Levels 3 and 4

Achievement Objectives

Written language: Writing

Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Examples

Example 1

Achievement Objectives
Expressive writing; transactional writing: exploring language; processing information

Teaching and Learning
Context: studying the work of a New Zealand author

• The teacher and students read together and talk about a range of stories by New Zealand writers. Students record their responses to some stories.
• During discussion of one or two stories, students identify and describe some significant conventions of written language, such as structural features, words, and imagery chosen to convey moods or emotions.
• In groups, students identify any language features or specific references which identify the story as being from New Zealand.
• In groups of three or four, the students select the work of one author to study in greater depth. They share a number of stories by their chosen author, and identify and note down what they already know and what they want to find out. Each member of the group contributes as they map and record the process they intend to use to locate, retrieve, and record information.
• The groups undertake their research, collate and interpret the material they have found, and collaboratively draft, revise, and edit a presentation of their findings.
• Students share their presentations with other groups.

Assessment

• The teacher notes the students' responses to the material.
• The teacher observes and discusses the processes of finding and recording information with the students, and assesses the effectiveness of the presentations.

Links With Other Strands
Reading, Speaking, Listening, Presenting, Viewing

Example 2

Achievement Objectives
Expressive writing; poetic writing: exploring language; thinking critically

Teaching and Learning
Context: writing a poem in a particular form

• The teacher selects and shares with the students a poem written in a particular form.
• The students respond, orally or in expressive writing, to the ideas and images of the poem.
• The teacher and class discuss and list some of the language and structural features of the poem.
• Students and the teacher identify the criteria for writing this form of poem.
• The teacher leads the students through the process of selecting a topic for writing their own poem by drawing on their own experiences.
• The teacher guides the students through the steps of composition, with students working on their own choice of topics.

Assessment

• Students evaluate their poem against the criteria. They share and respond to each other's poems in groups.
• The teacher notes students' responses and subsequent reworking of their writing.

Extension Option

• Students use this process for developing a poem in a different form.

Links With Other Strands
Reading, Speaking, Listening

Example 3

Achievement Objectives
Transactional writing: exploring language

Teaching and Learning
Context: preparing for a school concert, visit, or event

• Students gather and study a range of formal and informal invitations, advertisements, notices to parents, and other informational material about a forthcoming event.
• In groups, students identify the language features used in writing to inform different audiences.
• Groups clarify the information which they will need to convey about the event, and the range of audiences. The ideas are shared and collated, and the class decides which will be required.
• Each group takes responsibility for writing one of the information texts, such as invitations to neighbouring schools, a newspaper item, a notice for parents, a reminder for staff, or school notices.
• Groups write their texts, adopting a structure and language which is suitable to the occasion and which reflects the various cultures represented in the school and audience.

Assessment

• Each group presents their drafts, and class members contribute suggestions, with reasons, for any changes.
• The texts are finalised by the groups, and distributed to the appropriate audience.
  
• The teacher observes and notes individual students' participation and achievements.

Links With Other Strands
Reading, Presenting

Example 4

Achievement Objectives
Poetic writing; exploring language

Teaching and Learning
Context: exploring narrative in prose and poetry

• Students listen to a narrative, told either as a short story with a strong narrative thread, or as a ballad, waiata, or poem.
• In small groups, students retell the story, working together to recall as much detail and accuracy of sequence as they can. The purpose of this retelling is to strengthen students' sense of narrative construction.
• These retellings may be shared with others.
• The teacher provides up to five elements which are to be included in a new narrative. These could include a setting, a character, an incident, objects, and events.
• Each group now develops and writes a group story, in prose or in narrative poetic form.

Assessment

• The teacher discusses the drafts as they proceed, noting students' contributions to, and control of, the process.
• The group narratives are shared and assessed for imaginative power, quality of language, and use of narrative techniques.

Links With Other Strands
Listening, Speaking
Related example in another strand at the same level: Listening, Example 3