Scaffolding Adolescent Writing

Learning Area
Literacy
School Area
Secondary (7-10)
Senior Secondary (11 - 12)
AITSL Standards Covered
1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students
1.2 Understand how students learn
1.3 Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds
1.5 Differentiate teaching to meet the specific learning needs of students across the full range of abilities
2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
2.2 Content selection and organisation
2.5 Literacy and numeracy strategies
3.3 Use teaching strategies
3.4 Select and use resources
4.1 Support student participation
4.2 Manage classroom activities
6.2 Engage in professional learning and improve practice
6.3 Engage with colleagues and improve practice
6.4 Apply professional learning and improve student learning

The course is either a full day of Professional Development  or 3 separate workshops. Participants receive the Scaffolding Adolescent Writing workbook filled with practical classroom activities covering the following topics: 

A Scaffolded Teaching and Learning approach. This focusses on taking curriculum goals to build a teaching cycle that begins with literacy activities that enable students to internalise the language of the selected text genre. It equips teachers with approaches to build student knowledge of text types through strategic analysis of texts.

Guiding Learning through a Gradual Release of Responsibility. This examines how teachers can deepen student knowledge of text structure and language through, modelling, sharing and joint construction as well as guided practice through the writing process of planning, drafting, editing and publishing. Participants experience first-hand, the power of shared and interactive writing.

Writing Issues in Secondary School. The third and final part of the course explores some of key secondary school issues with regards to literacy and writing. The main issue being the teaching of writing genres across learning areas. The session concludes with programming strategies to embed the literacy activities into current teaching and learning programs.