View Learning Outcomes | Learning Outcomes and Indicators

Curriculum Focus

Communication

Students are encouraged to communicate their ideas, opinions and feelings through writing for formal or informal purposes, for example, keeping simple diaries, writing letters, making plans. Students communicate basic information when involved in activities based on classroom topics and activities, such as excursions, experiments or topics of interest. In groups and individually, students write and produce their own imaginative texts which take a variety of forms, such as books, dialogues, posters, cards or illustrations. They begin to explore features of such writing in their own writing through activities, such as individual and group innovation on well-known texts, drama activities and free exploration of a wide range of media that can enhance the presentation of their writing.

Aspects of language

Contextual understanding

As students plan and write texts according to particular classroom or social purposes and for particular audiences, they begin to structure their texts more purposefully. Teachers constantly model writing a wide variety of texts in order to reinforce the concept that writing changes according to the situation, for example, stories, recipes, factual reports. Shared or modelled writing activities allow students to be involved in the construction of a text and can provide a framework for their own writing. Students talk about their writing with others, in order to help clarify and refine the content, organisation and layout of their texts, and they begin to understand that written texts usually need to be planned, edited and presented.

Linguistic structures and features

As with reading, students continue to develop their understanding of the letter–sound relationships of English and they use this understanding of patterns to write new words. Their developing oral base and reading repertoire give students a continually developing range of descriptive and specialised vocabulary which they can use to construct their own texts. Students are explicitly introduced to some of the terminology needed to talk about elements of their writing at the sentence, paragraph and text level.

Strategies

Students are provided with opportunities to plan and write a variety of simple texts for different purposes. The planning and construction of texts is modelled and discussed individually and in small groups. Teachers ensure that students are given the opportunity to talk before they are expected to write, particularly in situations where they are presenting new information. Students begin to develop strategies that enable them to extend their writing vocabulary, for example, keeping word lists related to particular topics or areas of interest. They are encouraged in their attempts to spell unfamiliar words, using their developing knowledge of the letter–sound relationships in English. After modelling and discussion, students carry out simple editing and redrafting of their own writing.