Writing

Teaching Writing ** The scaffolded approach to literacy is one that I have seen many teachers use and I was taught to read and write with this approach myself. There are four aspects to teaching writing with the scaffolded approach:



As the name suggests modelled writing involves the teacher modelling writing to the children by writing on a whiteboard or chard. Usually the teacher would model a range of genres, and often think out loud to demonstrate to the students the thought process involved in the writing process. (Hill, 2006)



This involves teachers and children writing together in a group setting. In shared writing the teacher will do all the writing and the children contribute most of the ideas. Whereas in interactive writing the teacher will may write all the easy words and the students take turn to write the more difficult words or even whole sentences. The ideas for the text come from both the students and teacher. (Hill, 2006)



The structure of guided writing is slightly different from guided reading but it is linked to reading, as sometimes a text type will be used as a model for the students writing task. Students work in pairs, small groups or even individually. The teacher may conduct a mini-lesson on a particular text type or students may be writing part of a text, and all the different pieces created by the students will be combined to create a class play, story or even newsletter. (Hill 2006)



Children are encouraged to write their own piece, and over time develop their repertoire of text types. The students will develop fluency in their writing and are given the opportunity to experiment in expressing their ideas. (Hill 2006)