Education News
Writing like a Reader
Last term the staff from Moonee Ponds West were joined by some staff from schools within our network, to work with Misty Adoniou. Misty is from the University of Canberra and has done extensive work in the language and literacy field.
The focus of the day was Writing like a Reader or how we turn great reading into great writing.
Misty spoke to the staff about teaching students that to write as authors, we need to do more than write ‘talk on paper’. That is, we need to use language to engage our audience and create the mood and help make those images in the readers’ minds.
Misty stepped us through how staff can use authentic text, rich in language to scaffold or build the know how with our students. As staff we did exactly what the students will be doing with us in the classroom, giving us the insight as both learner and teacher.
Here is the sentence we worked with. It is from the book Refugees by David Miller.
The learning is done via a series of whole class sessions that teaching teams carefully plan, considering the language techniques they want students to use in their writing. The overarching steps are:
The Book Orientation – this builds the inner world of the text to make sure that all students can participate in the text, giving all students equal access to the content, it engages the students and gives them the complexities in the text, the emotion, the inferences.
The Language Orientation – An excerpt of text is selected where the desired language techniques are made explicit, including why particular words and phrases were chosen. ‘Chunks or pockets of meaning’ are identified and used to examine the functional grammar.
The Transformation- Students gain an understanding of the construction of sentences and the impact of the author’s language choices but manipulating the text, to change the order. In doing so, they understand why the author has written it the way they have, but also how they can transform their sentences to have a greater impact for their readers.
Patterned Writing/Innovation – Students use the structure and language patterns of the text they have been working on to create their own piece of writing.
After the day the staff was energised and excited to begin planning. Each team has planned or is in the process of planning this sequence to use with their class.
Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and all the staff asked to have Misty come back to continue the work.
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School Photos 2022 – Moonee Ponds West Primary School
Annual school photos have been taken by Arthur Reed Photos.
To view the images of your child and order photos, you will need to first register online.
- Go to https://order.arphotos.com.au and enter the 2022 image code for your child (from their personalized flyer)
- Tap on ‘Add another child’ to enter the image codes of any siblings
- Fill in your email and mobile details and then review all details before confirming your registration
That’s it! When 2022 photos are ready, you will be notified by email and SMS.
Even if you registered last year, it’s important that you do it again each year using your child’s new image code to link their photos for the current year with your contact details.
To ensure you are ordering school photos for the current year, please wait for notifications that 2022 images are online before placing orders.
In the web shop you can view photos and customize your photo package; Choose ANY layout, ANY image and purchase multiple digital image downloads.
All photo orders will be sent directly to the address you provide when ordering.
REGISTER ONLINE NOW to be notified when 2022 school photos can be viewed and ordered.
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