Writing at Key Stages Four and Five

3. Writing and Progression – following on from the NLS Framework

With the introduction of the Framework for teaching English: Years, 8 and 9 (The National Strategy’s blueprint for the teaching of English at Key Stage 3) the challenge for student teachers is to consider carefully what students bring to Key Stage 4 and then to build and extend upon this. Many of the skills and teaching and learning strategies promoted by the Strategy are just as applicable and valuable within the curriculum of the later years. A sound approach is to consider the teaching of writing skills as a more cohesive process, one that extends throughout the English curriculum in the secondary school.

Stage one

• On placement student teachers undertake detailed observations of where and how writing is taught across the key stages in the secondary school.
• In training they discuss the issues of continuity and progression.

Stage two

• Using the Key Stage 3 Strategy recommended sequence for the teaching of writing student teachers are asked to consider how this model can be applied to the context of a Key Stage 4 lesson on one aspect of the GCSE or Certificate of Achievement syllabus.

The Model is:

1. Establish clear aims
2. Provide examples
3. Explore the features of the text
4. Define the conventions
5. Demonstrate how it is written
6. Compose together
7. Scaffold the first attempts
8. Independent writing
9. Draw out the key learning

Stage three

• Student teachers watch the three video clips of guided writing sessions available in the resources section of the Key Stage 3 National Strategy's CD-ROM Increasing Progress in English (2005). After discussion pairs of student teachers are asked to work on developing a lesson in which they identify the Assessment Objectives applicable when teaching writing to persuade from a relevant GCSE syllabus. Then using these texts they should devise a guided writing session for a group of Key Stage 4 students working at grade D level but targeting Grade C level.

Stage four

• In the process of considering the demands of academic writing required at AS and A2 student teachers are given two high scoring exemplar answers to examination questions. (These are readily available to download from the examination board websites). They are asked to consider how they would support the development of students’ academic writing at this level by using a lesson plan based around the Key stage 3 model of how to teach writing.

Stage five

Each student teacher is allocated a different objective from the Text level Writing objectives in the Framework for teaching English: Years 7, 8 and 9 and required to

1. Find an appropriate style model for use with a Key Stage 4 class
2. Devise a lesson plan that delivers the objective in the context of the Key Stage 4 curriculum
3. Evaluate the lesson focusing solely on how the objective has been consolidated and developed.