Friday 26 May 2017

How to structure writing - which is the best model?

When it comes to writing, my department knows that preparing our students to write can be a daunting process.  As part of my inquiry, I wanted to find out what other departments at my school were using as their models for teaching and learning.  I emailed them to ask what they used in their teaching.

Our maths and P.E departments use the P.E.E chain which is reflected in the chart below:


The English department use T.E.E.P.E.E:
  • T = topic
  • E = example/quote
  • E = explanation
  • P = purPose (author/director’s purpose)
  • E = effect (also consider on whole text and reader)
  • E = evaluation (make connections, comments outside the text)

And we along with our fellow scientists, we use S.E.X:


I wondered if it made sense to use a more common, cross-curricula framework so that kids didn't need to learn and relearn from class to class how to write a paragraph.

In my department meeting, I discussed with Marc Milford, our schools 'Student achievement co-ordinator' which structure he thought would be the most useful and if a more common one across the school would be better for the kids.  He suggested we nutted out the best one with evidence and put it to our curriculum committee.  One of my team found that her kids struggled to get to the end of an assessment or essay and just needed to finish it off.   Although we use S.E.X, members in my team mentioned one called TEXAS and after a bit of study, I thought this one could be a good to implement as it allows to clear structure right to the end.  My next steps are to take this idea to the curriculum committee meeting to see what they thought.



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