Critical thinking about our authentic audience.

I created a document where the students record who their target audience is and the rationale for choosing that audience. The document also has links to their writing for that particular genre. 

Reading the comments by the students highlighted the lack of authenticity for choosing their target audiences. I reflected on whether the writing tasks themselves are authentic enough for students to feel there should be a specific audience and a purpose to their writing. I am also reflecting on how I can make the writing tasks more interactive and fun for the students. 

Screen shot of what the document looks like.

Target audience rationale document

Response and feeling hopeful.

The student who sent their argument writing to the Prime Minister received an automated reply. Although it was an automated reply it still brought hope that there is the possibility the letter will be read by the Prime Minister herself. This is what its all about. Our group focus, my teaching as inquiry. Responses from our authentic audience. Watch this space!

Argument writing about the Fenchurch Liquor Store

After discussions all the students in the group identified who they were addressing their argument writing to. One of the students decided to send her argument writing to the Prime Minister of New Zealand RT Honourable Jacida Adern. When asked about the rationale behind the choice of audience the student replied they would like to hear the views of the government about the issue.

Here is the letter which was sent to the Prime Minister.

RT Honorable Jacinda Adern

New Zealand Prime Minister

Dear Prime Minister,

My name is ____. I am from Glenbrae School which is a small school in Glen Innes. Our community is a small community. We have kindergartens, primary schools and colleges in our area. We have been writing argument writing and have decided to focus on an issue which is in our community. The issue is the liquor store which is very close to our school.

Liquor store sells and advertise alcohol. When we walk past the liquor store everyday, we see the signs advertising alcohol and some inappropriate images sometimes. It is not good for little children to be exposed to alcohol signs everyday. We also often find bottles in the footpath and sometimes bottles are smashed on our playground when we come to school after the weekend.

The liquor store is also close to the local college. Some of the college students are already 18 and can buy alcohol. While it is legal for them to buy alcohol, they should not be drinking while they are suppose to be focusing on school work. Some under 18 can even ask adults to buy alcohol for them which is not good.

Alcohol causes a lot of issues in the community such as fights, loud noises, car accidents and many more. The police will have to come and sort problems out with drunk people. Alcohol is not good for a community who are trying to live in peace and safety.

The alcohol store is also serving a lot of parents who would rather drink alcohol than buy food for their children. This is reality for many families in our community. The store is open to very late and the parents buy alcohol and would go and buy more when they run out because the store is so close to home.

Prime Minister would the government be able to help with this issue in our community? Some of our group members are writing to the owner himself to relocate his shop or turn the liquor store into another shop.

I hope you can offer some advice about this issue.

Kindest regards

Group teaching

As we are a Manaiakalani school our teaching approach involves the use of digital devices such as netbooks, Ipads and computers.  All students in Room 7 have netbooks. In my target group six of the students have a netbook of their own which they use while two use the class computer for their work. 

I use Google slides to upload student work. The students can access the slides from the class site. The use of the class site is valuable as the students are able to access their work from home or anywhere where they have access to the internet. 

Below is the slides for the Ihimaera group which displays the genres they  have been writing and what we have been discussing as a group in our group discussions. 

Inquiry focus

One of the points which was discussed in our first meetings with Mary was the response from students that no one other than their classroom teachers read their writing. I started to think and realised this is mainly true. The students have blogs where they post their work and writing but they seldom have viewers leaving comments. I also started to reflect on how I would feel as a writer if no one was reading my writing.

During my discussion with Mary to plan my teaching as inquiry, I shared with her my hunch which was 'the students will be motivated to write if there is an authentic audience and purpose to their writing'.

Therefor here is my focus question - Will students identifying an authentic audience engage them more in their writing?

There are several success criteria for my inquiry:

• One, the students will be motivated to write when there are people who will read their writing and give them feedback
• Two, there is a real purpose for their writing
• Three, they will be able to be receptive to feedback from others
• Four, they will enjoy writing and not view writing as a task they have to complete

Tapping into their thinking about Writing.

This is the first survey which the student filled about their understanding about the purpose of why they write, who they write for and who they would like to read their writing. It was interesting to see they only see the classroom teacher as the person who reads their writing. Another finding was their uncertainty about the purpose of writing. This survey identifies what I need to work on with the students. The main focus will be on identifying who their audiences are for their writing and also why they are writing.

Analysing Writing Achievement from 2017

What are factors which affect the writing of students? What accelerates writing achievements? What hinders writing achievements? Below is an analysis I filled out for Writing for the year 2017. I had identified in 2017 that one of the factors which hinders the writing achievement of students is the the reluctance of boys to write. This is one of the rationale for why I have a group which consists of mainly boys. 

Collaboration between the students and teachers is vital in the learning of students in any curriculum area. As we are a Manaiakalani school we are able to use technology to collaborate even when out of the classroom. One of my foci will be the ongoing giving of feedback and feedforward not only for myself but also for the students to each other.