Today's Literacy PD with Dr Ian Hunter was fascinating.
Some opening statements:
"Good readers make good writers" .. it's a myth!!
However, "Good readers read a lot good writers write a lot".
We discussed perceived shortfalls in boys’ writing and came up with this list:
- Ability to plan/structure an argument and link ideas together
- the logic of deeper thinking (or they can say it but they can’t write it)
- Range of technical/subject vocabulary (meta language)
- Ability to structure sentences with simple grammar
- Lack of general knowledge.. do we prepare our juniors sufficiently wrt general/world knowledge
First weapon to improve writing is the questions we ask, and how we phrase those questions.
The question you ask effectively ‘trains’ the students in analytical thinking skills. Boys will write the way we model. Hence our own writing skills are paramount to our boys' improved writing,. and their improved results.
There is no correlation between engagement and confidence. With boys confidence is the route to success.
The best pattern of paragraph length is short intro, shorter paras, one good e.g. per para,
40 130 130 130 etc this rains boys for thinking skills. Most over write.
Conclusion should be as long as a body paragraph.
Regardless of whether external exam or internal we should impose word limits on all tasks to develop better writing skills.
Year 11 650
Year 12 800
Year 13 1000
Maybe Art and PE require a few more words.
This is harder work but you reclaim the ground as a teacher. The boys will learn to be sharper writers. Train by active policy of refusal. Imposing word limits will push boys to use their subject language. Boys are being overworked and are expected to write far too many words.
This was a fascinating PD session, successfully engaging staff and boys in ways I've never seen before. The number of emails I've had from staff commenting on how good they thought the PD was has been huge. They were engaged by both the presentation style, leadership, and practical nature of the presentation material.
This won't end here. It's the beginning of the next phase in our own long term literacy development project.
