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EML 309 Assignment 2

Bradley Fyffe -11489926

Summary and Analysis of Class Writing Samples

The literacy levels and skills of the class are varied just like you would expect in any normal literacy

classroom. The analysis of the class writing samples highlights the skills of some of the students and

also highlights the areas of improvement that are needed by other students. There is a clear gap

between the higher achieving students and the low achieving students. It will be very important to

cater for all levels within the classroom as well as giving the extra modelling that will be needed for

the three English Additional Language (EAL) students.

The writing samples of ‘Swimming Carnival’ and ‘The Power House Museum’ highlight the teaching

areas that need to be focused on within the classroom, especially with the lower end students.

Addressing sentence structure and the correct use of grammar is vital for the development of these

students. The author of the ‘Swimming Carnival’ text is struggling with planning their work, here

they have simply regurgitated the events in the order they occurred. They have provided adequate

information of the swimming carnival and included a personal reflection which demonstrates they

understand the text type however their lack of sentence structure and use of simple sentences lets

them down and this will need to be addressed.

The two work samples from the EAL students demonstrate two different levels of understanding.

The student who went to Samoa clearly has a well-developed knowledge of English and the correct

grammar rules. Although their text is more of a simple recount rather than a journal entry, they have

given a great deal of depth into their work. They explain how they felt before leaving, how their

feelings developed and how they wanted to help change the way their family lived. This student

should be encouraged in attempting more complex tasks and text types. Introducing more factual

and investigative text types such as information reports will help to improve their writing

techniques. The other EAL student has not advanced to the level of the first. They have been

successful in completing the task that has been set and are able to express their knowledge however

they do so in a simple manner. This student needs to work on using correct grammar such as capital

letters as well as expanding their sentences and using conjunctives in their work. Their work is very

stop start and has little fluency, giving tasks that allow them to write about something they have a

great knowledge about and are confident in may help to improve their fluency which may spill over

into future writing tasks.

The remaining three work samples clearly demonstrates the higher end of the classroom. All three

have been able to successfully create texts that fit their text types. The short persuasive text gives

reasons for and against giving students, eventually summing up their persuasive text with a

concluding statement. The information report on Penguins is well laid out and is well researched.

The student has obviously put time into researching the topic and has expressed the information in a

well structure manner. The report could be improved through the use of topic sentences and

combining some of the paragraphs to make one. This student is experimenting with their use of

paragraphs and should be given modelled instructions on their correct usage. The final work sample

of ‘Jefery’s Adventure’ is a very descriptive and in-depth narrative. The work includes speech from

the characters and is done through the correct use of quotation marks. An issue with this work

sample is the lack of paragraphs, the whole text is in one chunk of writing. With the other students

who are experimenting with their use of paragraphs it is important that this student is also included

in the modelling process.

During the literacy sequence for this class special attention will be made on making sure the

students understand the specific text construction elements. A whole lesson will be spent on

identifying the text elements and being able to highlight them within other texts of the same type.

Within the lesson there will be a specific focus on the ‘Writing and Representing 1’ strand of the

English syllabus, ensuring that students understand the importance of having control over their use

of text structures and language features.

Integrating with the HSIE syllabus

The HSIE unit plan of Living in Communities focuses on students exploring the diversity of different

communities in Australia. Within the unit plan there are multiple opportunities to integrate a literacy

session within one of the lessons. Two aspects of the HSIE syllabus that are met during the program

can be covered by using aspects of the NSW K-10 English Syllabus. Focusing on the origins and

backgrounds of people in the local community and collecting information about the student’s school

and local community can be done so through creating an information report. Student’s investigate

these two aspects and create an information report detailing the information that they have found.

The English syllabus can be integrated now while the students are creating their information reports,

incorporating aspects of the ‘Reading and Representing 1’ strand. When students have collected the

information that is needed a session can be used to go through the correct procedure of planning

and writing an information report, explicitly detailing the key elements of planning, composing,

reviewing and publishing as stated in the English syllabus(Board of Studies NSW, 2012, p. 77).

A part of the unit plan covers the Board of Studies NSW HSIE Syllabus’ ‘Cultural Diversity,’ ‘Resource

Systems’ and ‘Identities’ strands. Whilst students are covering the content of “gathers information

about, and participates in, local community celebrations” they will be able to participate in a literacy

session writing a recount of the celebration that they participated in (NSW Board of Studies, 2001, p.

29). This could be done as the main activity of a lesson or simply as a way for the students to express

what happened during their weekend in the first teaching session of the week.

These two activities are just two examples where the teaching of text construction can be integrated

in the unit plan. Before each activity time should be taken to go over the correct text structures and

rules that must be followed when creating these texts. These opportunities should not take over

from the original HSIE content so these should be chances for students to practice their text

construction and publishing skills. Time should be set specifically for the explicit teaching of the

different text types, however there is plenty of opportunities to integrate texts types into the unit

plan.

Structural Features of Information Reports

The Text type that will be taught using the Curriculum Cycle is one of information reports.

Information reports are used to present factual information in an accurate form (Wing Jan, 2014, p.

121). This text type is written in the third person and uses present text and may include the use of

headings and subheadings. An important aspect of information reports is the use of topic sentences

and paragraphs. The topic sentence at the start of each paragraph provides brief information on the

subject whilst the remainder of the paragraph provides detailed information.

The language features that are associated with information reports include a variety of sentence

types and amount of facts that are contained within one sentence. It is also important to understand

the correct way to use descriptive language whilst writing information reports, ensuring that

students use factual and precise adjectives, verbs and adverbs (Wing Jan, 2014, p. 122). These

language features will be explicitly modelled to the students during the Building the Field section of

the learning sequence. During modelling sessions these aspects will be highlighted within the texts

that will be broken down as a class and tasks will be set for students to identify them within texts

individually. Students will be given opportunity to use their new knowledge when writing their own

information reports.

Unit/lesson title: Living in Communities/ Text Construction Lesson 1.

Lesson duration: 45min Stage: 2 Year: 3-4

Learning Outcomes for Lesson: 1. Students will revise what an information report is and be able to explain the unique features of the text type 2. Students will read and be read to various information reports. Students will analyse these information reports, deconstructing them and highlighting

their language features. This will be done as a class and individually

Syllabus Outcome: Writing and Representing 1 - Plans, composes and reviews a range of texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and language EN2-2A

Syllabus Content: Writing and Representing 1

Identify key elements of planning, composing, reviewing and publishing in order to meet the demands of composing texts on a particular topic for a range of purposes and audiences

Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features

Rationale: Students are to be introduced to the text type Information Reports. These will be read to the students as a class and their structure and language features will be broken down by the teacher for the students. Students as a class will break down other information reports with guidance of the teacher and then will move to work individually in analysing information reports. If time permits students will create their own information report on a chosen topic by the teacher. This lesson is to introduce the text type to the students, reading examples, building their knowledge and modelling their construction.

Stage in the Curriculum Cycle: Building the field moving towards Modelling the text Students will be introduced the text type having examples read to them as a class, developing their vocabulary of the text type of information reports. The structure of information reports will be broken down with the students as a class, students will be given the opportunity to analyse information reports individually and as a class.

Resources: Interactive whiteboard, have appendixes 1-4 ready to be shown to the class on the interactive whiteboard, have appendix 5 ready to be handed out to class as well as glue and markers for students to paste the sections back into order. Youtube clip ready to be presented.

Content/learning experiences Notes

Introduction

Discuss the unit of Living in Communities with the students, talk with students about how they are going collecting information about their local community through interviews and experiences they have had. What information have they gathered? How are they recording it? Have they found the origins and backgrounds of their own family? This information will be presented as an information report. Explain that they will focus 3 lessons on writing information reports so that they will be able to present their finding on their local communities in the form of an information report. Students are to be introduced to the text type, they should already have some prior knowledge of the text type. Have students explain what they already know about the structure, grammar and when we would use an information report over a different text type. Body Read the Spiders (Appendix 1) and Mars (Appendix 2) information reports to the class. Ask what the students find different about these text types from other text types. Answers should include:

Structure

Its formal

All factual

Very precise descriptive language Discuss the language features that are present:

Specialised vocabulary and technical terms

Third person

Timeless present tense

Topic sentences

Using factual and precise adjectives, verbs and adverbs

Compound sentences containing more than one fact and use of conjunctions Have an appropriate number of students to come to the front of the class and highlight one language feature, this can be any of the above Show students Youtube video Informational Writing, this short video will further explain aspects of information reports. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53L-5zE7Ibw

Students sitting at their desks

Show students the Writing an Information Report (Appendix 3) sheet, discuss how information reports have a set structure of introducing the topic, have topic sentences, paragraphs of new information which describe the topic and then a conclusion. Read the Antarctica (Appendix 4) information report, have students identify the different aspects of the information report. Hand out the sheets of the Koala Information report (Appendix 5). Explain to students that they must read the separate pieces of paper and using their knowledge of information report text structure they are to order the pieces of paper. Once they have the correct structure they are to glue the sections onto a larger piece of paper in order and label what their structural name is eg. Topic sentence, heading, description, conclusion etc. Conclusion Discuss with the students what would be an appropriate time to write an information report over other text types? What makes this form more beneficial? When writing an information report what are some of the key structural techniques that need to be followed? Assessment Collect students work on the Koala Information report and mark on the student’s ability to order the text correctly and identify the different structural components.

This sheet should be blown up and printed and placed somewhere in the room where all students will be able to see it and reflect upon it.

Unit/lesson title: Living in Communities/ Text Construction Lesson 2.


Learning Outcomes for Lesson: 1. Students will use templates to help gather information and structure their information reports 2. Students are to either investigate one diverse group within the local community or an native Australian animal and complete their information report

templates using information about their topic 3. Students are to write a draft information report using their templates to help structure their text

Syllabus Outcome: Writing and Representing 1 - Plans, composes and reviews a range of texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and language EN2-2A

Syllabus Content: Writing and Representing 1



Rationale: Students will use templates to help gather information and structure their information reports. Students will be given the opportunity to draft their own information reports with guidance from the teacher. This is an opportunity to develop students understanding of the text type and to model construction techniques to students.

Stage in the Curriculum Cycle: Modelling the Text moving into Joint Construction Students will be given a brief session with the teacher as a class going over the structure of information reports and will then move to investigate the information they need to create one. Students will be modelled the text construction through the use of templates that help structure their information.

Resources: Interactive whiteboard, homework sheets


Introduction Go over the structure of Information reports once again with the class. Read through the Whales information report (Appendix 6) and with the students identify the structure of information reports. Discuss with students when would be an appropriate time to use the text type of information reports.

Students sitting at their desks Students can come up to the front of the class and highlight the aspects of

Body Students will be given 1 of 3 different types of information report templates (Appendix 7). Students are free to choose from the three but encourage the higher end students to use the Scholastic template. This template will allow them to put more detail into their information reports and is less controlling in their structure. Students who are struggling should use the Australia animal facts sheet, this template is highly structured and directs the students in what information they must find. Using these templates students are to investigate one of the diverse groups that live within our communities as a part of the Living in Communities unit. For the lower end and EAL students who still need help with constructing information reports give them the more structured Australian animal facts sheet. Once these students have finished filling in their information into the template give them explicit details in how to transform this information into an information report. Identify the topic sentences for each paragraph and what information they would include in these paragraphs. Students may use the headings of the template as the start of their topic sentences. It is important that there is a lot of guidance available for these students during this activity. As this is a factual report the construction of this text is different from other text types, EAL students generally have difficulties in understanding these differences and must be given extra support and modelling during the lesson. Once students have structured and planned their information reports have them come back to their desks as a class. Go over some of the features of information reports with the class. Are they written in third or first person? Are they in present or past tense? Do they have topic sentences? Etc. Students are to now write a draft copy of their information reports. This is done so the students are given an opportunity to construct their own and an opportunity for the teacher to monitor the students work and to help students who may be struggling with writing within the information report structure. They are to write their draft copies into their work books.

an information report that they identify. Ensure that there is a class set of each Encourage EAL student to add an image for each of their topic to act as a multimodal aid. Encourage the EAL students to break their work into topics. Each topic has a sub-heading followed by two sentences of information. If they would prefer they can write their sub-headings in their first language to help encourage them to write. These are only to be draft copies, students will not be publishing these information reports.

Conclusion Have some students read out their information reports. Discuss how the templates helped the students write their information reports, what they found about them useful to use. Brief students on their homework. Students are to investigate their origins by interviewing their parents, grandparents or family friends. The students are discovering the origins and backgrounds of the people that live within their community. They should discover how long they have been living in the community/Australia, where their relatives may have come from and what cultural backgrounds they have. They should have this done tonight so that it is ready for the next lesson. Hand out homework sheet to students have an easy way of recording the information (Appendix 8). If students are able to provide a photo of their home or their family that will be able to be scanned onto a computer that will also be beneficial. Assessment Collect draft copies of information reports and the student’s templates. Assess students on whether they have gathered adequate information in their templates and whether they have used their templates when structuring their information reports. Assess student’s information reports on their structure and use of topic sentences, paragraphs and detail of information.

Hand out sheets for students to fill in their information, make sure the students understand that this is needed for the next lesson. If possible attach the sheet to the weekly newsletter or add a notification to the newsletter to ensure that the students complete their homework.

Unit/lesson title: Living in Communities/ Text Construction Lesson 3


Learning Outcomes for Lesson: 1. Students are to draft and complete their own information report 2. Students are to identify the diverse customs and practices that are present in the classroom through reading/hearing other students information reports

on their family’s

Syllabus Outcome: K-10 English Syllabus Writing and Representing 1 - Plans, composes and reviews a range of texts that are more demanding in terms of topic, audience and language EN2-2A K-6 HSIE Syllabus Identities - Examines how cultures change through interactions with other cultures and the environment CUS3.4

Syllabus Content: K-10 English Syllabus Writing and Representing 1



K-6 HSIE Syllabus Identities

Identifies diverse customs, practices and symbols shared by their local community and all communities within Australia

Listens to and retells traditional, religious and ethical stories that relate to their local community

Rationale: Students are given an opportunity to use their knowledge and skills to create their own information report on their family’s culture and history. This lesson will also cover aspects of the NSW HSIE K-6 syllabus and directly links in with the Living in Communities unit. Higher end students will be able to work independently on their work whilst lower end students will still receive scaffolding from the teacher.

Stage in the Curriculum Cycle: Joint Construction moving into Independent Writing There will be some students who will not be able to construct an information report independently yet. These students will receive scaffolding from the teacher whilst there will be higher end students who will be working at the Joint Construction stage.

Resources: class set of computers, copy of appendix 9 that can be used on an Interactive Whiteboard, copies of appendix 9 for the whole class.


Introduction Read through the Crocodile information report (Appendix 9) with the class and break down its structure. Have students highlight the topic sentences, heading, sub-headings and the facts that are listed within the report. Have students highlight sentences that may contain more than one fact and where the author has used precise factual descriptive language to provide information on their subject. Hand back students books that have had their information report assessed from the previous lesson and mention any issues students may need to work on better such as the use of paragraphs or sub-headings. Body Students are to use the information they gathered for their homework to create an information report that will help identify the diverse customs that are present within the community of the classroom. Using their information they will fill out the information report template provided (Appendix 10). Once they have done this students are to create a draft copy of their information report. Use this time to monitor students work and help students who need assistance. Students who have had their draft copy checked by the teacher are to make a finalised copy using a computer to type and present their information report. Encourage students to include a photo of their home or family if they have one. This lesson is a cross between the Independent Writing and Joint Construction stages of the Curriculum Cycle. Higher end students of the class will be able to complete their information reports with minimal assistance from the teacher while the other students will need scaffolding to help them achieve the lesson goals. It is important to spread your time with the students carefully. The lower end and EAL student will need more assistance than the higher end students but the higher end students will still require supervising to ensure they are on the right track. Allow the bulk of the lesson to be used for the students to finish and publish their information reports. Fast finishers are to silent read for the remainder of the lesson.

Students sitting at their desks This lesson will focus on the students working independently as much as possible.

Conclusion Have some students read their work out for the class. Discuss why did we used this text type as our way of informing the rest of the class of our families culture and history, what would have been some positive or negatives if we tried to use a different text type. Assessment Collect students work and perform a summative assessment on each student. Assess the student on:

Use of headings/ sub-headings

Use of paragraphs

Length of sentences, is there more than one fact per sentence

Use of factual precise information

The amount of information that is provided

Punctuation

Use of topic sentences

Written in present tense

Justification

This literacy unit plan has been designed in a way that it will teach students some of the specific

skills that are needed to plan and write information reports. In addition of meeting content

requirements of the NSW K-10 English syllabus it also incorporates aspects of the NSW HSIE K-6

syllabus, using the unit plan Living in Communities to cover parts of the Identities strand. Because

the text type of Information Repots is easily integrated within lessons of other key learning areas

(KLA) this text type was chosen. They are used to present factual information in a concise and

accurate form and are used within the unit plan as a way for students to report about the history

and culture of their families (Wing Jan, 2014, p. 121).

This text type was also chosen because of the literacy levels of the students within the class. Because

of information reports highly structured manner it is easily scaffolded to lower achieving students

through modelling by the teacher and the use of templates. Having structured writing is one

successful strategy when teaching English Additional Language students (Adesope, Lavin, Thompson

& Ungerleider, 2011, p. 633). This form also allows higher end students who do not required highly

scaffolded lessons more time to research the topic that they are writing about, obtaining a more in

depth knowledge (Gibbons, 2002, p. 68). This aspect of information reports is utilised within the

second lesson of the unit plan. This lesson is a transition between two stages of the Curriculum

Cycle, the Modelling the Text and Joint Construction stages. Within this lesson students are given the

choice of using either a highly structured template or a template that offers more freedom to the

student for planning their information report. The lower end students are encouraged to use this

more structured template as a way of scaffolding their knowledge, whilst the higher end students

are freer to independently research their topic. This gives the teacher an opportunity to explicitly

teach the writing conventions of information reports, something that cannot be simply picked up by

EAL students (Gibbons, 2002, p. 59). This explicit teaching helps the development of EAL students

concepts of writing and cements their previous knowledge and understanding (Department of

Education and Early Childhood Development, 2008, Teaching strategy – Using the curriculum cycle

with ESL learners, para 2).

This time that is dedicated to planning and researching their writing is not only just used as a means

for students to research more about their topic and gain a deeper understanding. It is also used as a

way of demonstrating the importance of planning all pieces of work, regardless of what text type

they might be writing in. Students must understand that to be effective writers they must plan for

their writing (Gibbons, 2002, p. 52). If there is no planning done students writing can seem simply

like “speech written down,” a characteristic of some of the lower achieving student’s previous

writing samples (Gibbons, 2002, p. 52).

This unit plan also aims to incorporate multimodal literacies, primarily through the use of computers

and gathering information on the internet. The use of an interactive whiteboard aids the teacher in

planning and implementing the lesson with the amount of examples that are shown to the students.

It also provides students an opportunity to become involved in the modelling stage of the unit plan,

highlighting certain structural components of the text. There are opportunities for students research

the diverse cultures within our community on the internet. During this research students will come

across multimodal features such as colour, visual design and animation (Winch, Johnston, March,

Ljungdahl & Holliday, 2010, p. 400). Students may also do further research into the diverse cultural

groups that are present in the community as a further research task. It is important that these

positive features of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) are utilised carefully and not

used in a superficial way. When ICTs are used correctly however they have the ability to enhance

students writing and improve the overall learning experience, making certain stages of the writing

process easier (Winch et al., 2010, p. 254).

Assessment is done on the students work at the end of each lesson. This is done to check their level

of understanding and to ensure that the teacher is not moving through the content too quickly for

the students. It is also to check which students are going to need extra assistance in the next lesson

and which students will need extra work.

The unit plan was created in this way so that it would best accomplish the leaning goals of the Living

in Communities unit as well as teaching students about the text type of information reports. The unit

incorporates the teaching sequence of the Curriculum Cycle and has integrated teaching techniques

that are designed to meet the needs of the EAL students within the class.

References

Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2011). Pedagogical strategies for teaching

literacy to ESL immigrant students: a meta-analysis. In British Journal of Education, 81(4), pp.

629-653.

Board of Studies NSW. (2012). English K-10 Syllabus. Sydney: Board of Studies NSW.

Board of Studies NSW. (2001). HSIE K-6 Syllabus. Sydney: Board of Studies NSW.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2008, August 5), ESL Developmental

Continuum P–10 [Fact sheet]. Retrieved from

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/school/teachers/teachingresources/diversity/e

al/continuum/writecurric.pdf.

Gibbons, P. (2002). Writing in a Second Language across the Curriculum: an integrated approach. In

Scaffolding Language Learners in the mainstream classroom, (pp. 51-76). Portsmouth:

Heinemann.

Winch, G., Johnston, R. R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L., & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy (4th ed.). South

Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Wing Jan, L. (2014). Write Ways: modelling writing forms (3rd ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford

University Press.

Appendixes

Appendix 1

Information report on an animal - Indra (Grade C). (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/stage-2/english/stu-work/c/information-report-on-an-

animal-indra/.

Appendix 2

Information report on a planet - Cameron (Grade C). (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/stage-2/english/stu-work/c/information-report-on-a-

planet-cameron/.

Appendix 3

2014, Term 3, Week 2: English - Writing: Information Reports. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/uFVCro6iruUq-A/2014-term-3-week-2-english-writing-

information-reports

Appendix 4

Information report on Antarctica - Morgan (Grade C) (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/stage-3/english/stu-work/c/information-report-on-

antarctica-morgan/

Appendix 5

2014, Term 3, Week 2: English - Writing: Information Reports. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.blendspace.com/lessons/uFVCro6iruUq-A/2014-term-3-week-2-english-writing-

information-reports

Appendix 6

Rangiora Borough School. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://rangiora.ultranet.school.nz/ClassSpace/2636/

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

My Family’s History Homework

How many people do I live with at home?______________________________

Were my Mum and Dad born in Australia?_____________________________

Were my Grandparents born in Australia?_____________________________

________________________________________________________________

If they were, where were they born?__________________________________

________________________________________________________________

What religion is my family?__________________________________________

Does my family have any cultural traditions? If so what are

they?___________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Does may family have any special symbols? If so what are they? __________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Do you speak another language at home? _____________________________

How many family members do you have that live in the local community?

________________________________________________________________

Do you visit family friends often for celebrations?_______________________

What kind of celebrations does your family have?_______________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

Information Report Template

Title

Topic of first facts –

Information -

Topic of second facts –

Information -

Topic of third facts –

Information -

Topic of fourth facts –

Information -

Additional Facts