EDLA 518 Language and Literacy Education 1
Suzanne Cipollone, Kimberly Colquhoun & Karina Stambouliah
Social process
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Connecting with others
Share ideas and information
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Financial transactions
Imagine the future
To express love
…hatred
…humour
Or melancholy.
Access to knowledge
3000BC
Sumerians in ancient
Mesopotamia
Story transmission is a
fluid process
Sociocultural Dimension
Different experiences and interpretations influence meaning
Writing is an act of
recording
Why do we write?
To learn
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To share
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Express creativity
Accomplish our work
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Make connections
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Your turn to write!
Why is writing so hard?
Linguistic
Affective
systems
Motor
Memory
Cognitive
Writers must juggle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmomyzSJI
Uo
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Meeting the needs of students with special
needs in our classroom
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Implications for teachers
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DIFFERENTIATION
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Interactive writing- Group work!
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Purposeful
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Clear
Useful
Authentic
The Writing
Process
Learning
Module
Developed by
Dr Carol
Hawkins
5 Stages
Recurring
Cycles
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THE VIBE!
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Most neglected stage in the writing process
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CRUCIAL!
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Why?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJuXIq70az
Q
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Understand context of culture and situation
Urie Bronfenbrenner
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1. Choose a topic
2. Consider Purpose and form (Text type)
3. Gather and Organise ideas for writing
Interested
Engaged
Connect
to
literature
Connect
to content
areas
To
entertain?
To inform?
To
persuade?
Draw
pictures
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Brainstorm
words
Read books
Internet
Research
Talk about
ideas
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Graves (1983) calls this
preparation for writing
‘rehearsal’ activities.
Make graphic
organisers to visually
display
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Building on pre writing- Students begin to
turn the ideas into sentences and paragraphs
It’s important to stamp and date this writing
as;
Rough Draft
(Tompkins, Campbell & Green, 2012)
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Using your individual prewriting exerciseForm a group of 5 students; there should be
1 of each coloured card in each group-
Blue, Yellow, Red, Green, Orange
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Come up with an idea for a narrative based
on the topic ‘adventure’
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Narratives have:
◦Orientation
◦Complication
(series of
events)
◦Resolution
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As a group arrange your pictures in the form
of a story board to show when each piece of
the narrative is portrayed to the audience.
Now write down a sentence/short paragraph
to link the 5 images… keeping in mind there
needs to be a beginning, middle and end – do
this 1 per group.
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The refining stage.
Revision means ‘seeing again.’
Students can be asked to look at the editor’s
mantra:
What can I delete, change, re-arrange and
add… in that order
(Tompkins, Campbell & Green, 2012)
 Re-read
 Feedback
 Make
changes
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Turn to the group next to you and read to
each other your ‘Rough Draft’
Each group is to give 2 positive pieces of
feedback and 1 piece of constructive
criticism.
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Writing has a social purpose
Writing requires an audience
Students shouldn’t be writing because
‘the teacher said so’ but rather writing with
purpose.
Armstrong, T. (2003).
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Students should be referred to as writers and
not just partaking in ‘English class’. Make
writing an experience try creating ‘writers
workshops/conferences’ or publishing
seminars.
Students should be able to see that their
words can make a difference in the world.
Armstrong, T. (2003).
Editing and proofreading
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The process of reviewing, revising and
rewriting a piece of writing where changes
are are made to improve all aspects.
Formats as well as elements of style are
considered.
Delete (unnecessary information);
Change and rearrange (to improve clarity;
meaning, style and voice)
Add (for clarification). (Tompkins, Campbell &
Green, 2012)
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Checking for errors in spelling, grammar and
usage, punctuation, capitalisation, etc.
Concentrates on mechanics rather than
reading for meaning.
Observes writing conventions or the ‘rules’ of
literacy to enhance readability.
When teaching we need to notice what the
student does and build on that. Nothing is
automatic – even writing from left to right.
(Spandel, 2012)
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Incorrect grammar use, Americanised
spelling, a small ‘i’ or a comma in the wrong
place – does it really matter?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rd7jaSqFU
Editing makes life easier for the reader and
shows you care.
Failure to observe writing conventions can, in
some instances, have a lasting impact, e.g.
job applications or university assignments.
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‘Proofreading matters because it’s what
writers do when they finish a piece of writing,
and we want our writers to engage in all
aspects of what writers do when they
write.’(Horn & Giacobbe, 2007)
Gives students an explicit awareness of how
certain language features operate, thus
places them in a better position to shape
language discriminatingly to their own
ends.(Derewianka, 1990)
We do our students a great service by
teaching them to be strong editors.
‘Getting hung up on ‘proper’ English is
ridiculous. The rules change, they’re constantly
in flux in fact. It pains me to say but In 100
years’ time we will have done away with the
apostrophe, definitely will be spelt with an ‘a’
and we won’t use capitals at all, ever. Look at
Olde English compared to Middle English…
Look at ‘proper’ modern English compared to
txt speak. Language is fluid. Deal with it, or
limit all conversations to the backwards landed
aristocracy.’ Unseen Flirtations (2011, February
15)
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Observing literacy ‘rules’ and conventions but
at the same time encourage students to take
risks.
Focus on readability and adventurous
borrowing rather than correctness alone.
We want students to try new things, not only
to write within the safe parameters of those
conventions of which they sure. (Spandel,
2012)
Explore what students already know:
 Get small groups to list conventions they
already know, can name and use in their own
writing.
 From this, compile a class list which can serve
as a simple editing checklist, e.g. capitals to
begin sentences; punctuation ‘?!.’ at the end
of sentences; capital ‘I’, etc. This allows
everyone to take pride in the great start they
have already made as writers and editors.
(Graves, 2004)
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Reading draft aloud to a partner and asking
them for feedback.
Works as a powerful editing or proofreading
technique because it forces students to
engage in close reading, something that they
may not be used to.
Language awareness and sensitivity grow,
along with knowledge of sentence
boundaries, pauses, rhythm and style. (Sharp,
2011)
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Use of ICT, for example the Comma
Chameleon interactive game at:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar
/punctuation.htm
Getting students to look at some common
every day signs and spot the errors, some
examples at:
https://writingprocessstage2.wikispaces.com
/file/view/IdiotSigns.pdf
Bringing a text to life by writing a
final copy and sharing it with an
appropriate audience.
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Writing is a social act – writers must reach out to
an audience. (Sharp, 2011)
Creates a meaningful context – students are
writing for a purpose.
Encourages children to write with a specific
audience in mind and how texts will vary
according to whom they are addressing and how
distant the audience is. (Derewianka, 1990)
Students enjoy having their efforts celebrated.
When students reach out to an audience they are
more likely to fine tune and improve their work.
Not necessary to publish everything!
Making books
Simple booklets can be made by folding sheets
of paper into quarters, like a greeting card.
They can add features that model the way
books are put together in publishing houses,
e.g.
 Title page;
 an ‘about the author’ section;
 illustrations and other graphics;
 funky cover (cover cardboard with contact
paper, wallpaper samples or students’ own
pictures).
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One of the best ways of sharing writing is to
sit in a special chair – an ‘author’s chair’ and
read to classmates.
After the reading, classmates ask questions,
offer compliments and celebrate the
completion of the writing project.
Teachers serve as a model for responding to
students’ writing without dominating the
sharing. (Tompkins, Campbell & Green, 2012)
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Place it in the class or school library.
Send letters to real-life people outside of the
school environment.
Post it on a class website / online magazine
such as e-zine.
Use it as a basis for a stimulus to be used in
other KLAs, e.g. a drama starter, an HSIE
discussion.
Submit to a children’s literary magazine, e.g.
Alphabet Soup or Skipping Stones.
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Writing Stage 2
Substrand Learning to Write
WS2.9 Producing Texts
Drafts, revises, proofreads and publishes well- structured texts
that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and written
language features.
WS2.10 Skills and Strategies
Produces tests clearly, effectively and accurately, using the
sentence structure, grammatical features and punctuation
conventions of the text type.
Substrand Learning About Writing
WS2.13 Context and Text
Discusses how own texts are adjusted to relate to different readers, how they
develop the subject matter and how they serve a wide variety of purposes.
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Year 4 Outcomes
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Language strand
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Text structure and Organisation
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Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality
depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the
intended audience (ACELA1490)
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Literature strand
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Creating Literature
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Create literacy texts that explore students’ own experiences
and imagining (ACELT1607)
Create literary texts by developing storylines, characters and
settings
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https://writingprocessstage2.wikispaces.com
/
 Thank
you!