LEVEL 3 WRITING INQUIRY

2014

FOCUS

DEVELOP STUDENT POTENTIAL FOR

ACHIEVING 3.4 WRITING WITH

EXCELLENCE

MRGS WRITING FRAMEWORK

• IDENTIFY KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT

WRITING STYLES

• GAIN CONCEPT OF THE WRITING PROCESS –

WRITING FOR PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE –

DRAFTING AND RECREATING BY APPLYING

EDITING AND PROOFREADING SKILLS

• DEVELOP LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE

‘TRAVEL WRITING’

EXIT STRATEGY FOCUS ON ‘ESSENCE’

&

8 TIPS CHALLENGE INCLUDING

BALANCE OF USING FACT AND OPINION

RESULTSOMEWHAT EFFECTIVE AS MOST ABLE TO FILL IN SPECIFIC UNIQUE ‘ESSENCE’

THAT THEY WERE GOING TO FOCUS ON IN THEIR WRITING.

WOULD HAVE LIKED THIS TO BE 100% - DISAPPOINTING TO SEE THAT 2 DID NOT

HAVE IT FILLED IN ON THEIR FINAL WRITING STATEMENT OF INTENT.

STUDENT VOICE:Jotting down the points about the style of travel writing (TW)

helped me to start to have a feel of the tone of voice that is

more suitable for TW. Having us verbalise helped me

because it helped me to decide on what was most special to

Taipei, ie. its liveliness and dynamics, and how this guided

me towards the essence of the trip.

‘BACKSTORY’

COLLABORATIVE STRATEGY FOCUS ON

ANNOTATED EXEMPLARS

STUDENTS APPLIED CERTAIN ‘CRAFTING’

PRINCIPLES TO THE EXEMPLARS.

THE SAME PRINCIPLES WOULD THEN BE USED FOR

THEIR OWN WRITING.

RESULTS

Reading over the exemplars also helped me

decide on which tone of voice others have

written in and the use of techniques to get the

powerful feelings and message across, usually

towards a revelation (giving reader insight to

the factors, etc. to cause them to act this way,

etc.)

‘COLUMN WRITING’

STUDENTS WERE GIVEN A RUBRIC TO

EVALUATE THE STRENGTH OF COLUMN

EXEMPLARS

THE RUBRIC WOULD THEN BE APPLIED

TO THEIR OWN WRITING.

RESULTS

• THE RUBRIC WAS EXTREMELY HELPFUL IN BEING ABLE

TO COMPARE MY OWN WRITING TO WHAT WAS ON THE

RUBRIC. THE EXAMPLARS WERE A LITTLE HELPFUL IN

TERMS OF GETTING A FEEL OF THE TONE AND WHAT WAS

DONE WELL AND WHAT NOT TO DO IN COLUMN WRITING.

SURVEY RESULTS

FEEDBACK

RESOURCES

OTHER RESOURCES

EVIDENCE FOR SUCCESS

2013 Level

2

2014 Level

3

Excellence 4 5

Merit 4 9

OVERALL REFLECTION

• HAPPY WITH THE INCREASED LEVEL OF

PERFORMANCE

• RANGE OF STRATEGIES WAS GOOD AS

DIFFERENT STUDENTS HAVE DIFFERENT

LEARNING STYLES

• RUBRIC DEFINITELY CAME OUT TOPS SO MIGHT

USE THAT WITH EACH STYLE OF WRITING NEXT

TIME

NEXT STEPS• USE A RANGE OF STRATEGIES INCORPORATING THE RUBRIC WITH ALL OF THEM

• MAKE SURE THERE IS A FOCUS ON STRUCTURE AT SOME POINT NOT JUST STYLE

• FOR THE COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIES TO WORK THE STUDENTS NEED CLEAR ROLES AND

EXPECTATIONS SO EVERYONE IS CONTRIBUTING

• SURPRISING TO SEE HOW THE STUDENT VOICE SHOWED THAT THEY APPRECIATE PEER AND

TEACHER FEEDBACK BECAUSE THEY GET TOO CLOSE TO THEIR WRITING TO SEE ANYTHING THAT

NEEDS CHANGING – WOULD LIKE TO INVESTIGATE THAT FURTHER AND SEE HOW TO TARGET IT. I

ORIGINALLY THOUGHT IT WAS THAT THEY JUST FELT IF THEY HAD DONE A PIECE OF WORK THAT

WAS IT THEY DIDN’T NEED TO COME BACK TO IT TO IMPROVE IT

• MOST IMPORTANTLY MAKE MORE OF A CONSCIOUS EFFORT TO COME BACK TO THE STRATEGIES

USED IN THE PRELIMINARY DRAFTS WHEN THEY DO THEIR FINAL DRAFTS AT A MUCH LATER STAGE