Independent writing

Feedback and revision

Authentic purposes and audiences

Oral language drives writing -

Before Writing:

• Listening
• Vocabulary
• Discussion
• Rehearsal - What are you going to say? Say it back to me
• Sentence construction

Dr Murray Gadd - takeaways from his video, eg. modelling, teaching strategies

• Attention Grabbing - funniest story, naughty
• Make physical actions - lock it in
• Success Criteria on the Board
• Get straight into the action
• Key words for planning
• Modelling thinking
• Better words
• Reread ideas
• Show me

Reflection to Action: 

Start

One thing I will be doing more oral language, students talking

Strengthen

One thing I will improve...

Commitment

My classroom focus until Workshop 2 is:

Topics - if in doubt leave it out, if you have to ask probably not a good idea