Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Great Fun with the Writing game

Monday, 8 August 2011 at 11:10 am

Writing games provide skills practice with authentic texts …

Simple games can provide opportunities for language experience, explicit teaching, coaching and collaboration. Here’s a simple one I was playing recently. You need 45 minutes for crafting, reviewing, revising, sharing and feedback.

Start with two sentences:

Jack went up the hill. He found Jill.

What to do

Organise students into pairs or groups of three and explain:

Your task is to work …

Friendship Box Writing Stimulus

Tuesday, 14 September 2010 at 9:57 am

What is a Friendship Box

The Friendship Box is a box containing a name card for each student. Students are assigned short writing tasks which prompt them to write for a variety of purposes. By drawing a name from the box students have an audience for the task. Note: Students enjoy decorating the name cards so that they are reflective of their personalities. A profile of …

Modelled Writing …

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 at 2:56 pm

When does the teacher stop?

The simple answer is that we don’t. The aim of modelled writing is use the “think aloud strategy” to model what goes on in the head of the writer. Not only does this give the teacher opportunities to explicitly talk about elements of the writing process, but also allows students to observe the way a writer crafts and records a text. …

Top 10 Traits of Young Writers

Tuesday, 20 July 2010 at 11:43 am

Writing is a tricky business for many students. Many dislike writing and some students experience feelings of anxiety from the words, “Take out your writing folder”. So what do proficient writers know and understand about designing literary and non-literary texts, that others do not?

Highly effective young writers know that:

Writing is about purpose and audience. These writers write with a sense of purpose and understand the …

Teaching writing - whose job is it?

Tuesday, 19 August 2008 at 2:16 pm

As new literacies evolve and students embrace new technologies, often developing expertise before their teachers, it is interesting that the old debate around (print based) reading and writing, and whose responsibility it is to teach these, continues.

At a recent workshop, the following question arose.
“I am a teacher of mathematics. Should I be expected to teach literacy?”

If we ask education bodies, there is a resounding, “Yes! …