View Learning Outcomes | Learning Outcomes and Indicators

Curriculum Focus

Communication

Students are introduced to early experiences in writing in English that will help them to develop understanding about the writing process. They use their developing English to engage in many different classroom and individual writing and drawing activities. They compose and dictate their own short texts, writing about shared or personal experiences, and using drawings to expand on the text. Students are encouraged to contribute to simple shared writing activities, such as recording basic observations or shared experiences. They are also encouraged to write imaginative texts or innovate on the writing of others. Teachers use these texts as the basis for activities, such as word and sentence matching, sequencing pictures of processes or events, or illustrating sentences. Students are encouraged to write and to share written messages in their first language.

Aspects of language

Contextual understanding

Students draw, write or create their own simple messages and narratives, building on their basic understanding of the purposes that English classroom and personal texts fulfil, for example, a narrative to entertain or inform, a simple report to exchange information, a list to record information. Teachers assist this process by consistently modelling writing in class for a range of authentic purposes, such as making a birthday card, writing a sign or writing a shared account of an activity. They talk simply with students about the audience they are writing for, and what they are writing about. Students are given opportunities to experiment with the presentation of basic texts for a range of real purposes, such as invitations, pages for a shared book or a list of favorite foods.

Linguistic structures and features

The simple texts that students are writing or dictating show that they are beginning to use their knowledge of writing in English and their still limited repertoires of spoken English in novel and original ways. As students learn English letter names and sounds, they begin to experiment with representing new words phonically. They dictate the basic ideas and key words of a text for the teacher to write for them. They enhance their texts with illustrations or simple diagrams and they copy short texts accurately, as they learn how to form letters and how to place text appropriately on the page. By modelling and talking simply about the writing and presentation of texts, teachers show students that text meaning is enhanced by the way that texts are presented, and students start to use some of the features of modelled texts in their own writing.

Strategies

During modelled writing activities, students are introduced to early strategies for writing texts for some basic classroom and personal purposes. Working with the teacher, students innovate on basic texts, illustrating or copying the new text to produce classroom ‘published’ texts. They are encouraged to elaborate on their own texts with illustrations or with additional text scribed by the teacher. Students are explicitly introduced to correct letter formations, including appropriate starting points for letters. They are also introduced to a wide range of implements and materials for writing and drawing. Students use some basic computer applications for writing, presenting or illustrating their written texts.