Teaching and Learning
Writing at Concord
This year we have continued on the path we embarked upon in 2019 in writing with our Primary and PreCAL classes following a Language Experience approach and the Secondary classes using Writer’s Notebooks. Our focus is on exploring the different purposes for writing and creating meaningful experiences for our students to use as writing prompts.
In the Primary and PreCAL classes our students have a shared experience which they then use as the basis of their writing for the week in the classroom. In our Secondary year levels our students have a special book called a Writer’s Notebooks. The Writer’s Notebook is a place where students store and record different things that interest them which will provide ideas and prompts for purposeful writing. Writing is thinking, and the notebook provides a place for writers to record their thoughts. Students don’t compose their writing in the notebook, they will be use it as a tool to store ideas about what they observe, wonder or think about and things that are important to them. The Writer’s Notebook is a very personal document.
At the moment, students are personalising their Writer’s Notebook and will begin planting ‘seeds’. A ‘seed’ is the name given to the idea the student wishes to store in their Notebook. Students will be supported to build their ideas into purposeful writing from the seeds they plant in the notebook.
We would like to encourage families to support their child in identifying items that they might like to bring in from home to plant in their Writer’s Notebook as a seed. There is no definitive list of what a seed can be, the following list is just to get your thinking started.
- A photo of significance
- A memento from an experience
- A ticket from an event
- A card
- A picture of something that interests them (a place, an animal…)
- A leaf
Primary and PreCAL students are also able to bring in items which could be added to class ‘seed’ displays to support them with generating ideas for Free Writing sessions.
Supporting Literacy at home
Encourage your child to talk about the different things that interest them and identify topics which they could write about.
Supporting Numeracy at home
Numberplate maths. Talk to your child about the different numbers on car numberplates, the largest number they see, the smallest number they see, different ways the number can be read.
Sam Birrell
Acting Assistant Principal
Teaching and Learning