Student Learning

English Developmental Continuum P–10 – Writing

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Ideas Communicated in Writing scaffolding learning from 1.75

 

Indicators of Progress

Students continue to extend the contexts in which they write. They write about one or two recent experiences, familiar events or imagined ideas in: (1) short narratives; (2) short letters and cards; (3) messages; and (4) notes.

The texts convey information to a known audience and have the following characteristics.

  • The focus of each text is relevant to the format and purpose of the text, for example, narrative versus a letter. The students develop focus in a greater range of contexts and for a wider variety of topics than those in level 1.5
  • Experiences or events described in the text may contain two or more subordinate ideas. The texts at level 1.75 have more detail and the topics are more differentiated than those in level 1.5.
  • The ideas in the text are sequenced logically and the students begin to use paragraphing to organise and link the main ideas.
  • The text may link ideas using conjunctions and adverbs that indicate time or place (for example, using before or there).
  • The texts show a greater attention to the selection of vocabulary according to the writer’s purpose and intended audience.
  • The texts continue to use simple analogy or similes based on readers’ experiences to express their meaning.
  • The texts continue to use more context-specific vocabulary, such as relevant technical terms.
  • The writer continues to build an awareness of the different purposes for which one writes, for example, writing to report an event that was not experienced by the reader versus an event that the writer wants to repeat. There is an increasing awareness of some of the forms used for different purposes, for example, a recipe or a funny story.
  • The writer continues to identify with and writes for specific audiences, for example, writing a personal letter to an older sibling versus a younger sibling.
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Teaching Strategies

The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Mini-beasts.

Composing phase

Forming more complex sentence structures
Students learn to include more than one idea in sentences and use conjunctions and adverbs that indicate time or place (for example, using before or there) to link a main idea in a sentence with a subordinate idea.

Prioritising and sequencing ideas before writing
Students arrange the sentences into paragraphs. They understand that different paragraphs talk about different key ideas. The ideas in each paragraph are sequenced logically. Their text has a clear beginning, middle and end.

Their texts

Example for slaters

  • begin by defining the topic.

This is about slaters. This is about what ...
  • have separate key ideas in different paragraphs .

This is about what slaters look like…

This is about where slaters live…
  • may have several sentences on each key idea.
  • Slaters have a lot of little legs. Their bodies are greyish–green and …

 

The learning and teaching approach for writing is illustrated for students responding within the context of Mini-beasts.

Learning consolidation phase

Reviewing the value of writing

Students re-read what they wrote about minibeasts commenting on how writing is useful and how it helped them to learn more effectively.

Transferring knowledge from a specific context to other contexts

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