In September last year, I described and illustrated 3 creative and highly motivating writing lessons that Nicola Blight from Newton Central School had undertaken with her New Entrant and Year 1 students. I was in Nicola’s class again last term and I saw something else that bowled me over. Like many teachers across Aotearoa, Nicola was using the occasion of … Read More
Stratford School is a reasonably large, decile 5, full primary school in provincial Taranaki where I have been leading a PLD project in writing since the beginning of this year. As part of this project, I have been demonstrating the launch of writing topics as well as shared writing across several diverse classrooms. In one of the Year 5-6 classrooms, … Read More
In Term 4 2021, teachers from the two Year 5-6 teams at Golden Sands School (a decile 9 school in Papamoa, Tauranga) shared some writing that super-impressed me. It particularly bowled me over because much of it was written by students who could generally be described as ‘reluctant writers’. Some had specific learning disabilities; others were just disengaged with school … Read More
Most of us would agree on the importance of listening to student voice when developing and implementing a classroom programme. In the context of an instructional writing programme, this means finding out: How do my students feel about writing? How do they feel about themselves as writers? How do they feel about the writing instruction they receive at school? Finding … Read More
Nicola Blight’s Year 1 classroom at Newton Central School (a multi-cultural inner Auckland school) is a wonderfully creative and vibrant space in which colour, movement, shape and wonderings abound. Nicola – who has been teaching for more than 20 years – continually seeks artifacts and experiences that will challenge her students, deepen their natural curiosity and enable them to express … Read More