Explicit Teaching (of writing)

1. Explicit Teaching (of writing) Also Known As Successful strategies for successful students

2. What is Explicit Teaching? Explicit teaching involves: • planning for writing opportunities where the purpose and value of the writing is well-defined • explaining to students the purpose, context and value of the task or unit of work, and making links with prior learning • explaining what the intended outcomes of the task or unit of work are • presenting and explaining the nature of tasks clearly and modellingprocesses to be used for their completion • providing models, demonstrations or examples of what is to be achieved • ensuring that students are aware of what it is they will be expected to demonstrate and the standard required to show achievement of the task.

3. providing positive and informative feedback as students work to complete the task • correcting errors and providing further modellingor demonstration of strategies needed • providing opportunities for students to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills with guidance from the teacher and support from their peers before being expected to succeed independently.

4. The Four Quality Teaching Questions • What do you want the students to learn? • Why does the learning matter? • What are you going to get the students to do or produce that will demonstrate their learning? • How well do you expect them to do it?

5. Model of Explicit Teaching Reflection and review Building the field Guiding phase Linking prior learning Building the field Setting the context Independent phase Reflection and review Modeling phase Assessment and feedback Building the field

6. Setting the Context:Building Field In setting the context the teacher • opens up the field to be investigated by defining the topic and determining the aspects which will become the focus of study • explains the significance of the topic and the purpose for developing the relevant knowledge, skills and understandings: • provides opportunities to draw on students’ prior knowledge • introduces the skill or topic within its curriculum and broader contexts • establishes expectations and outlines the criteria that will be used to assess students’ work.

7. ModelledLearning / Deconstruction Modelled writing helps students to gain knowledge about the language, vocabulary, sentence structures and text structures required to write for a range of purposes. Modelledwriting means using both models and modelling. Modelledwriting refers to the selection of models to show students how writing works. Modeling is the teacher’s demonstration of writing to students. Modelledwriting includes explicit teaching about the processes involved in composing texts. At the modelling phase, teachers provide/construct examples of the type of texts students will be composing, explanations of how these texts work and structured demonstrations of what efficient writers know and do.

8. Modelled Learning / Deconstruction Make explicit the purpose, structure of the text, language features and vocabulary, sentence patterns and content knowledge of the type of writing required using successful models. Provide students with examples of the task. Provide the all essential information that students require to complete the writing task successfully in the future. THUS...

9. When modeling writing teachers should: • Provide really good examples of the type of texts students need to compose. • Explain that you have chosen excellent examples which will be a useful guide to students for their own writing. If they use the same features, they will do well. • Before reading, explain the key words and content (eg a brief summary of a story or the information) so students can understand the text that you will read. • Read through your examples and explain how these texts work – address the writing at level of whole text (including paragraphs), sentence, word and surface features.

10. When modelling writing teachers should: • Draw students’ attention to the structure / language / vocabulary – and demonstrate what efficient writers know and do. • Develop a shared language with students to talk about language eg grammar, text type scaffolds. • “Talk out the text” for students – identify and elaborate on language features to be taught, such as the author’s use of modality, word chains, cohesive links, elaboration and language choices which colour or persuade. • Identify any layout features eg headings, diagrams and discuss how they contribute to the meaning of the written text and visa versa.

11. When modelling writing teachers should: • Look at individual paragraphs. Discuss the paragraph’s function. Identify the topic (usually the first) sentence and demonstrate how it previews the information in the paragraph. Look at how the text elaborates its ideas (eg through building up information over a series of sentences or within a sentence using complex sentences.)

12. When modelling writing teachers should: • Look at the text on a sentence level. Identify technical terms or language features (eg present tense, effective noun groups, expressive verbs and adverbs) required to make the writing effective. Why are these language choices effective? Eg technical language = authority, expressive verbs = scary atmosphere, effective nouns = humour.) • Set the criteria for the task – this criteria should address both the content and form (the writing). Students should be assured that if they use the criteria they will do well. • Collect evidence of achievement from students’ responses to questions and discussion of texts.

13. Giving students criteria for writing should: Set students up for success Explicitly state what is to be included in their writing Raise expectations and standards Indicate what is important for a specific task Reflect what has been taught Criteria marking can: Explicitly show what a student can or cannot do Inform teachers and students where improvements are required Show trends within a class or school

14. Aspects to focus on at the modelled phase • The writer’s purpose • The point of view from which the text written • The intended audience of the text • Word choices that signal the writer’s purpose. Demonstrate and explain what would happen if a word was deleted or altered . (eg if the writer’s purpose is to entertain, how is language being used to develop a vivid message?) • Identify word choices signal the writer’s attitude. Discuss if convincing or perhaps too emotive or emphatic. • Identify and explain how adverbs, such as finally or previously help the reader to follow the sequence of events. • Identify the tense the text written. Explain why we expect a scientific explanation to be written in universal present tense? Discuss what would be the effect if we changed the tense in a narrative from past to present?

15. Teaching Strategies for ModelledLearning WHEN USING WRITTEN MODELS • Highlight and annotate the key features of a written model: • At the whole text level eg stages in a text; paragraphing; tense; pronoun referencing • At the sentence level eg elaboration; subject verb agreement; prepositions; punctuation; use of evidence and quotes. • At the word level eg noun groups and adverbs; technical terms; spelling • Explain the significance of these features. What elaboration is being provided eg When an event took place? The manner in which the event occurred. The physical or character attributes of a noun.

16. Explain which word/phrases are used to influence or persuade the reader. WHEN THE TEACHER MODELS • Teacher models the writing of a text by: • explaining the choices they make as they compose the text. • articulating the metacognitive processes that are taking place as they composer of the text. • explain what they are trying to achieve.

17. Teaching Strategies that bridge between modelled and guided teaching • Match sample texts with headings – choose several texts in same text type, cut off headings or titles and ask students to match. • Sorting and sequencing of texts – cut texts into parts for reassembly focusing on structure. • Order paragraphs • Match topic sentence to paragraph. • Sequence sentences according to text type.

18. Guided Learning / Joint Construction The purpose of guided writing is to conduct a writing activity that involves the student and the teacher jointly composing a text. During guiding students build up a new text on the basis of shared experiences and shared knowledge developed during the modelled writing phase. With the support of the teacher, this can be done as a class or in small groups. Guide students in their reading, listening to, or viewing of texts and point out the particular language structures and grammatical features required for the construction of new texts.

19. When guiding teachers could: • reword the students’ spoken texts, suggest alternatives, model technical or subject specific vocabulary or rework the structure of sentences so that the text is successful and valid for that context/subject; • design activities that allow students to build their field knowledge, manipulate language features, locate, extract and organise relevant information in a way that is relevant for the purpose of the task; • collect evidence of achievement and assess student contributions to the development of the text, the questions they ask and the comments they make which demonstrate their understandings and knowledge of subject content and the writing process.

20. Questions to pose as students are developing their texts • What is our purpose? • Who is our audience? • How can we best affect or influence our readers? • How might we begin this text? What does the reader need to know first? • How should we organise the different sections of this text? • What should we leave in or take out? • How are we going to end the text?

21. Questions to pose when guiding students to look at language features • Can you think of a more effective verb/noun/adjective? • Do we need to define this technical term? • What tense should we be using? • This sentence is a bit clumsy. How can we make it more concise? • This is how we would say it, but how would we write it? • Should we combine these two sentences? Should we split this sentence? • What sort of punctuation do we need here? • How can we work out the spelling of this word?

22. Questions to pose when guiding students in the writing process • Let’s look at the outline we made earlier. Is it still working okay? • Should we revise, move or delete this section of the text? • Have we finished or are we just blocked? By jointly composing texts, students will develop an understanding of how spoken language differs from written language. This would be demonstrated by teachers as they mould students’ verbal contributions into the language of the written mode.

23. Examples of Teaching Strategies for Guided Learning • Record in random order ideas on the topic as suggested by the students. Ask the students how they might organise these ideas by referring to the modeled texts. • Scribe on an overhead or IWB modeling the language choices effective writers make. • Teachers may have to reword the students’ spoken texts, suggest alternatives, model technical or subject-specific vocabulary or rework the structure of sentences so that the text is successful. • Allow students to write opening section of a text in pairs, share these as a whole class and discuss which were most effective and why. • Use proformas/scaffolds as guides to organise their information and structure their writing.

24. Use graphic organisers such as • ‘for and against charts’ (for discussions), • mindmaps (for information reports), • flowcharts (for explanations) and • timelines (for recounts) • Draw and label visuals to support organisation of information eg flow charts for explanation; structured overviews for reports; timelines for recount.

25. Cloze passage. Cloze passages should focus on a particular aspect of writing eg adjectives, adverbial phrases, temporal devices, conjunctions, connectives, modality, pronouns, etc • Skeleton writing / expanding ideas in sentences. • Teacher provides the topic sentence for each paragraph and students complete each paragraph. • Teacher provides a main idea of a sentence which students are required to elaborate. The teacher may provide a trigger word for the elaboration. eg Earthquakes occur when. . . because . . . where . . . • The boy who . . . with . . . standing . . .

26. Independent This phase should be introduced when the students are at a point where, working with a degree of independence, they can be successful. The teacher should be less directive, adopting a more consultative role. Adequate resources should be made so that students can complete the set task.

27. When writing independently students should be encouraged to: • Define their purpose. • Indentify their audience • Engage in further research if necessary • Jot down ideas and notes • Think about how to organise ideas effectively • Write drafts • Share drafts with peers and the teachers • Rework drafts with a focus on: • Prepare and edit a final draft

28. Examples of Teaching Strategies for Independent Learning • Divide class into groups, each responsible for one aspect of the text/information – regroup and discuss organisation of material. • Provide proformas to support students in their early attempts at independent writing. • Students select a topic within the same field or theme eg After joint construction of a text on a topic about the conservation of rainforest, students then independently construct an exposition on another conservation topic.

29. Assessment and Feedback i.e. Taking the mystery out of implicit teaching and assessment. Often the value placed on a piece of writing is embedded in the way it is written, not just the content. Thus, it is vitally important that students are explicity taught how to write in a way that is valued by the subject and that the assessment criteria reflects the value placed on the way that content is articulated. Eg In science, writing is usually written in third person, it is objective, uses passive voice, highly nominalised and relies on a number of causal adverbial clauses.

30. Assessment and Feedback cont’ If students’ writing is to be assessed not only by the content that is presented but also the style of the written text (as is most often the case) this needs to be clearly articulated to students. It is also important that the criteria being assessed has been explicitly taught. The skills, knowledge and understanding are the outcomes of a task. Not only are they the content outcomes but also the outcomes for students’ writing. Most of these will be subject specific.

31. Continuously monitor students’ achievements • Assessment can be formal or informal. • Ongoing evaluation and assessment can be used for several purposes. It can be used to: * assess students’ prior learning, * measure students’ aquisition of knowledge, skills and understanding, * provide teachers with feedback on the effectiveness of their teaching, * direct future learning strategies and activities.

32. Feedback Provide feedback to students about the effectiveness of their texts, which includes organisation, cohesion, grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and presentation (handwriting or word processing) This entails using explicit language to discuss students work and providing reasons and strategies for improving their writing.

33. Student CentredLearning Student centred learning is NOT student DOING . Explicit teaching could be viewed as a continuum as the input passes from the teacher to the student. Input provided jointly by teacher and student Input mainly provided by the student Input provided by the teacher Modelled phase Guided phase Independent phase

34. Revision of Explicit Teaching Reflection and review Building the field Guiding phase Linking prior learning Building the field Setting the context Independent phase Reflection and review Modeling phase Assessment and feedback Building the field

35. Points to Consider: • The model is not a lock step approach • The model is flexible • Stages may be revisited according to need • Assessment will determine which stage of the model will come next • Evident of knowledge and understanding can be collected during modelled, guided and/or independent learning • Criteria for assessment must be clear to students before tasks are undertaken

36. Looking for evidence! It is rumored that Mr Sidney Region has been teaching explicitly (shock horror) . You have been assigned to investigate these allegations. What evidence would you expect to find to substantiate these claims? What does Mr Sidney Region’s classroom look like? What are the students doing? How is their learning being supported? What resources does he use? How does he use these resources? What is Mr Region doing? What teaching strategies might he use?