Inquiry - Term 3

Team 2 were very lucky to have Jannie van Hees come and speak to us this term around literacy in our learning space, particularly focusing on writing, knowing how to cater/implement this into all ability levels.


Jannie echoed it isn't all about extracting language from the children when this is a huge struggle which is seen in their writing so where are we going to put our lens? I have 11 out of my 21 learners who are ESOL learners, where some struggle to simply voice their opinions in the classroom.
It is very important for us as teachers to have ongoing conversations with the students giving them many opportunities to improve their oral language, not just written.  Allowing the students to participate in meaningful encounters and engagement with other learners, continually gifting the vocabulary to optimise the students learning and to help support the language is sticking to the learner. 

Once the 2 sentences had been written, Jannie says a word, kid identifies the word and gets to circle it. She implemented 'I Spy!' by Jannie saying a word and the students circling that word which was very engaging for the learners!


We need to have explicit attention to language, repeating a students idea with richer vocabulary. We need to make sure we have exciting and relevant contexts to ensure EVERY learner is deeply and cognitively involved, remembering the priority is the quality of the language, not just quantity. 

Teacher needs to talk the detail with the students - expand on students sentences on the conversation on the mat. Continually gifting words and ideas to the learners which the learners do understand. Students need to be aware that each contribution is valid and it is a safe learning environment. It is crucial the kids know enough detail to write their story.

If a students idea is 'Grandma came over on Sunday' Expand on this by asking questions such as:

- What does she look like?

- Why did she come?

- Was it in the morning or at night?

- Were you excited?

- Who was home?

- Did she bring food or did you give her food?

Last week I was very privileged to have Jannie come into my classroom for the morning to model/share her expertise around teaching writing to the students who struggle to write a sentence independently and the students who are excelling in literacy.

When working with the students who are excelling in literacy, she made it very clear these kids need to have a purpose for the reason they are writing. Once this has been installed, this is where the oral conversations take place, gifting and enriching the vocabulary.

Students begin thinking of 3 main ideas they want to express to the audience within the piece of writing and write these down. We then discussed what a paragraph is connecting this into their reading, looking at past texts. When looking at structuring and the organisation of the piece of writing, we need to make it clear with the students what they're needing to implement and giving them the correct strategies to successfully do this. Watching Jannie's way of continually gifting vocabulary while also pulling out amazing vocabulary out of the students was awesome and I'm excited to give it a go!

This time last year, I can recall myself pushing for good vocabulary and punctuation with my extension students, dipping into a range of techniques, unsure the direction I was needing to take to see the best progress. I am so excited to now have a great understanding of where these writers should be heading with their next goals set in place, writing for a purpose, focussing on quality over quantity.

After observing Jannie last week, I've been teaching the students about grouping of their ideas as you can see below, these are very basic pieces of writing, as I wanted them to understand the concept thoroughly. This is just the beginning stage and I am very excited to continue this into next term with all my learners!

She then worked with the students who were still learning to write a sentence independently which was awesome to observe. She begun the lesson with 3 images of sea creatures, discussing these sea creatures with great detail. She consistently voiced the good points of the students, gifting richer language.

Once they have discussed the images, the students and Jannie came up with their first sentence with awesome conversations taking place!

This was awesome to see both levels and how to get the best progress and achievement out of these learners. Jannie stated these students are still needing to be exposed with the oral language going on with the rest of the writers in the classroom - do not exclude these students from extended oral conversations. Push them above and beyond the expectation of ‘I like to’ ‘I went to the’ - they are capable.

Linking all this amazing expertise from Jannie into my inquiry has been amazing! I am excited to push writing achievement in the classroom and the students seem to be loving it too!

Thanks heaps for coming in Jannie!