Enabling Outstanding Written Communication Academy Aim: All teachers understand the pivotal importance of literacy in their subject. All teachers deliver valuable learning experiences that ensure students are able to construct extended pieces of writing that are demanding in requirements for cognitive function. The teacher effectively utilizes the modelling cycle to enable students to organise and construct a piece of extended writing. This literacy specific progress enables students to have a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of all subjects and ultimately make outstanding progress across the curriculum. Autumn Term 1 2013-2014 Focus- Real Time Modelling
1. EXPLAIN- During the initial learning journey stages the teacher explicitly explains the key skills required in order to produce a sophisticated piece of extended writing. The teacher is aware that in order for students to be sophisticated writers the students themselves must appreciate the increasing cognitive demands of the task.
2. PRE-PREPARED MODEL- Teaching practitioners effectively plan, prior to the learning journey, a model of the expected written outcome.
3. DECONSTRUCTION- In collaboration with students the model is deconstructed and the key elements that meet the assessment criteria are drawn out and explained.
4. COLLABORATIVE PLAN- Students and the teacher plan a further response utilising the knowledge gained during the prior deconstruction task.
5. REAL TIME MODEL- The teacher then expertly demonstrates in ‘real time’ the written outcome using the collaborative plan as a foundation. A verbal commentary explaining the success of the piece of writing is delivered as the written task is carried out under the visualizer. The verbal commentary includes comments and illustrations of the cognitive processes involved in constructing the piece/text.
6. COLLABORATIVE THINKING, ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION- Students, in groups, construct a collaborative response independent of the teacher. Depending on the outcome this may lead to further intervention and deconstruction of models produced.
7. INDEPENDENT APPLICATION- Finally, students produce a sophisticated independent response that reflects on understanding of organisation and cohesion gained from the earlier learning activities.
The Result Due to well considered, initial planning students have a developed knowledge of how to construct an organised and cohesive piece of writing. This knowledge results in students experiencing improved selfesteem, motivation and belief. Understanding how to effectively organise an extended piece of writing equips students with a thinking structure that enables them to produce an independent response of a comparable quality to that demonstrated by the expert teacher.