2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Developing Consistent Writing

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Developing Consistent Writing Skills

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Why is a consistent approach to writing so important? 1. In most areas students are heavily assessed through their ability to write 2. Writing has been a neglected area of teaching - in ALL subjects

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum • What progress have you made on “writing” so far in your own school?

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Improving writing: Seven Suggestions 1: Keep it simple: just go for the writing essentials in each subject area, one by one if necessary 5: Get it bedded into the team itself, rather than being driven by you 4: Develop a ‘House style’ on teaching writing 2: Avoid technical terms as much as possible 7: Evaluate impact … and report it 3: Emphasise demonstration and modelling more than scaffolding 6: Emphasise motivation and outcomes

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Deeveloping a ‘House’ Style

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum 1 • • • HOUSE STYLE Before pupils start to write, get them thinking about the purpose and audience. What is this text for? What is it designed to achieve? Who is it aimed at?

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum 2 • • HOUSE STYLE Define the conventions of the writing: How should it be organised (chronologically? nonchronologically? ) Present or past tense? Active (“We added some potassium”) or passive (“some potassium was added”)? What types of sentences (short? long? bullet-points? statements? questions? commands? ) How are connectives used to link ideas: temporal (later, now, next) or causal (because, so, despite this, on the other hand) Any stock words or phrases (“Dear sir. . yours faithfully”) Any technical terms?

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE 3 Demonstrate the writing process – pupils need to see you write a sample of the text

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE 5 Use scaffolding to support them: • Key words on wall • Diagrams of the structure of this text type • A glossary in their books • Writing frames to teach layout, structure and style

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE Remember: • You won’t get better writing from students if you aren’t explicit about what you expect • You need to embed these techniques into your practice. Don’t try them for one lesson and then dismiss them. They do work. Guaranteed.

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Talking point! 4 -2 -8 HOUSE STYLE So how explicit do subject teachers need to be about writing conventions? Do they need to know about … • Passive voice? • Connectives? • Tenses? • Word classes? • Topic sentences? • Modification? • Declaratives? • Clauses? • Noun phrases? … and do they need to USE these terms?

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Your challenge: HOUSE STYLE Convince the teaching team - ie what’s in it for them? Develop their awareness of the writing conventions Help them learn how to teach the writing skills effectively Evaluate the impact

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HI N T S • Keep it simple: “less is more” • Show it will improve their lives • Use Dept meetings to embed the thinking before unleashing it • Think of practical activities to internalise thinking • Keep it light, upbeat, fun • Aim for small-scale successes

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE Familiarising staff (teachers and teaching assistants) with text-type conventions … … first: focus on the essentials …

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE Evaluation, including self-evaluation 1 Purpose: to record the strengths/weaknesses of a performance/product 2 Structure (Text level) • Opening statement contains value judgement in answer to a question e. g. How well did your construction work? • Can be written in list form with bullet points, numbers or letters • Subheadings may be used to focus attention of writer • Paragraphs should contain statement of strengths or weaknesses with evidence to support statements • Summary will sum up strengths and weaknesses and may be followed by targets for future 3 Language features (Word and Sentence level) • Written in first person (I or we) • Written in past tense to reflect on performance; present to reflect on personal/group characteristics; future for target setting • Connectives relate to comparison/contrast e. g. although, however, still, on the other hand or cause and effect e. g. because, since, therefore, as a result • Phrases used for commentary e. g. we felt that, it seemed as if, we might have, I thought that. .

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum THINK TANK So how will you get these conventions embedded in Departmental thinking …?

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Barton’s suggestions: • It has to be done actively • It has to involve teachers themselves writing, not just analysing existing texts • Try writing ‘bad’models

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum The process … The product …

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum “How pleased are you with your finished product? ” First, write the opening paragraph of a bad example. Then we’ll write a better one. Then we’ll demonstrate shared composition.

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum HOUSE STYLE Evaluation, including self-evaluation 1 Purpose: to record the strengths/weaknesses of a performance/product 2 Structure (Text level) • Opening statement contains value judgement in answer to a question e. g. How well did your construction work? • Can be written in list form with bullet points, numbers or letters • Subheadings may be used to focus attention of writer • Paragraphs should contain statement of strengths or weaknesses with evidence to support statements • Summary will sum up strengths and weaknesses and may be followed by targets for future 3 Language features (Word and Sentence level) • Written in first person (I or we) • Written in past tense to reflect on performance; present to reflect on personal/group characteristics; future for target setting • Connectives relate to comparison/contrast e. g. although, however, still, on the other hand or cause and effect e. g. because, since, therefore, as a result • Phrases used for commentary e. g. we felt that, it seemed as if, we might have, I thought that. .

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Hints for achieving better teaching of writing at your school: Find ways of getting it Focus on impact - what do you bedded into the teams: need to do which will have the Providing annotated models of And remember: “Lessyour is more”. If coordinator is role as desired effect? text types on That’s the is good youwall canmore geta 10% of your Don’t assume thatstaff any of this will be not to teach writing better; Don’t spend much time getting important than HOW you get there end product for student reference teaching writing well to by next July, quick or easy … but work it’sachieve their responsibility people to analyse models it’s not … but teacherthat demonstration is will have a huge impact. Beit high with your Head to give Use a student survey to give always a transferable. Keep skill the writing theme in much more important realistic. Go for small-scale priorityofwith staffgains evidence whatallworks best eye in through the public teaching writing Use light, active inset sessions (eg staff newsletters, displays, dept meetings) in which they do hints and tips. Keep it some writing and think how to teach light and positive it better … with guidance

2 Literacy Across the Curriculum Developing Consistent Writing Skills