Teaching+Children+to+Write

People write for many different purposes. Whether it is for themselves, to communicate ideas, create or retell a story, organise information or simply to make notes and lists, the act of writing makes up an important part of everyone’s lives and therefore is crucial to a Childs learning. The writing process is made up of 5 different stages. These are: 1.  Planning: Consider the purpose of the writing and the target audience, generate and sequence ideas and set writing goals. 2.  Composing: generate notes and choose words and sentences that achieve the writing goals set during planning. Read and reread what has been noted down. 3.  Revising: Monitor writing against the previously set goals, detect and fix problems, add any missing information and delete the irrelevant information. Reorganise and re-sequence to writing to make sure it makes sense for the audience. 4.  Recording: Involves the concepts of print, spelling, grammar, punctuation, handwriting, keyboarding and illustrations 5.  Publishing: Proofread, design a layout, check legibility, technology and medium and present the text or document to an audience.
 * The writing process **
 * Modelled Writing:** This involves the teacher composing a piece of writing while thinking aloud to allow the student to understand the thought process behind the writing. Use strategies such as planning, revising and problem solving about words. In this form of writing the teacher has complete ownership and control of the writing process.
 * Shared Writing:** A teacher scribes on the board the students ideas and suggestions freeing the student the need to concentrate on the recording. The teacher focuses on the writing process allowing joint ownership and control of the writing process.


 * Interactive Writing:** The teacher works with either the whole class or small groups to compose and record a short text. This is based on a shared experience and the teacher may allow the children to come to the board to help record. This is a creative and dynamic form of writing with the pen being shared by both student and teacher. The teacher needs to carefully select the children who write when to step in. Although this is similar to shared writing the teacher has less control over the process in particular spelling. These forms of writing are great to refresh letter formation and other aspects of handwriting.


 * Guided Writing:** This is done in small groups or mini lessons that may focus on composing, editing or revising. These may also focus on handwriting and spelling. The children could complete writing done in interactive writing and the might use writing frames which act as an important scaffold for writing a wide variety of texts.


 * Independent Writing:** This form of writing entitles the child to have most of the control of the writing process. Conference with the child during the planning process and not just on the completed work so they are able to better understand different aspects of the process. Work at the same level as the child and encourage them to talk about their piece of writing to a set agenda. Try not to comment on the mechanics of writing such as spelling and grammar until the publication but rather focus on the composition and revising.

When talking to a student about their piece of writing there are some prompting questions that can help with the writing process. Opening questions such as:  ·  What's the piece about?  ·  How did you get started?  ·  What is your favourite part?  ·  and Why are you writing about this topic are great to start the conference.  · Following questions should paraphrase what the student is trying to say to get them to supply more information. "You said it was about your cat trapped in a tree, how did he get up there?"
 * Individual conference between teacher and student.**

Process questions are designed to help the child think through their work and direct them in ways they can go next. Questions such as:  ·  What do you think you'll do next?  ·  Are there other ways that can be said?  ·  What questions have you answered, what's missing?  ·  Does the ending suit the introduction to the piece? Eventually the student will learn to perform the conferences without the help of the teach asking themselves the questions.

There are four broad genres, the recount, the report, the narrative and a procedural text. There are also many text types which can be used as guides for children’s writing such as poetry and songs, explanation texts, discussion texts and transactional texts such as letters and cards that are used to maintain relationships. Genres give the student a pattern to follow and ensure the writing tasks are varied and authentic. Establish a purpose and context for the activity and discuss other examples of the chosen genre and what it is used for within both the school and the community. Conduct shared reading with samples of the genre perhaps a class text for modelled reading to help the students get a further grasp on the concept.
 * Genres**


 * Recounts:** The purpose of a recount is to retell past experiences and usually begins by telling the reader who was involved, the setting, what happened and when this occurred. A series of events follows the opening with personal comments on the experience providing closure for the piece.
 * Narrative:** These are written to provide entertainment for the audience, and to teach or extend the readers imagination. They usually begin by answering the questions or who, where, when and what may happen. This is followed by the introduction of a complication that needs to be resolved and a series of events which reveal how the main character comes to this resolution. At the end of the piece loose-ends are tied up and the characters usually get what they had coming to them.
 * Procedure:** This is known as an instructional piece of writing and is used for texts such as recipes or directions of how to make something or how to get somewhere. The piece starts with a goal that needs to be achieved. A list of materials is needed and then a method which offers instructions sequentially and uses words like add, mix and put. The end of the piece consists of an evaluation which describes how the product should look, feel or taste.
 * Report:** The purpose of a report is to organise information. They usually have a structure based on a description, question/answer, compare/contrast, and problem/solution. They generally begin with an opening statement of classification of what the report is about. This is followed by facts such as habits, colour, behaviour and shape or other facts that the writer feels are important. The report may feature graphs, diagrams and tables and finish with a conclusion of either an answer to the question or solution.

When setting writing tasks teachers should be aware of the Genre Classification Framework states that the literacy program for early years primary should aim for 1/3 narrative genres, 1/3 information genres and 1/3 of other genres.

When assessing the writing of an early years student there are three main elements that are focused on during an assessment. These are the written language, the ideas and the texts conventions. The written language focuses on what the child knows about letters, words and sentences. At this stage children may write lists of letters and words without spaces. In this instance, each recognisable letter receives 1 point and a recognisable word receives 2. As a child develops to include ideas within there writing it conveys an ownership of the piece. This may begin with a drawing or the beginning of a name and will gradually progress to copying some ideas and letters and eventually there own ideas. Text conventions relates to the placement and directionality of the writing. This includes children learning to write from left to right and whether there are spaces between the words. As these concepts are developed their attention is drawn to punctuation such as full stops and capital letters. Eventually commas and question marks are used and the child will begin to proofread and edit their own work.
 * Assessing writing **

As the children’s writing becomes more complex it begins to include a plot, and sections for mains ideas and informative text. A more complex form of scoring writing can be used. This can be assessed as follows.

When trying to assess a child's writing over the course of the year or years develop a writing folder in which samples of the childs writing are collect and compared at a later date. This can also be used by the child to see the development in their writing and also create self esteem and encouragement for the child.



