Writing Strategy: Scaffolding Learning From Level 1
Indicators of Progress
- Students plan what they intend to write by saying aloud or ‘conferencing the topic’ or by drawing pictures of the key ideas.
- Students say what they will write in sentences and write a first draft. As they write they may say aloud what they are writing.
- Students read what they have written to see if it makes sense sounds right and, if necessary, add to or change the text.
- Students check what they have written for correct letter formation, spaces between words and letters,use of full stops, and use of capitals for names and the beginning letter of a sentence.
- Students read their writing to others.
- Students form letters more accurately with correct starting points and increasing legibility.
- Students say how planning and reading over what they have written helps them.
- Students say how writing is useful or helps them (for example, to remember something, to let other people know what they think) and suggest when they could use writing.
- Students transfer what they know about writing in one context to another, for example: they tell the same story in a different context.
- Students show improved physical control of handwriting; they are more able to coordinate pencil grip, body posture and the position of the paper or keyboard.
Teaching Strategies
The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Pets.
Organising phase
Selection and purpose of text type
Students respond to the questions:
- What form should my writing take?
- What will my finished writing look like?
Students examine the writing of other students about the topic which may include posters and recounts. They can select the text type for their intended purpose and decide how they will prepare their knowledge for it.
The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Pets.
Composing phase
Students review the sentences they have written earlier in various ways. For example, they draw pictures of key ideas, adding to or changing the text.
The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Pets.
Revising phase
Scaffolding decision making for publishing
Students decide how they will publish their text about Pets, for example, when they are writing their text again, they decide:
- the order in which they will place each picture and sentence
- how they will arrange the picture and the sentence on each page
- how they will design the front and back covers and the title page and what they will say on each cover
- whether they will number each page.
Checking writing strategies
Students say some of the actions they used to check what they had written and add the writing strategies to their list of Things I do when I edit and proofread.
| Things I do when I edit and proofread: |
| I read aloud what I have written and listen to what I say. |
| I check how I write each word. |
| I ask "Does my say what I want it to say?" |
The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Pets.
Learning consolidation phase
Expressing new ideas
Students say what they will remember about writing about their pets. They can write a memory card that reminds them of the questions they could ask themselves as they compose their writing.
Reviewing the learning
Students discuss the writing strategies they used and values and purpose of each, for example, for planning, composing, editing and revising and how they take account of the readers when they write.
To do this they can review their writing and describe what they did to write their description.
- First I collected the pictures for the writing.
- I talked about what each picture told us.
- I got the key words for each picture.
- I described each picture in a sentence and made it using the word cards.
- I decided what order to put the pages in.
- I wrote the sentences in my drafting book.
- I read the sentences again to check them.
Transferring knowledge about writing from a specific context to other contexts
Students, practise transferring what they know about writing about pets to other topics, for example:
- my favourite toy; again they can use photographs of each student with their favourite toy
- my favourite story
- my favourite toy comes alive; each student can invent their own story of what happens when their favourite toy comes alive
- what each pet does; each student can write a description of what their pet does each day
- I am Tweety; students can write a story ‘through the eyes’ of each pet
- each pet goes on an adventure; students can invent a story about an adventure involving some of the pets.
For a selected topic students discuss the writing strategies they could use.