Teaching writing genres that dont exist in real life

 

https://www.tes.com/news/writing-genres-dont-exist-real-life-so-why-teach-them?fbclid=IwAR1vMI4uBr4OhnKMd1ESynxnG70KK3J4HwEmE45L13yH6XjNUN8rlyQzlJs

Since returning to teaching one of the noticeable differences is the move away from teaching specific writing genres and being more focused on how to write well over a whole range of styles.  I have seen this in action in Steve's class as we taught first how to write proper sentences (simple and complex) and used whatever was happening at the time - camp experience to recount, Pobble 365, Armistice Day reports, Seesaw posts etc for practicing these base skills for writing.  I much prefer this way as it is more relevant to students as it is being done daily which increases their motivation to write instead of spending a term just doing newspaper reports for example and having all our writing having to fit into that style.

Writing for purpose and audience is now the main focus as when students write to a structured format it looses any sense of personality and enjoyment while reading.  Most of what we read online follows no set structure though striking a balance in there somewhere where writing is correct(spellchecked/edited) without loosing that creativity.

Next steps:  It came out in the asstle writing test that students next steps are expanding on their ideas including complex ideas related to the wider world beyond themselves and writing for an audience.  Many seem to assume the reader knows what they are talking about already so miss half the details.  Next year we are signed up for the Get NZ Writing where students will write postcards to another school which will be ideal to work on explaining things to others from scratch.


Link to Standard - Teaching
Provide opportunities and support for learners to engage with, practice and apply learning to different contexts and make connections with prior learning.
Strategies

• Monitoring of ākonga learning during the implementation of a programme of learning, so that the programme can be adapted where needed to better achieve desired outcomes for ākonga.
• Using feedback from classroom observations to improve learning programmes.
• Observing other teachers’ use of resources and teaching strategies