Week 6 Term 1 - Teacher Practice: Year 9 EasTTle Writing Reflection (March 6 - March 10)

What is EasTTle Writing? The e-asTTle writing is an online assessment tool designed to assess students' progress in writing from Years 1–10. It assesses students' ability to independently write continuous text across a variety of purposes (describe, explain, recount, narrate, persuade). In Week 5, our Year 9 and Year 10 students completed the first round of testing for both EasTTle Writing and PAT Reading Test. I have spent sometime sifting through my Year 9 EasTTle Writing and I wanted to write a reflection on the strengths and areas of opportunity that I have identified. I wanted to highlight the strengths in their writing to affirm and validate the writing abilities that my akonga have. I also want to highlight the areas of opportunity - to highlight the areas where there is an opportunity for me as their kaiako to provide better support in their writing journey. 

Whaikaha (strengths): (verb) to have strength, be strong enough.

Celebrating, acknowledging and validating akonga strengths helps to build a positive sense of self in their learning journey. Your Therapy Source Blog states "We all know every student has strengths. It is our job as teachers, therapists and parents, to help students utilize their strengths and talents to the best of their abilities. Temple Grandin says it best – “There needs to be a lot more emphasis on what a child CAN do, instead of what he cannot do.” The strengths I have identified are measured against the EasTTle Writing marking rubric which focuses on Ideas, Structure, Organization, Vocabulary, Sentence, Punctuation and Spelling. Without the marking rubric, I measured the strength based on their ability to respond to the writing prompt and how their ideas and opinions is expressed in a confident and sophisticated manner. 

Year 9 EasTTle Writing Exemplar (Wk5 T1) - Student A

This student has a strong voice and has shown an ability to express this is in sophisticated and meaningful way in their writing. They have shown a strong reference to the writing prompt 'write to explain to your reader what being a good friend means' and have given their opinion on WHY they value friendship. There is some great vocabulary that they have crafted into their writing such as 'personally' (which allows the reader to see how the writer connects to their topic - they are opening up themselves to the topic). 'I am new to this college so I don't really know that many people but in the upcoming year I'll be able to know everyone' - there is a strong personal voice coming through this expert. This I believe is a strength in their writing. This is something that I hope to explore more with this writer and I hope that the CATs (creative writing and speech particular) and the unit that I have organized for both tasks will help provide a platform for this writer to express their voice in writing. 

Year 9 EasTTle Writing Exemplar (Wk5 T1) - Student B

This exemplar highlights Student B's strength which is organization. I love the way that they have managed their ideas and structured it in a way that flows for both the writer and reader. This is something that many akonga struggle with - structure and organization. It is important that I build on this strength through exploring different texts and unpacking how the texts are structured, to give the writer an idea on how complex structure is in all texts (extended, short, visual and oral texts). I believe that CATs such as creative writing and formal writing will help the writer build on their strength as they will have an opportunity to structure and craft their own text. 

Whakapai (improvement): (noun) preparation, improvement, reform.

As Kaiako, it is important that the approach student's weakness in their learning journey is something that we do with love and respect. We want our akonga to LEARN from their 'weaknesses' and to see it as an area of opportunity - opportunity to grow and learn. 

Year 9 EasTTle Writing Exemplar (Wk5 T1) - Student C

Punctuation and sentence structure (short, medium and long sentences) are integral basic elements for crafting a text. Student C's written work shows a great connection, understanding and interpretation of the writing prompt. An area for improvement is help Student C focus on HOW to craft a text specifically looking at punctuation and sentence structure. The Crafted Writing Program and the Let's Get it Write program that we have used as part of our literacy strategies is something that I am going focus on. I wrote a reflection on the Let's Get it Write program (see Alby's Blog Entry - 11/06/20) and I would like to revisit the basic and fundamental elements of punctuation and sentence structure with all of my year 9 students. This is important content to cover and one that will help build their confidence in their writing and literacy overall. 

Year 9 EasTTle Writing Exemplar (Wk5 T1) - Student D

Crafting text is a process and a big part of the process is figuring WHAT do you want to write about and sticking to it. The writing prompts for the EasTTle Writing test are specific and the instructions given allow the writer to work within a certain parameter. For Student D and for many of my akonga - they tend to veer off the topic and venture off into a bit of a 'ramble'. I hope to explore the Crafted Writing literacy program that Dr Jannie introduced and use it as a vehicle to help my akonga focus on what they want to write about and then plan how they will address their topic or focus. 

Each area of opportunity is something that I hope to plan for in the next coming weeks. I want to spend a good amount of time working with my akonga on these opportunities to help them improve and build their confidence in their writing. 

Next Steps: Provide feedback for each student, review + integrate specific areas from the literacy strategies and customize it for my Year 9 class.