2+-+Teaching+Approaches+for+Writing+and+Text+Types

 Teaching Approaches to Writing. There are 4 approaches to teaching writing; modelled writing, shared writing / interactive, guided writing and independent writing, each with different levels of teacher support.



Modelled writing In modelled writing teachers determine the learning needs of the children in regard to text types. The teacher controls and demonstrates the writing. They think aloud the processes that they use to write and children are passive observers. Teachers talk about and model spelling, syntax and punctuation and the appropriate use of language relevant to the text type and audience. Shared and interactive writing Children become participants involved in the writing process in shared and interactive writing. In shared writing children contribute ideas for the writing but the teacher models writing. In comparison, interactive writing involves contributing ideas and selected student writing or completing sentences in front of the class. In both types, the teacher might begin with questions such as:  - What will we write first?  - Who are the characters (in narrative)  - How the orientation, complication, series of events and resolution will unfold Teachers may also demonstrate proof reading and publishing as the end processes. Below is a video on a shared reading activity for Preps media type="custom" key="695893" Guided writing ‘Guided writing involves children writing in pairs, small groups or as individuals’ (Hill, 2007. P301). Teachers may involve student whereby children complete parts of whole class writing or writing that had previously begun in interactive writing. Writing conference becomes a part of guided writing as the teachers involvement with students appears as a mini-lesson targeted at individual needs such as issues that need addressing, for example a child might have trouble supplying more information to sentences, thus the teacher would be able to ask questions to stimulate further information, such as what happened when…?  <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Independent writing <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Independent writing involves little support from teachers. Children choose what topics they write about, or in response to texts, text-types or experiences.

<span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Text types or genres have different language features. They are each read in different contexts, and thus the language used must represent such vocabulary. For example a narrative’s purpose is to entertain or convey an experience. A narrative has a plot, characters and a resolution, unlike a science information text which may contain informative text about caterpillars. The common text structures used in genres are: <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Compare and contrast <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Problem and solution <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Cause and effect <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> The children in the video below explor some of the genres they have encountered and supply an explanation. media type="custom" key="699925"
 * Text Types **

The common text types and their formation that children encounter are: <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Narrative <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Orientation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Complication <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Series of events <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Resolution <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Recount <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Orientation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Events in time order <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Re-orientation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Evaluation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Procedure <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Goal <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Materials <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Method <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Evaluation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Report <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Generalisation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Classification <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Description <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Summary <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - Explanation <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Phenomenon <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Explanation sequence <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> - And Argument <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Statement <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Linking arguments, supporting evidence <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Summary <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif"> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">Others can include a discussion, poetry and transactional (cards, letters, surveys) <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, sans-serif">The Framework developed by Duke and Kays (1998) as noted in Hill (2007, P313) suggests teachers in an early literacy program aim to study 1/3 narrative genres, 1/3 information genres, and 1/3 other genres. The opportunity to focus on information texts enables children to learn how to gain specific information required. Having the ability to understand the format of an information text is a vital tool for future development. For example in high school, text books and encyclopedias are used almost all the time, if a student knows the format of this text type then they are more likely to seek the most relevant information and know where it will be represented in the text.