EDUC3651 Lecture 3: Lecture Three Beginning with Assessment – Writing as a Developmental Process
Week Three
Lecture Three: Beginning with Assessment – Writing as a Developmental Process
Session Outcomes
1. Review key research statements about writing
2. Review the SCRA Curriculum Documents for planning, teaching and reporting to parents.
3. Explore the achievement standards within the Western Australian English Curriculum.
4. Distinguish between phases of development of writing
5. Assignment 1- Modelled writing presentation
Clarifying Information
- Auto biography
- Use of commercial programs eg. Talk4Writing
o Writing in a supportive environment
- Audience, purpose determines the text form - meaningful, relevant and motivating.
- Accurate information about the text form, organisational framework, language features.
o Structure
▪ When you teach a text form you need to be accurate in teaching
What does the research state?
- Some statements to consider
o “Writing is
o “at the heart of our intellectual endeavours”
o “(can be ) learning itself.”
▪ Coming together of our human thinking and language competence. Handling
a range of problems that cannot be satisfactorily managed by mental
reflection or talking.
▪ Writing brings language into consciousness
o “a social and cultural practice.”
o “a great collector of ideas.”
o “We write to tell stories.”
o “Good writers are good thinkers.”
o “When the child writes, many kinds of learning are taking place. “
o “Word-processing can often stimulate the students to write.”
- Writing takes thinking to the next level
o Complex intellectual action
o Writing provides opportunity for deeper thinking.
o Writing offers learning power.
o Writing is a creative process that is truly integrated to learning.
o Feelings and emotions are very important.
- Writing is a good indicator of understanding in a learning area
Motivating children to write
- Character detectives - Team game
o Tins with clues
o Explore and create a character to use in story
▪ Speech
▪ Thoughts
▪ Actions
▪ Emotions
o Visual stimulus
o Drama
o Hands on
o Discussion
o Group activity
o Text focus
Assessment and Evaluation
- Keep assessment manageable
- Plan → Teach → Assess
- What you see as the role of assessment and evaluation in your teaching of English?
- How will you manage the accountability of assessment and evaluation?
- Why assess?
- What will you assess?
- How might you do this?
- How will you manage the demands and accountability?
Principles of Assessment (SCSA)
- Should guide what you are doing in your own classroom
- Assessment should be:
1. An integral part of teaching
2. Educative
3. Fair
4. Designed to meet specific purposes
5. Lead to informative reporting
6. Lead to school wide evaluation processes
Process wheel from SCSA
What does this mean for the teaching of writing in each of the phases of schooling?
- Consult
o The WA curriculum
o Year level judging standards
▪ Expectations
o First Steps Map of Development
First Steps Phases of Development and WA curriculum Judging Standards
- Role Play Phase
o Global Statement
▪ Emulate adult writing by experimenting with marks to represent written
language
▪ Beginning to understand that writing is used to convey meaning or messages
▪ Understandings of sound-symbol relationships are yet to develop
▪ Messages are not readable by others
▪ Rely heavily on topic knowledge to generate text
o Major Teaching Emphasis:
▪ Conventions
• New vocabulary
