Principal's News
HOW TO SUPPORT CHILDREN WITH THEIR WRITING
This week’s Bulletin highlights ‘Writing’ across the school. Please read your child’s Level Bulletin as it aims to give you a glimpse of the learning at school and provide you with tips on what you can do at home.
‘Writing is a sophisticated form of telepathy. You visualise an image in your imagination and then, through your choice of words, you transmit that image into the mind of your reader.’ (Beth Cregan)
We want our children to become great writers, but we need to consider what we signal to be important skills as we strive toward this goal. All writing starts in the imagination. Of course, writing is about language, spelling, structure and grammar, but our imagination is the true powerhouse of any piece of writing.
At APS we strive to support our young learners to write effectively. Children are explicitly taught the 6+1 Traits of writing and supported to develop their ability to be analytic assessors of what ‘great’ writing looks like. You might hear your child mention the six traits of writing. The traits provide a shared language and understanding of the six key qualities of good writing.
The 6+ 1 traits are taught at every year level. These are:
Ideas
Ideas are the heart of the message and include the thoughts, content, or the main idea of a piece.
Organisation
All writing has a beginning, middle and end— that is organisation! It is the internal structure of a piece and all the elements that hold the ideas together to convey meaning.
Voice
Voice is how the writing is received by a reader. Can it hold their attention and move them emotionally? Does the reader feel a connection with the author or characters? Voice can be expressed through words, ideas, tone, mood and the personal style of the writer.
Word Choice
Is all about using rich, colourful and precise language to convey the intended message and move the reader.
Sentence Fluency
Is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, and the way in which the writing plays to the ear, not just to the eye. A piece strong in sentence fluency is enjoyable and easy to read aloud because it has clear phrasing, thoughtful word choice, and varied sentence length and sentence beginnings.
Conventions
Conventions is the correctness of a piece and includes, spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, grammar and usage, and paragraphs.
As parents and educators, we need to support our young writers and encourage them to explore and experiment being writers.
If you would like to know more about our writing program, please watch the following video:
Rochelle Cukier and Connie Apostolo
Principal