Technology Scholarship Report
Writing
Lesley Pearce
National Facilitator for Technology
Team Solutions, The Auckland University
July 2012
Reflective written report
• Based on student experiences in developing their
technological outcome
• It is an organised collection of evidence of a
candidates development of a technological
outcome in technological practice
• To be no longer than 3000 words Approximately
• 5-6 A4 pages size 12 font)
Reports
• Unlike essays, reports can be written in
sections with headings and sub-headings
What to put in the report
• Demonstrate how you synthesised and critically
anaylsed your technological experiences
• Show how you explored the complexities of the
situation that you identified in the development
of your technological outcome
• Justify the technological practices you used to
develop your technological outcome as well as
evidence of the technological outcome itself
• Show how you reflected on information,
understandings of yours and others practice
• Writing reports is a challenge for students at
every level.
• Differentiation requires that we break down
the difficult task of writing extended pieces of
work, giving students a ‘ladder’ up to this
high-order skill.
Guidance for report writing
• Breaking the writing task down into a series of
tasks
• Help sheets
• Planning clocks
• Writing frames
• Showing students exemplar work and asking
them to grade this and learn from it
• Making your assessment criteria and grade
descriptors explicit and clear
• Assessment proformas
Planning clock
Activity
• Write a planning clock for the scholarship
report writing.
What strategies could help students’
writing in technology?
• Writing frames Classify by:
• Using an ordered set of headings or
mindmaps to sort information into groups.
E.g:
– topics and sub-topics,
– strengths and weaknesses;
– arguments for, and arguments against etc,
• The categories you use will depend on the
report criteria, so re-read it before you start
classifying.
• Draw conclusions and get evidence
– What do you want your report to say? For
example, what are the challenges, complexities
you identified in developing your outcome? How
did you overcome them?
• Summarise your main points
• Show evidence for each of your
points/conclusions (Refer to portfolio page for
example)
Planning the report
• Make a mind-map or series of headings based
on your classification stage. Make notes of
what you want to say. Make sure you do all
the tasks or questions.
• Write the report, then leave it for day or so
• Proof-read the report making changes where
necessary
• Present report
Writing Frames
Activity
• Examine the examples of writing frames
• Discard those that you are not interested in
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of
those you have kept for students and teachers
• Choose one in groups create a writing guide
for an external AS
Writing frame 1
Essay type proforma
Now find examples/evidence to back up each
of your arguments
Essay-planning proforma
Writing frame for an ICT unit
continued
Art-Writing frame for a critical study
Activity
• Using the Scholarship Assessment Schedule
and the NZ Scholarship Assessment
Specifications create the sub headings for your
chosen writing frame
• This is best co-constructed with teachers and
students
Benefits of writing frames
• Curing the ‘I don’t know how to start’ syndrome that often results when
students are confronted with a blank sheet of paper.
• Providing students with a sense of what they are writing. Writing frames
offer a structure and overview for the piece of writing along with the
appropriate pronouns (I, you, he, it ect.) and joining words and phrases
(connectives) that form the links within the text.
• Reducing the ‘and then’ style of writing by giving students a range of
appropriate sentence beginnings and related connectives.
•
Raising motivation and esteem by helping students write successfully.
• Helping students understand the appropriate structure and style of a range
of different types of non-fiction writing.
• Discouraging copying by providing a structure that helps students to
understand, select and structure information appropriately.
Beware of the following dangers
• Limiting creativity. Students do not have to stick
to the frame.
• Students becoming too dependent on frames
• Setting the frames in stone (by printing off
hundreds or laminating them for all time). Allow
scope for adaptation and development.
• Death by a thousand writing frames.
I wish you all success with which ever
door you go through