English in the New Zealand Curriculum
Level 1: Writing Functions
Transactional Writing: Students should write instructions and recount events in authentic contexts.
Levels 1 and 2: Reading and Writing Processes
Exploring Language: Students should explore choices made by writers, and identify and use the common conventions of writing and organisation of text which affect understanding.
Thinking Critically: Students should identify and express meanings in written texts, drawing on personal background, knowledge and experience.
Processing Information: Students should identify, retrieve, record, and present coherent information, using more than one source and type of technology, and describing the process used.
Te Whāriki
Pages 76–79
Strand 4, Communication
All of goals 2 and 3, and the associated learning
outcomes for knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
 (PDF, 454kb)
The class enjoyed a shared reading session, using the picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Eric Carle). This prompted class discussion on caterpillars and butterflies, which the students were able to add to from their observations of the life cycle of a monarch butterfly in the classroom. They were encouraged to talk about their personal observations. The book was read again and the students joined in with the repetition of the text.
The question was posed: "So how does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?" The students turned "knee-to-knee" with a partner, and took it in turns to explain the life-cycle process, as they understood it.
After these discussions, they were expected to record their own explanations in their draft writing books, and were encouraged to use drawings to support these. They were expected to record a simple but clear explanation of the life cycle as they understood it.
Kelsi chose to illustrate her understanding of the life cycle with a diagram before writing. She also selected just one aspect of the process – eating – to record, and she wrote independently.
The teacher moved around the room during writing time, responding to both the conventions of writing the students were attempting, and the content being expressed. The teacher had continually modelled "writing down the main sounds you can hear, and moving on".
Teacher-student conversations
As Kelsi worked on the diagram, the teacher asked her to explain what she had drawn.
| Teacher: |
I can see that you have drawn the caterpillar here ...What is the next part? |
| Kelsi: |
That's the cocoon. And then it's a butterfly. |
| Teacher: |
That's right! The caterpillar makes the cocoon first. I love the way you've drawn the arrows, to show what happens next. |
After Kelsi had completed the writing, the teacher asked her to read it back for clarification of the explanation.
| Kelsi: |
"The caterpillar eats to get into a butterfly." |
| Teacher: |
It certainly does! What do you think most caterpillars eat? |
| Kelsi: |
Swan plant. |
| Teacher: |
Yes, the monarch caterpillar eats swan plant leaves. You don't think that they eat salami and lollipops then? |
| Kelsi: |
[Laughs.] No! That's just in the story! |
Integrating reading and writing
Opportunities should be sought in classroom reading programmes for students to respond to written and visual texts, identifying how processes or phenomena can be explained. Picture books with narrative text will be useful for this. Exposure to transactional texts will be essential. The "reading to" programme will give opportunity for discussing specific vocabulary, language features and diagrams, which may be transferred to student writing and drawing.
To move Kelsi towards the next learning step, the teacher might help her to focus on:
- Ideas – extending ideas with some simple detail or comments.
- Sentences – identifying more dominant sounds in words.
- Punctuation – using capital letters and full stops correctly.
This could be done by:
- ongoing class and individual discussions, prompting further detail through questioning
- modelling texts with examples of the language features of explanation
- conferencing and giving feedback, in reading and writing programmes.
References
Carle, Eric (1970). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London: Hamilton Puffin.
Ministry of Education (1994). English in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
Ministry of Education (1996). Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Mātauranga mō ngā Mokopuna o Aotearoa/Early Childhood Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media.
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