Year 3/4 Bulletin
Curriculum Link: Writing - Explanation Text
In Grades 3 and 4, your child will be developing key writing skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum. One important form of writing they'll practice is the explanation text, where they explain how something works or why something happens.
The Victorian Curriculum focuses on building students’ abilities to understand different types of texts and structures, particularly when explaining ideas in clear, logical ways. For an explanation text, your child will need to identify a topic, describe the process or cause, and conclude with a summary.
To guide their writing, we use the 6 Traits of Writing, which breaks down writing into six key areas:
- Ideas: Encourage your child to think deeply about their topic and include clear, detailed explanations.
- Organisation: Help them structure their text logically, with a strong introduction, body paragraphs explaining each part of the process, and a conclusion.
- Voice: Support your child in using a clear, confident voice that reflects their understanding of the topic.
- Word Choice: Expand their vocabulary by encouraging precise words that describe the process or concept they are explaining.
- Sentence Fluency: Work on creating smooth sentences that flow well from one idea to the next.
- Conventions: Focus on correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar, which are essential for making their writing easy to understand.
By focusing on these six traits, your child will not only meet the expectations of the Victorian Curriculum but also develop strong writing habits that will serve them well in future years.
Task: To construct an explanation text to explain how or why something happens using the correct structure.
Student work samples:
Allira, Richard and Roula
Year 3/4 Team
Allira.Zeneli@education.vic.gov.au